I haven't seen anyone articulate this but its a salient point. The "first bubble" is often the scariest to hold through because it is uncharted territory with neither a top nor bottom in sight.

Maybe btc would die in 2012 (it didn't). Maybe alts would die in 2014 (most did). Maybe eth would die in 2016 (it didn't). Maybe ICOs would die in 2018 (they kind of did).

Maybe Sam coins would die in 2022 (some but not all did). Maybe defi/yield farming would die in 2022 (defi didn't, the 2020 version of yield farming did)

Maybe NFTs died in 2022? Most did. Punks didn't. At this stage the holder/buyer/seller base of punks is a lot more established than it was at 200k floor in 2021.

Yes we have people who think NFTs are ETH, yes we have people with desperate liquidity needs, yes we have people who are massively overinvested in NFTs. But the extent of that becomes less and less each year.

And the holder base has steadily trended away from being pretty delusional and just think number always goes up into a more stable community of people who've held for years despite countless sell opportunities, and for the most part are more interested in buying than selling.