The Cryptocurrency Trading Journal

What I will not be looking for (or at least I wont be weightning heavly in my BTC decisions) are retail contrarian indicators. SNL and Kathy Pery topped out BTC in Dec 2017 but retail is actually the smart money on this market. They bought before the institutions. Kathy bought before Musk and Druckenmiller, of course, she probably traded like shit but the insight was correct. Also, retail doesnt have the capital to move this market like institutions. So if Lindsay Lohan buys a lambo with a BTC plate on it, I wont be caring much about that. I want to see lots of Pension funds saying BTC will be 5% of their portfolio, to me the latter will be more meaningful in telling me that market is super heated and in late stage
 
With NFTs, I think its different. Because that is a retail driven market. So when SNL taught the world what that is, to me that is a sign NFTs are in late stage (on this cycle). But if SNL does a class on BTC, I'm not concerned because they did beat the MBAs and PHDs of the institutions by several years. They just had awful timing on that cycle
 
I guess I should include Central Banks in this category, not only for adding BTC on their balance sheet but for general comments. If Lagarde or Powell were to make positive comments about BTC, I would be scared, because so far they have been idiotic nocoiners, once they flip, its a signal the market is at an extreme

So, these might work as signals we are at a late stage bull market cycle, which combined with parabolic price action will make selling of trading BTC positions a good idea.

But its possible that none of this will happen in this cycle, we might see a institutional cycle dominated by smart money (early adopters with varying degrees of smartness) and that will reach an extreme, trigger a large correction and a 1-3 year bear market. And in the next cycle we would see the late institutional adopters coming in (at a mid and late stage) and then a collapse. Seems 50/50 to me at this point whether dumb institutions will join on this cycle or the next cycle, but I will be monitoring this. New Blackrock crypto funds might work as a proxy for dumb institutional demand so I will keep an eye on it
Honestly, its kind of shocking to me to read you mention things like a 1-3 year bear market and a collapse. And this is especially so if more institutional money comes in. I of course under the whole "buy the rumor and sell the news" part, but crypto bulls keep pushing the thesis that big players haven't even really gotten in yet. So if they do, with such little supply, price would have to go vastly higher.

Also, if its such a good store of wealth, then why should we have to worry about a bear market or collapse? Don't get me wrong @Daal , I very much appreciate your analysis and it seems well balanced. And you seem to be looking at this more from a trading perspective, rather than buy and hold forever, which I think is smart. But its still quite the departure from the main crypto narrative that states this is how the world will work and you need to own the coins or be left behind.
 

Fink calls Crypto a 'great asset class' then says that its only a minor part of the conversation with institutions like Sovereign Wealth Funds, Pension funds, Retirement services and large family offices. This is great, because when these folks start to jump in, it will likely be the time to sell.
They are burecratic, dumb and slow. If they start to buy crypto it means prices have risen so much, and the stories are so widespread even the idiots are coming in.
So they are likely to be a good top indicator at some point in the future

I just want to mention an alternative viewpoint and Fink sort of alluded to it, in the sense that he's portraying a survivorship bias of the conversations not taking place at Blackrock.

I don't want to say he's being disingenuous and mentioned it on the interview to hedge his reputation down the line, but someone as smart as he is is aware if not from his own thought analysis, from his smart advisors

The crypto discussions would not be had at Blackrock but at crypto-focused investment entities

I've watched a video from Winlevoss twins talking about institutional demands, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices at Latin America approaching them

Raoul Pal and Dan Tapiero constantly talk about the circle of macro guys and the clients they advise that are very much interested in bitcoin

NYDig says the institutional demand for their bitcoin fund is overwhelming and the projected numbers that have come out are very conservative

Novogratz Galaxy fund is doing very well

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have put a lot of resources to establish a way for their institutional and uhnw clients to get into bitcoin most likely due to the demands from their clients

Perhaps the most telling is a tweet from Meltem Demirrors's tweet about a wall of money just coming into their ConsenSys projects and how they fill up quickly and need to be selective and turn down money

There's a rumor floating around that Walmart has put part of their treasury reserve into bitcoin and will have to be disclosed at their earnings report next month. Would be nice if it turns out to be true, but no effect if it's not

These rumors come from somewhere and I posted about Tesla buying into bitcoin based on speculation before Tesla announced it

But to tie it back to the original thought, these crypto adoption among the big money guys are excluding Blackrock..... and that's perfectly ok
 
Honestly, its kind of shocking to me to read you mention things like a 1-3 year bear market and a collapse. And this is especially so if more institutional money comes in. I of course under the whole "buy the rumor and sell the news" part, but crypto bulls keep pushing the thesis that big players haven't even really gotten in yet. So if they do, with such little supply, price would have to go vastly higher.

Also, if its such a good store of wealth, then why should we have to worry about a bear market or collapse? Don't get me wrong @Daal , I very much appreciate your analysis and it seems well balanced. And you seem to be looking at this more from a trading perspective, rather than buy and hold forever, which I think is smart. But its still quite the departure from the main crypto narrative that states this is how the world will work and you need to own the coins or be left behind.
If you look at gold in the 1980's and 90s, it was down about 80% in real terms from the peak. Stocks in several countries have had 90% drops (Greece and Iceland in 2010s, Brazil in the 90's, US during the 30's). Bonds, well, lots of bonds have become worthless in high inflation periods. Real estate also has had collapses, including a -50% hair cut in 2008/2009. IIRC in Brazil during hyperinflation the drawdown in real estate was much worse than that.

