Crypto has been completely dead lately - if you're only looking at price action.
Yes, Bitcoin fell 72% from its all-time high price in November 2021, almost one full year ago. Ethereum fell the same, 72% from its own high of $4,878. Fabric.
Proponents of cryptocurrencies point out that it is not just about crypto, but also about stocks. And they are right: everything is down now. But that's cold comfort to crypto believers who — I'll let you in on a little crypto media trade secret — don't care to read any crypto news when crypto prices are falling. ConsenSys CEO Joe Lubin put on a brave face last week when he talked to me about the technological success of the Ethereum merger, but ETH has fallen a dismal 21% since the event.
For a better temperature check on how cryptocurrencies are doing, check out the main recent signs of mainstream adoption. In the last two months, we have received a number of indications that major financial institutions and technology companies believe that cryptocurrencies are here to stay. You'd be forgiven for missing the news while the global economy collapsed all around us.
In August, BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, launched a spot bitcoin private trust to show its customers the current price of bitcoin. (As a reminder, the SEC flatly refused to greenlight a publicly traded spot bitcoin ETF, which only allows bitcoin futures ETFs; but BlackRock can offer its own clients whatever service it wants.) BlackRock also said it sees "substantial interest" in cryptocurrencies from its institutional clients and that it is exploring stablecoins and tokenization. Gentlemen. Bitcoin didn't budge on the news, a sign of how much the economy is straining each asset type.
Last week brought two more great displays of faith.
Google has announced that it will begin accepting cryptocurrencies as payment for its cloud services by connecting with Coinbase early next year. As part of the deal, Coinbase Commerce will move its "data-related applications" from Amazon Web Services to Google. Not only this Google Cloud welcomes cryptocurrency, but also a form of connection between Google and Coinbase.
Web3 Leader Google Cloud on Mainnet 2022: Cryptocurrency 'Purity Tests' Issue
Rich Widmann, head of Web3 at Google Cloud, tells Decrypt's Dan Roberts and Kate Irwin in our Decrypting Mainnet to Mainnet 2022 series how Google Cloud is trying to "build a giant bridge" between Web2 and Web3 and the problem with cryptocurrency "purity tests". ."
On the same day, the 239-year-old Bank of New York Mellon launched its own bitcoin and ethereum escrow service. The bank will hold the clients' private keys and handle the accounting of their crypto portfolios. This follows BNY Mellon becoming the custodian of the cash reserves backing Circle's USDC stablecoins in March. And last year, BNY Mellon launched a bitcoin escrow service in Ireland.
All of this may look like a sad attempt at rationalization to sneering crypto-skeptics. A favorite mantra of Web3 developers, "bear markets are for building" is repeated so often in times like these that it has become a cliché. That doesn't mean it isn't true.
I first wrote about Bitcoin in 2011. I have witnessed crypto freezes in 2014, 2018 and now. Some of the most famous crypto companies and platforms were built during these “winters”.
Lubin says cryptocurrencies are "the tail wagging a very sick dog" right now, and it won't get better until the economy improves. Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko thinks it could take 12-18 months.
Meanwhile, everyone is still building as signs of future adoption quietly multiply.
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