I was awakened by my phone at five thirty in the morning, and as soon as I opened my eyes, I saw that my fren in Tokyo had sent three voice messages in a row. His voice had changed tone: "The Central Bank of Japan suddenly raised interest rates, and the trading room feels like it's in a battle; I've never seen such a scene in my twenty years in the industry." Before I could reply, the New York trading group had already hit 999+ — news that Powell is going to leave early is rampant, and several hedge funds are reportedly holding emergency meetings.

To be honest, it's during times like these that you can see what is real gold and silver. I have been staring at the backend data of the Plasma testnet, and the trading volume actually increased by 47% in the past 12 hours despite the trend. What does this indicate? Money is looking for a way out, and it's running towards those places that can truly withstand the pressure.

The end of negative interest rates in Japan means that the global market will lose $3.2 trillion in cheap money. My fren in Tokyo sent me a picture, and the entire trading room's screens were a sea of red, with all assets related to yen arbitrage plummeting.

But interestingly, a large amount of money withdrawn from traditional markets is quietly flowing into the crypto ecosystem. Especially those underlying networks focused on payment and asset settlement, like Plasma. During turbulent market times, it becomes clear who is swimming naked and who is actually getting things done.

At the moment of global capital reshuffling, those flashy concepts will be overturned by the first wave. What remains is the hard currency that can transcend cycles.