Those Who Keep Creating in Quiet Times
Even though we're going through some interesting days at the macroeconomic level, the past few years have been a bit dull for the crypto markets, and they still are.
Even though we’re going through some interesting days at the macroeconomic level, the past few years have been a bit dull for the crypto markets, and they still are.
Bitcoin’s rise hasn’t really spread to other projects, and with AI soaking up liquidity in the tech markets, we’ve been in a long “bear” season.
Unfortunately, this has hit a lot of projects pretty hard.
In the first quarter of 2026, the crypto market kept sliding. The market for USD-pegged stablecoins grew, especially with more institutions getting involved, but the more speculative projects in terms of price or demand shut down:
MilkyWay, Bloktopia, NiftyGateway, Angle, DataHaven, Tally, Dmail, Magic Eden Wallet.
Step Finance is on this list too. Sadly, it couldn’t survive after a security incident a few months ago.
These projects come from different categories, different blockchains, different teams. What they have in common is that the market stalled, volumes dropped, momentum vanished, and they had to close their doors.
Actually, these “bear” seasons, when prices fall and “FOMO” or “HYPE” give way to fear or reluctance, are great times to build projects that will spark similar excitement in the next “bull” season.
Globally, there are many organizations and infrastructures that support learning, building, and creating, but today I wanted to look at Turkey.
BuilderMare was founded in December 2024, during one of the market’s quieter times. It launched with the motto “Source of DevRel,” aiming to build developer relations and communities. It found opportunities to work with 112 universities in Turkey through various means like trainings, workshops, and hackathons.
During this quiet market period, there was the Monad EVM-focused Blitz event in Istanbul in February: over 120 participants, more than 45 projects. The same series continued in Izmir at the end of March: 40 projects. In early April, Ankara hosted the world’s first Cursor-supported blockchain hackathon, 30 projects. In April and May, as the official chapter partner of ClawCon, events are coming to Ankara and Istanbul.
Stellar Turkey launched its ambassador program in April and announced many names within a few days. Emre Taş, Meriç Cintosun, Arda İpekçi, Yahya Emir Soyer, Mert Çiçekçi, Berk Çiçek, Göktuğ Tunç, and more. From Manisa to Zonguldak, Istanbul to Yozgat, people from different cities and backgrounds in Turkey.
There’s an interesting overlap between these two communities: Yahya and Mert are both BuilderMare members and Stellar ambassadors. They managed to secure a grant from Stellar with their Noetherdex projects.
Superteam TR had been closed since December 2024. They’ve started working again with a brand new team. The first events were held in Ankara and Istanbul. Right now, they have a packed schedule to support developers for Colosseum Frontier: a global online startup/project competition with a $2.75 million prize pool, running from April 6 to May 11. Through the Shipyard bootcamp series, Superteam TR will continue to provide technical and strategic support from the maturation of ideas to the completion of projects and applications.
Their motto: “Let’s put Türkiye on the leaderboard.”
“The winter is here and we need to push through it to make it to the next spring.”
I really liked this quote, which reminds me of Game of Thrones. Winter is already here, and I think those who succeed when the agenda is busy, the market is fast and full of momentum, and big projects are drawing attention one after another, will usually emerge from these kinds of organizations and communities that are set up to work, create, and build during these quietest, toughest times.