An executive from top US crypto exchange Coinbase is giving his take on the recent crypto market downturn and why he believes the nascent asset class looks more promising now than ever before.
In a new blog post from Coinbase, the company’s venture associate Connor Dempsey says that risk-on assets like cryptocurrencies reached a peak late last year when investors realized the same monetary policies that sparked a multi-year bull market would ultimately have to be undone.
With crypto markets on the edge of dipping to new yearly lows, Dempsey says that given a long enough time frame, most traders are still in the green.
“But wasn’t crypto supposed to be an inflation hedge? It depends. If you bought Bitcoin in May 2020 after macro investor Paul Tudor Jones famously dubbed it “the fastest horse” in a post COVID environment, you’re still up over 200% and well ahead of inflation. If you bought after inflation started to rear its head, much less so.
Even with the correction, Bitcoin and ETH are each still up 500% and 1,000% respectively from their pandemic lows. Longer tail assets have not fared as well, however, and it’s hard to deny that this time around crypto more broadly has been highly correlated with stocks – particularly tech.”
The Coinbase executive says that the crypto industry has been “pronounced dead” multiple times, including in 2018, 2015, and 2013, only to come back sturdier than before. He says like the internet before it, crypto technology tends to march on regardless of market cycles.
Dempsey argues that currently, crypto looks stronger now than ever before, despite the sharp market correction in May. He cites a flurry of different bullish fundamental developments that bode well for the space.
“From our seat, crypto feels more inevitable than it’s ever been. Bitcoin has global adoption, now held by institutions, corporations, countries, and millions of individuals alike. DeFi [decentralized finance] has created the underpinnings of an internet-based financial system with no single party in control…
Even the biggest detractors have come around. Nine out of 10 central banks are exploring digital currencies and analysts at JPMorgan have dubbed crypto a ‘preferred alternative asset class.’
Facebook rebranded to Meta; Twitter, Spotify, TikTok and Instagram are integrating NFTs, while Google and Microsoft are each dipping their toes into Web 3.0.
In the long run, it appears that the proliferation of the financial internet is a function of time, rather than central bank policy.”
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