Four Bull Markets in the Crypto World, Getting Rich Is Becoming More Difficult

1. 2013 Bull Market: The Birth of Gods
Features: A11, A12 everywhere

HODLing, faith, mining, Wu Jihan, Shen Yu, Wang Chun
BETA is huge, ALPHA doesn't matter, as long as you don't sell, you'll get rich.

2. 2017 Bull Market: Heroes Competing
Features: A11, A12 still present

Water sellers and coin issuers making a fortune

Exchange wars, coin issuance battles, with key figures like CZ, Xu Mingxing, Li Lin’s three major firms, and Sun哥’s Tron tokens.

Also including Vitalik’s ETH explosion.

This was the era of the great maritime voyage in crypto; as long as you dared to run a casino, print tokens, or build a public chain, you could become Top 1.

Now, this window has completely closed.

3. 2021 Bull Market: On-Chain and Institutional Dance
Features: The wealth creation ceiling has lowered compared to the last cycle. Besides FTX, retail investors might only see high paper gains like BEEPEE, and ordinary people’s chances of turning the tables are decreasing.

And there have been more crashes this round, like SBF, Do Kwon, Three Arrows Capital, which actually performed even better in the previous cycle.

In this cycle, those trying to challenge the old gods of the last cycle mostly ended in disaster. To catch up with CZ and others, most had to leverage or play Ponzi schemes, ending in collapse.

Class stratification is beginning to solidify!

4. This Bull Market: The PVP Era of No One Taking Over
Features: A9 is now the retail investor ceiling
The ones making money this cycle are Meme dogs, meme studios, VC harvests, and quant funds.

Among the new wealthy, like JEFF from HYPE, they are no longer retail investors but part of the top tier globally.

Murad, Ansem, and others might have around $100 million; in the Chinese community, VIDA might be the most aggressive.

Additionally, MEME-related projects like PUMPFUN and PEPE are outliers, but project teams don’t really provide much guidance for retail investors.

Compared to the last cycle, there’s a sense of shrinkage.

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Why is it getting harder and harder? The key is that the environment is changing, perhaps similar to a prisoner’s dilemma. The industry has little growth left, and the projects being hyped now are still the same as last cycle’s AAVE. With so many smart people, everyone is desperately trying to find ways to harvest.

Think about it carefully—are all roles just harvesting?