Crypto Is Feeding Wall Street Exactly What They Want

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To investors,

It is important you avoid getting lulled to sleep in financial markets. A great example of where I potentially see this happening right now is with bitcoin. The digital asset is down 3% over the last month and only up 20% since the start of the year. Not exactly the eye-popping return numbers that energized an entire generation that was seeking asymmetric returns.

But this lack of significant appreciation over the last 8 months doesn’t mean we can expect the same thing to continue through the rest of the year. Fundstrat’s Tom Lee was on CNBC yesterday and explained why he thinks bitcoin could double by Christmas:

Do I think bitcoin will double by the end of the year? I have no clue. Bitcoin has made significant moves in the past, so it wouldn’t be the first time, but increasing the total market cap by approximately $2 trillion in around 100 days would be breathtaking to watch.

Regardless of the price movement, Tom’s analysis of why bitcoin is poised to move higher is dead on. Bitcoin remains the most sensitive macro asset to global liquidity conditions. And if the Fed is going to cut interest rates in September, we should expect bitcoin to increase in value in response.

But bitcoin is not the only asset that Wall Street is paying attention to. This may not be what bitcoiners want to hear, but we have to be realistic about the facts of the market. In the last month, while bitcoin was down slightly, Ethereum has been up nearly 10% and Solana has been up more than 20%.

This is a direct result of Wall Street broadening their interest into more crypto assets. We have seen the launch of Ether ETFs, along with the announcement of many altcoin digital asset treasury companies.

Tom Lee announced Bitmine, which is a treasury company focused on Ethereum. Not only is he buying the asset and staking it, but Bitmine made an investment in a company called Eightco Holdings ($OCTO) yesterday. Why did they do that? Well, Eightco Holdings is becoming a treasury company for Worldcoin, which is built on top of Ethereum.

So now you have companies that are investing in the ecosystems of these altcoins. And before you argue how dumb this strategy is, you should know that Eightco Holdings saw an approximately 30x increase in their share price in a single day off the announcement. I don’t know if Nasdaq has ever seen a company go from $1.72 to over $72 a share in one trading session, but thats what happened yesterday.

Just insane.

This is not only happening in the Ethereum ecosystem either. We are seeing Sol Strategies, a publicly traded Canadian company dedicated to building Solana infrastructure, cross-list and start trading on Nasdaq this morning. The company will trade under the ticker $STKE, which stands for “stake.”

I have been an advisor to the company and CEO Leah Wald for awhile, so I have seen how that company in particular has been built. They own a bunch of SOL on their balance sheet, they stake their balance sheet assets, and then they own a number of validators that allow them to monetize other people’s SOL that is being staked.

In a similar vein, we saw the announcement of a new Solana-focused treasury company through Forward Industries Inc. The company is backed by Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin. Kyle Samani is joining as Chairman of the board. This effort has raised more than $1.6 billion in cash and stablecoins to execute the strategy.

That doesn’t happen unless the opportunity is clear from the market.

If you thought Wall Street loved companies holding altcoins, just wait till they realize these companies can provide cash-flow and yield. Again, it doesn’t matter what individual investors believe, you have to understand what the broader financial market is dying for — yield.

And we have also seen asset management firms like Coinshares announce a deal to go public via SPAC. They are doing it at more than $1 billion valuation too. Cash-flow from crypto-related companies is all the rage right now.

So this brings me back to the broader theme playing out. Crypto is assaulting Wall Street. Bitcoin was first through the door. It has always been the king and it will remain the king in my opinion. But Wall Street is starting to broaden their horizons.

They don’t care about any particular coins. They want returns. And if that brings them to altcoins, yield, or cash-flow companies, so be it. They are trying to fulfill their mandate to capture alpha and it seems the market has collectively decided crypto-related opportunities is one of the best places to look.

Hope you all have a great day. I’ll talk to everyone tomorrow.

- Anthony Pompliano

Founder & CEO, Professional Capital Management

The Truth About The Fed & Bitcoin

Mel Mattison is an investor, author, and a former fintech executive.

In this conversation we talk about the role of the Federal Reserve, why they historically have not been independent, who is to blame for current debasement, why gold and bitcoin are so important, and what Mel would do if he was Fed chair.

Enjoy!

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