Investment firm Fisher8 Capital recently released its annual review, bluntly stating that the past year has been a tough one for most crypto funds. Liquidity has been poor, the overall performance of crypto assets has been overshadowed by traditional markets, and the once "bullish market" has long become history. We are now entering an era of extreme polarization.

The Fisher8 team did not shy away and continued to focus on long-term tracks like AI and DePIN. Despite experiencing many fluctuations, they still achieved a positive return of 16.7% by the end of the year. However, they also admitted that this experience is actually not better than simply investing money in the childcare industry—enough to illustrate how awkward the crypto market is.

Where is the problem? Returning to the end of 2024, the entire market was betting that Trump’s rise to power would bring a crypto-friendly regulatory environment. Expectations around loosening stablecoin policies, Bitcoin strategic reserves, and other speculative ideas were wildly hyped, even related crypto projects of Trump himself surged to cut a piece of the pie. For a time, crypto assets became the most volatile bombs in Trump’s trading.

But reality is often harsh. After the election, these expectations did not materialize quickly. Policy progress was slow, there were no breakthroughs legally, and the market began to de-risk. Trump-related assets and the entire crypto sector declined together. This exposed a problem: the prices of some crypto assets are actually supported by politically driven stories. Once the story can no longer be sustained, the bubble bursts.

Fisher8 pointed out that the executive order signed in August 2025 mentioned expanding the allocation space for alternative assets (including crypto assets) in retirement accounts. This is considered a positive development, but it has already been priced in by the market and did not trigger a reversal.