This week it felt like the entirety of the crypto industry descended upon the city-state of Singapore for Token2049, Solana Breakpoint, and the spectacle of F1. I only stayed long enough to attend Token. As I walked the floor with a prominent crypto investor, he suddenly shared his surprise at the scale and high attendance of the event, remarking it reminded him of past conferences just before bull runs properly commenced. "Pre-bull," is the phrase he used. He then predicted next year's Token would be bigger and more extravagant, occurring in the exuberance of the bull, while the year after would be quite a bit smaller and tamer.
Speaking of bullishness, the crypto markets, still beholden to the monetary policy of the Fed, reacted positively to the 50 basis point rate cut along with Chair Powell's' statement afterwards. Bitcoin's price has pushed above $62k, but as I stated in earlier newsletters, it is premature to become bullish until Bitcoin breaks and stays above 65k. Put another way, under $65k is pre-bull.
One of the most humorous and interesting stories to come out of Token2049 was Vitalik Buterin breaking out into song. The humor speaks for itself, but to me the most interesting part of the whole thing was the community's divisive reaction.
I go the distinct impression that people's feelings about Ethereum largely determined their reaction to his performance. Vitalik's was cringe and out of touch if you were already feeling negative about Ethereum, and he was wholesome and earnest if you were positive.
In a similar vein, Iggy Azalea canceled her debate with Eric Wall last-minute. Like with Vitalik, people's approval or disapporval of Iggy's cancelation seemed to hinge on their feelings about memecoins versus "serious coins" I appreciated both the Vitalik and Iggy stories because at their core they were light-hearted, a welcome change from much of the price-based despair recently. Dare I say, pre-bullish?
-David Sencil
0 Comments