Four Bull Markets in the Crypto World: Getting Rich Gets 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 is not important; as long as you don’t sell, you’re making a fortune.
2. 2017 Bull Market: Heroes Competing
Features: A11, A12 still present
Water sellers and coin issuers making big profits
Exchange wars, coin issuance battles, with key figures like CZ, Xu Mingxing, Li Lin’s three major firms, and Sun’s Tron tokens.
Also includes Vitalik’s ETH explosion.
This was the era of the great maritime voyage in crypto—if you dared to run a casino, print tokens, or build a public chain, you could become No. 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 previous cycle. Apart from FTX, retail investors might only see high paper gains like BEEPEE, with fewer ordinary people making a comeback.
And there have been more crashes this round, like SBF, Do Kwon, Three Arrows Capital—actually, the ones who did better in the last cycle are doing even better now.
In this cycle, those trying to challenge the old gods of the last cycle mostly ended up badly, often needing leverage or Ponzi schemes to catch up with CZ and others, ultimately blowing up.
Class boundaries are starting to solidify!
4. This Bull Market: The PVP Era of No One Taking Over
Features: A9 is now the retail investor ceiling
The people making money this cycle are Meme dogs, meme studios, VC harvests, and quant traders.
Among the new wealthy, like JEFF from HYPE, they are no longer retail investors—they are already at the top of the world.
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 guidance for retail investors.
Compared to the last cycle, there’s a sense of shrinkage.
****
Why is it getting harder? The key is that the environment is changing, perhaps like a prisoner’s dilemma—industry growth has stalled, 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—are all roles just trying to harvest?