[Music] welcome back to the Crypt Trends podcast where we cover all things cryptocurrency blockchain web 3.0 and AI I'm Robert croak and I'm joined by my co-host Armando pona both of us and our amazing team are excited to bring you the best information guidance and strategies each and every Wednesday so follow along and I'll always remember to take notes and take action so let's get into talking point number one are the ethereum ETF approvals imminent this week in my opinion I think so with the recent news about the potential for the spot ethereum ETFs getting approved this week the market has been ripping ethereum alone in the last week is up 30% and the approval dates right now are set for the 23rd and 24th for the various ethereum ETFs so I think everyone just needs to remember and be prepared that if they don't get approved this is a minor setback many industry leaders believe that it'll be a 75% chance of approval this week but just in case that doesn't happen just don't have a knee-jerk reaction because we will likely see a pullback in ethereum for a little bit but everyone just needs to always relax and when and without zoom out so Armando take us through this news what are your thoughts and what what do you think's going to happen in the next few days with this approval so now this is really truly huge news but that 75% number sounds familiar to me it does is that that's exactly what we said earlier this year we said back in January February there was a 75% chance in May people said we were crazy no way they're going to approve it the SEC is attacking ethereum the uh they said that they were going to arest falic all of these crazy stories and now exactly what we said is coming to pass right those were all Miss uh they were all tricks and they were all like things to distract you from what was happening right under the surface it's because that was it was inevitable that that e ethereum ETF will be approved because the Bitcoin ETF got approved and that paved the way for ethereum ethereum has a clear utility value than Bitcoin so if Bitcoin got approved there's no way they could deny that ethereum ETF this is great for mainstream and also institutional investment now if the SEC does approve this ethereum ETF this week or next week it's going to cause a huge influx of capital and also interest into the ethereum ecosystem and this is what I've always said right as I said that ethereum I believe that ethereum will one day be the number one cryptocurrency on the planet and I think this is the first step to that actually come into place and I think that ethereum has a much easier utility use case to explain to the average investor yeah I mean as you can see the Market's reaction just this week alone the anticipation of these approvals have caused all the markets to rise especially ethereum as I stated it's up like 28 29% just in the last week so we definitely need to keep an eye on how this unfolds but the message today for everyone listening and following along is if it doesn't get approved this is a minor setback there's no reason to worry there's nothing changed what we believe will happen with ethereum in the crypto markets in the coming months yeah exactly so I want to talk a little bit about uh the price action for ethereum now right now ethereum sits around 3700 right alltime highs for ethereum were 4700 that happened back in 2021 uh sometime around that time uh and always said that ethereum was behind where it should be because Bitcoin reached all-time highs what a month or two ago I believe and ethereum was still kind of falling short of that so this ethereum ETF approval or the uh or maybe getting approved is going to push ethereum back to its all-time highs where it should be in parody with Bitcoin right now now if we go back to 2021 uh 22 I me sorry 2000 I'm sorry let's go back a little bit further back down to 201819 the lows of ethereum was $200 $300 uh and we go to 21 the height of that cycle uh ethereum got all the way up to 4700 right that's almost that's over a 20 times return yeah so if we move on uh to last uh the end bottom of last cycle ethereum got down to around $1,000 right so right now it's on the path I think to over 10 15,000 if you just look at the 20 times return in the from to 2020 to 21 and now if you look you fast forward to today if we only get half of that or just a percentage of what that gain was in the previous cycle a $10,000 ethereum is is very very believable yeah I think it's it even goes further than that we've talked before 12 14 20,000 maybe not in the next year or two but definitely in the future and we have to remember with this ETF approval these multiple ETFs approval um this will bring institutional investors on board and will really Herald a new wave of interest and legitimacy towards the whole cryptocurrency sector um not just ethereum and it's an exciting prospect that I can't wait for us to see how this evolves because you know we've been in this for a very very long time and it's really tricky to still believe we're early which we really are because if you think about it from an adoption perspective and a legislative perspective it's really only gotten moving in the last like 18 months to where everyone is really getting involved so these ETFs approval can really move mountains and set us up for where we believe and we've always beli the cryptocurrency space could go so I'm really excited about that now I got a question for you Robert I don't know if you've heard I don't know if you guys listening have heard but Justin Sun who's one of the the the crypto billionaires out there he also owns a couple of crypto companies uh he just revealed that he's been a aggressively invested in ethereum during these uh fluctuations of the market now I want to know your opinions on how this could affect the overall ethereum Market going forward yeah I think it's very impactful you know holding a portfolio valued at around $2.5 billion dollar makes him