Crypto bull runs are thrilling. Tokens shoot up in value, communities grow overnight, and funding pours in with little resistance. But the end of a bull cycle often marks the beginning of hard decisions. When the hype fades, and the market cools, crypto project owners are left with one question: what now?
1. Reassessing Product-Market Fit
During bull runs, even half-baked ideas can gain traction. Reality sets in afterward. Founders often use the bear cycle to reassess whether their project genuinely solves a problem. They study user retention, on-chain metrics, and community engagement to understand what worked and what didn’t.
The bull run is a time of reckoning for projects built on hype or short-term incentives. Those that lack substance either pivot or quietly fade away. Others refine their core offering and align it more closely with long-term utility and sustainable demand.
For instance, Iron Finance, a DeFi protocol on the Polygon blockchain, experienced a dramatic collapse in June 2021 when its TITAN token plummeted to zero due to a bank run. This led to approximately $2 billion in losses. The event underscored the importance of sustainable tokenomics and risk management.
2. Cutting Costs and Streamlining Operations
The post-bull period forces many teams to shift from aggressive expansion to operational efficiency. Overhiring, inflated marketing budgets, and multiple partnerships made during the bull run are often scaled back. Founders begin prioritizing essentials like engineering, protocol stability, and developer support. Teams reduce overhead, extend runway, and focus on delivering value without depending on token price movements or continuous fundraising.
Terraform Labs, the company behind the Terra blockchain, faced a catastrophic collapse in May 2022 when its algorithmic stablecoin, UST, lost its peg. This event wiped out nearly $45 billion in market capitalization. In response, the company halted the blockchain and later restructured, launching Terra 2.0 to regain community trust.
3. Engaging Core Communities
When casual speculators disappear, what’s left is the real community. Project leaders shift their communication strategy away from announcements and hype, and move toward education, governance participation, and transparency. In this quieter phase, founders invest more time into cultivating dedicated users, DAO voters, developers, and long-term supporters. The focus moves from growth at all costs to community resilience and trust.
Ethereum’s co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, has consistently emphasized the importance of community involvement. Post-bull run, Ethereum focused on long-term upgrades like transitioning to Ethereum 2.0 to improve scalability and sustainability, thereby maintaining developer and user engagement.
4. Exploring Strategic Partnerships and M&A
The slowdown is also a time when founders explore mergers, integrations, and strategic partnerships. As competition thins out, collaboration becomes more appealing. Some join forces with other projects to combine tech or user bases.
Others begin looking for acquisition opportunities or prepare to be acquired. It’s increasingly common for founders to list their crypto business for sale, especially if the project is no longer aligned with their long-term vision or requires resources they no longer have. Selling the business can unlock liquidity and allow a more focused player to take the reins.
5. Focusing on Long-Term Infrastructure
Rather than launching new tokens or aggressive campaigns, many project owners turn inward to refine infrastructure. This includes improving smart contract security, optimizing transaction throughput, or moving toward cross-chain compatibility.
They may also invest in compliance tools, audits, and decentralized governance upgrades to future-proof the protocol for the next wave of users. Like how Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, expanded their services and improved measures to cater to a broader user base following the bull run in 2021.
6. Preparing for the Next Cycle
Experienced crypto founders understand that market cycles are part of the game. The bear market is when strong teams build quietly and prepare their narratives, products, and go-to-market strategies for the next bull run. The preparation involves testing new features, refining tokenomics, launching MVPs, and re-engaging past investors. Timing is everything, and project owners who plan during the downcycle often re-emerge stronger when the market turns.
Founders Fund, led by Peter Thiel, invested $200 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum between late summer and early fall of 2023, capitalizing on lower prices. By February 2024, Bitcoin’s price had surged by 64%, and Ethereum by 36%, showcasing the benefits of strategic investments during market lulls.
Conclusion
After the bull run, crypto project owners face sustainability challenges. While the hype may have faded, the decisions made during this quieter phase often define a project’s true potential.
Some founders double down and build. Others restructure, merge, or even sell their crypto project to move on. Regardless of the path taken, what matters is clarity of purpose and a willingness to adapt. In the crypto space, survival isn’t just about raising money during the highs, it’s about executing intelligently during the lows.
