The cleanup in the market maker industry has entered deep waters. Looking at the data trends over the past two years—project teams' token budgets reduced by 50%, high-quality clients are scarce, and long-tail projects are generally unprofitable—the surface appears to be a "profit surge retreat," but fundamentally, the entire ecosystem is screening for those who truly possess risk control capabilities.

The most interesting phenomenon is that leading market makers have not fallen into price wars. Instead, they are abandoning unprofitable projects. What does this indicate? It shows that the surviving teams have shifted from a "who dares to take risks makes money" logic to a competition dimension of "who is less likely to make mistakes."

Liquidity mining and staking businesses are also experiencing this differentiation. The once "passive earning" model is disappearing, replaced by professional operations requiring meticulous risk control and systematic management. On-chain market making may seem to have low barriers, but in reality, smart contract risks and execution constraints raise the entry threshold; although derivatives market making is difficult to enter, once a moat is established, it is extremely deep.

A noteworthy data point: the October 2025 cleanup fully validated this shift. The speed of leverage liquidation transmission far exceeds traditional risk response. This means that teams lacking infrastructure and strict risk control are being systematically eliminated.

Those who can truly survive are teams that have assumed from the start that "extreme market conditions will definitely occur" and have prepared accordingly. Compliance costs now account for 30%-50% of total operational expenses, which is not waste but a survival baseline.