2022 is coming to an end, and our staff at NewsBTC decided to launch this Crypto Holiday Special to provide some perspective on the crypto industry. We will talk with multiple guests to understand this year’s highs and lows for crypto.
In the spirit of Charles Dicken’s classic, “A Christmas Carol,” we’ll look into crypto from different angles, look at its possible trajectory for 2023 and find common ground amongst these different views of an industry that might support the future of finances.
Ben Lilly: “ (…) for fundamentals… Nothing has changed. If anything, builders are building faster than ever before. All of us veterans know that right now are the most productive weeks you can have in crypto. It is a blessing to those that can weather such bearish times.”
And now, for a bonus round, we spoke with Ben Lilly, Co-Founder at Jarvis Labs, the on-chain analytics and token design firm tracking the crypto market. Lilly offered his views on the industry’s current state, why the Bear Market must be used as a time for building, and why the nascent class has matured. This is what he told us:
Q: What’s the most significant difference for the crypto market today compared to Christmas 2021? Beyond the price of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others, what changed from that moment of euphoria to today’s perpetual fear? Has there been a decline in adoption and liquidity? Are fundamentals still valid?
A: In December 2021 we were discussing whether or not the U.S. Federal Reserve would follow through on rate hikes in the face of bubbling inflation. A year later, what we’ve seen is a strategic push on saying they will take two steps, and instead take three in a hawkish/bearish manner. It has not only hurt markets, but ensured markets could not find any solid footing to build momentum on.
This mentality led to a rapid hiking regime. The down wind effects were dollars as a currency were the asset to hold. And most everything else lost value to the dollar.
A lot of people like to say Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other assets “lost value”. This is a misnomer. We price things in U.S. dollars, and relative to the dollar, these assets lost considerable value.
What a lot of people are also slowly realizing is that most participants in crypto markets are and were speculators. This is rather unfortunate, in my opinion. And something I look to track better with data.
The drop in speculators (and many market makers closing up shops) has left a significant hole…
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