The fate of retail investors is often not about IQ, but about mindset.

The cyclical plot of this market repeats every day: a certain promising coin targets $10, but after three days of sideways movement, everyone's enthusiasm cools down to $2. No bad news, no negative catalysts—just because of "stagnation," confidence is worn away. Compared to the short-term pain of a sharp decline, the agony of sideways trading is even more likely to cause a breakdown—that's a kind of endless torment.

An interesting contradiction arises: when the price drops from 100U to 1U, people hesitate to buy; when it slides further to 0.6U, they start to dislike it. On the surface, it's fear of losing money; in essence, it's fear of "not being able to hold."

Holding firm during a decline isn't called diamond hands; at most, it means not having had the chance to escape. The true winners are those who can keep their composure during an uptrend. When they see profits on paper, they panic; when it triples, they want to cash out. The more they earn, the more虚虚虚—most retail investors are not afraid of losing money but of making money.

The main players are well aware of this. They spend years repeatedly shaping retail investors' beliefs, gradually lowering expectations from hundreds of dollars to just a couple of dollars, until everyone only dares to live for small immediate gains. That’s the best moment to manipulate the market and harvest.

The bull market in crypto has never been driven solely by rising prices; it’s created by falling, sideways movement, and slowly enduring. Many people's mistakes are not before the sharp decline or before the surge, but at the moment they finally see an opportunity but dare not act. The cruelest thing in the market is not falling to a point where no one dares to buy, but rising to a point where no one dares to hold.

Those who can survive long-term in this market are not the smartest, but those who truly understand cycles and can endure the torment.