2026-01-01 13:20:12

In 2014, the crypto market witnessed two events that were enough to change the industry's landscape.

In July, Ethereum raised 18,000 BTC through an ICO, worth about $18 million at the time. This crowdfunding first validated the financing potential of decentralized autonomous organizations and later became a standard model for Web3 funding.
In December of the same year, an established exchange's daily trading volume surpassed 100,000 BTC, accounting for 80% of the global market share, becoming the industry's undisputed leader. However, behind this prosperity lay hidden concerns—the highly centralized trading structure posed significant risks of centralization. The subsequent story is well known.
Looking back at these two events, one representing the future direction of decentralization, and the other exposing the vulnerabilities of centralization, 2014 already provided a vivid lesson for the entire industry.

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BlockchainArchaeologist

· 7h ago

Haha, 2014 was truly a watershed moment. On one side, ETH pioneered a new way of ICOs; on the other side, a certain exchange was 88 years old and got 88ed. History loves to be so ironic. Honestly, who would have thought back then that decentralization would become so popular... Looking back now, that wave in 2014 actually already provided the answer. Centralization, on the surface, seems stable but is actually a time bomb waiting to explode. Satoshi Nakamoto wanted exactly this, but we kept jumping into centralized pitfalls again and again... In 2014, one chose the future, and the other chose quick money. The final outcome was written on the blockchain. Hmm, so if it weren’t for ETH’s ICO wave, the funding landscape might be completely different now? It’s a bit ironic—decentralization has become the standard, while centralization has taught us lessons. History repeats, but the retail investors never learn...

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OnchainDetective

· 7h ago

Yeah, that wave back then was really a rollercoaster. When Ethereum rose, no one expected it to go this far, but the story of that exchange... well, a "absolute leader" crashing was just a matter of a瞬间.

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LiquidationWatcher

· 7h ago

Wow, the story of Mt. Gox. Centralized exchanges are just ticking time bombs; we should have seen it coming.

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SelfRugger

· 8h ago

Uh... to be honest, back in 2014 I didn't realize ETH could be played like this ---- That Mt.Gox incident was a real wake-up call. It's still ridiculous that some people are all-in on centralized exchanges ---- Thinking back, only a genius knew ICOs would be this popular. Now, it's just a sea of shitcoins ---- Decentralization sounds great, but in practice, it's still quite inconvenient ---- The story from 2014 is still playing out today

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