crypto markets

Vitalik Buterin on the crypto blues: Focus on the tech, not the price

The Ethereum co-founder has recommended weary crypto investors to shift away from price watching and focus on the tech instead.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has shared some sage advice for traders feeling the blues of the crypto bear market: Focus on the tech rather than the price.

The Ethereum co-founder made the recommendation in response to a Dec. 3 post from self-described crypto investor CoinMamba, echoing what many crypto investors are likely feeling at the moment.

“After 9 years in crypto I’m kinda exhausted. I want to move on and do something different with my life. Tired of all these scammers and fraudsters,” CoinMamba said.

The crypto industry has continued to be bombarded with unsavory news since the collapse of FTX and the resulting contagion, which recently claimed crypto exchange BlockFi.

BNB Chain-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Ankr recently confirmed it was hit by a multimillion-dollar exploit on Dec. 1.

Even before that, hackers had already been responsible for the theft of over $2.98 billion in digital assets in 2022, according to statistics from blockchain security firm PeckShield.

A large chunk was from the Ronin bridge exploit, which resulted in $625 million in crypto assets being pilfered back in March. 

However, as a means to combat all the negativity, Buterin suggests moving away from trading and investing “circles” and, instead, getting closer to the “tech and application ecosystem.”

“I’d recommend increasing your distance from trading/investing circles, and getting closer to the tech and application ecosystem,” he said.

“Learn about ZK-SNARKs, visit a meetup in Latin America, listen to All Core Devs calls and read the notes until you’ve memorized all the EIP numbers…” he added.

Ether bull and host of The Daily Gwei Anthony Sassano agreed, saying the bear market is the “perfect time” to shift away from market watching and learn more about the tech.

“Much more signal than noise (especially in the Ethereum ecosystem) and the tech side is so much more exciting than the markets anyway.“

Ethereum has given investors plenty to focus on this year, with the completion of the long-awaited Merge on Sept. 15, which saw the network shift away from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus.

Buterin later added a new category of milestones to the Ethereum technical roadmap, one that aims to improve censorship resistance and decentralization of the Ethereum network.

“Being in it for the tech is already a significant and positive culture pivot, relative to being in it for price movements,” said Buterin in his recent Twitter post.

Related: Vitalik Buterin offers lessons for crypto in wake of the FTX collapse

In November, Buterin told Bloomberg that the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange brought lessons for the entire crypto ecosystem.

He labeled the FTX collapse as a “huge tragedy” but also noted that the problem was in people, not technology — adding that the underlying stability of distributed ledger and the technology powering the crypto asset economy has not come into question.

Scaramucci highlights key factors why crypto market will soon recover

Anthony Scaramucci cited the Merge, improving macro indicators such as waning inflation, key business partnerships and pumping crypto prices as reasons for his optimism moving forward.

Founder and managing partner of Skybridge Capital, Anthony Scaramucci, has an optimistic outlook for the future of crypto markets, advising investors to “see through the current environment” and “stay patient and stay long term.”

In an interview with CNBC, the hedge fund manager spoke about his belief that several recent developments in the crypto space could spark “a lot more commercial activity.”

In particular, he highlighted the ever-improving Lightning Network, the two-layer payment protocol layered on top of Bitcoin, BlackRock’s partnership with Coinbase, and their subsequent establishment of a Bitcoin (BTC) private trust fund as positive signs for the future:

“Finally, CEO Larry Fink is seeing institutional demand for digital assets. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be setting up those products, and he wouldn’t be teaming up with Coinbase.”

“I just want to remind people that there are only 21 million Bitcoins out there, and you’ll have a demand shock with very little supply,” he added.

Ethereum Merge on the horizon

Scaramucci cited the upcoming Ethereum Merge scheduled for Sept. 15, which will change the network’s consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake (PoS), as an event that could affect the market price of the second largest cryptocurrency.

In his opinion, traders are buying the cryptocurrency based on the potential positives the merger could bring, but he also notes they could turn around and sell just as fast.

“A lot of traders are probably buying that rumor; they will probably sell on the news of that merger,” he said, adding that “I would caution people not to do that; these are great long term investments,” he added.

Recovery slow but steady over the last month

Despite the ongoing crypto bear market, many top cryptocurrencies have posted modest gains. BTC is up 20% in the last month to sit at $24,954 at the time of writing, while the price of Ether (ETH) has surged a hefty 62% to $1999, according to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.

Scaramucci noted that he’d seen a resurgence of investor interest, and with better-than-expected inflation numbers in July, he believes the global economy can return to its strong 2019 Quarter 4 status within 6 to 12 months.

Overall, Scaramucci has a positive outlook for the crypto market and cautions investors to take care with knee-jerk reactions to bad news and emotion-based trading.

His firm believes that BTC could see an unprecedented upswing over the next six years.

“If we are right, if BTC goes to $300,000 USD a coin, it will not matter if you bought it at $20,000 USD, $60,000 USD; the future is upon us; it’s happening sooner than I thought,” he said:

“If you’re out of the market for the ten best days, you’ve reduced your return from a 7.5% return to a 2% return; I don’t want us to start herking and jerking the portfolio based on emotion.”

“I think that’s the message I’m trying to send to investors; just relax; we see a pretty optimistic scenario for BTC, ETH, ALGO and Solana (SOL) over the next 12 to 24 months,” he added.

Scaramucci mentioned his firm has a position in Ethereum competitor Algorand, but by far their two most significant positions are still in BTC and ETH.