one of the largest individual holders in the crypto space and his strategy characterized by large purchases on different platforms is really smart and it really just highlights his bullish stance on ethereum over all but also could sway Market perceptions and investor confidence because you know we know who he is but a lot of people in the retail sector don't and it's just really really good overall long term for the market and with ethereum's transition to a proof of stake model uh which makes staking all the more significant I think this could be huge news as you say coming forth in the crypto markets yeah a lot of people don't realize this about Justin sun is that he's also involved in Stak hu he has huge huge interest in in St in crypto staking with the biggest in ethereum now he's been acquiring over the last few years uh and this what this shows us is how to Rich the elite in the banks move when everybody else is looking away distracted by football whatever that is entertainment the rich Elite in the banks he he's worth what I think I saw 1.4 billion and he still is acquiring he's still paying attention he's still moving forward he hasn't he's not satisfied he continues to grow his wealth and this is is what people need to take pay attention to is that these rich people they stay on top of markets they stay informed they make their decisions when everybody else is looking away and that's how they continue to build great wealth now he's been doing this and and what the the great thing about what he's doing is that he acquired when it was cheap and he's still acquiring now even though it's going up because he knows that it's still going further and he's doing this right on the cusp of ethereum and the rise of defi in the ethereum ecosystem I mean that really just leads to like you and I even on a smaller level I'm still acquiring Bitcoin ethereum chain link and everything else on a weekly bi-weekly basis and my first Bitcoin purchase was at $7 you don't ever really stop when you believe in something and yes it'd be great if I had more at those earlier prices but you also have to look at it that if we believe one Bitcoin is going to be 250 to 500,000 or maybe even a million dollars then 60 or $65,000 seems like a steal to me and that's what everyone needs to realize because I don't know you about you but my DMs are loaded every single day are is it too late and I don't know why people think that even two weeks ago when people were asking me in my private investment group and in my private Community is it too late for me to get into ethereum should I buy more ethereum I'm like yes you should be buying more ethereum absolutely and now it's up 30% in one week because as we get more and more adoption and more and more regulation and more and more good news it's going to continue to grow this is the future of money end of story that is it and everyone needs to understand that yes are there going to be a lot of cryptocurrencies that could go to zero absolutely but not the projects we're talking about because we're not gamblers we are investors and that's why we're trying to keep all of you that follow along focused on the matters at hand the adoption the big sectors and the best of breed in every sector which is so so important and it's also really significant that the SEC contacting exchanges like the NASDAQ and New York Stock Exchange to revise their ethereum ETF applications suggest we might be really close to getting that regulatory approval it literally could happen in the next 48 hours so this is just very very great news and a major shift in how cryptocurrencies particularly a are perceived and traded in institutional circles so it's definitely a positive sign for the broader acceptance of the crypto assets yeah I want to add something here real fast is that uh the the question uh that people ask us they say is it over or is it too late that question itself is a fallacy because that means that they believe that the crypto Market will either Plateau or or crash you you don't ask that in Gold you don't ask that in stocks you don't ask that in your house is it too late to buy a house no because probably going to keep going up as the population grows as real estate prices go up it's never too late because those things continuously appreciate yeah the only thing I would say when it comes to cryptocurrency is it will at some point in either this bow run or the next Bull Run after the next having it will at some point lose the ability to have these huge upward momentum Cycles because there will be so much adoption and so much money in these um sectors and and cryptos that it won't be these 100x 200x it will act more like a traditional stock or a traditional investment like you said a few episodes ago you believe this is the last major super cycle and I agree with you it doesn't mean that cryptocurrencies going anywhere it just means it will be more traditional Investments it'll be viewed as a more traditional investment in the future and the returns will follow that lead so it's very important to understand so I want to get into the next section and I want to riff a little bit here about something really fun today and that is is the government loosening its stance on crypto I don't know how much you guys have been following Trump's campaign but he's really really leaning on cryptocurrency as being something big for him and I think it's incredibly smart with Biden always either not knowing or talking down about cryptocurrency and then Trump steps in and says it's one of his number one priorities I think it's genius and it is a definite thing that has to happen for the us because what we can't do is lose all the Innovation to other countries because Biden wants to continue on this Witch Hunt and his you know people in his cabinet and such against cryptocurrency and one of the things that I thought was really cool that I saw happen today is that Trump is now accepting Doge Sheba enu Bitcoin