Many people have been in the crypto market for years but still haven't made big money. Staying up at 3 a.m. watching K-line charts, working during the day to gather capital, and at the end of the month, after calculating the accounts, net profits are not even enough to cover electricity bills. This cycle of exchanging time for small gains is something many are repeating.

The root cause is quite clear—it's the mindset brought into the market from the start. Either relying on a stable job with a fixed salary for dollar-cost averaging, or following trends to open a small studio for contract investment, or hoarding a few unknown NFTs or buying obscure project tokens, hoping to get rich passively. In the current market environment, this approach has little room for survival.

Over the years, I’ve seen many failed cases. In 2021, during the bull market, making some small money by trading altcoins, then getting carried away, and opening a physical milk tea shop. When the crypto market adjusted and the principal was locked in, the physical store also closed due to the overall environment, ending up with nothing. Some were also fooled by acquaintances into investing all their assets into so-called "internal private placement projects," only to see the project team run away, finally understanding what real loss means.

The common point of these pitfalls is that they didn't understand what is really happening in the current crypto market. By 2026, the industry is no longer the wild speculative environment of the past. Institutional funds are pouring in, regulatory frameworks are becoming more complete, and the market structure has entered a relatively rational and mature stage. The window for quick profits through reckless actions and luck has indeed closed. The true window for wealth transition is only 5 to 10 years. If you miss this wave, no matter how hard you try later, it will just be busywork in vain.