There is light at the end of the crypto tunnel. Stay, and you will be rewarded.

Back at the beginning of the previous bear market (2018), everyone wondered if it all had just ended with crypto and what to do next.

It was a decision point for most newcomers, including myself.

The options were to either exit crypto as many suggested or stay, educate ourselves on topics that mattered and keep exploring the Cryptoverse. I went with the second choice, and it paid off.

The market already contained more than five thousand cryptocurrencies in 2018, yet the chances of success for most of them were slim.

Research in the cryptocurrency field can be time-consuming and wasteful since many distractions exist with trivial concepts and projects without a clear direction.

Education is vital to survive in this field. It begins with the whitepaper.

Time To Study & Improve - There Is More To Come

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Research is doing wonders to reach a better ground in the field, but sometimes being too far ahead of others in understanding blockchain fundamentals and the weaknesses of some technologies could be a disadvantage.

If we examine and test any blockchain thoroughly, we will learn the issues it contains and maybe reach early in a position to recognize it will eventually disappoint its users. Sometimes we will know this earlier than the 99% that will massively invest in this cryptocurrency.

We will sell, falsely believing investors will also perform the same research as us. Which they don't, though.

The fact is that investors don't even test these networks before or after they invest.

The top funds that invest in any cryptocurrency just set up their mechanisms to advertise the project by paying the top crypto influencers for a lengthy promotion and occasionally publishing promoted content in mainstream news to create brand awareness.

These supportive mechanisms can't be canceled. It doesn't have to do with fundamentals either. Terra, Solana, Cardano, and Polkadot all achieved market caps that don't resemble growth or network effect but pure marketing. Price inflated by a thousand times higher than a fair valuation.

We don't know which funds invested where and how they plan to "pump" the price of crypto assets in the market. We try to guess, yet we will be buying the top with this approach, constantly.

Usually, these funds will pump new projects. "New" is gold for marketing. They love what is "new" since it serves them better with the pump and dump mechanisms. Thus we watched all these networks like Terra, Solana, and Avalanche pumped by VCs and reaching extraordinary valuations. It all happened in 2017 as well. We had these projects like XVG, Monacoin, and other random coins I don't remember the names anymore, that pumped to extreme valuations and lost their value as quickly as they gained it.

The 2018 Bear Market

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Back at the beginning of 2018, most newcomers exited crypto.

I clearly remember explaining that crypto will rise again, only to meet the opposition of narrow-minded individuals telling me that crypto was dead and calling me various derogatory names for deciding to stay.

For me, this wasn't going to end in 2018.

I wasn't going to quit as I did the mistake of not joining this field in 2013 or 2015. I knew a new boom cycle would begin. It is always a mistake to ignore financial innovation.

Some started gaming, and others with limited profits (like me) just stalled their plans for a while. Many went back to their daily jobs while others never left them, which is probably the best decision as profit evaporates as quickly as it comes when you speculate a market.

The crypto boom and bust cycles relapse, and for some is a time to sit back and relax without much effort but anticipating a come back.

As usual, most new investors in crypto bought the top and probably lost (fiat) money with their investment, yet those that stayed reaped the rewards four years later.

May 2021 was a decisive strike on the cryptocurrency market. It resembled 2018 in almost every term, but it happened too soon.

The abrupt end of the bull run happened sooner than expected, and during a particular moment, some cryptocurrencies were making solid moves.

The May '21 crash, with combined negative news from China and Elon Musk, happened at a time when cryptocurrencies besides BTC were rising. BTC's dominance was suffering, and its first place in market cap was under threat.

In the following months, while BTC reached a new ATH, it still failed to attract more engagement, and the retail didn't follow at all. $69,000 was the top for BTC, but other cryptocurrencies lost a lot of ground.

The bull run ended for BTC and the rest market in a shorter time than expected and now stands at 50% lower than the ATH.

Conclusion

There is a decent chance the market will react positively at some point soon, as we observe different signs from the previous "bear market".

No matter what happens, this is a perfect time for newcomers to start educating on cryptocurrency topics, and the first step to take is to read the whitepaper.

The whitepaper explains why Satoshi created Bitcoin and why P2P cash is necessary. It contains a few technical terms, but it doesn't need developer skills to recognize its significance.

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

This paper contains the foundations upon which the whole crypto industry evolved.

For many with technical expertise, research begins and ends there.

The whitepaper is not a Holy Bible but points to fundamentals many ignore lately.

Know that the rewards will be far better for those that stay and educate themselves than those that only treat crypto as a method to earn a side income.

The latter will not achieve a change but will always be trapped in a mindset offering no escape. Stay, educate yourself, and you will be rewarded.