CIG Labs: When the Giant Bear Arrives, How to Survive the Industry Winter?
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CIG Labs: When the Giant Bear Arrives, How to Survive the Industry Winter?
Market-wide sell-off, risk assets hit across the board—what's next for crypto?
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insights
Editor: Diane
Proofreader: Arain
Produced by CIG Labs
Market correction is underway—no corner of the risk market has been spared. What’s next for crypto?
CIG Labs invited Wu Ji, Chief Economic Scholar at Infinite Map; Frank Ling, CEO of CCTIP Wallet; Stephy, Partner at Cryptopoker Ventures; Lucio, Co-Founder of Micrometa; and Wendy.eth, early contributor to MpaceDAO, among others, to discuss how to weather the crypto winter and prepare for the coming spring.
CIG Labs is a laboratory launched by CIG DAO, providing community members with a space for creation and communication, and fostering mutual empowerment between contributors and the DAO through active participation.
Key highlights from the discussion:
No Nest Remains Intact: How Do We Interpret the Current Market Situation?
Wendy: When opportunities in secondary markets are scarce, focusing on primary markets allows you to enjoy the compounding effect of time.
Wu Ji: In a bear market, you can pick up assets that were overvalued during the bull run. When the next crypto cycle arrives, multiplying your returns by several or even dozens of times won't be an issue.
Lucio: I believe this bull market was driven by the rise of DeFi applications based on smart contracts, which significantly increased market demand. Going forward, as market hype cools and overall demand declines, prices will likely fluctuate downward until the next big capital-attracting application—similar to DeFi—emerges to lead the market.
How Should We View the NFT Market Crash?
Frank:
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NFTs created a liquidity shallows where all ETH holders ended up stranded. The shift from DeFi to NFTs is actually a sign of severe market illiquidity.
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Personally, I see the current NFT market as pure bubble—an "internet cult" of the new era. Its best aspect is offering cultural communities their own foothold, but it's still just a toy, not yet mature enough to be considered a financial product.
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When the music stops, you'd better have a chair; when liquidity dries up, pull your cash back into your pocket.
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Terra used fixed-income promises to lure users—it was fraud in essence.
Stephy:
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Investors willing to wait patiently for the next cycle will be richly rewarded.
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The collapse of UST accelerated the downturn, but paradoxically, this is good news for investment purists.
Lucio: Currently, NFTs are more speculative than functional. As the market cools down, their nature will gradually shift toward utility and real-world applications.
Wu Ji: The value of BAYC should be understood through the lens of brand equity and IP value.
Which Sector Is Most Likely to Rise First During This Bear Market?
Wu Ji: I’m more bullish on social. Native on-chain social products haven’t yet found a path to solving real user needs. I expect to see a completely new, disruptive social product emerge within the next two to three years.
Frank Ling: The next project to break into the mainstream must address genuine needs and generate real revenue to survive. However, this bear market may last longer than those in recent years. With Democrats having played all their cards, the market is likely to turn conservative over the next seven to eight years.
Beagle DAO: This bear market is different from previous ones—the ecosystem is far more diversified compared to 2017. Capital will flow first into emerging sectors or critical infrastructure. I’m particularly optimistic about the Social sector, including social graphs, tools, and content.
Lucio: From an application-centric perspective, a new technological breakthrough will inevitably spark a wave of innovative applications—just as smart contracts enabled DeFi. That said, crypto still lacks a unified interface for aggregating resources and accessing knowledge, such as a dedicated search engine.
Stephy: Technological innovation will always be the driving force of the era.
How to Survive the Industry Winter?
Wu Ji: Explosive events aren't usually the most dangerous—what's scarier is losing hope.
During this winter, builders should actively participate in development, while retail investors should act as calm hunters, avoiding impatience and rash moves.
Consider joining investment-focused DAOs to gain access to higher-quality projects.
Lucio: For retail investors: save cash, avoid chasing unsustainable trends, and invest in high-conviction assets at favorable valuations. For project teams: focus on building and accumulating value.
Stephy: Maintain a long-term investment mindset and allocate assets wisely.
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