2023 was an interesting year for crypto. SBF was convicted of defrauding customers and investors. CZ pleaded guilty to money laundering. Yet, crypto prices skyrocketed. Bitcoin and Ethereum gained 155% and 90% respectively in 2023. Solana (the de facto Sam coin) and Avalanche gained 965% and 266% respectively. The retail interest didn’t actually come back so it’s curious how the crypto prices went up so much.
I should have made my prediction clearer. Saying “more pains for crypto” was just too vague. Sure, SBF and CZ going to jail is kind of painful for crypto I suppose but well crypto bag holders are having a great year. I did say $BTC could go down to $10K, which was wrong. Let’s think about the use cases of cryptos. Namely, who are the buyers and sellers? What is the utility participants gain from the crypto transactions? I could see use cases for sanctioned countries, criminal operations and countries with very unstable currencies but these use cases are not really the ones I understand. I am glad I made the decision not to participate. I am also glad most retail investors sat out the crypto mania in 2023. We are pretty much indifferent to crypto’s price actions at this point. $BTC can go up to $1M but why should I care? Sorry I am negative but I am not interested in helping facilitate illicit financial transactions by participating in crypto.