The Web3 opportunity in the AI era? STEPN executives leave to establish "Social Protocol Trends": integrating information and Token economy.

Mable Jiang, the Chief Growth Officer of STEPN's parent company FSL, announced on July 17 via the X platform that she has left FSL and founded a brand new social protocol called Trends. (Background: Coinbase launched the "Base App" super application, combining Wallet, payments, social... all highlights in one glance) (Background information: Sophon: Social Oracle Machines reconstruct user value, integrating Blockchain into every moment of daily life) Web3 fitness application, the representative project of the "Move-to-Earn" model, Mable Jiang, the Chief Growth Officer of STEPN's parent company FSL, announced on July 17 via the X platform that she has left FSL and founded a brand new social protocol called Trends. I am excited to announce that I have founded Trends (@trendsdotfun), a value-centered social protocol dedicated to promoting the development of information finance. This is also a bittersweet farewell moment: my full-time job at @fslweb3 has come to an end, but I will continue to support the company as an advisor. I’m excited to announce that I have started Trends @trendsdotfun, a value-anchored social protocol that pushes the frontier of information finance. It’s also a bittersweet farewell moment: my full-time gig with @fslweb3 has come to an end, but I will continue to support the… pic.twitter.com/RG7DRF0Z5p — Mable Jiang (@Mable_Jiang) July 17, 2025 The problem Trends aims to solve: how to integrate information and value Mable Jiang defines Trends as "a value-anchored social protocol." She proposes three first principles: First, every large-scale Web3 application originates from a significant reduction in the cost of value flow; Second, Tokens are inherently information containers, and social media is the most frequent trading market for information; Third, when "every article can become a token," information and value will truly merge. The mechanism envisioned for Trends is: user interactions like liking and reposting posts will be accompanied by real-time on-chain capital flow, forming a direct channel from "belief to profit and loss." This way, the cost of fake accounts spamming is raised, making real consensus easier to see. The on-chain social path in the AI era Mable Jiang points out that generative AI has brought the cost of content replication close to zero, and traditional platform metrics like views and likes can easily be manipulated by Bots, leading to a rapid decline in information quality. She believes that on-chain capital is the only scarce and transparent signal, and it is the last line of defense against malicious operations. Initially, Trends will serve as the on-chain curation layer for X: "One like equals one dollar, every click automatically buys in, exit targets can be preset." In the future, Trends may have the opportunity to plug into open platforms like TikTok, with the ultimate vision of building a social network operated in synergy with on-chain capital, allowing content reputation to accumulate over the long term and flow in sync with value. Mable Jiang's qualifications and underlying resources Before founding Trends, Mable Jiang was a partner at Multicoin Capital, familiar with the capital perspective; after transitioning to FSL, she accumulated front-line experience in application growth and hosted the podcast HODLong, where she had in-depth conversations with industry leaders. Additionally, the lineup of angel investors for Trends reveals clues: Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana Foundation chair Lily Liu, Jupiter co-founder Meow & Siong, LayerZero co-founder Bryan Pellegrino, Pendle Finance co-founder TN Lee, and about thirty heavyweight figures including FSL co-founders Jerry Huang and Yawn Rong have all expressed support. Trends brings a distinctly different thinking template to Web3 social: when information overload and trust shortage become the norm, embedding "real money" directly into posts may help rebuild the order of content and reputation. Whether Trends can truly "turn every article into a token" remains to be seen, but it has opened a door to imagination for the next wave of applications. Related reports a16z internal review: AI social products may fundamentally not exist Farcaster's transformation, a16z spent $180 million to collapse Web3 social Friend.tech abandoned, Farcaster's growth stagnation... the three major challenges of decentralized social "AI era Web3 windfall? STEPN executives leave to establish 'social protocol Trends': integrating information and token economics" This article was first published in BlockTempo, the most influential blockchain news media.