This is a letter to founders staring at their screen right now, wondering if it's over.
I've been that founder. Second time now.
I'm writing this in February 2026. ETH at $1,900. Fear & Greed at 9. Weeks of red, liquidation records. Full capitulation.
The Quiet Part Out Loud
The problem we face as founders is that it is hard. One of the hardest things you'll ever do in your life. Soul searching work. And there's lots of times where fear will prevent you from taking your next step. No one is going to do it for you. You have to do it for yourself.
The bear market only makes it worse. Engagement will dissapear. DMs left on read. AI is the new shiny thing. You start to wonder if anyone will ever care about what you're been making.
You check the charts before you check your code. You tell yourself you're waiting for the right moment to launch. But really, you're waiting for permission that will never come.
The cruel irony is that once you're successful, you'll get offers you only dreamed of when you were struggling. And when it eventually fades, those doors close again.
The Pattern
Every legendary project in this space was born in the bear.
Satoshi shipped while the world was on fire. The headline etched forever "Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks."
Vitalik built Ethereum during the Mt. Gox collapse. 850,000 BTC vanished. Most people thought crypto was dead. He launched at $0.70.
Hayden Adams got laid off in 2018. No crypto experience. Built Uniswap anyway, in Vyper. A protocol that would later process trillions.
OpenSea launched 2018 when NFTs were a joke. 4,000 users after two years. Two years of building for almost no one. Ended up printing. Didn't even have to do an airdrop.
Compound spent 2018 to 2020 quietly iterating, then COMP farming catalysed DeFi Summer. Billions in new capital created in months, and a Cambrian explosion for incentive engineering, fair launches and vampire attacks.
Airbnb, Uber, Slack, Square, WhatsApp, Instagram. All born 2008-2010, in the ashes of the global financial crisis.
12-24 months of pain, then all-time highs. Every single time.
The founders who built through the bear make it. Take notes on who shows up in the coming months. Take bets on them.
Fear is the Filter
Right now there's a whole cycle of deleveraging from ETFs and VCs who are cashing out. $169 billion in negative net cash flows. Not because they want to sell, but their liquidity providers don't share the same vision we have for the future of crypto. When they see number goes down, they sell.
Good. Let them.
The mercenaries will cash out their chips. Whats left are builders, believers and crypto-anarchists.
Stani Kulechov said the bear market was one of the best things that happened to ETHLend. The pressure forced them to rethink everything and evolve into AAVE.
Every crisis clears the way for those stubborn enough to stay.
The Call to Create
Vitalik wrote something important last week. The original vision of L2s no longer makes sense. We need a new path. He called out "copypasta chains" and warned the ecosystem risks stagnation if we keep prioritizing convenience over innovation.
He's talking about all of us.
While the post was incredibly bullish for Ethereum, what people replying fail to appreciate, is that crypto doesn't go up because of some institution making a purchase or Michael Saylor raising another round, or talks about US or EU legislation or laws that magically solve all our problem. The same way that banning crypto makes it go away, if anything its reflexive.
Crypto goes up because a new product or something novel was created. Attention and capital formed behind that idea. That new idea adds value to the global market.
DeFi summer left us with billion in TVL and protocols that still exist today. Conviction used to be alpha. Instead, slowly but surely, hyper gambling and cheap dopamine lead to billions to be re-extracted, sucking the soul of crypto with it.
Its my prediction that DeFi Summer 2.0 will come from solo entrepreneurs who create something that matters. Those who find problems they actually care about. Who solve their own problems and maybe solve the problems of many.
If you're looking at the market right now thinking maybe there's something you can do in AI. How do I connect my clawdbot to my telegram. Stop.
Everything you've learnt about crypto, about options or lending, about community building, smart contracts, DeFi, product design, token incentives. That knowledge didn't disappear because the price dropped.
You are closer than you think.
Your People Are Already Here
Your diamond hands are out there right now. They're watching. They're waiting for you to take the leap so they can leap with you.
Understand that during the bear market, it is the people who support you now who will be the ones who help you make it.
Not the people who, when everything's going up, want in your round. Where are they now? They're also the ones now with paper hands.
Diamond hands don't care about perfect timing. They don't care about market conditions. They care about what you're building and whether you're going to see it through to market.
FOMO will come later, when you start to get PMF, when everyone already knows your name. But they will never be your people. Your people are the ones who showed up in the dark.
Don't be afraid to create digital assets. Be sure to reward your early supporters when the bull returns. This an infinite game, and it really is all about the friends you meet along the way.
The Infinite Game
In Simon Sinek's book "The Infinite Game", he lays out five practices for playing a game with no finish line. We can't choose the game. We can't choose the rules. We can only choose how we play.
1. Advance a Just Cause. A compelling goal for a future that doesn't exist yet. "Make money" isn't a cause. "Make a token that doesn't pump and dump" is.
2. Build Trusting Teams. People who feel safe around each other. Safe to ask for help. Safe to admit they don't know. If no one can tell you it's broken, you're already dead.
3. Study Worthy Rivals. Not competitors to beat. Instead find rivals who are better than you at something. They'll reveal where you need to improve.
4. Existential Flexibility. The willingness to shift your mental model if staying true to your cause demands it. ETHLend became AAVE. Sometimes the reframe unlocks the next step.
5. Courage to Lead. Maintaining the infinite mindset when it's hard. When the market dumps. When your runway shrinks. Keep the courage to build anyway.
The only true competitor you have is yourself. Ask yourself, what can I do better, what would move the needle today.
The Leap of Faith
Hard times dont last, but hard people do.
The market will not give you permission. You have to want it. Mental strength becomes everything when going the distance. You cannot time courage. You must act first. Courage comes after.
Some of you will help shape the future of our industry. One of you reading will be known one day as a one of the worlds great founders.
But it all starts with a leap of faith.
Build slow, Dream big. Share your thinking. Let the people who want to support you have ownership in your future because you never know who will be the diamond hands in your story.
The leap of faith is not one big jump. It's the next step. Then the one after that.
Take it.