Building in Winter

I still remember the last crypto winter.

When hype had faded, the headlines moved on, and it felt like everyone was quietly packing up their tents. I was still building, often in silence, sometimes under contract for large institutions that publicly denied touching blockchain.

It was surreal.

The Corporate Paradox

Big brands were spending millions on “R&D” and releasing papers about “institutional adoption,” then erasing all traces of their involvement weeks later. Amazon, JPMorgan, Visa, and Meta each made blockchain announcements between 2019 and 2022 that quietly disappeared.

JPMorgan launched JPM Coin in 2019, touting it as the future of institutional payments. Walmart filed blockchain patents for supply chain tracking. Facebook rebranded its Libra project to Diem, trying to distance from regulatory scrutiny, only to shut it down entirely by 2022. Amazon posted job listings for blockchain engineers, then quietly removed them.

It felt like being in a pit, working on real infrastructure while the world pretended it did not exist.

The irony was sharp. These weren’t blockchain skeptics, they were active participants. They built prototypes, hired teams, filed patents, and ran pilots. But when the market turned, they vanished. No press releases. No explanations. Just silence.

For those of us still building, it created a strange dynamic. You knew the infrastructure mattered because billion-dollar institutions were secretly investing in it. But publicly, you were working on something the world had moved past.

What This Winter Looks Like

But this winter feels different.

Stablecoins are processing over $1.3 trillion in monthly transactions, according to Visa. That’s not speculative trading volume, that’s real payment flow. Corridors are forming between the US, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Regulators are engaging instead of threatening. The focus has shifted from hype to utility.

The energy is quieter, but also more honest.

Builders are back to solving problems that matter: payments, trust, liquidity, stability. There’s less talk about “changing the world” and more focus on making cross-border payments work, reducing remittance costs, and providing inflation hedges for people in unstable economies.

Consider the difference:

• Last Winter: Institutions experimented in private, denied involvement publicly, then abandoned projects when scrutiny increased.
• This Winter: PayPal launched PYUSD. Visa partners with Circle on USDC settlement. Stripe integrated stablecoin payments. These aren’t pilots, they’re production systems.

The shift is subtle but significant. The last winter was about survival, proving the technology could work despite market conditions. This one feels like growth, building infrastructure that integrates with existing rails rather than trying to replace them.

The Psychology of Building in the Dark

How do you stay motivated when it feels like you’re building in the dark?

For me, it came down to a few principles:

• Focus on real problems. If you’re solving something that matters to people today, not just speculators, the work has value regardless of market sentiment.
• Ship production systems. Nothing clarifies thinking like putting code in front of real users with real money. Theory dies in production.
• Find the builders. The noise disappears in winter, but the people who stay are the ones worth working with. They’re not there for headlines or hype cycles.
• Track real metrics. Not token prices, but transaction volume, user retention, cost savings, uptime. The fundamentals that show utility.

The last winter taught me that markets move in cycles, but infrastructure compounds. If you build something that solves a real problem, it doesn’t matter if the world is paying attention. It matters that it works.

What Changed Between Winters

The difference between the last crypto winter and this one isn’t just market maturity, it’s regulatory clarity and institutional commitment.

In 2020, the SEC was hostile, banks were cautious, and major platforms banned crypto ads. Builders operated in a legal gray zone, unsure if their work would be retroactively classified as securities violations.

In 2025, the landscape shifted:

• The EU passed MiCA, creating a regulatory framework for stablecoins and crypto assets.
• The US introduced clearer guidance on digital asset custody and stablecoin issuance.
• Major institutions stopped pretending and started building in public: BlackRock filed for a Bitcoin ETF, Fidelity expanded crypto custody, traditional banks partnered with stablecoin issuers.

This isn’t a perfect environment, but it’s workable. Builders can plan for compliance instead of operating in uncertainty. Institutions can commit resources without fear of sudden regulatory crackdowns.

The result? Infrastructure projects that were shelved in the last winter are being revived. The ones that survived are scaling.

The Quiet Shift to Utility

The most significant change is the shift from speculation to utility.

Stablecoins are no longer just trading instruments. They’re being used for:

• Cross-border remittances: Workers in the US send USDC to family in the Philippines, bypassing Western Union’s 7% fees.
• Inflation hedging: People in Argentina and Turkey hold USDT to preserve purchasing power.
• Business payments: Companies settle invoices in stablecoins to avoid FX volatility and slow bank transfers.
• Yield products: DeFi protocols offer structured yield on stablecoins, competing with TradFi savings products.

This is the infrastructure we were building in the dark. It took years of iteration, regulatory engagement, and production hardening. But it’s live now. It works. People use it.

The narrative shifted from “can blockchain solve anything?” to “here’s what it solves, and here’s the data.”

Lessons from Winter

If the last winter was about survival, this one feels like growth. Not explosive, hype-driven growth, but steady compounding. The kind that comes from solving real problems and earning trust over time.

For builders, the lesson is simple: winter is when you build. When the noise fades and the tourists leave, the real work begins. The infrastructure you ship during winter is what powers the next cycle.

Markets will turn. Hype will return. But the systems you build when no one is watching, those are the ones that last.

If you’re building in winter right now, what keeps you going? And what problem are you solving that doesn’t need a bull market to matter?