How to Survive the Crypto Boom & Bust Cycle

TL;DR

CoinTracker cofounder Chandan Loda describes surviving crypto’s boom‑bust cycles by taking a long‑term first‑principles view, being brutally honest with the team during downturns, and obsessively talking to users. The key turning point was halting all development for nine months to rebuild the product around user feedback, adopting the principle “think long term, ship today.

Key insights

• Crypto cycles are unique because huge demand arrives in short bull runs, followed by years where the space is “declared dead” with little speculative activity.
• In 2020 CoinTracker was six months from shutting down; the low point was overcome by sticking to first‑principles mission validation and holding open, honest, vulnerable conversations with the team.
• During DeFi summer 2021 CoinTracker grew 14×, but later fell behind because it failed to keep up with advanced on‑chain activity (liquidity pools, Uniswap) as crypto use cases evolved.