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By: Sam Blumenfeld |
• Bitcoin (BTC, Tech/Adoption Grade “A-”) soared beyond all-time highs past $48,000, and the King of Crypto is close to exceeding the symbolic $50,000 price level.
• Ethereum (ETH, Tech/Adoption Grade “A-”) is eyeing a run beyond $2,000, and its daily transaction volume has shot past Bitcoin’s recently.
• Chainlink (LINK, Availability/Liquidity Grade “A+”) crossed the $30 threshold for the first time, as promising altcoins maintain their strong performance. It’s up over 100% in the last 30 days.
These last several weeks have been explosive for the crypto market. We saw prominent asset managers, prolific payment processors and powerful CEOs all take positive stances on the future of crypto.
From MicroStrategy Inc.’s (Nasdaq: MSTR) $3 billion stockpile to Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA) starting to accept payments soon to the richest man in the world buying $1.5 billion for his company, the crypto market has firmly captured mainstream attention.
Indeed, on this President’s Day, as we celebrate Washington and Lincoln, it’s useful to remember that great leaders have been at the front of revolutions — the first president and the one that made America, the sixteenth and the one that re-made it.
We’ve seen a major shift in Bitcoin’s market dominance from a high of almost 73% at the start of the new year to about 61% as of Feb. 12.
The purchase of altcoins using BTC has caused the decline in its dominance, and it’s catalyzing sustained altcoin outperformance. It’s even led us to label the beginning of “AltSeason” a couple weeks ago. As this trend continues, we expect Bitcoin’s dominance to continue sliding. And that’s a good thing.
Throughout all of the important news of adoption and continued macroeconomic activity that will considerably erode the dollar, the Dogecoin (DOGE, Tech/Adoption Grade “C+”) meme is back. A series of celebrity endorsements and tweets have led to a new all-time high past $0.08 for the popular memecoin.
As frenzy continues to build and people inevitably compare Bitcoin’s latest rally to its performance in 2017, it’s important to note that this time it isn’t driven by an avalanche of retail speculators. One of the best ways to gauge the level of retail crypto frenzy is by comparing Google searches.
While their records from December of 2017 show that searches for Bitcoin maxed out their 100-point scale, today’s numbers are just above 50. The biggest takeaway here is that last month’s rally and the build-up beforehand were driven by strong macroeconomic fundamentals and growing institutional adoption.
Notable News, Notes and Tweets
• Raoul Pal, “just thinking out loud,” makes another compelling point about systemic integrity and Bitcoin’s long-term future.
• Pomp, perhaps its greatest evangel, issues a stark warning to the global hegemon about its status vis-à-vis Bitcoin’s long-term future.
• It’s hard to overstate the importance of The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK)’s decision to hold, transfer and issue bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on behalf of its asset-management clients. The oldest bank in the U.S. will treat crypto like any other asset. That’s “validation,” folks.
What’s Next
This month, we’ve seen the crypto market skyrocket on the heels of increased adoption and mainstream recognition. There’s more to come — we’re still in the beginning stages of this long-term trend.
Elon Musk’s Twitter habit has helped launch crypto to the forefront of mainstream news, and his touting of the Dogecoin meme and purchase of $1.5 billion of BTC for Tesla Inc.’s (Nasdaq: TSLA) balance sheet will spur greater interest for both his retail social media following and his CEO colleagues.
Tesla will also accept BTC as payment, and Elon’s daring commitment to accelerating Bitcoin’s adoption will likely generate even more followers. Elon wasn’t first to make a massive bet on the Bitcoin’s future, but the endorsement from the richest man in the world should prove to be extremely impactful moving forward.
In the grand scheme of crypto’s potential, recent events barely scratch the surface. Institutions recognize the importance of a global inflation-proof solution, and many DeFi (decentralized finance) applications and platforms will revolutionize financial transaction infrastructure.
The future is exciting for crypto, and we’ll be covering its progress every step of the way.
Best,
Sam
