Sometimes I'll hear or see complaints around the space during times when the market is trading sideways. It seems that alot of our community is additcted to the rush of volatility. 

    "Go up, go down, just don't trade sideways, it's so boring." 

     I understand. The fast pace that the digital asset market moves at is a good representation of the millennial spirit; we go hard, either one way or the other. 

    But the volatility is also what's wrecked many hopeful investors looking to participate in the web3 revolution., I hope they're not scared away permanently. But, then again, maybe they shouldn't jump back in so fast...

   Plain and simple, a volatility to the point of a likeness to crypto's volatility means one thing. FOMO. And FOMO has an evil and even more malicious twin, FUD. The connection is, money that is easily FOMO'ed into a protocol, gets easily FUD'ed out of the protocol. This is money that has no principal. 

   And what are some of the code phrases to activate investor's FOMO? "This is like Amazon in 2006!" "Apple in 2009!" "Tesla in 2012."

   Amazon went public in 1997, starting at $.08 a share. A decade later, 2007, Amazon stock is worth $4 a share, over a 5000% increase. Over the next ten years, from 2007-2017, Amazon stock grew about another 2,000%. In total, Amazon grew between 6k-7k%. Impressive. It's fallen 69% from its high last year. 

   Fantom, or FTM, had one of the strongest and most accelerated growths of last year's bull run. In one years' time, from January 2021-2022, it grew 16,400%. In one year, FTM's price more than doubled the growth it took Amazon 20 years to achieve. However, Amazon grew in profitability over it's first ten years, from being valued at $15m at it's conception, to being valued at $15b by 2007. It's lowest revenue for the last 5 years was $177b, it's highest year almost triple that.

     How much revenue has Fantom brought in? FTM has fallen 97% in the last 5 months. The point is, Amazon's stock grew simultaneously with it's revenue and valuation. FTM's growth was based on the notion that "it could be the next big thing." I understand that web3 adoption is the most accelerated tech adoption of all time by far...but does that sound right?

     Can you imagine if digital asset prices actually only increased as the assets themselves gained true valuation rather than speculation? If it took Fantom 20 years to grow another 10,000%, like it did Amazon, would you still be in? 

    Actually, when you think about it, all the Twitter posts flaunting different crypto project, with all the key words "Going to be", WAGMI, "in 2023-" "By 2035..." 

   Was this the same lingo that investors used to spread the word on Amazon? Maybe, but I have the feeling that Amazon stocks were sold primarily after steady growth and earnings calls, rather than chasing media that says "If you have Amazon, you're GMI." 

   Do you know what a project is called when FOMO without real valuation makes early backers wealthy? It's called a Ponzi scheme.

  Let's embrace a new era in the crypto market, where projects are based on real value, and dollar cost averaging always pays off.