The four-word secret to surviving a bear market: Slow is fast

Author:Ann

Compiled by: Chen Zou

If you were asked to describe the current crypto market in one word, what would it be? Boring. Maybe you have a point, but I beg to differ.

Compared to the previous few months, the crypto space is indeed a little boring. Coupled with the strong bear market sentiment, this boredom is even more dead. But to be honest, I enjoy the current atmosphere.

Because when the market is quiet, it is easier for us to find what we should do, which, in a way, is a perfect learning opportunity.

Nothing is too late to miss before sufficient research

The frenzy of the last bull market is still vivid in my mind. Investors were so crazy that they could even turn shit into gold. Although many people are still looking forward to another bull market like that, in that environment, I can't remember anything except being exhausted. There are new things popping up almost every day, making people participate in FOMO, as if they will miss out on 100 million if they don't go. It's really tiring, like a sprint race. But I believe in investment, and life, it is more like a marathon in essence. But in that kind of crowd mood at the time, you would look stupid if you didn't participate. What's worse is that I was too curious. A new protocol? I just wanted to try it.

Now that the market has slowed down its pace, I don't have to deal with any of the energy-wasting things related to FOMO. My capital and attention are not dispersed in a large way. I won't lose my judgment because of blind following, nor will I go all in to satisfy my curiosity.

Less noise, a calmer mind, more time to digest information

When the market was at its craziest, even if you just took a nap, you might spend hours catching up on the tweets you missed. Not only was there anxiety, but the market was also full of noise. Too many people were showing off their wealth, too many people were showing off their so-called "success." I was completely caught up in the chaos at that time. Although I didn't pay attention to those spam messages, Twitter still sent them to me through the algorithm because there were too many of them.

And that’s just Twitter, not to mention the endless messages on Discord.

Now, Twitter is much quieter. I only have to scroll a few minutes to see the last message I read. I spend less time on social media, and more importantly, when I do read a real "good" message, I have enough time to digest it.

In the past, I would just bookmark good tweets and then forget about them.

But this doesn't mean that developers have stopped building.

Despite the lackluster price action, the DeFi space is still very interesting. In fact, it’s not just DeFi. Remember when $GALA jumped 80% in one day some time ago? In the past few weeks, the Metaverse and NFT space has also ushered in a new round of ecological expansion.

So far, the DeFi space is the most innovative in terms of technology. Fantom is making steady progress, BeethovenX is playing with capital strategy, the Cosmos ecosystem is gradually gaining recognition, and the Avalanche (AVAX) ecosystem briefly became the second largest TVL public chain.

The opportunity still exists, you just need to be patient.

What attracts me most about the current market is that when capital gradually leaves the market, those high-quality projects that are truly willing to work steadily will be naturally screened out, and there will be fewer and fewer "leek-cutting" projects trying to take advantage of the bull market. I have always believed that quality is more valuable than quantity.

Work hard with peace of mind

In the current state of the market, when a token worth $20,000 can earn ±$1,000 per month in a premium 100% APR liquidity pool, what more do you want? I have always believed that liquidity mining is the source of DeFi success. As long as you are willing to look for it, there are always good opportunities to be found from staking and liquidity mining.

When volatility succumbs to market trends, it’s the perfect time to accumulate tokens. Is liquidity mining or staking the easiest way you can find to make money? There are many other ways, but you’d better be careful not to become someone else’s “liquidity”.

Building Faith

I've been on this path for a long time, and you need to understand that these beliefs are not created in a day, a week, or a month.

A good project takes time to develop, and then it takes time to face various market conditions and respond accordingly.

The bull market has made us a fickle investor, or a fence-sitter. We have only learned to treat a protocol or a token as a one-night stand in the bull market. Although this is indeed an effective way of investing in some special cases, it cannot be sustainable. Not to mention, mental exhaustion. The calm market makes us not so anxious to understand something.

Now is the time to finally sit down, read those long-dusted documents, and evaluate whether a project has great potential in the future. It is also time to observe the construction capabilities of existing teams in the market. The bear market may not be so friendly to builders and project owners. But those projects that can withstand uncertain market conditions and continue to build, their products are obviously worth investing in.

BeethovenX is the protocol I had my eye on for a few months, and in the end, it did not disappoint me.

Expand your skills

Slowing markets give people plenty of time to do other things instead of looking at meaningless price charts all day. If you can become a developer, or start learning to become one. In the future, crypto developers will be the most in-demand skills, and now is a good time to invest in yourself.

But everyone knows that not everyone has a talent for coding. The good news is that the crypto space needs more than just developers. Many things that seem unrelated to cryptocurrency, such as marketing and PR, community managers, legal compliance, accounting/taxation, data analysis, NFT artists, designers, and so on.

Crypto is more than just programming. Building a protocol or a project is like building a company. You need to have a variety of skills.

Some even asked me if I would write for their projects.

Who can’t benefit from a bear market?

Now let's talk about who is disadvantaged by the slowdown of the market. If you choose the wrong direction, you will inevitably waste time and energy in the bear market, not to mention not making a penny.

I tell you this because I think the following list is a collection of mistakes I have made in the past. And I vow not to make them again.

Wasting energy on farce

As the market tanks, you get the sense that people seem to be getting angrier as time goes on. In the past few weeks, there has been all kinds of drama, from scammers being exposed to annoying rap videos, and investors are even focusing their attention on unrelated things, such as war and riots.

As much as you may be tempted to offer your take on these questions, don’t get carried away. Drama not only wastes your time, but if it’s Twitter related, the algorithms will program your social feeds to inundate you with more drama and disorient you. The less truly informative crypto-related content you’ll see.

Participating in the macroeconomic drama

Macroeconomics is a fool's game. It's always true and false. Here's a piece of advice from one of the greatest asset managers of all time, Peter Lynch: Don't think like an economist. Those who are taught to strictly quantify everything tend to underperform in the market.

This makes sense, think about how many economists with PhDs are millionaires? Well-trained economists often lag behind in execution due to over-analysis. They know so much, but they seem to have trouble applying their knowledge to the real world.

Under the most optimistic assumptions, the best thing ordinary people can do about macroeconomics is to simply ignore it and not pay the IQ tax. If you are bullish on a certain cryptocurrency, what does it matter? Macro events are still short-term events in the final analysis. And believe me, the crypto torrent will continue for centuries.

Don't waste your opportunity doing something that doesn't improve your knowledge of the crypto space. There are also some activities that I consider to be a waste of time, such as trying to short and swing trade. Most people like to play with this garbage, but you can use this time to learn.

Take advantage of this time and enjoy the calm market.