DeFi analyst Ignas confesses to falling into the trap of being a "leek" and predicts two major bull market catalysts for 2025

Famous analyst Ignas shared the story of how he entered the cryptocurrency market, initially making and losing a fortune due to Bitcoin FOMO news, eventually becoming a well-known KOL through learning. He also mentioned his optimism for two new narratives that will emerge in the next bull market.

Original Article

Crypto Legend: Do You Need to Experience Three Bull and Bear Cycles to Get Rich?

Ignas mentioned a saying circulating in the crypto field that one needs to go through three bull and bear cycles to truly make a significant profit:

1. Learn after a huge loss in the first cycle

2. Make modest gains in the second cycle

3. Earn generational wealth in the third cycle

Having survived two bear markets, Ignas claims that the third bull market will arrive soon, and he is ready for it.

Ignas' First Bull and Bear Cycle

Doubling Investment with Bitcoin Entry

He recalled entering the crypto market in 2017:

At that time, an article by BBC highlighted Bitcoin hitting historical highs, and I felt the fear of missing out (FOMO) for the first time.

He bought Bitcoin and quickly doubled his investment. The joy he felt turned into confidence rapidly, and he started aiming for coins with higher returns.

Switching to Competing Coins: Intensified FOMO

He found the Gate.io exchange and began "studying" project whitepapers. All projects seemed revolutionary, intensifying his FOMO feelings.

He kept investing but as he accumulated more coins, he stopped researching. His investment pattern became: buy, pray.

In the end, Ignas lost most of his funds, and the projects turned out to be nothing more than websites and whitepapers.

Second Cycle: Seizing the "WTF" Moment

Hard Work and Learning

The initial failure in the crypto world made Ignas more curious, trying to find out the reasons for his investment failures.

He wrote blogs, studied hard, followed the news, which led him to his first job in a Korean exchange for about four years, where he learned about market-making operations and analyzed over a hundred coins.

He also mentioned similarities in bear markets:

• ICOs akin to current Western regulatory crackdowns

• Constant news of cryptocurrencies being "dead" or "scams"

• Waiting for institutional adoption: akin to current Bitcoin spot ETFs

• Cryptocurrency gains and losses offset each other, total market value not increasing

DeFi and Liquidity Mining Astonish Ignas

The algorithmic stablecoin Ampleforth AMPL completely overturned Ignas' understanding of token economics. It was a groundbreaking project that excited him and made him money.

The emergence of DeFi and liquidity mining further amazed him.

He participated in Yearn, SushiSwap, and many so-called Pool2 liquidity mining projects. The subsequent crashes taught him the importance of exiting in time.

The Real Reason for Bull Markets: Crypto Markets Print Money Better Than Central Banks

Previous market analyses often discussed how new funds enter the crypto market, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and eventually flow into low-market-cap competing coins, mainly describing the flow of funds during the surge of competing coins and bull markets.

While the above image analyzes the phenomenon of competing coins surging, Ignas believes that in a new bull market, it starts from existing capital and high leverage, not external funds, with another crucial reason.

Although the crypto field loves to criticize "central bank money printing," Ignas points out that the best at printing money are actually the crypto industry, and the act of printing money makes each bull market cycle easier.

He listed many examples of money printing:

1. BCH, BTG, Bitcoin SV, and other Bitcoin fork coins

2. ETH's ERC 20 tokens make issuing new coins easier

3. Airdrops and liquidity mining in DeFi

4. NFTs

For him, the reasons for the end of all bull markets are mostly the same: the printing behavior in the market begins to exceed the influx of new funds, leading to a collapse.

What Is the New Narrative for the Next Crypto Bull Market?

Repledging Protocols: Second Pledging

Ignas emphasizes EigenLayer is at the forefront of the repledging field, allowing ETH pledgers to repledge across multiple protocol networks, which can further maintain the security of different protocols but also comes with more risks. Participants can earn higher returns through this.

Ignas once again sarcastically comments on money printing behavior but also clearly states that such projects have the most potential for growth:

You guessed it, this "higher return" refers to you getting a promise that will greatly change the world, a new garbage coin. Many Ponzi-style token economies will continue to emerge, becoming more creative in preventing sell-offs. Our focus is on finding tokens that can generate a flywheel effect.

He also mentioned another repledging protocol Stader Labs.

Bitcoin DeFi: Stacks

Ignas stated that there isn't much discussion about Bitcoin DeFi narratives, although he is optimistic about Ordinal and Inscriptions, they currently lack a Ponzi token economy to sustain the issuance and inflation of new tokens.

However, he believes things will change.

He mentioned being very bullish on Stacks, a second-layer solution for Bitcoin. Stacks can deploy DeFi applications on-chain and settle at the Bitcoin base layer. Unlike centralized Bitcoin wrapping mechanisms like WBTC, Stacks is preparing to launch its own sBTC, further driving composability between Bitcoin and DeFi applications on Stacks.

When Will the Next Crypto Bull Market Arrive?

Ignas believes that the two new narratives he mentioned have the necessary capabilities in money printing and suppressing inflation to promote and sustain the bull market cycle.

But he also warns that new narratives will eventually lead to bubbles. When a large number of new coins are minted, and the demand and attention from buyers cannot keep up, one must exit in time.

As for when the bull market will arrive, Ignas referenced the common crypto halving cycle, expecting Bitcoin to reach its previous high of $69,000 by Q4 2024 and achieve a new all-time high by Q4 2025, ushering in a crazy bull market.