Below is a short note on recent moves in Bitcoin and crypto-assets from Justin Chuh, Senior Trader at the regulated digital asset investment manager Wave Financial.
Q1 2021 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
Focus On Ethereum
Bitcoin recovered well from the April sell offs, since last week there were two happy days of +$4k pumps, and not much downside in between. It faces another climb up Mount $60k. Meanwhile, if your eyes shifted to DOGE, let’s draw them back to Ethereum, as it’s currently pushing new highs at $3.2k on its 8-day and counting win streak, along with most of its ecosystem. Despite how expensive it is, everyone on the Ethereum network still needs gas, and prices at the pump might be cheapest at 3am on a Sunday.
DeFi protocols and platforms are booming in general, with Total Value Locked breaking $120b. Most of the action seems to be running on Ethereum, with at least $70b in its decentralized apps. Lending and DEXes are the most popular, having $36.7b and $23.9b locked in each, respectively. Even other sectors like insurance and derivatives are growing. The non-fungible token movement continues to gain popularity, and whether any of those are valuable or not, Ethereum is needed to move them. We truly can’t escape fees.
Ethereum Continues To Eat Away At Bitcoin’s Dominance
Just like Wall Street isn’t the only street with buildings and banks, Ethereum isn’t the only base layer capable of supporting an ecosystem. Let’s look at other layer 1 protocols and smart contract platforms as adjacent developing roads that will eventually have dapps built on them too. And just like we’ve seen urban sprawl, we’ll probably see crypto sprawl. Other dapps on different networks may end up better or worse than the first built on Ethereum, but they may also come with different levels of service, price, and convenience.
Even with this new high in Ethereum, there is still a $725b market cap gap between it and Bitcoin. The Ethereum overtaking Bitcoin “flippening” is still a long way off, but Ethereum continues to eat away at Bitcoin’s dominance which now stands at under 50% (47% at the time of writing) and Ethereum at 15% of total cryptos.
About Justin Chuh, Senior Trader at Wave Financial
Prior to joining Wave Financial Justin Chuh was at proprietary trading technology business HC Tech where he was a FX trader for 7 years. Justin is a CFA Charterholder, member of CFA Society Los Angeles and graduated from Arizona with a BS in Business Economics and Management. Justin is responsible for trading Bitcoin and other digital assets that make up Wave’s assets under management, ensuring that their trading strategies cover fund inflows and redemptions.
About Wave Financial LLC
Wave Financial LLC (Wave) is a Los Angeles and London based investment management company that provides institutional and private wealth digital asset solutions. Led by a team of highly experienced financial services professionals, Wave provides investable funds via their diverse investment strategies applied to digital assets and tokenized real assets. Wave also offers managed accounts for HNWIs and family offices seeking tailored digital asset exposure, bespoke treasury management services, and early-stage venture capital and strategic consultation to the digital asset ecosystem.
Wave is regulated as a California Registered Investment Advisor (CRD#: 305726).
T: https://twitter.com/wave_financial
L: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wave-financial/
