Collective Mindset: The Winning Secret of Web3 Projects

In 1981, 16-year-old Shi Yongxin entered the nearly forgotten Shaolin Temple. There were only 9 monks in the temple, struggling to make a living through farming and incense offerings. The turning point came a year later: a kung fu movie caused a sensation nationwide, and the ancient temple became the focus of public attention overnight.

Shi Yongxin accurately grasped the "mental dividend" this time. Although he is not the most skilled martial artist, he accomplished a transformative brand positioning: embedding the concept of "Shaolin Temple equating to Chinese Kung Fu" deeply into the minds of global audiences.

In the following decades, he systematically organized martial arts classics, promoted performances abroad, carried out cultural dissemination, and created commercial licensing, making Shaolin a global entry point for "Kung Fu awareness." More importantly, this awareness ultimately translated into actual benefits: ticket sales, IP, real estate, intangible asset management, etc. Awareness became the entry point for business.

This is the power of "collective mindset": when you leave a clear and unique label in the minds of users, you become qualified to tell stories, set prices, and exist in the long term.

The Relationship Between Collective Mindset and Web3 Projects

The success of Shi Yongxin lies in the fact that he has bound the definition of a keyword in the hearts of global users. This is exactly what almost all Web3 projects strive for but rarely achieve.

For Web3 projects, the role of "collective mindset ownership" far exceeds that of "practical ownership rate." However, "focusing on the collective mindset" is not just a catchphrase; it runs through every stage of the project from 0 to 1, especially at the critical juncture of the TGE.

After the TGE, the operational logic of the project will change completely. You will no longer just be telling stories and gaining attention, but will start to face real market pricing, arbitrage, and gamesmanship. This shift is very drastic, and if you are unprepared, all the initial hype and expectations could quickly collapse within a few days.

Therefore, the project team must think ahead: what kind of user mindset should you seize before the TGE? What narrative should you tell? What position should you place yourself in the user's mind?

How should the project team build a "collective mindset" before the TGE?

For most Web3 projects, TGE is the first time to step onto the stage of the public market. However, what truly determines success or failure actually happens before the TGE. This phase is a golden window for capturing users' minds. It's not just about whether the token can successfully launch, but also about whether you can leverage this "collective attention moment" to plant a long-lasting cognitive label in users' minds.

How you clarify the project's positioning, solidify trust, and stabilize expectations during this period determines whether you can harvest truly valuable early participants. Otherwise, what you might be waiting for is not a launch, but an end.

It is recommended that projects that have not yet had their TGE conduct a "Mental Three Questions" self-check first:

1. Which Tier do you belong to in the eyes of users?
2. What exactly do users remember about you?
3. Can collective trust hold steady?

After TGE, the project officially enters the "financial subject" status.

After the TGE, the project is no longer just a product, vision, or story, but has become a financial asset with a price, liquidity, and secondary trading. Whether you are valuable, worth buying, and if you can rise, begins to be verified in the most public and cold manner.

The first change is in the user structure. Those early users who used to share ideals with you, run test networks, and actively participate in the community have now transformed in their identity. They are now both users and traders. Meanwhile, a larger wave of traders has just entered the market. They are not here to "hear your stories," but to ask a more direct question: "Does this coin have profit opportunities?"

In Web3, there are very few "irreplaceable products." Even if you perform 20% or 30% better than your competitors, as long as the coin price remains stagnant and the market lacks volatility, you will still be quickly abandoned. Users will not give you the time and patience to grow; they will immediately chase after the project that "seems to have more potential for growth."

Therefore, the project team must answer a question directly: Why would others want to buy your coin?

Behind this, there are actually three typical user mental models.

Low-level player: My product is good. User: Whether it's good or not doesn't matter, anyway I'm not afraid to buy.

The most common mentality for this type of project is: "We are technically advanced, have a good product experience, and our team is very serious." However, the market will not reward you just because you work hard.

Users' reactions are often: "No matter how well you say it, is there volatility? No? Then I dare not buy."

This is a typical case of "the separation of product value and financial value". In Web3, there is only the product, and without price elasticity, it cannot support user trust. You may be a builder, but in the eyes of users, you are just a "coin without expectation difference".

The reality is that product experience is no longer a scarce commodity, but the price expectations that can capture attention are.

So you need to understand: you think you are building a product, but what you are actually competing for is the mental entry point of financial emotions.

Mid-level players: I have good news, I'm going to pump it. Users: Just a short-term speculation, I will quickly run away with the profit.

The vast majority of Web3 users are short-term speculators. They do not aspire to long-term collaboration, but as long as you have price surges, a rhythm, and positive news, they will come in to participate.

