There’s been explosive news lately—the Bank of Japan, which has been printing money like crazy, is suddenly about to hit the brakes. There might be a rate hike in December, with interest rates reaching a 28-year high. You might think, isn’t this just Japan’s own business? Wrong. This has a huge impact on us in the crypto space.

Why? For years, Japan has been the world’s cheapest “money vault,” with a near-zero interest rate policy lasting almost thirty years. Hot money could easily borrow yen and speculate globally. Now that Japan is about to raise rates, the cost for those borrowing yen for arbitrage is about to skyrocket. Imagine this: the US is already tightening liquidity, and now Japan is starting to shut off the tap too. The liquidity won’t dry up overnight, but the trend is clear—global liquidity is tightening.

Bitcoin, as the biggest beneficiary of the liquidity boom, is especially sensitive to these changes. Over the past two years, everyone got used to the “just hold through the dips, it’ll always bounce back” playbook, but over the next six to twelve months, the rules of the game might be changing. The macro environment is shifting toward tightening and volatility, with more frequent price swings. Relying on conviction alone? That could get painful.

So what should retail investors do?

First, stop treating liquidity-driven bull markets as a permanent script. The market won’t always give you chances to buy the dip. When volatility increases, surviving is more important than making quick money.

Second, manage your positions and cash flow wisely. Keep a portion as your “never sell” core holding—that’s your conviction position. Keep the rest flexible; extreme panic is the best time to pick up bargains. Never go all-in on a whim—that’s gambling, not investing.

True veterans never try to predict the storm. Instead, whether it’s sunny or rainy, they always have a boat to row and a net to cast. When global “liquidity” shrinks, which sectors can still swim against the tide? That’s the real question to think about going forward.