In tokenized products like Helium, the token’s price acts as a lowest common denominator measure of the attention flowing in/out of a given ecosystem. When token prices drop, miners churn both not only because their economics have changed, but also because of the herd mentality that exists around attention— if I see everyone else leaving the party, I’m much more likely to go as well.

In this way, attracting liquidity isn’t a one-time thing that’s only important in the early stages — it remains a prerequisite throughout the continuous existence of the network, albeit a less and less important one as the community onboards sufficient native supply/demand to the network. Being able to attract consistent liquid attention to your project is not a trivial task — the strains it puts on crypto founding teams mirrors the grueling experience of being a creator on large social platforms, where even taking one day off at the wrong time can be disastrous for your growth.