When everyone was thinking how high we can go until the end of the year and all were hunting record profits, the unexpected happened again. The financial markets, both stocks, crypto and anything else, took a serious hit which might be linked to a new US and China trade war. I've just read that Trump announces 130% tariffs on China. The global trade war just came roaring back which seems the perfect signal for the financial markets to turn around. Even CZ twitted about the crash or better said re-tweeted something that caught his attention: "Covid crash: $1.2B in liquidations. FTX crash: $1.6B in liquidations. Today: $19.31B in liquidations - You wished you bought during the COVID crash. This is your COVID crash." But this bad crash might be also an opportunity in disguise if the market will turn around. But that's only IF and until we have more clarity I will just HODL. And with this crash, HIVE and HBD were affected hard as well and when I was thinking that the price(s) cannot go low than what we have... will it happened, wiping 20% or more from the current valuation.
HIVE took a hit of over 20%
I’ve seen HIVE go through some wild swings and big hopes since 2017, but this one still caught me off guard. One moment we were consolidating nicely around what many of us thought was a solid floor around $0.20 and then boom, it all went red. A 20%+ drop in a matter of hours reminded me of those brutal post-fork days when confidence was fragile and liquidity thin. And just days before I was speaking with other Hivers which were telling me about $0.20 being a low price and that they were exchanging HBD for it.
But despite the sell-off, I doubt that thinks on the Hive blockchain have changed a lot. I believe that the community will still be building, dApps and games will continue to run smoothly and zero fee transactions will keep us appealing for future projects. This wasn’t about Hive itself, but some macro level panic that I witnessed all over again. Trump threatening China with crazy tariffs, big players de-risking, innocent traders getting liquidated and algorithms amplifying the pain. All while smart players making riches over riches.
I can’t help but remember back to 2018 when everything bled for months and then, quietly, Hive’s predecessor chain kept trucking until sentiment turned around. This might be one of those moments again: painful in the short term, but irrelevant in the long term for those who understand the tech and the community backing it. And against all odds, I still like being in this ecosystem and building for the future. Just that I get some lessons and reminders along the way, but I somehow am prepared for such chaotic times.
HBD de-pegged at around $0.92
In the same time, seeing HBD dip to around $0.92 and de-pegging itself was another reminder that no stablecoin is truly immune when liquidity evaporates. HBD has always been an interesting stable instrument — decentralized, algorithmic and native on Hive at first layer. But when market confidence drops and large conversions or redemptions kick in, the peg can wobble. It’s happened before and each time, it managed to recover through the internal stabilizing mechanisms and arbitrage from the community.
This isn’t the first time I’ve watched HBD lose its peg. Back in 2021, I remember seeing it touch $0.85 for a while, and yet a few weeks later it climbed back close to $1 as demand normalized. So while the current $0.92 looks rough, I’m not panicking. HBD has proven resilient over time because of its conversion link to HIVE and the strong on-chain mechanics that prevent hyperinflation. I only wished I had about 10k USDC to throw at it as I believe that a 5% yield is quite possible in the next weeks after HBD will peg back.
After so many years in crypto, I’ve learned that downturns separate believers from tourists. HIVE and HBD might be bleeding now, but I’ve seen this story play out too many times to not see that this will pass by. The web3 social fundamentals are intact, the tech is stable and keeps evolving and the true decentralized web3 vision that Hive represents is not dimmed by market reactions. I am not saying that id doesn't hurt to see all this red across the board, but it’s also a reminder: markets crash, blockchains don’t. As long as Hive keeps doing what it does - supporting communities and rewarding creators — I’ll keep HODLing, posting and building. This isn’t the first crash I’ve seen since 2017 and it won’t be the last. But every single one has eventually been followed by something better. Only wished I had free finances to buy the DIP, but even if that caught me off guard, I am still here creating and believing in it. Are you???