In the early days of social media, sharing the highlights of a person's life on social media was considered as a showing off which has a negative connotation. Today, sharing online is just a thing that people do regularly.

In my view, speculation in crypto is experiencing a similar cultural shift. It still carries a somewhat negative connotation, but many in the industry have changed their perspectives over the past year. Platforms like Polymarket and Pump.fun represent my second favorite type of speculation—one that combines both luck and skill (or at least the perception of skill). Purely luck based speculation can get boring fast, while purely skill based speculation can be intense, especially for someone like me without a “big brain.” So, what’s my favorite type of speculation?

Enter "Speculatainment"

I've recently been speaking with entrepreneurs who are exploring the next phase of meme tokens and prediction markets. A recurring topic in these conversations is the idea of leveraging the mechanics of speculation to make these products exponentially more entertaining and engaging. One entrepreneur even noted that Pump.fun was essentially a rebranded version of the classic casino game "Crash," repackaged within the meme token launcher. I did some research and he was right!

Here is how "Crash" game works: The game takes the increasing curve format and sees a plane launch into the sky. As it climbs higher, a win multiplier climbs with it. Players must decide when to cash out. Go too soon and the win will be small but wait too long and the plane will crash and take away their winnings and original stake with it. Hello pump.fun degens, does that sound familiar to you? I don't know about you but if I am going to lose money anyway, I would rather choose that flying rocket over the ugly green red bar chart any day. After all, that's why most people flock to Vegas every year -- for the fun experience!

The most successful "Crash" game in Asia is called Aviator and it has 12 million online users monthly. Since hitting the market back in 2018, Aviator has been a phenomenon. It’s now live at more than 4,500 online casinos across Asia, with the game landing in the lobbies of more brands every week.

I expect to see many more projects emerging in the "Speculatainment" category. Because crypto is the perfect soil to cultivate these ideas:

• Blockchain transparency makes speculative products involving real money more trustworthy

• Crypto’s payment rails are faster and cheaper than traditional systems and also enable micropayments, which is a valuable feature for speculators

• Blockchain has the power to pool global capital and individuals together without relying on a centralized entity

• The crypto community is an ideal launchpad for kickstarting these types of products, thanks to its inherently speculative nature

That said, there's an obvious elephant in the room: regulatory risk. Many of these "speculation" products fall into a gray area that borders on online gambling. But let’s worry about it when we cross that bridge. If you are building some speculative products which are ridiculously fun, holla me at @huangkuan!

In the early days of social media, sharing the highlights of a person's life on social media was considered as a showing off which has a negative connotation. Today, sharing online is just a thing that people do regularly.

In my view, speculation in crypto is experiencing a similar cultural shift. It still carries a somewhat negative connotation, but many in the industry have changed their perspectives over the past year. Platforms like Polymarket and Pump.fun represent my second favorite type of speculation—one that combines both luck and skill (or at least the perception of skill). Purely luck based speculation can get boring fast, while purely skill based speculation can be intense, especially for someone like me without a “big brain.” So, what’s my favorite type of speculation?

Enter "Speculatainment"

I've recently been speaking with entrepreneurs who are exploring the next phase of meme tokens and prediction markets. A recurring topic in these conversations is the idea of leveraging the mechanics of speculation to make these products exponentially more entertaining and engaging. One entrepreneur even noted that Pump.fun was essentially a rebranded version of the classic casino game "Crash," repackaged within the meme token launcher. I did some research and he was right!

Here is how "Crash" game works: The game takes the increasing curve format and sees a plane launch into the sky. As it climbs higher, a win multiplier climbs with it. Players must decide when to cash out. Go too soon and the win will be small but wait too long and the plane will crash and take away their winnings and original stake with it. Hello pump.fun degens, does that sound familiar to you? I don't know about you but if I am going to lose money anyway, I would rather choose that flying rocket over the ugly green red bar chart any day. After all, that's why most people flock to Vegas every year -- for the fun experience!

The most successful "Crash" game in Asia is called Aviator and it has 12 million online users monthly. Since hitting the market back in 2018, Aviator has been a phenomenon. It’s now live at more than 4,500 online casinos across Asia, with the game landing in the lobbies of more brands every week.

I expect to see many more projects emerging in the "Speculatainment" category. Because crypto is the perfect soil to cultivate these ideas:

• Blockchain transparency makes speculative products involving real money more trustworthy

• Crypto’s payment rails are faster and cheaper than traditional systems and also enable micropayments, which is a valuable feature for speculators

• Blockchain has the power to pool global capital and individuals together without relying on a centralized entity

• The crypto community is an ideal launchpad for kickstarting these types of products, thanks to its inherently speculative nature

That said, there's an obvious elephant in the room: regulatory risk. Many of these "speculation" products fall into a gray area that borders on online gambling. But let’s worry about it when we cross that bridge. If you are building some speculative products which are ridiculously fun, holla me at @huangkuan!