ethereum and salana for payment for campaign contrib tions and his merch I think this is really a smooth move for him in getting a new voter base and really helps I guess get everyone to understand that cryptocurrency and blockchain are not going away and if the government were to keep a hardened stance which I don't think they can or will it really just drives Innovation out of this country and will ultimately hurt us for decades to come and so that's why we just really have to see will Biden possibly soften their approach moving forward um prior to the election because I think it's too dangerous for the US to push further Innovation out of the country so walk us through what you think on this because I just think it's one of the biggest narratives going into this election of now all of a sudden we're going to see all of this great news coming from both sides that they're all for cryptocurrency because they're trying to figure out how to get elected yeah I think by November the election it really will be a big issue I think that's going to be one of the top let's say five issues of the campaign is is what what to do with cryptocurrency but uh just both sides even talking about or referencing or or having these these fights over it shows us that it's a how transformative blockchain technology is is that it's now a political point or a political argument if we been back 10 years ago nobody would have even believed that would have happened you know it was a niche currenty you know was mostly techies and a little bit of financial nerds but it was not like it is now it shows us how far Bitcoin has come now if the SEC does approve the ethereum ETFs it's going to draw a lot of new investment it's going to draw a lot of big names a lot of capital A lot of banks a lot of rich and a lot of organizations are going to invest in ethereum and it's going to mimic what happened with the Bitcoin ETF uh when I think it was in January that they approved the Bitcoin it was the 26th I think now before that we saw Bitcoin go from around you know 12 13,000 already up to 40,000 within a few months now that's a you know it was like 80% I believe something like that now I may not be right but it's close uh now we're going to see that same type of move in ethereum if not more because ethereum started out lower ethereum was a little bit behind already and ethereum did not have the attention at Bitcoin now we may see a a higher percentage gains from ethereum going forward now the biggest thing that will happen if the ethereum ETF is approved if the government steps on board of overall crypto cryptocurrency Market is all of a sudden going to have a new level of acceptance and credibility that never had before so now we're going to see a lot of people that were on the sidelines all this time you cannot say it's a scam if there's a Bitcoin ETF you can't say it's a scam if there's an ethereum ETF you can't say it's a scam if Trump accepts it as his campaign for campaign you cannot say it it's it's no if you can't be a trump supporter or any or Biden supporter if they once bidon accepts it and say crypto's a scam that argument is d d i mean done it's over so now that that big roadblock is gone we're going to see a huge PE a huge amount of people that feel like they missed the boat jump in yeah I agree and it seems like aligning with or at least not actively opposing crypto could be the Strategic advantage and I think that's why both Biden and Trump are easing their kind of overall view on it because it is going to be a huge talking point to see who can do it the best to help them win the presidential election and as other countries start to develop and innovate in cryptocurrency we just have to the leader because otherwise we could even lose some of the top cryptocurrency exchanges that are already from the US to other company other countries if we don't soften that approach so let's go into kind of the other important part of this right now and let's talk about do we believe that Traders are still reeling from the crypto liquidations so shed some light on this the massive liquidations recently in the crypto market and it seems like a significant number of Traders are getting caught off guard so what exactly happened and why was it so significant because for us it doesn't really matter I look at the long term I'm already looking at where we're at in 2026 2027 what are the narratives that are going to win where are we going to make the most money you know which of these coins and companies are going to do the most disruption but let's talk through the recent liquidations and what it means to the overall market and the price action yeah so the unique or funny thing about cryptocurrency is it has a an emotional component to it right is that uh sometime people short uh stocks for many reasons or assets many reasons they stock because they see a strategic uh Advantage they short suay because they feel like that company is going to fall that you know whatever industry or whatever is asset's going to fall and some people will short a company because they hate it yeah you know and it was actually a go for get his name you may remember him he he took out a huge short position on herb herb life herb life uh this because he just hated the company it's like he couldn't really tell you why he took a billions and billions of dollars of a short position and he lost a lot of his investor money because Herbal Life continued to go forward he was sure it was a scam and it was going to fall because he hated the CEO and he lost a lot of money but because his emotions caused him to make a irrational decision now cryptocurrencies like that too there's a lot of people in traditional finance a lot of people who know people who made a bunch of money in crypto they hated to their core and this is I believe this CA is more shorts to be taken out against cryptocurrency a lot of people truly in their heart believe it's going to crash it's no way this