The market will enter a major cycle of 'lowering expectations':

1) Project builders lower expectations, going from valuations in the hundreds of millions to financing of only $100,000 is no longer seen as too little. The mentality is to survive first; it's about staying alive.

2) VC investors lower expectations; the high valuation model driven by FOMO from leading VCs is no longer effective. VCs that survive will inevitably return to seek small but beautiful innovative tech teams or engaging Ponzi schemes. Small investments, multiple targets, and quick exits will become mainstream. What, gathering a group?? You must at least meet the threshold for gathering.

3) Holders lower expectations; previously focused on 'tech narrative + long-termism,' wanting to replicate past experiential successes (10-100x), retail investors must now strengthen their 'trader' skills. Given some basic research learning ability, they will have to increase trading frequency and abandon the illusion of 100x or 1000x returns; 3-5x is already extremely difficult (excluding pure PVP lottery logic). After all, the situation for this generation of holders is harsh, and everyone has learned their lessons deeply.

4) Airdrop hunters lower expectations; when everyone focuses on the attention spotlight, it actually narrows the potential reward space for airdrops. After all, in a context where studio industrialization has become extremely mature. Therefore, it's likely that 'quietly hunting' will become the norm, and the days of investing tens of thousands in airdrops will become history. The focus will be on being able to participate without heavy investment, privately enjoying opportunities without sharing with others.

5) Market narratives lower expectations; in the past, the Crypto market always chased the effect of 'narrative resonance,' from DeFi, NFT, GameFi, to Restaking, BTCFi, chain abstraction, and AI agents. Each narrative cycle aimed to recreate the glory of the past DeFi Summer, but the fact is, the evolution of narrative expectations has weakened. It's hard for the market to support a massive bubble based solely on a single tech narrative; perhaps a variety of micro-narratives will become the norm.

6) Chain infrastructure development lowers expectations; Crypto has always relied on continuously stacking infrastructure narratives to expand expectations, from high-performance layer 1 to Rollup layer 2, as well as various differentiated technological approaches to chain architecture. The fact is, the era of pure technology dominance has ended. The market will turn towards 'attention dominance.' Only technical solutions without community engagement and continuous capital flow will lose market relevance.

7) CEX wealth effect lowers expectations; for a long time, CEX has been the focal point of public opinion and topics due to controlling the majority of liquidity. The so-called 'CEX token listing effect' and 'DEX PVP free market' have become the AB sides of market attention chasing. However, overly relying on CEX to create wealth effects will inevitably weaken token listing effects. Ultimately, the wealth effect should be determined by the project's long-term building cycle and entry costs.