Over the past few years, the relationship between Bitcoin and altcoins has been like a village chief leading the entire village to start a business and become rich, with everyone sharing in the profits. But now the situation has changed—the Bitcoin "village chief" has been elevated to the "central" level, with a bright future ahead, while those old altcoins are like villagers forgotten in an old village, unable to keep up with the development pace of the crypto world.
Last night the U.S. stock market was closed, and the crypto market also went on "holiday." The trading volume in the market has shrunk significantly, and price fluctuations have become lethargic. Bitcoin is now completely following the rhythm of the U.S. stock market, and the worst off are the old altcoins. In the past, everyone could make money together, but now Bitcoin flies high alone, while the old altcoins can only tread water. It's harsh, but this is the reality. The crypto space has indeed been a good place for ordinary people to make a comeback over the past decade, but this window won't stay open forever. Just like the top ten projects in the crypto space in 2013, aside from Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ripple, the other seven (PPC, NMC, FTC, NVC, XPM, MEC, QRK) have long disappeared without a trace. At this trend, in another two years, 99% of the current projects will meet the same fate—prices will go to zero and be forgotten. Therefore, we must continue to learn, especially after experiencing trends like inscriptions, MEME, and AI Agents; the pace in the crypto space is frighteningly fast, and many so-called "leading projects" can't even last three months. We must seek projects with enduring value and decisively abandon those old coins destined to be eliminated.
The market has become numb to the situation in the Middle East. Trump is talking nonsense, and Israel says the U.S. will decide whether to join the war in 24-48 hours, but Trump says he will decide in two weeks, clearly not wanting to get involved. The media is still hyping rumors that Iran's nuclear facilities could be destroyed or that the leader could be assassinated, which is currently the biggest uncertainty. However, Trump has also signaled for peace talks, and U.S. aircraft carriers have moved there, claiming they will support Israel if necessary. As long as the conflict doesn't escalate, the market really doesn't care about this news.
An Israeli hacker organization recently attacked Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges, causing a loss of $85 million. This attack is clearly a show of strength, as they specifically targeted prominent addresses, with the addresses containing "fxxkir" as a message to Iran: your intelligence system and crypto exchanges have been penetrated like a sieve. Iran's current countermeasure is to restrict the operating hours of exchanges, only allowing them to open from 10 AM to 8 PM.
Yesterday, a big name in the crypto community criticized $virtual's points distribution issue, complaining that developers take too much; one person can take away 15 million points in a day, accounting for one-third of the entire pool, leaving retail investors with no way out. Now the coin price keeps falling, and staked users are cursing the project for inaction. The official $virtual response said they would conduct a comprehensive review and adjust if necessary. It shows how difficult it is to make money in the crypto space now; any opportunity seems to lead to a rush. Yesterday, Binance's Alpha airdrop for an account only yielded $30, and after deducting costs, it was basically a waste of effort. Besides studios still holding on, many retail investors have given up. This type of forced profit-making model won't last long; ultimately, it lacks genuine innovative narratives. The market will become even more polarized next—projects that can't engage with stablecoins, RWA, ETFs, DeFi, AI, or public blockchain infrastructure are doomed, while those that can grasp the future crypto core will have unlimited growth potential. Just like Circle going public, institutions valued it at 6 billion, but the market drove it to 40 billion, simply because everyone is optimistic about the future of stablecoins. So we must embrace the future and not live in the past.
