Blood in the Streets

In the 18th century, Baron Rothschild from the famed Rothschild banking dynasty was credited as saying ‘’the time to buy is when there’s blood in the streets’’, he subsequently went on to make fortunes buying into the panic that was derived from the Battle of Waterloo. Right now, the market is battling a war against sentiment, especially over this recent weekend. The flow of blood is strong within the crypto markets, and directional leveraged traders are either packing up and going home, having been liquidated in last week’s brutal sell-off, or are dealing with portfolio revaluations of painful proportions. Conversely, during these past weeks, well-capitalized delta-neutral arbitrage traders have feasted on the sky-high panic-driven volatility causing lucrative price dislocations across exchanges which are systematically exploited for profit, these traders have seen extremely profitable days of late. As an example of the price moves, Bitcoin has now experienced the largest monthly candle in history, a staggering $29,000 directional move.Chart showing the historical movement of the alternative.me crypto sentiment data. Currently at cycle lows.This latest 25% weekly drop means BTC has corrected, at its peak, a shocking ~50% in the past two weeks, with many alts suffering more as narratives around crypto swing widely. Two weeks ago, it was ESG concerns surrounding the energy-intensive Proof of Work consensus of Bitcoin and the rather tactical tweets by Musk, which were then snowballed by mainstream media. Over the weekend, the ESG concerns hampering adoption have moved to renewed reports that the Chinese Government is again looking to restrict mining in China. Reports of this nature are nothing new, with many brushing the ‘FUD’ off as just a further distraction. However, a closer look at the story added legitimacy to the ‘’China bans crypto’’ story we have all been accustomed to over the years. The…