There is no point in comparing Speculation/Ponzi Games with AA/AAA Web3 Games - "They're not even in the same room" says @Phin_totten
Both can exist and both can be positive for the industry.

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In the crypto world, what truly determines victory is never code, but the interplay between liquidity, power, and regulation. The rise and fall of BUSD is not merely a tragic tale of a stablecoin, but a financial war waged by exchanges attempting to "unify the world."

When BUSD was thrust onto the historical stage, it carried not only a compliance narrative, but also Binance's ambition to reshape the stablecoin order through coercive measures—by manipulating exchange rates and merging trading pairs, directly swallowing competitors' liquidity into its own ledger.

The "automatic conversion" of 2022 was a textbook example of a blitzkrieg; and 2023...

The Rise and Fall of Binance's Dominance: From BUSD's "Unification" to $U's "Conquering the World"—The Stablecoin Wars

Source: Galaxy Research; Translation: Jinse Finance xz
Bitcoin's closing price in 2025 is expected to be roughly the same as the level at the beginning of the year.
The cryptocurrency market experienced a genuine bullish wave in the first ten months of this year. Regulatory reforms continued to advance, ETFs continued to attract funds, and on-chain activity became increasingly active. Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $126,080 on October 6th.
However, the market failed to deliver the expected breakthrough after the initial frenzy; instead, it experienced rotation, repricing, and rebalancing. This was driven by factors such as unmet macroeconomic expectations, a shift in investment narratives, leveraged margin calls, and massive...

Galaxy: 26 Predictions for the Crypto Market in 2026

In the final months of 2025, a bearish atmosphere began to spread.

Bitcoin plummeted from its high of $120,000, ETF inflows ceased, various cryptocurrencies diverged in performance, and Memecoin, which had once ignited market sentiment, became largely ignored. Compared to the end of 2021, there were no sudden regulatory crackdowns this time, and apart from the massive crash of October 11th, there didn't seem to be a serious liquidity crisis, yet something still felt off.

If the crypto world in 2025 was a recalibration of true and false value, will 2026 be better for crypto?

This article...