Zipline to the Moon!
When the headlines about the trade war faded into the background last week, the markets exhaled — and Bitcoin surpassed the $97,000 mark. Meanwhile, Token2049 Dubai offered both spectacle and substance.
This editorial piece is taken from last week's edition of the 'Week in Review' newsletter. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter to receive the editorial piece as soon as it is completed.
Bitcoin and Token2049 Dubai
This week, Bitcoin surpassed the $97,000 mark, which is 18% higher than in March. This increase is partly fueled by renewed institutional interest, including an increase in ETF inflows and the ongoing narrative that Bitcoin is finally becoming a gold-like asset.
Another reason for the rise in Bitcoin's price is related to the decrease in news about the trade war. After a month of nearly constant news about Trump's tariffs, this week the issue was hardly discussed, although tariff news continued to appear. Traditional markets and cryptocurrency markets reacted positively to this absence of significant trade war news.
I spent a week at Token2049, interviewing people, enjoying the spectacle, and checking out projects and presentations in the conference hall. Eric Trump was a major topic on the second day, discussing digital sovereignty and confirming that buyers of the new Trump Organization tower in Dubai can purchase apartments with Bitcoin. In this regard, World Liberty Financial announced that its $1 stablecoin will be integrated into TRON, with plans to scale to billions in market capitalization.
Changpeng Zhao (CZ) made a rare public appearance. For me, the most interesting point he made was about Europe: "We are advising many countries on how to create a crypto-reserve, like in the U.S. Europe is not part of the discussion; it is absent from the map." Europe, lagging behind the U.S. with MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets), seems to be significantly trailing both the U.S. and Asia. Later, in an interview with Oliver Stauber, CEO of KuCoin EU, I asked him about this; he was not too optimistic in the short term but was in the long term.
The spectacle of Token2049 Dubai included a zipline, a climbing wall, large costumed mascot characters, men in suits with mirrored panels, cold immersion, a fresh coconut stand, an excessive amount of neon lights, arcade games, a racing simulator with a moving seat, cosplay girls, and much more. The hall was packed, and everyone seemed excited. I heard a funny phrase: "zipline to the moon!" It confused me a bit. The main signs?
My last interview at the conference with Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg and my go-to assistant when it comes to ETF news related to cryptocurrency, made me feel much better about the vibrancy of the conference. He also rethought my thinking about the upcoming battle between spot Bitcoin ETFs and all crypto-native custodians, such as centralized exchanges, wrapped Bitcoin providers, Bitcoin sidechains, and L2.
I used to think that crypto-native Bitcoin custodians would eventually win, but now I'm not so sure. I think crypto companies do not take ETFs as seriously as they should.
Of course, a certain non-trivial percentage of Bitcoin's strong price dynamics is explained by ETFs. This influx of ETFs will only grow over time. The Bitcoin and cryptocurrency ecosystem cannot afford to underestimate the power of ETFs, which have transformed the traditional stock market.
