How are retail people actually researching crypto in 2026? (feels like the market structure changed)

I’ve been in crypto for a while, but lately it feels like the game changed a lot.

From the outside, it seems like:

• institutions move the big flows

• bots dominate short-term opportunities

• snipers/arbitrage capture most inefficiencies

• retail gets in late and mostly reacts

So I’m genuinely curious:

how are normal retail participants researching and making decisions today?

Specifically:

1. What sources/data do you trust most now?
2. Are you still using CT/Reddit/Tiktok/YouTube, or mostly on-chain dashboards + alerts?
3. Are people mostly spot swing trading now, or still doing active perp trading?
4. Do you think edge still exists for non-bot retail, and if yes, where?
5. What does your actual research workflow look like week to week?

Not looking for shills! Just trying to understand the current reality from people who are actively in it.