Lately, I've been seeing many discussions about why bull markets always experience slow rises followed by sharp drops. I have some observations I’d like to share.

Interestingly, during the formation of a bull market, most people don’t actually believe it’s a bull market. Think about it—only when the overall market doubles, hits new all-time highs, and many stocks increase five to ten times in value do people admit, “Oh, this is a bull market.” But during the process, the market is filled with skepticism.

It’s precisely because of this widespread doubt that bull markets tend to show slow rises and rapid declines. Continuous inflows of capital push prices up daily, but because expectations are not unified, the daily gains vary. Sometimes there’s a big jump, sometimes a small one, and even negative news can be quickly absorbed by the market or interpreted as positive. This creates a phenomenon: although the overall trend is upward, the pace of rise is wave-like.

During this process, a large amount of profit-taking accumulates. The key issue is that many investors don’t truly have a bullish mindset; they’re still thinking speculatively—selling once prices reach a certain level. If one day the stock market suddenly drops without a quick rebound, these speculators and skeptics will all start selling off together.

That’s why you see the pattern of slow rises and sharp drops. When the bulls are in control, prices are gradually pushed higher every day. But once bearish sentiment is triggered, those uncertain positions suddenly sell off en masse, causing a crash. This pattern repeats in bull markets until most people believe it’s truly a bull market.

Looking at the trends of projects like PEPE, SHIB, and FLOKI, you can sometimes observe this slow rise followed by rapid drops. If you’re interested, you can follow these assets’ movements on Gate to get a feel for how market psychology shifts.