"Trapped in the cryptocurrency world: Don't let the anxiety of missing out force you onto the most dangerous last train."

Author: David｜Shenchao TechFlow

There is a kind of poverty where you haven't done anything wrong; but when you wake up, you find that you are poorer than everyone around you.

The Koreans have coined a term for this kind of poverty, called 벼락거지. Literally translated, it means "thunderstruck poor person." Struck by a bolt of lightning from the sky, instantly turning from an ordinary person into a poor person.

This term became popular during the surge in South Korean housing prices in 2020, referring to those who did not buy homes, whose income did not decrease, but compared to the skyrocketing housing prices, they became poor for no reason.

Recently, it has become popular again. Because the South Korean stock market is currently producing a large number of thunderstruck poor people.

In the past six months, the KOSPI index in South Korea has surged from around 4000 points to over 8000 points, and today the South Korean stock market also saw a surge that triggered a circuit breaker. Stocks like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which are AI memory chip stocks, have lifted the entire country's stock market to new heights.

As a result, Seoul's online forums are filled with self-deprecating comments: the person sitting across from me at the same company has earned ten years' worth of salary from semiconductors, while I did nothing and became a thunderstruck poor person.

The most painful part of this is actually for those in the crypto space.

The feeling of "everyone is rising, but I'm standing still" is more deeply felt, earlier, and less willing to be acknowledged by those holding onto their coins. The best asset, BTC, which was repeatedly mentioned a few years ago, has been struggling since the significant drop last October.

Now, if you are still waiting in the crypto space for opportunities, it feels more like a consolation for those who are not good at stock trading, adding more suffering for the thunderstruck poor.

Structural Missed Opportunities, Thunderstruck Poor

The phenomenon of missing out can actually be divided into two types, with vastly different levels of discomfort.

The first type is a collective missed opportunity during a bear market. Everyone loses; your account is in the red, your friends' accounts are even more in the red, and no one in the entire market is making money. This type of missed opportunity is not too painful because there is no point of reference.

You didn't get on the bus, and missing out feels like dodging a bullet. This is how everyone in the crypto space has endured the bear market over the past few years; they have gotten used to it.

This year, however, is a different story. The crypto space is in a state of structural missed opportunities.

Money has not disappeared; it has simply moved. Gold has moved in, U.S. stocks have moved in, even the retirement funds of Korean grandpas have moved into semiconductors. Global liquidity is like a powerful pump, drawing money from all directions and sending it into one record-high asset after another.

Only crypto has been bypassed.

This is different from "everyone is out of money." Everyone has found a way out, while you are standing still, watching money flow past your door without a single cent coming in. This type of missed opportunity is much more painful than a bear market.

BTC lacks the safe-haven status of gold, and tech stocks are hitting new highs without it. When the market panics, it is the first to be sold off along with risk assets. It doesn't get included when prices rise, nor does it get left behind when they fall; it occupies neither end.

Those holding coins want to hedge, but it doesn't hedge; they want to speculate on rebounds, but it doesn't rebound. The two things they initially bought it for have not materialized this year.

Losing money at least has a clear reason: you misjudged the direction. But missing out is different; you haven't done anything wrong, the money just flows around you, and you can't even find a specific target to blame.

Thus, the entire crypto space has become the popular term in the South Korean stock market: thunderstruck poor people.

However, people in the crypto space have a keen sense of smell and a knack for hustle; the real reaction of more thunderstruck poor people is not to lie flat, but to migrate with the trend.

On social media and community platforms, discussions that used to revolve around which altcoin could double have now shifted to Nvidia's earnings report and Tesla's support levels, while still listing crypto tickers in their bios.

Everyone has transferred the skills they honed from trading coins to this new environment, analyzing K-lines, chasing hot narratives, and enduring volatility, only the targets have changed from altcoins to U.S. stock codes. Some even repurpose the scripts they used for trading coins to create monitoring tools for U.S. stocks, tracking, alerting, and automating orders in one go.

The skills haven't gone to waste; they've just been applied elsewhere.

On the other hand, crypto exchanges are also actively rescuing themselves and adjusting, launching various on-chain U.S. stock trading products in response to the trend, as Hyperliquid has already set an example for the entire crypto market.

Thus, exchanges selling stocks is a subtle attempt to retain users. Users want assets that are hitting new highs, so they bring in those assets to keep people around. From retail investors monitoring the market to exchanges listing coins, the entire industry is doing the same thing:

Finding ways to latch onto the wave of a market they missed out on, ultimately it's still a case of following the trend's FOMO.

Whether actively or passively, everyone is clear about one fact: if they don't adjust their thinking, what is truly rising will never be what they hold.

Don't let missing out force you to jump on the last train

Those who don't want to leave may still have some bullets left, whether through dollar-cost averaging into BTC or finding local narratives; it doesn't matter if the coins haven't risen, my U hasn't decreased. Sitting still in a bear market, waiting for the next wave to rise.

The principal is still there; can you treat missing out as if it never happened?

At the beginning of 2025, the RMB to USD exchange rate was still around 7.2 to 7.3, but entering 2026, it strengthened all the way, breaking through 6.8 in May for both onshore and offshore rates, entering the 6.7 range, reaching a three-year high.

What does this mean? Assuming you remained disciplined, not chasing highs or cutting losses. As a result, holding U is also a loss. Missing out is at least about others making money while you didn't; now, it's about you standing still while the ground beneath you continues to sink.

Waiting is not a zero-cost endeavor; waiting itself is burning money.

Thus, a very natural thought arises: since crypto is not performing, why not clear out and FOMO into what is rising? This thought may be far more dangerous than missing out itself.

The feeling of missing out needs to be resolved, but perhaps not by chasing after it.

To be frank, crypto is indeed not performing well this round, and you can't comfort yourself with "it will come back later." The past logic was a four-year cycle: halving, bull market, new highs, and if you missed out, wait for the next round.

Now the game has changed; ETFs have turned Bitcoin into a position on institutional balance sheets, money on-chain is busy buying U.S. stocks, and even exchanges have switched to selling stocks... this round of crypto is no longer the same as the one you remember that could multiply overnight.

Hoping it will follow the old script again is itself a form of wishful thinking. But acknowledging that crypto is on a downward path does not mean that the stock market is a safe haven.

If you rush in to chase gold, U.S. stocks, or Korean chips, what you earn is not your insight, but the money from the rising tide. Right now, global liquidity has lifted all boats together; the water level is high, and everyone seems to be able to swim. The problem is, the tide will eventually recede.

The real test is not whether you got on the bus initially. Can you manage to exchange your chips back to shore before the water goes down?

And this is precisely what ordinary people are least good at. We have proven time and again in NFTs and altcoins that we can catch the rise, but those who successfully take profits are rare; we always feel there’s another wave to ride until it goes to zero.

Changing markets won't automatically erase these weaknesses. Transferring the skills from trading coins to trading U.S. stocks will likely also bring along the mindset of "not wanting to sell."

So whether you missed out or not may be a false dilemma. The ultimate goal is to take profits before leaving the table.

The Korean term "thunderstruck poor person" was originally used for self-deprecation for not catching the wave. The English term FOMO likely carries a similar meaning. But if you are forced to measure yourself against someone else's balance sheet, pushing you to jump into a pool you can't navigate at the highest water level, it is actually very dangerous.

The real thunder is never the bus you missed.

It's that you finally squeezed onto the next bus, but once again, forgot where to get off.