Alright, we’ll start off with the bad news before hitting the good news in the next section.

This week, crypto as a whole saw HUGE selloffs (besides Zcash). Everything went down (besides Zcash). Bitcoin dropped to $99,000, ETH dropped by 14%, and many other tokens saw similar losses.

Again, besides Zcash, which is up 47% this week.

Bitcoin even fell below its 200-day moving average and has technically entered “bear market territory” after declining 21% from its most recent high.

The market-wide downturn didn’t happen for any one singular clear reason. Here are some things that factored into it, though:

This cocktail mix of fear, uncertainty, and doubt has led to serious selling. (Remember, I have good news below, just make it through the bad 😅)

And in the middle of all that, the White House announced that President Trump has “ended the Biden administration’s War on the crypto Industry.” Read the room 😭

A lot of people are calling it a bear market. They’re saying crypto’s run is over, and that there’s no hope.

Things are definitely going poorly at the moment, but let us remind you of some bullish alternative takes real quick… ⬇️

So, I got the bad news out of the way.

Glad that’s off my chest. On to the positive news.

First off, is it just me or did the market totally forget that institutional players are still buying a ton of crypto, that payment giants are integrating stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies, and that crypto will only become more accessible and more widely used from here on out?

Because I feel like the market totally forgot all of that.

Those are HUGE long-term bullish catalysts. And what’s more, they aren’t the only ones.

So. In summation:

Even if we face a slight downturn at the moment, there are too many huge bullish trends to ignore in my opinion. I don’t think this is the end.

Not financial advice, DYOR always.

You remember Galaxy Digital, right? The company we told you about last week that sits at the intersection of AI and crypto? The one that could be the next big thing?

They just dropped a research paper on Zcash, which is up 1211.39% over the past year.

The thesis of Galaxy Digital’s ZEC paper: “Bitcoin but make it private” is a really strong, interesting narrative, and BTC’s institutional adoption is actually making the case for a privacy-first protocol like Zcash stronger.

People love Bitcoin, but they don’t want everyone in the world to know what they’re doing with their money. Crypto is secure by nature, but not private by nature, and that’s where a token like ZEC shines. It’s Bitcoin with privacy.

So, the more Bitcoin is pushed into the spotlight, the stronger the case for ZEC becomes.

Google searches related to privacy have gone up sharply this year, too, which certainly isn’t hurting ZEC:

Overall, it’s clear that although “Zcash’s fundamentals haven’t radically changed overnight,” “the perception around the technology has,” to quote the paper. The clearest sign of that perception change is that Hyperliquid has launched ZEC perps, so traders can now trade Zcash with leverage. Whether you like trading with leverage or not (I suggest never doing it), a perps listing is certainly bullish for the coin!

We really appreciate you reading our newsletter, and we’d love to hear your feedback.

All in all, a wild week. I think that investors who are able to see beyond the emotionality of the market will recognize that nothing about crypto’s value propositions has really changed, and this dip was mainly caused by FUD. Of course, I could be wrong, and something new may come to light by next week, but for now… I think we wait and see if Bitcoin makes a comeback by year’s end.

Same time next week? Sounds good.

Until next time,
- The Chain Team