Zero-to-One innovation is my top reason for focusing on a narrative. But it's not enough. Runes tokens on Bitcoin were one of my top picks for this bull run, yet I'm down badly in % terms from ATH. I hear... DOG trading at a 444M MC isn't a failure. But by itself, DOG accounts for 80% of the entire Runes market size. PUPS is down by 99%. Others not much better. "Runes were built for degens and memecoins." - Rune creator said. Indeed, they started strong: It was fun learning how etch (mint) new tokens, community vibes were great but degens are rekt and 'artisanal shitcoining' isn't delightful anymore. I'm curious about the reasons for the lack of hype, as understanding them will improve our skills in evaluating future narratives. On top of my list: - Bitcoin is slow and expensive. Degens want to know if they lost or made money ASAP. - For whales, the liquidity is too thin. There is no AMM type LP pools. - Low volumes + technical difficulties -> CEX unwilling to list - Big learning curve; Easier to swap memecoins on Phantom/Solana than Runes But there's another fundamental difference: Bitcoiners are hardcore, and crucially, passive holders. Despite 2T MC of BTC, little of it went to Runes. It's a lesson for anyone building on Bitcoin Even for me, BTC serves as a store of value. It stays in cold wallets or multisig. It's not for speculative activities. Still, Babylon, a restaking protocol on Bitcoin, quietly reached the top 9 DeFi protocols with TVL of 4.9 billion. That's more than Uniswap of 4.89b! It shows that yield, not degen memecoin gambling is the top use case for BTC. Yet's still early and changing Bitcoiners' behavior is a big challenge, especially as more BTC flows to ETFs instead of staying in self-hosted wallets. But I will not bury Runes just yet. The community isn't dead but Runes need a catalyst to pump again. Focusing on increasing liquidity and improving UX/UI infra should be a priority.