Brothers, look at the core, this should be the main reason
The frenzy in the first half of the year was a dream shared by everyone. Institutions, media, and VCs all shouted 'this time is different', the story was told too perfectly, and no one noticed: the chain was all speculation...
Once the Federal Reserve shifted, high interest rates became appealing, and institutions immediately changed their tune—who needs Bitcoin? 4.8% risk-free US Treasury bonds look good, right? ETF funds turned around and ran.
Regulation is also a gentle knife. The new EU regulations have skyrocketed compliance costs, and the cost of licenses in Hong Kong is so high that small and medium-sized firms are wiped out. On the surface, it's deregulation, but in reality, it's putting golden shackles on you.
The market itself can't hold on: leverage has piled up to historical highs, and even a slight drop leads to a chain of liquidations; miners' costs are too high, leading them to dump; the tools for institutional arbitrage have failed, and they run faster than anyone else. In the end, Bybit was hacked for 1.5 billion dollars, which was just the last straw that broke the camel's back.
But this is not the end; it is the industry's coming of age ceremony. I wrote in the previous article that with an old map, you cannot find a new continent. Everything is changing, changing quickly, changing unexpectedly. Looking at the essence and the macro may allow one to remain calm. After the frenzy subsides, what remains on the table will be licensed institutions, compliant infrastructure, and truly useful applications.
Bull markets rely on dreaming, bear markets reveal the truth. The next round of winners will be people like me 😁, who always hold reverence for people, for matters, for technology, for evolution... with a sense of reverence, one can calm down and quietly lay bricks amidst the ruins...