They are neither believers nor community evangelists. But as long as you create "tradeability," they will come in for a round.

This is not a bad thing. On the contrary, it shows that you have "movement". Users know that you are a project that can make waves, and even if they can't hold on forever, it's worth keeping an eye on.

As long as you can successfully pump a few times, the market will start to assume that you are a "promising" token. Your token will be added to users' watchlists, and there will be a group of people specifically waiting for your next move.

From no one paying attention → to someone participating → to someone keeping an eye on it, this is the gradual process of establishing the "price elasticity mindset" in Web3.

Advanced players: Make users feel "this coin is worth holding, if sold, it won't be possible to get back on the bus."

The most ideal, yet hardest to establish, user mentality is when users actively choose to keep your coin while liquidating their assets. What comes to their mind is not "Can I make quick money?" but rather: "This project, I might still need it in the next round." "This coin, once it rises, I might not be able to buy it back."

To reach this level, the project must establish a complete "Trust × Expectation × Feedback" loop, meeting at least four conditions:

• The project's long-term direction is clear, and the narrative will not jump back and forth.
• Product progress is rhythmic, and users can see hope;
• The project party has positive news, and the coin price is not weak.
• The price of the currency is resilient, capable of forming an emotional elasticity where "if it goes up, there's more to discuss; if it goes down, it can still be pulled back up."

This token may not skyrocket every day, but users know in their hearts, "you are an asset worth participating in for the long term," and naturally, they will hold, spread, and maintain it.

SUI: A Real Case of Mental Reversal

Take a coin that has recently been listed as a long-term target: $SUI. Let's break it down.

SUI has a luxurious team (from the product research and development team of a certain social platform's metaverse project), and its valuation in the primary market has reached billions of dollars, making it a FOMO target for major investment institutions. To be honest, SUI's performance was not good in the early stages of TGE, and the overall sentiment in the community was that the project team was arrogant and disconnected from the community. It wasn't until a year and a half ago that SUI suddenly realized the importance of the community, continuing to promote its ecosystem with one hand while engaging the community with the other.

Everyone knows what happened next. Suddenly, SUI became "Little SOL" in the market's mindset. It squeezed into the list of assets that users are willing to hold for the long term.

In fact, Sui has already experienced two events this summer that tested market confidence: first, a security incident involving an ecological project at the end of May, resulting in the depletion of approximately $223 million in the liquidity pool; second, the unlocking of 44 million tokens worth nearly $200 million in early July, which was one of the largest releases of the entire quarter.

According to the usual rhythm, such a chain of negative events should have led to a price crash and a collapse in community sentiment. However, the result was the opposite: SUI not only was not abandoned by the market, but instead rose to $4.39 the day before yesterday, setting a new high since February this year, becoming one of the hottest projects in the sector.

Why did it withstand? The key lies not only in the Sui team's swift acceptance of responsibility for negative situations like the hacking incident, but also in their proactive approach. What is truly important is that over the past year, Sui has gradually changed users' perceptions through action, transforming its image from being criticized as "arrogant and indifferent" to one that is considered "trustworthy and a long-term bet."

Taking the attack on an ecological project as an example, although this risk was triggered by a third-party smart contract, Sui is not directly responsible. However, the team did not shift the blame; they not only immediately suspended the relevant contracts and froze two involved wallets, but also collaborated with Sui validation nodes to initiate a vote, and jointly arranged loans with the Sui Foundation to raise compensation funds to promise "full compensation" to the victims. In the end, 90.9% of the validators voted in favor of releasing the $162 million frozen assets, and the compensation plan was successfully approved.

The entire process is transparent, swift, and highly executable, which has made the outside world realize time and again that this team is capable and willing to take responsibility in critical moments.

What it demonstrates to everyone is: as long as you have established clear mental anchors in the early stages and continue to deliver after the TGE, the market will give you time and space.

Trust is the only direction worth betting on.

Many projects come to me for marketing, but the number of projects I collaborate with has always been very few. It's not that I have high standards, but I only want to invest my time and credibility in trustworthy teams.

Before I decide whether to assist, I will conduct a complete project due diligence, and there are only two core judgment criteria: Is this team trustworthy? Does its community believe in them?

If even one point is not valid, no matter how beautiful the narrative is, I will choose not to cooperate. I don't believe I can improve the project through marketing, and I certainly won't place my trust in an irresponsible team.

Because ultimately the core competitiveness of a Web3 project is not the technical barriers or the amount of financing. It is whether you can leave a clear, credible, and worthy position in the hearts of a group of people.

This is the collective mindset, and it is the true trump card of Web3.