StarkWare CEO: The nature of the crypto bear market cycle has changed, from a "fraud winter" to a "traditional financial bear embrace".

Eli Ben-Sasson, former co-founder of Zcash and current CEO of StarkWare, wrote an article on the X platform reflecting on the crypto cycle. He pointed out that compared to the previous "crypto winter" triggered by events such as the Terra crash, Three Arrows Capital, and FTX, which was rife with fraud and excessive speculation, the current bear market cycle exhibits distinctly different characteristics. This environment is more like a "TradFi Bear Hug." With increasingly lenient regulations and the accelerated entry of mainstream financial institutions, the crypto industry was once seen as a new financial infrastructure, but at the same time, it also squeezed out the original spirit of "economic freedom and innovative experimentation" to some extent. Although the crypto industry is currently in a phase of limited short-term innovation and a lack of leadership, in the long run, freedom and innovation will return and drive the next round of development.