There's another world in which all of the once high flying crypto companies that raised gazillions of dollars at absurd valuations in 2021 and are now shutting down, raising soul-crushing down rounds or selling for a fraction of their previous valuation, didn't. And because they didn't raise too much, they also didn't hire too many people, didn't try too many things, didn't blow millions on pointless conference sponsorships and side parties, and didn't have a high burn during the bear market. Most of all, they'd have a lower cost structure and could stick around a bit longer, especially now that things are getting interesting. This is obviously not the world we live in, and I'm not necessarily blaming anyone, though I have consistently advised companies and projects to only raise what they need, not what they can (and nobody listened). But what's happening to companies like Fireblocks only validates my thesis that in crypto, how much money you raise is negatively correlated with success. The fact that the money has been there in the first place reflects one of the great ironies of this industry: in the short term, the incentives are always bad.