Recently, I have frequently received requests for help from Newbies, and the traps are basically the same: they spend all their savings to buy a certain 'high-multiple altcoin', and within three to five days, they lose so much that they cannot turn back. This week is already the tenth one.

I have been in this market for 12 years, experienced three liquidations, and taken many detours before stabilizing. I must say - the crypto space has completely changed, and the era of "betting on altcoins to earn ten times a day" is long gone.

The real watershed moment was when the spot ETF was approved. From that day on, the crypto world formed two completely different tracks. On one side are traditional financial institutions like family offices and pension funds, entering the market with billions of dollars, focusing on hard indicators such as macro interest rate trends, policy direction, and net inflows of ETF funds. They choose to hold Bitcoin and Ethereum for the long term, completely avoiding intraday fluctuations. On the other side is still the old playbook: VC firms ambush in advance, large holders control the market to pump prices, retail investors follow the trend and chase high prices, only to be met with a dump and a harvest.

The most typical example is last year's Bitcoin consolidation. An emerging public chain quietly surged 3 times while the market was completely unresponsive, and when retail investors discovered the opportunity and rushed in, the big players directly sold off, causing a bunch of people to be instantly trapped. This is the truth now: core assets compete on fundamental logic, while altcoins rely on how compelling their stories are.

Instead of frequently chasing the fluctuations of concept coins, it's better to understand where the money is actually flowing.