It's quite emotional. In 2023, it should have been a process where everyone generally believed that we were transitioning towards a bull market in the four-year cycle concept.

Looking back now, December 2023 was actually when the bull started to rise, but at that time, it was easy to judge this position as just a stretch for profit-taking, especially since there was still a long time to go before the halving and the stereotypical one-year bull market after the halving.

That year, there were two major events regarding Binance:

1. Binance paid a staggering $4.3 billion fine.

2. Founder CZ admitted to violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws and resigned as CEO.

I don't need to elaborate on the impact of these two events; I just remember many people thought Binance would face a bank run.

However, Binance responded to the doubts of “insolvency” through public asset proof and commitments, publishing hot and cold wallet addresses, and using on-chain verifiable data to demonstrate their ample solvency, which was key in preventing a bank run.

These measures quickly proved effective, as fund outflows slowed rapidly within a week and turned into net inflows. By early December, Binance had recovered over $3 billion in net fund inflows, and its market share stabilized. This is also why Binance has ranked first globally for several consecutive years as the cryptocurrency exchange with the most user assets.

From this perspective, we can jokingly say that it was Binance's sufficient “thickness” that brought about the “early” bull market 🤣. If Binance had collapsed, it would have truly been a harsh winter, dark and bleak.