So, all asset classes go through period of gigantic wealth destruction. Crypto is only doing that on fast forward because its still a young asset and needs to mature (it was also super cheap, which leads to upside volatility). But its quite possible that the maturity will arrive with the institutions, because they know that buying BTC at -80% is free money, so they will step in at -70%, -60%, -50%, etc. Its quite possible (I would even say likely) that drawdowns will be smaller from now on, and volatility lower. Vol has already came down historically, and I bet that trend continues with hedge funds playing BTC.
There is no 'safe' stores of value these days, the Fed promised last year to wipe 10-20% of cash balances over 10 years through inflation, bonds wont be doing much better, gold is being disrupted by a better gold (BTC), real estate is sky high, etc, etc

You have to take risk to decrease risk, sounds paradoxical but it makes sense
 
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I just want to mention an alternative viewpoint and Fink sort of alluded to it, in the sense that he's portraying a survivorship bias of the conversations not taking place at Blackrock.

I don't want to say he's being disingenuous and mentioned it on the interview to hedge his reputation down the line, but someone as smart as he is is aware if not from his own thought analysis, from his smart advisors

The crypto discussions would not be had at Blackrock but at crypto-focused investment entities

I've watched a video from Winlevoss twins talking about institutional demands, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices at Latin America approaching them

Raoul Pal and Dan Tapiero constantly talk about the circle of macro guys and the clients they advise that are very much interested in bitcoin

NYDig says the institutional demand for their bitcoin fund is overwhelming and the projected numbers that have come out are very conservative

Novogratz Galaxy fund is doing very well

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have put a lot of resources to establish a way for their institutional and uhnw clients to get into bitcoin most likely due to the demands from their clients

Perhaps the most telling is a tweet from Meltem Demirrors's tweet about a wall of money just coming into their ConsenSys projects and how they fill up quickly and need to be selective and turn down money

There's a rumor floating around that Walmart has put part of their treasury reserve into bitcoin and will have to be disclosed at their earnings report next month. Would be nice if it turns out to be true, but no effect if it's not

These rumors come from somewhere and I posted about Tesla buying into bitcoin based on speculation before Tesla announced it

But to tie it back to the original thought, these crypto adoption among the big money guys are excluding Blackrock..... and that's perfectly ok
I will believe that these crypto institutions are 'catching the big fish' when I see it. So far, I haven't seen any big announcements
 
I will believe that these crypto institutions are 'catching the big fish' when I see it. So far, I haven't seen any big announcements

The things I've heard and read is that these institutions are secretive. Ross of NYDIG said they've always operated under stealth and they don't normally disclose information since they are not required, but their reports do get leaked out

The New Zealand retirement plan was quietly discovered when it came out on a local newspaper

I would think if Tesla wasn't a public company, the would not have disclosed the bitcoin purchase, same with Walmart, if they did buy, they would keep it to themselves until forced per SEC requirements

Temasek, I don't think confirmed or denied Raoul Pal's claim


New Zealand Fund Manager Puts 5% of Retirement Plan’s Assets Into Bitcoin: Report

Israeli Pension Giant Put $100M Into Grayscale Bitcoin Trust: Report

$306 Billion Sovereign Wealth Fund Temasek Buying Bitcoin since 2018: Raoul Pal

 
The things I've heard and read is that these institutions are secretive. Ross of NYDIG said they've always operated under stealth and they don't normally disclose information since they are not required, but their reports do get leaked out

The New Zealand retirement plan was quietly discovered when it came out on a local newspaper

I would think if Tesla wasn't a public company, the would not have disclosed the bitcoin purchase, same with Walmart, if they did buy, they would keep it to themselves until forced per SEC requirements

Temasek, I don't think confirmed or denied Raoul Pal's claim


New Zealand Fund Manager Puts 5% of Retirement Plan’s Assets Into Bitcoin: Report

Israeli Pension Giant Put $100M Into Grayscale Bitcoin Trust: Report

$306 Billion Sovereign Wealth Fund Temasek Buying Bitcoin since 2018: Raoul Pal
Thanks for the info. I supposed these are the smarter ones, the ones with less bureacracy
 
Looking at the BTC futures market, it is interesting how Binance stands out as one of the highest yielders out there. If that is a proxy for exchange risk, it doesnt look good for Binance
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I read a snippet, but it seems it's an old issue. Celsius assets are safe, but users beware

The attack is a dns attack, so lots of users will be fooled into giving up keys and stuff thinking they are dealing with Celsius when they are not

I thought they were getting rid of godaddy, and maybe they migrated to another company but dns is one of the weakest points of the internet infrastructure

pancakeswap domain also got hijacked a few weeks ago

Celsius security is very high, the only way to interact with the assets is through their mobile app, and even then, you're really just accessing an intermediary front end, not actual keys to any cryptos

Lots of these platforms are not operating on cryptos immediate blockchain time, blockfi has 24 hour with kyc every time you withdraw, but happily accept your deposits in crypto real time, lol

Nexo is the platform that is the closest to cryptos real time for withdrawals from my experience that I've seen out of the 3 platforms, blockfi, celsius and nexo
https://decrypt.co/66688/celsius-data-breach

Looks like Celsius suffered a data breach after all. They are probably minimizing the issue ala Ledger.
It remains to be seen whether the KYC data has leaked (I wouldn't trust their word on this, they are a bank after all they got incentives to lie). I wouldn't want to have my passport copy and address avaliable in the dark web...
 
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