Have the past couple of days been bombarded by US economic data? Open the candlestick chart, and everywhere are guesses about the Fed's next move. But honestly, the key signals that can truly shake up the crypto market actually come from a often overlooked corner—the policy shift of the Bank of Japan.

Don't believe it? Just look at the books and you'll see. During the internet bubble of 2000, on the surface, it seemed like tech stocks were wildly overvalued, but behind the scenes, it was actually Japan's tightening cycle that fueled the fire; in 2008, when the US subprime crisis swept through global markets, everyone was blaming Wall Street's greed, but they didn't realize that Japan's policy shift had long since planted a ticking time bomb for global liquidity. This is no coincidence. The yen is like a hidden switch in the global financial system—tweak it, and the entire landscape can change.

I've been in this market for over ten years. To be more precise: the power of the Bank of Japan's rate hikes absolutely surpasses that of the Federal Reserve. The Fed is the kind of player who operates frequently, adjusting interest rates several times a year, so the market is used to it; the Bank of Japan, on the other hand, is different—it's a "wait-and-prepare" type. It might only act once in several years or even decades, but when it does, it causes a complete turnaround, leaving no time for full preparation.

**The core question now: why does the yen have such significant influence?**

Many newcomers in the crypto space might wonder, what does Japan's rate hike have to do with my crypto investments? This brings us to the special status of the yen—it is an invisible liquidity source for global risk assets.

Over the years, Japan has been playing the game of zero interest rates or even negative interest rates. In plain language, it means "borrowing money costs almost nothing." Whether it's Wall Street's institutional armies or retail investors looking to leverage, everyone likes to do one thing: borrow yen at extremely low costs. Then, they use this cheap capital to bet on the global markets, including crypto assets. The liquidity of the yen acts like a channel connecting the Bank of Japan in Tokyo with the pricing of risk assets worldwide. Once Japan tightens its policy, this liquidity channel shrinks, forcing leveraged trades globally to liquidate, and the chain reaction in the crypto market can be particularly intense.