2025-12-28 10:22:52

Looking at the evolution of Bitcoin's bull markets over these cycles, there's actually an interesting pattern:

First, geeks play — they study cryptographic principles. Then programmers join — they start demonstrating technical feasibility. Retail investors flood in — all talking about getting rich quickly. Finally, mainstream finance enters — focusing on compliance and security.

Behind each rally, essentially, is the gradual diffusion of awareness, with new groups joining and pushing demand higher. And each time, new narratives, concepts, and beliefs inevitably emerge — these act like "cognitive tools," giving people from different classes a reason to participate.

But after 2024, the situation is indeed changing. Institutional-level ETF products are directly entering the market, breaking the previous step-by-step pattern of absorbing demand. Now, there's no need to start with geeks; institutions can participate directly, and issues of liquidity and compliance are quickly addressed.

What does this mean? It means that future bull markets may no longer be driven by "cognitive diffusion," but rather by more direct capital inflows. The entire game is being rewritten.

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HalfPositionRunner

· 8h ago

To be honest, the entry of ETFs has indeed changed the game.

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LiquidityNinja

· 8h ago

Oh no, the gameplay has really changed this time. Institutions jumping in directly saved a lot of trouble... --- Geek → Programmer → Retail Investor → Finance, this sequence is now skipped altogether, which is a bit of a pity. --- So in the future, it will all come down to capital volume, and everything about cognition will be sidelined. --- Looking at this logic after 2024, it seems the old "storytelling" approach is really outdated. --- Wait, doesn't this mean that big funds can play more smoothly, and retail investors will have no chance? --- Once compliance is sorted out, the potential for imagination is really huge, but will we still be able to catch up then... --- Capital-driven vs. cognition diffusion, it looks simple, but in reality, the difference is quite significant for small retail investors. --- Once institutional ETFs appear, the entire ecosystem is reshaped, and this speed is a bit fast. --- Honestly, those entering now might really find it hard to come up with the "get rich quick" narrative anymore. --- I agree with rewriting the rules, but who to rewrite them for is not necessarily clear...

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SatoshiLeftOnRead

· 8h ago

Wow, this analysis is amazing, hitting the key points directly... The institutions are really changing the game rules now.

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CascadingDipBuyer

· 8h ago

Direct capital-driven... That's pretty bold too. What are retail investors even fighting for?

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BlockchainFoodie

· 8h ago

honestly this is just institutional money skipping the entire farm-to-fork journey... like they're bypassing the whole supply chain verification process we needed. where's the proof-of-freshness when whales just parachute in via etf? kinda defeats the decentralized dining dream ngl

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AllInAlice

· 8h ago

Once institutions entered the market, the game changed, and we can never go back to the era of slow community expansion.

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