Is This Bear Market a Good Time for Founders and Creators to get Involved With Crypto?

If you’ve been thinking of bringing your project ideas to the cryptosphere, the barrier to entry might seem high, no matter the market conditions.

Also, the way crypto is trending downward right now might scare many people away. Centralized Finance (CeFi) and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) have caused huge losses.

The prices have crashed, many projects have gone bust, and uncertainty and doubt are at an all-time high: the fear and greed index, which calculates market sentiment, is at a very low 22, indicating great fear in the crypto market.

Best wait for better times to enter such a volatile environment, right?

You couldn’t be more wrong, chief.

Investing in crypto is less about thriving in a bull market and more about entering a bear market.

Things move slower, you have more time to test your project and make sure everything is in shape for the next bull market.

This isn’t to say things will be smooth sailing: the global crypto market cap is down by almost 60%, crashing from $3 trillion to $1 trillion, with Bitcoin seeing an almost identical crash since its all-time high in November 2022.

Feeling lost and you don’t know whether blockchain is ideal for your project?

You are definitely not alone.

Most people starting in the field don’t know exactly where to begin and who to trust:

There must be a reason why 92% of blockchain projects launched before 2018 have gone bust. 

But fear not!

1) Surround yourself with a solid team of mentors and advisors:

This has a double advantage, one for you and one for your ideal clients.

Advantage one: by having mentors and advisors help counsel you every step of the way and providing incubator services, you will grasp the essentials of the cryptospace quicker and turn them to your advantage:

Forbes has recently shown how 87% of incubated startups continue to survive after five years—twice the success rate of startups that develop completely on their own.

Moreover, 84% of incubated companies share the incubator’s community, creating a vast but well-knit network of entrepreneurs, advisors, developers, and investors.

Advantage two: People will believe in your project more if those advising you have a good track record and have already backed other winning horses. 

Remember that the caliber of the advisors is a sign of quality of the team members.

2) Learn fundamentals and focus on the long term

The time to get in is now.

That is if you know how to behave in a bear market.

Crypto bear markets give everyone a rare opportunity to accumulate low-cost assets but also, more importantly, to position yourself to outperform the competition.

Examples?

Sam Bankman-Fried created FTX, one of the largest crypto exchange platforms, in a full bear market in 2019. It was valued at around $32 Billion in January 2022.

Opensea was founded by Alex Atallah and Devin Finzer in 2017 when they noticed the potential of the OG NFT collection Cryptokitties. 

Despite its ups and downs through bear markets, it is today valued at $13.3 Billion.

Even games such as one of the OG play-to-earn projects, Axie Infinity, were built in a bear market and soared in the following bull run.

What do all of these projects have in common?

Their founders had learned the space’s fundamentals and focused on a long-term plan, with no quick cash grabs involved. 

These projects had a utility and benefited the crypto community unprecedentedly, and they thrived because of this.

Other projects, built in 2021 and piggybacking on the bull market’s positive sentiments, failed to leave a mark once the euphoria had left.

Let’s take NFT collections as an example: after the incredible success of the CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club collections, a plethora of lookalike NFTs came out.

Projects like Mekaverse, Meebits, Cool Cats and Solana’s Famous Fox Federation dropped massively in value because they failed to provide utility and an enticing roadmap.

That’s how strong a long-term vision is within a project.

You could try to half-ass it, but good luck, boss, it’s not going to happen.

3) Use the bear market to get to know your community and target audience.

How well do you know the people who will enjoy and back your project?

FTX and Opensea, for example, used this slower period within the cryptosphere to focus on the needs and requests of the community, growing together day by day.

Communities are so important for crypto projects; their importance can’t be overestimated.

Back in 2017, in the midst of the ICO rush, communities were what made or broke a project, and nowadays, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), work closely with projects to make sure they will survive the bear market and thrive in the future.

DAOs are what made Uniswap (UNI), AAVE (AAVE), ApeCoin (APE) and SushiSwap (SUSHI) thrive in this 2022 bear market.

As Alan Chiu, head of Boba Network, has said before:

“There are lots of reasons that crypto projects fail, but at the end of the day, I think one of the most important parts of a successful project is building a strong community”. 

The concept is quite simple:

Often projects fail not because their tech isn’t up to snuff but because they haven’t created a community that cares about their mission.

Don’t be one of these projects, please.

A bull or bear market will not make or break your project.

Your advisor team, your fundamentals and long-term vision, and your community will help you thrive in this amazing space.

If you are interested in taking your first step, visit Gamestarter.

You will find a wealth of information on how to get your project off the ground!