What Makes FOMO So Scary?

Author: New Things | Something

Recently, the FOMO product has been quite FOMO.

With $94 million in funding and a valuation of $550 million, it has gained 650,000 accounts in just one year, with daily revenue reaching new highs @fomo.

Co-founder @seyong also stated:

1 in every 2 active wallets on Robinhood chain comes from @fomo (not trading wallets, ALL active wallets)

The product seems simple: users register an account, get a unique address, bind their Twitter, and recharge to start trading.

It features real-time trading feeds, displaying others' buy and sell actions and their theses/views, allowing entry into various Clans (teams).

Users can follow top traders, view leaderboards, and receive real-time alerts.

There are Coin Feeds by currency, token sending, and other social functions.

Is that it?

That’s it!!!

The product has sparked much discussion about its value points.

I also pondered a bit, and here are a few points.

1. Pathway

FOMO integrates the discovery, dissemination, decision-making, and trading behaviors of assets, completing the entire chain of communication after trading within the product.

Especially decision-making, which is actually upstream of trading.

Trading is instantaneous, but decision-making is complex.

Before placing an order on Taobao, one looks at recommendations on Xiaohongshu, listens to celebrity live streams, and then transitions to Taobao to place an order.

Before trading on Binance, one sees KOLs calling trades in communities, notices a favorable tweet, or hears insider information before trading on Binance.

But what if these decisions do not lead to past trading venues?

In live e-commerce, one can directly place an order after hearing the host's introduction in the live stream.

This is quite troublesome!

Thus, CEX needs to continually attract KOLs, as they can guide decisions and the direction after those decisions.

Therefore, CEX needs to create plazas and planets to keep trading decisions within CEX.

Next is discovery.

Currently, the environment may not be friendly to CEX.

Because innovation occurs in communities, in unseen places, and innovation is the biggest driving force in the industry, including innovative asset forms, issuance of innovative assets, innovative technologies, and innovative marketing, etc.

CEX requires manpower for asset discovery and listing, which needs business development (BD).

BD has energy limits, emotions, and cognitive differences.

So, how does FOMO address these issues?

In FOMO, a Twitter-bound address buys an asset, writes a thesis, completes asset discovery and recommendation, and buys immediately calls it out.

Fans see this and continue to follow up with purchases, further FOMOing that asset.

KOLs sell in batches, gaining certain profits, and sell while showcasing.

KOLs buy and promote, guiding fans in trading decisions.

Fans see on-chain data and directly follow up, completing the trading action.

KOLs (who may also be small traders) complete early asset purchases and continuously write feeds, helping the asset FOMO and driving prices.

In this process, countless decentralized KOLs (who may also be small traders) complete asset discovery and dissemination, buying immediately and listing without BD.

2. Efficiency

Next, let’s talk about the core—efficiency.

We often say that the decentralized world has an impossible triangle; it is not born for efficiency, and efficiency should not be the direction of pursuit.

Right, but also not right.

Let’s look at FOMO and current CEX.

In CEX, to share trading profits or losses, one needs to take a screenshot, post it on social media, or share it through the plaza.

It requires manual sharing, and it does not happen on-chain.

In FOMO, buying means calling it out, selling means showcasing, and it is genuinely on-chain, visible to everyone, and verifiable by all.

In terms of efficiency, FOMO’s method seems more convenient than CEX’s.

The decentralized method, the on-chain method, appears to be more efficient than centralized.

Of course, many will say that trading showcases are too small a scene, not representative, and not persuasive.

But we need to dive in.

Sharing profits or losses is about amplifying and dispersing one’s influence.

But at a deeper level, it is about showcasing one’s cognition.

Cognition is the real hard currency in the financial industry, especially in the 7*24 hour crypto industry.

Essentially, following KOLs, following influential people, is about following their cognition.

Where does cognition manifest?

In holdings.

What else?!!

So, when we follow someone on FOMO, we are inherently following their cognition; the cognition on Twitter has much noise, but here, the cognition is real money.

Now, does this scene still seem small?!!!

FOMO is building a cognition distribution network.

3. Network

Just mentioned the network, but let’s go back.

Let’s continue looking at CEX.

CEX has many users, but these users are scattered and disordered.

That’s traffic.

Traffic is fluid; today it may come to this one for a wealth opportunity, and tomorrow it may go to another for another opportunity.

This traffic is hard to retain.

However, in FOMO, these users follow certain KOLs, and they may have some fans themselves, placing them in an on-chain social network.

In such a network, they have their positioning, akin to having their own place in a community.

Once such a network is established, it is not easy to jump out.

Just as we are reluctant to easily switch from Twitter to other social media, because content can be transferred, but the previously settled social network cannot.

Similar examples include WeChat.

FOMO is building an on-chain social network.

In such a network, traffic has nails and ropes, tying everyone together.

Moreover, the distribution efficiency and organizational efficiency of such a network are very high.

Thus, we can also see various social marketing events on Weibo.

Because this traffic has pathways.

It is easy to outline.

By uniting several KOLs, it is easy to initiate an interaction, to launch a marketing action.

But in CEX, activating users and promoting activity is more challenging and costly.

4. Consensus

In the Web3 industry, we often talk about consensus at the beginning.

But what exactly is consensus?

It’s hard to answer.

Let’s first look at an example.

Songshu holds 2% of $BLINK, and on FOMO, it can be seen that Songshu has also bound their Twitter.

With this on-chain data, Songshu goes to BD various communities, KOLs, engages in dialogue with project parties, and communicates with devs. What’s the result?

------ It’s always smooth.

Because everyone recognizes your on-chain holdings, acknowledges you as a member of blink@dontblinkfamily, and recognizes you as a builder.

BD based on consensus seems not difficult.

So, it seems that with this on-chain holding, everyone has a consensus about you, and trust in you increases.

The result is higher efficiency.

Consensus is an efficiency machine.

We will unconditionally trust a successful dev (who has previously launched impressive projects) based on their cold developer address.

Trust decreases, friction costs decrease, and efficiency increases.

Successful devs have successful on-chain data; based on this consensus, doing anything becomes more efficient and has a higher success rate.

FOMO has built a consensus network.

In addition to what has been mentioned, FOMO has also built an on-chain reputation network, but due to space limitations, I won’t elaborate further here.

5. Back to Efficiency

Finally, let’s return to efficiency once more.

Do you have a faint feeling that FOMO seems to have opened a new door for us?

It seems for the first time we feel that, in certain scenarios, the efficiency of the decentralized world can surpass that of the centralized world.

FOMO has found this scenario and showcased it.

This is also what this article truly wants to convey!

The decentralized world can indeed be more efficient.

FOMO is such a new version.

Reflect on this carefully!

6. Cold Water

We can imagine the direction to be grand, but the process is perilous. In FOMO, there will certainly be performative trading, herd behavior, and being reverse harvested; transparency is also a double-edged sword.

To truly become a social financial network, there is still a long way to go.

Writing about FOMO has made me FOMO; let’s all pour some cold water together.

This content is provided for general informational purposes only and doesn't constitute financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. Any events, rewards, online promotions, or related information mentioned herein should not be considered a recommendation, solicitation, or invitation to purchase, sell, trade, or otherwise deal in any crypto assets. Crypto assets are highly volatile and may result in loss. The availability of WEEX services, products, and related events may vary by region. You are responsible for ensuring that your participation is in accordance with applicable local laws and regulations.