## The Moment Swim Trunks Fall Off: The Truth Behind the Silence of 2021's Bull Market Chosen Ones
Remember those frantic days? When everyone believed they had found the shortcut to wealth.
2021 was the "Golden Age" of the crypto world—Bitcoin surged to $60,000, Ethereum repeatedly hit new highs, and any project labeled "Web3" seemed to easily raise hundreds of millions of dollars. Venture capital firms flocked in, afraid to miss the next hundredfold project. That year, crypto tech startups raised a total of $25.2 billion, a 713% increase from $3.1 billion in 2020. Everything looked upward, everything seemed promising.
But four years later, looking back at over 400 high-funding projects, reality has given us the harshest slap.
## The Collapse of Centralized Platforms: From "Normalization" to Trust Bankruptcy
The most dramatic disaster occurred in 2022.
FTX, once considered the biggest competitor to a certain exchange and which raised $1.32 billion, collapsed in November, with its founder sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud. At the same time, a domino chain reaction unfolded—Celsius Network, which raised $750 million, promised users an 18% annual yield, but its token CEL plummeted from $8 to $0.03, a 99.6% drop. Platforms like BlockFi, Voyager Digital, Babel Finance, which represented "institutionalized" finance, collectively raised over $500 million but fell one after another amid liquidity crises.
The death of these projects was not a technical issue but a fraud inherent in their business models. Investors realized that those numbers were just paper talk.
## The Illusion of NFTs and the Metaverse Dissipates: From Play-to-Earn to Ponzi Schemes
If platform collapses were human fraud, then the collective death of NFTs and the Metaverse was a nationwide wake-up call.
Axie Infinity was once the flagship of the "play-to-earn" concept, raising $159.5 million. Its token AXS once soared to $164.9, and in-game pet NFTs were even speculated to reach hundreds of thousands of dollars each. In countries like the Philippines, tens of thousands of people quit their jobs to become full-time "gold farmers," viewing Axie as a chance to change their fate. But when the game’s economic model collapsed, AXS plummeted to $2.00, a drop of over 99%, and players who invested their life savings realized—this was just a Ponzi scheme that needed new victims to keep going.
The Sandbox, a leading project in the Metaverse, raised $93 million, and virtual land NFTs were hotly contested in 2021, with SAND tokens reaching $8.4. Three years later, the space has become a ghost town; only the official Twitter still updates alone, and the comment section is deserted. SAND has fallen to $0.14. NFT platforms focused on music and art have also fallen silent, becoming true zombie projects.
## Who Are the Real Winners? Harsh Math Tells Us the Truth
67 high-funding projects have died, gone to zero, or halted, with total funding exceeding $5 billion. This number itself tells a story—the vast majority of projects are products of cycles, collective illusions during market euphoria.
Only about 5% of projects can create lasting value, and this 5% is usually only identified at the lowest point of the bear market. Most projects are like participating in a marathon wearing swim trunks—in the rising tide, everyone looks like a swimming expert, but when the tide recedes, the truly capable projects and lucky ones become obvious.
## The New Cycle in 2025: History Repeats Itself
A new cycle is beginning, and new stories are unfolding. Maybe some projects invested in today will become the hundredfold opportunities of tomorrow, or maybe most investments will follow yesterday’s path again. But one thing is certain—the next time the tide recedes, how many projects today will be exposed like swim trunks?
The wheel of history keeps turning, each cycle telling the same story, just with new characters. Those who truly understand the market’s essence will stay rational when others are greedy, and seek opportunities when others are fearful. Most people, however, will repeat the same mistakes in the next bull market.