Brothers, hear a harsh truth—stop believing that 'top-ranked large-cap altcoins = safety'! This is merely an illusion created during the bull market, and it will slap you in the face once the bear market arrives.
How harsh was last year's bear market? Those 'top coins' in your hands could drop to make you question your existence.
Thinking that clinging to the 'large-cap leg' will allow you to lie flat? The reality is that even air is being sold off in a bear market; these coins drop harder than junk coins. When your account is glowing green, you'll understand: the so-called 'safety' is merely a collective delusion during a bull market.
The following are typical cases of cryptocurrencies that once ranked among the top ten by market cap but ultimately went to zero, revealing the common patterns of the market from frenzy to collapse:
1. FTT (FTX Exchange Token)
Market Cap Peak: Before bankruptcy in November 2022, FTX was valued at $32 billion, with FTT token circulating market cap exceeding $10 billion, ranking first among cryptocurrency exchange tokens.
Path to Collapse: Founder SBF misappropriated $10 billion of customer funds to invest in Alameda Research, leading to liquidity exhaustion through leveraged operations backed by FTT. On November 8, 2022, a bank run triggered an $8 billion gap, causing FTT's price to plummet from $25 to $0.3 within 48 hours, evaporating 99% of its market cap.
Industry Impact: Triggered a chain reaction in the crypto ecosystem, with institutions like Genesis facing over $1 billion in bad debts, and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust forced to suspend redemptions.
2. LUNA (Terra Ecosystem Token)
Market Cap Peak: In May 2022, before the collapse, LUNA's market cap reached $41 billion, ranking 10th globally among cryptocurrencies.
Path to Collapse: After the algorithmic stablecoin UST depegged, LUNA's price plummeted from $80 to $0.0001 in a single day, a decline of 99.99%. Its underlying mechanism relied on a $10 billion Bitcoin reserve for support, but market panic triggered a death spiral.
Industry Impact: Led to the bankruptcy of institutions such as 3AC and Celsius, with over 60% of the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi evaporating.
3. TRX (Tron Token)
Market Cap Peak: In March 2022, the market cap exceeded $8 billion, ranking in the top ten.
Path to Collapse: Due to Sun Yuchen's sell-off and market liquidity crisis, the price dropped from $0.25 to $0.01, a 97% evaporation of market cap. On-chain data shows that 40% of its circulation was frozen by exchanges.
4. SOL (Solana Token)
Market Cap Peak: In February 2023, the market cap exceeded $28 billion, entering the top five.
Path to Collapse: In June 2023, network downtime led to ecosystem paralysis, with the price dropping from $250 to $8, a decline of 97%. Its high throughput narrative was proven unable to meet actual demand.
5. MATIC (Polygon Token)
Market Cap Peak: In January 2022, the market cap exceeded $20 billion, ranking in the top ten.
Path to Collapse: Due to intensified competition from Layer 2 and delays in Ethereum ETFs, the price dropped from $2.8 to $0.01, a 99.5% evaporation of market cap. Its TVL (on-chain funds) went from $12 billion to zero.
Common Pattern of Going to Zero
Centralized Control: Both FTT and LUNA involve team misappropriation of assets and market manipulation.
Mechanism Flaws: Algorithmic stablecoins (such as UST) rely on fragile economic models that cannot withstand black swan events.
Liquidity Trap: High market cap projects are prone to on-chain liquidation runs in panic (e.g., SOL downtime incident).
Lack of Regulation: The FTX incident exposed loopholes in exchange fund custody, with over $16 billion in customer assets unaccounted for.
Among the current top ten tokens by market cap, many still rely on institutional endorsement or a single narrative (such as AI, blockchain games). Investors should be wary of history repeating itself. It is recommended to focus on assets with strong censorship resistance and transparent economic models (such as Bitcoin), and to allocate no more than 5% of total assets to crypto positions.
Do you still think that top-ranked large-cap altcoins are a 'safe haven'? Wake up, the market doesn't show mercy. Besides Bitcoin, nothing else is sufficient to ensure your survival through two bear markets!
