They always say: this time is different. And every cycle, we hear the same skepticism.

But look at what's actually changed in crypto markets right now. The infrastructure that didn't exist before is here—institutions holding Bitcoin seriously, regulatory clarity emerging in key jurisdictions, layer-2 solutions scaling Ethereum to millions of transactions. These aren't marketing claims; they're operational realities.

Yes, cycles still repeat. Hype still peaks, corrections still happen. That's the rhythm of any emerging market.

What's genuinely different: the foundation underneath is solid in ways it wasn't in 2017 or 2021. Real use cases beyond speculation are growing—DeFi continues innovating despite setbacks, staking and on-chain participation keeps expanding.

So when people brush off "this time is different" as naive optimism, they might be missing something: it's not that markets won't cycle. It's that each cycle is building on something more substantial than before.

That actually matters.