If you miss out on Bitcoin, you'll miss out on Ethereum; if you miss out on Ethereum, you'll miss out on altcoins.

The first layer, the Bitcoin stage, filters for trend and cycle awareness. Those who miss out on Bitcoin lack trend-following behavior and cycle awareness. They constantly interpret short-term fluctuations, treat oscillations and news as directions, and see pullbacks as reversals. The lowest points clearly appear, but due to a lack of mid-term thinking, they can only jump back and forth in emotions, ultimately repeatedly missing the main trend.

The second layer, the Ethereum stage, filters for execution ability and position stability. When BTC has established a cycle direction, Ethereum offers a pro-cyclical, low-understanding-cost opportunity. People who miss out on ETH are not fundamentally clueless, but unable to turn judgments into sustained holdings, always wasting themselves between “almost there” and “wait a bit longer.”

The third layer, the altcoin ecosystem stage, filters for the highest level of market adaptability and counter-human nature cognition. This is the ultimate filter for the entire cycle. When major players oscillate at high levels in Bitcoin, they are nurturing bullish sentiment; when Bitcoin oscillates at low levels, they are cultivating bearish sentiment. Meanwhile, altcoins, after four or five years of continuous decline, have been thoroughly conditioned into a collective inertia of “short altcoins and bearish on altcoins.”

Now, just mentioning “altcoins,” nine and a half out of ten people will criticize you. This is not rational judgment; it’s a conditioned reflex trained by a long-term bear market.
Altcoins are an entire industry ecosystem. They are tied to too many things. Without altcoins, the first to disappear wouldn’t be retail investors, but the entire industry!

Those who are shouting “short” now will definitely say in the future that they “saw the bull run early.” Without mid-term thinking—chasing highs, selling prematurely, missing out, getting shaken out, short squeezing, or getting liquidated—the problems all come back to you.