Take a close look at the market trends over the past two years, and I’ve noticed a pretty interesting pattern:

Whenever a bull market kicks off, retail investors go into a frenzy, chasing all kinds of meme coins, blockchain games, and altcoins. Everyone thinks these are the tickets to get rich quick—mining, tokenomics, ecosystems... a bunch of new concepts flood in. But the problem is, once a bear market arrives, these things die off very quickly. Projects run away, get delisted, or their prices halve, leaving a trail of chaos.

Interestingly, those projects that seem particularly boring—companies that don’t do community management, don’t do marketing, and focus solely on providing technical support for other protocols and platforms—turn out to be the ones that last the longest. Their prices fluctuate little, but they’re very stable. Even more surprisingly, during bear markets, these projects can still make money.

**C-end and B-end are fundamentally two completely different types of business**

C-end (retail users) is like running a bubble tea shop. Today, TikTok makes you popular, and you have queues outside; tomorrow, a new product launches, and all your customers go elsewhere. Customer stickiness is terrifyingly low—relying entirely on marketing and emotions.

B-end (businesses/protocols) is the complete opposite. It’s like a power plant supplying electricity to the entire street. Shops on the street can change their signs or products at will, but dare they easily switch power sources? A power outage for just an hour could cost tens of millions. And trying to change suppliers? That involves code modifications, security audits, rebuilding trust—costs that are astronomical. That’s why B-end clients are so sticky.

**Someone is playing the role of "power plant" in the crypto world**

Projects that focus on price data, risk management tools, are typical infrastructure providers. They continuously supply the most critical data for DeFi lending platforms, exchanges, and derivatives platforms.

The logic here is straightforward: market fluctuations, retail investors can turn off their software and walk away. But the liquidation mechanisms of exchanges and the forced liquidation systems of derivatives platforms? They can’t operate without accurate data, even for a minute. If data is flawed, liquidations could go wrong, and users’ funds could be at risk. How deep is this dependency? Imagine a DeFi protocol running for a day without reliable data sources—risk models fail, incorrect liquidations happen, user funds are damaged. The protocol simply can’t afford that.

**Why can these projects survive the winter?**

First, the cost of replacement is too high. Protocols that have integrated these systems face huge costs to switch—rebuilding, re-auditing, re-testing. It takes money, time, and introduces new risks. Without urgent necessity, no one bothers to switch.

Second, the demand is mandatory. Whether in a bull or bear market, DeFi protocols must keep running, liquidations must be executed, and data must be accurate. It’s not optional; it’s essential.

Third, their revenue model is stable. They don’t rely on hype or community buzz but earn fees by providing services to clients. Even in a bad market, someone still needs their services.

That’s why projects focused on infrastructure and enterprise-level services tend to thrive during bear markets. They don’t worry about traffic drying up or user dispersal—common issues for C-end projects. As long as the ecosystem keeps running, they have value.

Conversely, pure C-end projects, once the hype fades and novelty wears off, can’t come back. Perhaps this is why smart investors, during bear markets, tend to focus on those seemingly "boring" infrastructure projects—they are the ones that truly stand the test of time.