There's No Going Back

I learned this lesson during Covid. I still remember 2020 and 2021, when people kept saying Covid would only last a few months and then everything would go back to normal—back to life before Covid. But that never happened. Once something big breaks, we can't restore the old traditions or turn the clock back. We can only accept a new normal.

And I think that's true for investing too.

Before the Trump administration, and before Bitcoin got mass adoption from Wall Street, you could see more retail traders actually making money in crypto. But after Wall Street came in—and after we started seeing so much more insider trading—retail traders have been losing more and more. A lot of people still believe, "Maybe after a few years, things will go back to the old days. Crypto will become a paradise again for retail traders who are willing to take risks." But I'm telling everyone: that's not going to happen.

It's been long enough. The Trump administration has been here for over a year. Mass adoption and insider trading have also been around for over a year. People have adapted to the new normal, and once people adapt, that new normal becomes permanent.

There is no way to turn crypto back to 2017 or 2021. Back then, memecoins felt like a fairer game. Things could go up or down, but retail traders could still realistically make money. That environment is not coming back. The stock market is already corrupted, and now Bitcoin and crypto are being controlled too. The banks are not your friend, and crypto is not your friend either. With mass adoption, retail traders are getting squeezed harder and harder. There's no way to return to the old time.

So we can only live with the new normal. Maybe in the future it changes into something better, or maybe something worse. Money will always go somewhere. Retail traders will always go somewhere. Maybe we find another "Bitcoin"—another new opportunity, something unexpected. But one thing is certain: we are never going back to 2017 or 2021. What's done is done. There's no going back, and there's no guarantee retail traders can make money the way they used to.

People say "the market is always right." But when the market is always right, it means you are always the one who is wrong. No matter what the market does, you have to follow it. You have to keep up.

And I think that's what a lot of us feel in crypto and investing right now. Even though I'm still in my twenties, sometimes I feel like the world is changing so fast that it's hard to keep up. And if it's already hard for someone in their twenties, imagine how hard it is for someone who is 40 or 50. For people who are already retired, they don't have to chase. But for everyone still in the game, it's exhausting.

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