Has VC coins reversed again? Why do new coins now have the momentum to pump? Previously, it was all about low circulation, high market cap, with most of the tokens allocated to themselves. Retail investors couldn’t get low-priced tokens before the launch and could only buy at the opening price. The old method of dumping directly upon listing doesn’t work anymore. Back then, random altcoins would launch with valuations of $2 billion–$10 billion, and the spot market had enough liquidity to absorb billions of dollars in sell pressure, so the listing price often became the peak. Now the strategy is high control, small liquidity pools, and low opening prices. Whether it’s Binance Alpha, staking airdrops, or token launches, they distribute 5% of the tokens through various methods to gain attention. But profiting from the spot market isn’t their goal; in fact, many projects even have to bear sell pressure as part of their operational costs. However, it’s not as much as people might think. For example, Binance’s Alpha has a market cap of $100 million–$500 million, with liquidity pools mostly around $2 million. Simply put, maintaining a $100 million market cap might only require 1% of that—$1 million—which most projects can afford. The real profits come from the other side: the contract market. With ample liquidity, trading volume, and open interest, the contract market often exceeds the spot market by several times, easily absorbing billions of dollars in short positions. So if $1 million is pumped into the spot market, the contract market could liquidate $2 million worth of positions. That’s the driving force behind the whales pumping the price. But contracts are a dynamic game. When expectations are too high and too many people follow the trend, the whales can reverse the operation and shake out the market instead.