🔓2021 — the cycle of faith. 2025 — the cycle of scams.
This cycle has been extremely disappointing for those who are genuinely passionate about the industry and its technologies (I was one of them).
Blockchain has many revolutionary applications — payments, tokenization, AI, gaming, and much more. But despite this, the industry continues to be associated with negativity, even when truly outstanding products are created.
"Scam season" is perhaps the worst possible marketing for a sphere built on trust.
Even if "good" and "bad" projects exist separately, in the eyes of the public they inevitably mix. LUNA and FTX have already caused huge damage to retail investors.
Over the past two years, the industry has slowly been rebuilding trust, but now politicians, celebrities, and scammers are once again extracting billions from it.
Decentralization maximalists argue that blockchain is a free market, and the technology can be used for any purpose. Overall, I agree with this. But it is a double-edged sword: without proper regulation, blockchain will continue to be used for manipulation and exploitation. And major players — individual exchanges, funds, market makers — contribute to this. Not all, of course, there are truly quality funds and platforms, but just a few "bad players" can cause tremendous damage.
Yes, less than 1% of market participants can profit from short-term trading.
As a result, we see weak altcoin dynamics. People are disappointed, they no longer believe in the market and feel that the game is rigged against them.
I believe that over time the market will heal and return to a natural balance. But before that, we may have to endure a bit more pain.