Scott Melker is a popular cryptocurrency analyst and influencer with a captivating story of a former world-renowned DJ who stepped back from his professional career in music and turned to crypto.
The Wolf of All Streets – as he’s better known on social media – has been a guest on our podcast before and if you want to learn more about his past career as a DJ, make sure to check out the episode from 2021. Back then (June 2021), Bitcoin’s price had dropped from its former all-time high in April 2021 to a low slightly above $30K.
In this episode, we talk about what changed during the last year, where are we in the current cycle and what can we expect from the cryptocurrency market going forward.
Bitcoin’s Price Yearly Overview: From Crypto FUD to Real Macro Problems
In regards to the most recent consolidation since 2022 had started, between $33K and $45K, Melker argues that there are a lot of similarities and a lot of differences.
“Last May we had a very clear FOMO sort of top. Memecoins were running like crazy, NFTs were on Saturday Night Live (TV show).
And then we were hit, kind of all at the same time by China going offilen, which we knew we will recover from but it was a legit fundamental narrative – what will happen when 50% of the hashrate disappears.
Of course, the energy debates, Tesla deciding not to accept Bitcoin… and a lot of that happened when the vaccine had to come out, in April – May, and everyone also had to go on vacation for the summer.”
He concluded that the last summer of 2021 saw very low volume and nothing happened following the above fundamentals. He also argued that back in January 2021, the price had reached $42K – a price that we saw just a few days ago – more than a year after (at the time of the recording).
“This time we have the Fed… then Ukraine was invaded by Russia and we have a war. I would say there is a lot more global uncertainty this time around. Last summer we were dealing with crypto FUD and now we’re dealing with legitimate macro problems.
I would say I am more cautious here. I don’t think Bitcoin’s dying or going to zero – none of that.”
With that said, what he envisions is a lot of sideways action, but he concluded that there’s no reason to panic on the macro.
Sensible Regulations Can Be the Big Money’s Catalyst
During a choppy price action, sideline participants usually await a catalyst. According to The Wolf of All Streets, regulations could turn out to be a good or a bad catalyst.
“If we get sensible regulations … I think that could be a huge catalyst to the upside because that would give big money more confidence to come in the market.”
However, he also thinks that the industry is currently at the “fight you” phase in terms of regulations where lawmakers are reluctant to give the full green light. Melker also doesn’t completely exclude the possibility of countries with a more hostile approach to cryptocurrencies.
In regards to the war in Ukraine and whether or not crypto can be used to bypass Russia’s sanctions, Melker is of the firm opinion that this can’t be the case because of the very nature of sanctions which aim to cut Russia off from the US economy and no users would risk exposing themselves to the consequences of breaching it in the first place.
The Summer of the Layer One Blockchains
Melker admits that he didn’t see the layer-one trade beforehand, but he also shared that he “saw it pretty well into it that I managed to profit.”
The point in case is the tremendous increase in the value of layer-one cryptocurrencies such as Solana, Luna, Avalanche, and others. This grew to become one of the most heavily-discussed topics in the industry for quite some time.
“During last summer, my approach was really just buy all the layer-ones (blockchains). Find your favorite five or six, split up your money, invest in all of those, because we’re going to live in a multichain world and each one of them will find their use case.”
To this, he said that “Solana may be the chain for metaverse and gaming, maybe Avalanche becomes the institutional chain, maybe Ethereum remains the NFT and DeFi chain.”
We also talked about his thoughts on the hot topics of today like non-fungible tokens, the metaverse, play-to-earn, and many more. To find out what Melker thinks about what’s next in the industry – we invite you to listen to the full episode on Youtube.
