Back to collectionBlack Monday and the Limits of Watching
After Sunday night’s wait, markets around the world came under pressure at once. On Black Monday, the unwinding of yen carry trades set off a global stock sell-off, the Nikkei hit a circuit breaker, and Bitcoin briefly fell to USD 49,000. The USD 0.20 close did not erase the intraday low, and holders could not tell from the rebound whether the storm had passed.
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After Sunday night’s wait, markets around the world came under pressure at once. XAI holders had already endured July’s decline. Sisyphus now faced a more immediate question: when the loss on his screen suddenly grew, should he keep watching every move?
On Black Monday, the unwinding of yen carry trades set off a global stock sell-off, the Nikkei hit a circuit breaker, and Bitcoin briefly fell to USD 49,000. XAI was driven down to USD 0.182, its lowest price since listing and 89% below its peak; it barely recovered to USD 0.20 by the close. Staring at the -83% on his holdings screen, Sisyphus laughed aloud for the first time: “At this point, I can actually sleep.” Then he set his phone aside instead of treating another refresh as a way to change the outcome.
The USD 0.20 close did not erase the intraday low, and holders could not tell from the rebound whether the storm had passed. Sisyphus’s laugh sounded more like the end of exhaustion. He decided to rest and consider what he could bear tomorrow. The community still had to absorb a new price low and the fact that its members had different limits for risk.