After spending enough time in this space, I’ve reached a simple conclusion: the market is being dominated not by builders, but by short-term actors who behave like opportunists. This is not based on secret information or insider data — just on my own direct experience with platforms like Ten and Minterest, combined with well-known patterns across the industry.

My personal interactions with these platforms showed the same recurring problem I’ve seen elsewhere: teams that seem more focused on extracting value than delivering on long-term commitments. I’m not claiming they broke laws or committed provable fraud — I don’t have such evidence. But the behavior fits the broader trend: poor communication, disappearing accountability, shifting priorities, and users left dealing with the consequences.

The issue is systemic. The Web3 environment makes it easy for projects to launch with big promises, collect money through tokens or “exclusive” programs, and then move on once the initial hype cools off. Reputation doesn’t matter when teams can rebrand, relaunch, or pivot endlessly, leaving their previous userbase behind. This is an environment where temporary players thrive and long-term builders get buried.

My frustration with Ten and Minterest didn’t appear out of nowhere. It came from the same pattern repeating over and over: initial promises, public excitement, and then a slow slide into silence and ambiguity. Again — I’m not accusing them of criminal behavior. I’m describing what it feels like as a user: that you’re dealing with teams who treat the market as a temporary extraction zone, not as a place to build something sustainable.

And this is exactly why scammers and opportunists dominate the space today. The structure of the industry rewards them. The culture rewards them. The lack of accountability rewards them.

People expect honesty. People expect responsibility. But expectations don’t matter here. If you place trust in projects that don’t value longevity, your expectations become your own problem — because the system is designed to protect the project, not the users.

This is the reality I see today: a market overrun by short-term actors, where even established platforms can behave like they owe nothing to the people who supported them. Until the incentives change, the space will remain a playground for those who come to take, not to build.

After spending enough time in this space, I’ve reached a simple conclusion: the market is being dominated not by builders, but by short-term actors who behave like opportunists. This is not based on secret information or insider data — just on my own direct experience with platforms like Ten and Minterest, combined with well-known patterns across the industry.

My personal interactions with these platforms showed the same recurring problem I’ve seen elsewhere: teams that seem more focused on extracting value than delivering on long-term commitments. I’m not claiming they broke laws or committed provable fraud — I don’t have such evidence. But the behavior fits the broader trend: poor communication, disappearing accountability, shifting priorities, and users left dealing with the consequences.

The issue is systemic. The Web3 environment makes it easy for projects to launch with big promises, collect money through tokens or “exclusive” programs, and then move on once the initial hype cools off. Reputation doesn’t matter when teams can rebrand, relaunch, or pivot endlessly, leaving their previous userbase behind. This is an environment where temporary players thrive and long-term builders get buried.

My frustration with Ten and Minterest didn’t appear out of nowhere. It came from the same pattern repeating over and over: initial promises, public excitement, and then a slow slide into silence and ambiguity. Again — I’m not accusing them of criminal behavior. I’m describing what it feels like as a user: that you’re dealing with teams who treat the market as a temporary extraction zone, not as a place to build something sustainable.

And this is exactly why scammers and opportunists dominate the space today. The structure of the industry rewards them. The culture rewards them. The lack of accountability rewards them.

People expect honesty. People expect responsibility. But expectations don’t matter here. If you place trust in projects that don’t value longevity, your expectations become your own problem — because the system is designed to protect the project, not the users.

This is the reality I see today: a market overrun by short-term actors, where even established platforms can behave like they owe nothing to the people who supported them. Until the incentives change, the space will remain a playground for those who come to take, not to build.