BTC and ETH's recent price movements have provided the market with an interesting answer—bad news often loses its impact the moment everyone knows it's coming.

Not long ago, the Bank of Japan announced a 25 basis point rate hike, bringing the official policy rate to 0.75%, the highest level in nearly 30 years. According to conventional logic, this should be a standard bearish signal, hitting the entire risk asset market. But reality defied expectations—Bitcoin not only didn't plunge, but instead held firmly above $87,000, even probing up to around $87,500.

This reversal has left a wave of new investors a bit confused. Isn't it said that rising interest rates are unfriendly to risk assets? Why did the crypto market rise this time?

In fact, this reflects an important turning point—the crypto market is really maturing. When a matter is repeatedly discussed and fully anticipated by the market, by the time it actually happens, the market has already digested it. All the impacts are already priced in. This isn't market sluggishness; it's market maturity.

The most directly affected are actually those trading structures that rely on yen arbitrage.

Remember the zero interest rate era? Back then, large institutions were basically free to borrow yen—almost no cost—convert to USD, and directly buy high-yield assets like Bitcoin. Risk control was perfect, and returns were astonishing. Now, with rates raised to 0.75%, the numbers don't look big, but the problem is that financing costs have actually increased by 7.5 times. To put it another way, borrowing $1 million for a year now costs an extra $75,000 in interest.

When doing the math, leveraged funds earning tiny arbitrage profits are gradually withdrawing. In the short term, this will indeed impact liquidity, but in the long run, it might actually be a good sign. The crypto market will no longer be manipulated like a roller coaster by arbitrage funds; instead, genuine demand and fundamentals will drive it—more stable and healthier.

The most interesting recent phenomenon is that, although overall leverage levels in the market remain relatively high, the proportion of long-term holders is gradually increasing. This indicates that the number of people genuinely optimistic about Bitcoin is growing, rather than short-term speculators desperately leveraging for a few points of profit. This structural shift is more worth paying attention to than any single price fluctuation.