digital thing can can can uh compete with regular money all you know everything they've known in the past so this CA 90,000 people to be liquidated once this ethereum ETF news hit uh and that's including Bitcoin and ethereum when ethereum Rose to 3,800 and a Bitcoin passed the 7 $70,000 Mark 990,000 people got liquidated and lost every uh because they had big short positions out expecting Bitcoin to crash now that's quite staggering it it was it was over $297 million from short positions were lost uh due to this crash right and like I said is that uh this just shows us that the mark this Market you have to be careful uh you have to practice risk management because it's very difficult to judge which way it's going shortterm uh long term we can see short term is difficult because it's news driven it's uh it's technology driven Innovation driven and we really don't know when those things are going to come out yeah and it's different too because you know um we talked on the rich habits podcast last week about this that we live in a market where technical analysis sometimes is thrown out the window these markets don't always make sense we live in a market especially in cryptocurrency where hype Cycles are real you can look at the analysis you can look at the company you can and I mean let's talk meme coins some of it makes no sense but that doesn't matter we are here to educate people on how to build wealth and navigate the crypto markets and so it's not always based on you know the technical analysis I read an article last week and it's funny because I was the true essence of being on the other side of the fence that 212 economists in out of like 300 in 2022 predicted a recession for 2023 and 2024 yet in 2023 we had one of the biggest bull markets in history so that just goes to show you that you can't always just look at the technical analysis because there's more to it than that there is what is happening in the news these hype Cycles you know what communities are by behind what projects that are blowing these projects up who spending the most on marketing and that's why I get to enjoy doing this with you every week is trying to get give people a better understanding so they can zoom out and understand how to invest properly in the crypto markets so they don't get wrecked because we do live in an era where there's a ton of Shilling we talk about this all the time and I like mentioning it because so many people see a crypto being talked about by 10 you know influencers and they're like oh this must be great I'm going to dump all my money in it well guess what they're getting paid to tell you it's great so that's why you have to always ask the question or ask them in a comment are you getting paid to sponsor this if they don't mention it because that's how you get wrecked so just always keep that in mind do your research and we can go from there to make sure you guys are on the right path for investing in the cryptocurrency space so I want to put another point in about technical analysis because I like how you said that uh the technical analysis is not the the H part it's part of a greater picture right uh and a lot of these people they'll attack me and they'll like I'll say coin's going to do well or whatever you'll say it and they say you didn't look at the charts the charts say this and I said what it doesn't matter right but Nvidia it didn't matter what the chart said with a lot because the hype is real like you said and you have to remember this is that a lot of people gravitate to charts because it's actually the easiest thing to do y the hardest thing is macroanalysis the harder thing is interpreting the news and Innovations and figuring out what stocks what assets what cryptos are going to do well based on this news or that news or this Innovation that's the hardest part because it requires a larger set of knowledge that you can learn how to read charts in three weeks there's there's programs out there that would spit out numbers and signals to where you know what's you know what to do that's why people gravitate to that because it's simpler it's more absolute and it's easier just to go by the charts now when you tell people to do a go look at the greater picture you have to actually have a greater set of knowledge and people avoid that that's the reason why a lot of people uh gravitate to charts I'm not discounting charts but I'm just saying it's part of a much bigger picture yeah and I think that's why we've done so well over the years and decades is because we have a greater understanding of where the money is going and not just looking at a chart and you mentioned macro understanding that is the key key key to Building Wealth and being able to understand it so when you're doing your resarch you can understand more than just the chart but where is it going I called out that I felt EV was going downhill bad 6 eight months ago and was telling everyone that would listen I would be careful of your EV positions cuz everyone was in charge point and Neo and rivan and look what happened there they are all tanking tanking tanking same thing in other sectors like right now I've been very verbal that I think Apple's in an innovation crisis I've said it for months and months I got out of my Apple position for the first time in over 10 years and I just think it's going to continue to struggle for a while could I be wrong absolutely but I don't think so so it's just all about understanding the entire Market picture of what it's painting to you and what it's showing you so people can make educated decisions so thank you all for joining us today on the Crypt Trends podcast you can find us at Crypt Trends podcast on Instagram Spotify apple and YouTube and we appreciate you joining us each and every week for the Crypt Trends podcast please make sure to share it with a friend give us that five-star review and let others know about the podcast if you 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