I just came across a project and its whitepaper is written pretty beautifully—things like “seamless cross-chain” and “oracle manipulation-resistance.” But honestly, when I see wording like that, I reflexively frown. After that round when cross-chain bridges had issues, everyone in the group was waiting for that “finality.” In the end, what they got was longer confirmations and deeper unrealized losses.

You could say it’s loss aversion—I realized that’s exactly what I’m like. If I’m holding a small-cap alt and it’s up 20% in unrealized gains, I’ll just glance at the charts when I check at night. But if it’s down 15% in unrealized losses, even if I know the fundamentals haven’t changed and the on-chain data is normal, I still can’t stop overthinking and can’t sleep. It doesn’t feel like I’m losing money so much as like something has locked me in. To put it bluntly, it’s hard for people to accept evidence that their decision was wrong, displayed right on the screen.

I used to try to find an explanation for every unrealized loss. Later I found out that some explanations are themselves just psychological comfort. After the cross-chain incident, for those projects that were “waiting for confirmations,” who actually managed to recover the price they were supposed to get back? Forget it. That’s how I am now—when I see lines with excessive promises, I’ll mark them, then carry on with what I was doing. Leave the unrealized losses there. As long as the on-chain activity hasn’t died, let it run its course.