ETH Respects The Trend, But For How Long?This is my first slightly longer post about the crypto market in some time. Despite being an ETH post, I get more into the market as a whole in this post. Here, I will do a little analysis on the above ETH chart, but primarily I will speak about fundamentals, my accuracies and my inaccuracies, and why I continue to observe the market.
Ethereum was my biggest winner in the previous bull market. After buying between $100-200 in 2018-2019, I sold near $3000 at the end of 2021. Since then, I didn't "buy the dip" or return to investing in the cryptocurrency market. Sure, my opinion on things has limited my ability to see the "forest through the trees," so to speak. So far, I've missed out on at least tripling my money again on ETH, when I could have bought close to $1000 if I had been bullish on it long term.
Despite the ETF approval for Bitcoin, and despite a looming ETF approval for Ethereum, I am longer term bearish on these assets. This is due to a simple question, the answer to which has not changed: If Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies ceased to exist, would the world be impacted significantly?
With the introduction of these ETF's, the answer to this question may change from "not at all" to "a little bit," but even then, the people who would be impacted are asset holders and managers who are generally making small bets on crypto. The bigger concern is that some brazen investors will follow Michael Saylor's suit and create unnecessary risk by buying assets that have very few real-world application. If this snowballs into an even bigger bubble, I do worry about the impact on the broader financial system.
As for crypto's effect on the economy: Money goes into crypto and it stays there. All those billions that have been invested in Bitcoin ETF's could go somewhere else and have a positive ripple effect on the economy and people's lives. Instead, it's stagnant money, and it only has value because people continue to buy it. The primary reason why I'm longer term bearish on these assets is because I believe eventually demand will be unable to keep up, and prices will stagnate, ultimately fading into a much longer bear market. This is particularly the case when broader markets fall into a more deflationary period, which I think will happen eventually (though as we know, this is very hard to predict).
It is clear that I was wrong in speculating Bitcoin would not make a new all time high. It did, but I wonder how long it could really sustain a SIGNIFICANT higher high. I'm not talking about $70-75k. I'm talking about $100k+ prices.
Back in 2022, I speculated that ETH would drop to the green zone in my chart. It came very close, but bottomed out between $800-1000, a major level from the 2017-2018 bull market. I did successfully anticipate much lower prices for Bitcoin and Ethereum than most were expecting at that time. I did not anticipate such an extended move up from those bottoms.
It is important to note that in multiples, crypto is outpacing the stock market from bottom to recent top. However, stocks are making more significant new all time highs while crypto is not. Even Gold is booming, breaking significant highs. This is something I did anticipate a while ago. There is no indication that holding crypto ETF's will be better than holding stocks. But hey look, Microstrategy (MSTR) is almost at dotcom bubble peak levels.
Back to ETH - if one is to take a big short position, it seems unwise to do so until the long term trendline is clearly broken. Here is the trendline zoomed in. You can see that price even broke down briefly, though continued to hug it for the most part while the decline did not accelerate further.
For now, it continues to ride. There could easily be more spikes up, as mania begins to take hold. But I sincerely also wonder how much extra money retail has to drive prices up this time around. Data shows that spending has slowed down, while people have mostly burned through their pandemic savings. Where will the liquidity come from? Is this rally even being driven by enough liquidity to sustain these prices? There is also always money to be made on the short side. Let's not forget that a short ETH ETF already exists.
We will eventually find out the answers to these questions. These are the primary reasons I continue to observe markets. I want to know more deeply what's going on. What are the broader cultural and economic shifts that occur under the surface, which cause major impacts on society as a whole? These mysteries keep me coming back.
Crypto is still interesting to me in this respect because it has such a psychological impact on the investor. I know directly from experience. It promises big things and then barely delivers. Or, it will appear to be completely dead and then cause eyeballs to pop when it suddenly triples in value. Profiting from it in the last cycle required putting up with a long emotional rollercoaster. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for the crypto investor? Is this, right now, the light at the end of the tunnel? If so, this is a pretty far cry from the original intentions of Bitcoin. It's all gone right back into the pockets of traditional financial institutions. And perhaps, it is this discrepancy that makes me think it's really a sheep in wolf's clothing, in effect something perfectly boring and ordinary disguised as something disruptive. It is possible that it it may have not turned out this way, but due to human collective decision-making, greed, and exploitation, here we are.
Despite my more sporadic posts, I continue to observe and analyze. It is not necessarily about being right or wrong for me. Maybe when I was younger it was, but now it's more about the process. It is important to let go of the attachment to being right.
Thank you for reading as always. And of course, this is meant for speculation and entertainment only, not financial advice.
