Is Being Wordy Equal to Researching? Crypto KOL Grassroots Movement Award

The Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) in the crypto community are perhaps the most linguistically artistic group in this industry. They can use "long-termism" to beautify a reversion to the mean curve, package "ecosystem empowerment" to explain unlocking selling pressure, and even write "referral link" as "free benefit." While retail investors are still studying the whitepaper, KOLs have already mastered the traffic cipher—gilding the sickle with rhetoric. There is no true selfless sharing here; behind every piece of jargon from KOLs lies the same implicit message: "I'm responsible for creating dreams, you're responsible for footing the bill." BlockBeats has compiled this KOL Crypto Jargon Translation Guide because in this market full of amateur actors, understanding the subtext is the key to avoiding being an extra.

The previous issue covered whale dump behavior, you can refer to: "How did the whales dump in this cycle? See what mistakes you've made?"

「Alpha Call」

「Alpha Call」 is the most eye-catching catchphrase in KOLs' tweets, translated as "I've found a hidden gem project, get in quick!" However, the truth is often that the KOL has already accumulated a position at a low price and is afraid the project won't take off. So, they throw out an Alpha Call to summon fans to carry the sedan chair. If the project really takes off, everyone is happy, and the KOL can retweet to boast, "Look, how great my vision is!" If it doesn't take off? The next tweet is already on its way, anyways, the fans' memory only lasts three days.

KOLs who shout Alpha Calls are like casino dealers—the louder they shout, the hotter their chips are. They're not afraid if you lose; they're just afraid you won't play.

Shady Behavior:

1. The economic model is benchmarked against $DOGE but with a more aggressive burn mechanism—we've crowned the native dog a mathematician

2. The community consensus is extremely strong, with the Telegram group surpassing tens of thousands in three hours—the bots are in place; we only lack real people to fill the gaps

3. The technical team is from MIT and NASA—the founder's names are possibly Mitchell, Ian, Tony

You can stay or leave, I don't care, I'll just run once I receive the coins

"Bullish" is the most common term in KOL tweets, succinct and emotional. As for "bullish for the long term," it's a versatile tool for both attack and defense. If it suddenly pumps, quickly dig out old tweets: "See, I've been bullish on it for a long time!" A short-term crash is just "market sentiment fluctuation, with long-term value unchanged." A prolonged downtrend is simply "the ecosystem needs time to settle; holding is winning."

The truth may be that the project team replaced the marketing and promotion costs with tokens, and as soon as the tokens arrived at the KOL's address, they were immediately converted to U.

Classic Lines:

1. First Week: A short-term pullback is a healthy shakeout

2. First Month: A bear market just happens to refine the product

3. Third Month: The team is developing a new blockchain game, with a dual-track layout

4. Six Months Later: Beware of fake official websites, recognize the community-rebuilt version

More Words, More Investment Research

KOLs will slightly modify the promotional material provided by the project team, add some technical terms and charts, and transform it into "in-depth analysis." Whether the analysis is accurate or not is not important; as long as the lengthy content makes fans feel professional, it is sufficient. Some go even further by directly inserting content generated by ChatGPT into their tweets, without bothering to adjust the AI's bold formatting.

Investigating a project is not researching it; it is "investing money to research." KOLs earn advertisement fees, while retail investors lose real money.

Furthermore, KOLs use the excuse "many institutions have invested" as a get-out-of-jail-free card, which not only elevates the project's status but also whitewashes themselves— "So many people have invested, can't blame me if you lose, right?" As for which institutions invested and how much, the details are vague, but fans usually do not bother to check.

Grassroots Behavior:

1. Strategic Investment—Gave away 5% of tokens in exchange for recognition

2. Ecosystem Cooperation—Invited an institutional intern to join the Telegram group

3. Institutional Matrix—The same boss registered 7 offshore companies

Comparative Literature

"Compared to XX, there is still XX times potential" is a valuation trick that KOLs love to use. For example, "$XXX compared to ETH, currently only a market cap of tens of millions, has a hundredfold potential!" As to why it can be compared and how to achieve a hundredfold increase, KOLs never explain, but when fans see "hundredfold," they get excited; if it rises, they believe in their foresight, if it falls, they attribute it to the market's lack of evolution.

Classic Lines:

1. Throughput is 100 times that of Ethereum—The testnet has not been launched yet

2. The ecosystem fund exceeds $500 million—The token's value automatically increases after unlocking

3. Already partnered with Amazon Web Services—Used AWS servers

Free Group "Trap"

Some free groups established by KOLs require members to use specific exchange platform links, which is understandable. However, the "research reports" in the group files are actually Google Translate versions of whitepapers. When members question why the recommended coins have all plummeted, the administrators say, "Your understanding is lacking; even multiple layers of wealth passwords cannot catch this."

Classic Buzzwords:

1. Knowledge Payment — Selling Courses + Referral Marketing

2. Limited-time Benefit — If I don't sell at this price, how will I unload my inventory

3. Exclusive Strategy — Using your fees to maintain my Porsche

The essence of the Crypto Influencer (KOL) economy is "Attention Arbitrage," exchanging emotional value for traffic, traffic for money, and then using money to create more emotional value. However, this article does not intend to categorically criticize all KOLs conducting research and analysis in the crypto field. As mentioned by Yond, KOLs need to bring in traffic and new buyers, with lower fan awareness being preferable. Ideally, they should be able to shout out a ticker symbol without much fanfare to attract blind followers. Content creators also need to consider the logic, completeness, and depth of their content. Content aimed at advanced players and sophisticated users usually does not trigger significant buying pressure. The ROI from project-sponsored promotions is low, which to some extent leads to the prevalence of inferior projects over quality, resulting in an increasing market noise.

Essentially, KOLs do not directly create value and positive externalities. When service providers and toll collectors become the biggest beneficiaries in the market, the entire market resembles a cancer patient with a growing tumor. The inevitable outcome is that the cancer cells will thrive as the host dwindles after being drained of nutrients.

If "everyone is a KOL," then real KOLs will no longer be individuals with "a certain number of followers" but those who can consistently produce high-quality content, build deep trust, and have commercial monetization capabilities. This implies that the threshold for KOLs will rise, shifting from "quantity competition" to "quality competition."

When KOLs talk about the big picture, the retail investors' wallets are shrinking. When KOLs discuss faith, the project's tokens are making an exit. When everyone is teaching you how to get rich quickly, not being the fuel itself is a victory. After all, in the crypto world, longevity is the true mark of success. Feel free to share in the comments section any grassroot behaviors exhibited by KOLs that you have witnessed.