Crypto is known for its peaks and troughs; giant waves of euphoria and despair that typically align with Bitcoin halvenings.

Historically, crypto has ridden on the back of Bitcoin. The price of all cryptos would rise and fall with the price of Bitcoin - justifiably. Bitcoin was one of the few legitimate things in the space. Most other “projects” - if you could even call them that - were largely an attempt by actors to acquire more Bitcoin. Bitcoin maxis seem to be stuck here - in this place of believing that all competing L1s such as Ethereum are just the next “Asiacoin / Whitecoin / Blackcoin / [pick your 2012-2014 scam]”.

Because of this Bitcoin dominance, throughout crypto’s history, the only crypto-native economic policy with a significant impact on the overall trend of the market has been Bitcoin halvenings. Though other crypto-native developments have of course played a major role in the booms and busts (ICO szn, etc.), there has never been a pure protocol-level economic policy outside of Bitcoin that has impacted price - until recently.

Ethereum is now a blue-chip protocol on the level of Bitcoin. The wave of application development from 2018-present has legitimized Ethereum in a way that no other “crypto” has achieved. Whereas before Ether was a risky bet and most risk averse players only wanted Bitcoin on their balance sheet when seeking crypto exposure, Ether is now a mainstay in these conversations. The conservative crypto play is now to buy Bitcoin AND Ether.

Because of this, the market as a whole is now largely exposed to the economic policies of Ethereum.

On August 5th, EIP-1559 was released. From May until the end of July, the crypto markets looked dismal. It looked likely that the “supercycle” was not so super, and that we were about to endure the typical prolonged period of pain until the next Bitcoin halvening.

Then EIP-1559 was released, and markets shot back up to all time highs.

With the crypto markets now exposed to the economic policies of TWO protocols instead of one, the curve became flatter - instead of us needing to wait another 4 years for market dynamics to shift in the favor of “up only” (and us experiencing a trend of down/flat until then), the market was hit with another supply crunch from the side of Ethereum.

In a few months, Ethereum will undergo its infamous triple-halvening event in the form of “the merge”. I believe this event will not be isolated to the Ethereum ecosystem, but will instead impact the market as a whole in largely the same way that Bitcoin halvenings have historically impacted the market.

And, I believe this trend continues. As more things become legitimized, the curve will become increasingly flat. We no longer have to wait 4 years before market dynamics shift in a significant way; market dynamics will begin to shift much more fluidly as new projects gain traction and staying power.

This increase in legitimized projects and decentralization of market dynamics, coupled with the introduction of less-emotional money in the form of institutional capital, will hopefully allow us to reach escape velocity in our flight away from the beyond-insane volatility that has historically been a crypto staple.

Crypto is known for its peaks and troughs; giant waves of euphoria and despair that typically align with Bitcoin halvenings.

Historically, crypto has ridden on the back of Bitcoin. The price of all cryptos would rise and fall with the price of Bitcoin - justifiably. Bitcoin was one of the few legitimate things in the space. Most other “projects” - if you could even call them that - were largely an attempt by actors to acquire more Bitcoin. Bitcoin maxis seem to be stuck here - in this place of believing that all competing L1s such as Ethereum are just the next “Asiacoin / Whitecoin / Blackcoin / [pick your 2012-2014 scam]”.

Because of this Bitcoin dominance, throughout crypto’s history, the only crypto-native economic policy with a significant impact on the overall trend of the market has been Bitcoin halvenings. Though other crypto-native developments have of course played a major role in the booms and busts (ICO szn, etc.), there has never been a pure protocol-level economic policy outside of Bitcoin that has impacted price - until recently.

Ethereum is now a blue-chip protocol on the level of Bitcoin. The wave of application development from 2018-present has legitimized Ethereum in a way that no other “crypto” has achieved. Whereas before Ether was a risky bet and most risk averse players only wanted Bitcoin on their balance sheet when seeking crypto exposure, Ether is now a mainstay in these conversations. The conservative crypto play is now to buy Bitcoin AND Ether.

Because of this, the market as a whole is now largely exposed to the economic policies of Ethereum.

On August 5th, EIP-1559 was released. From May until the end of July, the crypto markets looked dismal. It looked likely that the “supercycle” was not so super, and that we were about to endure the typical prolonged period of pain until the next Bitcoin halvening.

Then EIP-1559 was released, and markets shot back up to all time highs.

With the crypto markets now exposed to the economic policies of TWO protocols instead of one, the curve became flatter - instead of us needing to wait another 4 years for market dynamics to shift in the favor of “up only” (and us experiencing a trend of down/flat until then), the market was hit with another supply crunch from the side of Ethereum.

In a few months, Ethereum will undergo its infamous triple-halvening event in the form of “the merge”. I believe this event will not be isolated to the Ethereum ecosystem, but will instead impact the market as a whole in largely the same way that Bitcoin halvenings have historically impacted the market.

And, I believe this trend continues. As more things become legitimized, the curve will become increasingly flat. We no longer have to wait 4 years before market dynamics shift in a significant way; market dynamics will begin to shift much more fluidly as new projects gain traction and staying power.

This increase in legitimized projects and decentralization of market dynamics, coupled with the introduction of less-emotional money in the form of institutional capital, will hopefully allow us to reach escape velocity in our flight away from the beyond-insane volatility that has historically been a crypto staple.