南宫远

When the market falls silent and people complain that the 'imitation season' has yet to arrive, we may be standing at the starting point of a new cycle, just that most people have not yet realized it. Many attribute the market's weakness to a 'lack of new narratives,' but this is a profound misunderstanding. The real bottleneck is not a depletion of imagination, but a drying up of liquidity.
In the second half of 2025, the main theme of the crypto market will be written by two core issues: on the macro level, it is the highly anticipated rate-cut expectations; on the micro level, it is the quietly unfolding new paradigm of 'coin-stock linkage.' The resonance between these two may become the key engine to ignite the next super cycle.

A hell of a joke
The total value of all airdrops for Anan Alpha so far may not even be as much as the market value lost by $ZKJ in one night.

This is the cruel and real side of the crypto world. The market value of the altcoin $ZKJ plummeted from nearly $2 billion at its peak to less than $200 million in just a few hours, with over 90% of its value evaporating. This is not just a market fluctuation; it feels more like a meticulously planned "hunting" operation targeting high liquidity tokens under the Anan Alpha hotspot.

Three main attacking addresses targeted the massive trading volume and liquidity generated from the "wash trading" of $ZKJ and $KOGE, ultimately leading to a series of flash crashes in the prices of both tokens through a dual strike of "large liquidity withdrawals + continuous sell-offs."

On June 14, according to Slow Fog's CISO 23pds, Slow Fog received an emergency call last night that a certain investor's cold wallet containing 50 million yuan worth of cryptocurrency was completely looted. It is reported that the investor's 'cold wallet' was purchased through Douyin, and the private key was stolen at the moment of generation, with the huge assets laundered through Huiwang within hours.
23pds warns that investors must purchase cold wallets through official channels; the so-called 'brand new and unopened' or 'special discount flash sale' cold wallets online are 99% fake and may have been tampered with.

In modern society, our lives are filled with countless choices and decisions. From what to wear after getting out of bed in the morning, what to have for breakfast, to the route to work and every decision made during work, these seemingly trivial choices are actually quietly consuming the 'decision power' in our brains. This phenomenon is referred to by psychologists as 'Decision Fatigue.'
The scientific principles of decision fatigue

Research shows that the human brain consumes a large amount of cognitive resources during daily decision-making. These limited resources are similar to a smartphone battery, gradually depleting after a full day of use. Every choice, big or small, requires us to invest a certain amount of mental energy. When this energy is gradually depleted, the quality of our decisions declines, becoming more impulsive and simplistic. For example, judges' rulings made in the afternoon are often harsher than those made in the morning because their brains have become fatigued from a full day of hearing cases, making the decision process more blunt.

Author's note: This is a story composed of a series of short stories, telling the tale of a country called 'The Unchained Republic' in a future world.
National Archives: The Unchained Republic

Country name meaning: 'Unchained' refers to breaking free from the shackles of Bitcoin (Blockchain) and escaping the fate of being enslaved by the 'digital asset class.'

Ideology: Physicalism. The core theory states that value can only arise from tangible labor and material production; any form of digital code and virtual consensus is nothing but illusory and exploitative 'spiritual opium.'

For every veteran who has floated in the crypto world for years, this bull market from 2024 to 2025 feels so familiar yet so different. Once, we were accustomed to the frenzy ignited by community sentiment, technological breakthroughs, or tweets from some anonymous founder; now, behind every significant pulse in the market, the presence of those suited figures from Wall Street and the financial district is subtly visible.
Yes, please put away the old script of 'grassroots counterattack'; what we are experiencing is an institutional bull market driven by real money that profoundly changes the industry landscape.

Chapter 1: The Eternal Barrier

Winter, 2146. In Washington, an invisible, dynamic climate-regulating membrane covers the sky above the city, isolating the cold from the outside. On the lakeside, cherry blossom trees bloom in the constant spring temperature, and the petals fall, quietly decomposing and recycling when they touch the invisible energy barrier. This is an era of highly developed technology.
The headquarters of the Crypto Assets Administration (CAA) of the U.S. Treasury Department, a giant building made of black basalt and ultra-clean glass, is like a silent digital pyramid, overlooking this everlasting city.

This is a science fiction novel. I originally wanted to write a 200,000 to 300,000-word science fiction novel called (Future Currency). After drafting several outlines, I found that I couldn't handle such a long piece. So, I started with a short story to practice.

1. Heat Death
My number is K-8821, a 'dust account', or in official terminology, a 'chain citizen'.
This title is a gentle lie, like calling prisoners 'long-term residents.' So-called citizenship is merely a nearly empty address on the ledger, and its balance is our entire life.

I remember the richest teacher wrote a book, (treating time as a friend), later this sentence was borrowed by Teacher Luo, changing it to 'friend of time', and did a lot of programs, making a big profit. Hearing this sentence does not mean understanding it. Yesterday I saw someone discussing this topic again on X, and it was quite good. 'One of the most solid, indestructible, and unchangeable laws in this world is that time always moves forward, always flowing away.' 'Time is an invincible existence. When a person lives a little longer, we sometimes praise him: he seems to have conquered time. In fact, he hasn't; time will eventually take him away. When a person holds Bitcoin for a little longer, we praise him for choosing to be a friend of time. When a person keeps shouting for altcoins, then changes to another altcoin in a few days, I feel he chooses to be an enemy of time. Including Ethereum, whether it is a friend of time, I am not sure. A person borrowing and trading coins, using all kinds of online loans, faces a lot of repayment pressure each month. I think he chooses to be an enemy of time. A person playing contracts every day, staying up late to monitor the market, frequently trading. I think he chooses to be an enemy of time.' What is certainly foolish? Standing opposite to time. Because time will definitely move forward, and you will definitely lose. — Andy Lau

Anyone who has been in the crypto circle for a long time knows that 'Shanzhai season' is a term that evokes both love and hate. Everyone is waiting: waiting for a big bull market, waiting for BTC to take a break, waiting for ETH to lead the way, waiting for all coins to fly together. But this time, what comes is not the explosion of on-chain altcoins, but rather the Shanzhai season in the US stock market. You heard that right, the most vigorous 'crypto market' is happening in US listed companies.
There are too many project parties in the crypto circle and too little liquidity, everyone is fighting for money, and the result is that it simply can't be satisfied. In contrast, the US stock market has fewer targets, and when funds surge in, it takes off directly.
No good projects? No liquidity? It's better to go to the US stock market!