Cryptocurrency
Execs remain positive on long-term prospects amid VC funding downturn

As crypto prices remain at lower levels, venture capital (VC) funding also recorded one of its worst quarters since 2021. Despite this, executives in the space remain optimistic about the industry’s long-term potential.
Crypto data platform RootData highlighted that the second quarter of 2023 delivered one of the worst performances in terms of crypto fundraising. Compared with the first quarter of 2022, where $12.62 billion were raised across 559 funding rounds, Q1 2023 saw around $2.1 billion across 292 rounds — an 83% decrease in VC investments flowing into the space.

Despite the flow of venture capital funds slowing down, professionals working in the space believe there’s still a strong ongoing belief that crypto has potential in the long term.
Gvantsa Chkuaseli, the head of structuring and fundraising at Web3 accelerator Outlier Ventures, told Cointelegraph in a statement that despite the downturn in Q4 2022, there’s also been an uptick in activity. According to Chkuaseli, this suggests investors strongly believe in blockchain’s long-term potential.
“We can see with our own portfolio, such as Mawari’s recent $6.5 million seed round co-led by Blockchange Ventures and Decasonic, and Zinc’s $5 million Series A, that there is interest despite the challenging conditions,” Chkuaseli explained.
Chkuaseli added that some investors appear undeterred by the recent downturn and continue to back early-stage companies within the sector. “We still believe, though, there are reasons to be optimistic,” Chkuaseli said. The executive also noted the massive interest in startups focused on artificial intelligence (AI), highlighting that fetch.ai received $40 million in funding from DWF Labs earlier this year.
JUST IN: AI-focused #crypto protocol @Fetch_ai has raised $40 million in new funding from @DwfLabs.$FET rose 13.9% to $0.388 following the news.
: https://t.co/eeHLD0FOGa pic.twitter.com/czlV9oNrZb
— CoinGecko (@coingecko) March 29, 2023
Saqr Ereiqat, co-founder of Dubai-based venture-building firm Crypto Oasis, believes that despite the negatives brought about by the downturn, there are still positive takeaways from the current situation. Ereiqat explained:
“On the positive side, this shift allows for a more discerning selection process, ensuring that only the most promising projects receive funding. Moreover, the challenging times serve to crystallize the winners, separating the truly innovative ventures from the rest.”
Even though there are positive outlooks, the executive still expressed empathy toward projects that are struggling because of the lack of funding. “It’s disheartening to witness numerous companies facing the risk of extinction due to the scarcity of funding opportunities,” he said. Ereiqat also told Cointelegraph that this situation emphasizes the importance of strategic decision-making for projects.
Similar to Chkuaseli, Ereiqat also highlighted how AI-focused projects are still seeing massive amounts of investments. Citing the $1.3 billion funding round for Inflection AI, the executive said there’s a growing opportunity within the AI startup landscape.
Related: Crypto VC is struggling only from a North American perspective — Animoca Brands CEO
Meanwhile, Phillip Lord, the president of the crypto payments platform Oobit, believes that it’s necessary for entrepreneurs to focus on building companies with sustainable business models and clear revenue streams. According to Lord, this help VCs be compelled to invest in their projects. He said:
“We are currently in a higher interest rate cycle, and rates are expected to remain high for the next three to five years. As such, businesses should avoid the ‘growth at any cost’ model, and instead focus on building strong and sustainable operations that will stand the test of time.“
Lord also highlighted that the VC model is experiencing a change because of AI. “Burn rates of companies can drastically come down if AI is fully embraced,” Lord said. The executive also predicted that there would be solo entrepreneurs earning more than $25 million annually “with literally no staff” because of AI.
Magazine: AI Eye: Is AI a nuke-level threat? Why AI fields all advance at once, dumb pic puns
Cryptocurrency
Key Metrics That Signal a Crypto Market Bottom, According to Santiment

As the crypto market continues to trade range-bound, the on-chain analytics firm Santiment has outlined key metrics that could help traders identify a market bottom. These indicators enable market participants to know when it is safe to inject more capital into their portfolio in anticipation of future rallies.
According to a Santiment report, the metrics include social trends, key stakeholder accumulation, a drop in Mean Dollar Invested Age, and social dominance fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) signals.
When Market Bottom?
The crypto community is constantly talking about coins and predicting which direction their prices are heading. Santiment said these social trends are significantly influenced by the momentum that markets have shown over a timeframe, so this makes traders’ decisions emotion-based on most occasions.
A slight drop in an asset’s price—bitcoin (BTC), for instance—could trigger a sudden bearish narrative, with social media posts depicting negative sentiment. The opposite is often seen after a sudden spike in a cryptocurrency’s value. Hence, traders can predict future price movements by paying attention to the vocal majority on social media.
While paying attention to social trends, the dominance of positive or negative commentaries could signal a good time to buy or sell. Santiment noted that a high level of fear or missing out (FOMO) would lead to prices topping soon; however, major FUD could lead to great bottoming opportunities.
As a result, projects with high levels of negative sentiment present good buying opportunities, as prices often move in the opposite direction of the crowd’s expectations.
Old Coins Returning to Circulation
As the crypto community often gets predictions wrong, whales move prices the way they fit due to their large capital, which controls the market. Santiment says traders should watch key stakeholders no matter what asset they are analyzing.
The best times to buy are when crypto prices drop, and whale wallets accumulate aggressively. When whales start accumulating, there is often a surge in transactions valued above $100,000 or $1 million, so Santiment insists a spike in large transaction volumes is often a bullish sign.
Finally, a decline in the Mean Dollar Invested Age also signals a market bottom. This metric tells the average of the dollars invested in an asset. When this indicator drops, it means that a healthy level of dormant tokens is returning to regular circulation, which could trigger a market rally.
Notably, the Mean Dollar Invested Age works in tandem with another metric, Age Consumed, which indicates the number of tokens changing addresses on a certain date multiplied by the last time they moved. A huge spike in Age Consumed helps predict market bottoms.
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Cryptocurrency
Arthur Hayes Confident in $250,000 Bitcoin Amid Fed’s Policy Pivot

Despite a minor recovery this week, Bitcoin’s price continues to struggle well below $90,000. The crypto asset has been under tremendous market stress as traders remained cautious due to economic uncertainties.
However, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes believes that Bitcoin could surge to $250,000 by the end of 2025.
Bitcoin’s Push to $250,000
In his latest blog post, Hayes made a bold prediction while analysing a crucial shift in US monetary policy, where he believes the Federal Reserve will eventually cave to pressure and resume quantitative easing (QE) due to political and economic pressures. He argued that Bitcoin’s price will rise dramatically as the Fed reintroduces liquidity into the system, driven by its need to support the US economy.
Hayes specifically pointed to the Federal Reserve’s recent shift in stance regarding the supplementary leverage ratio (SLR) and the overall balance sheet policy. He predicts that the central bank will grant an exemption for banks on the SLR, which will effectively allow them to hold more Treasury bonds without facing stricter capital requirements.
This, according to Hayes, will act as a form of Treasury QE, which will flood the market with liquidity.
The former CEO of BitMEX went on to draw on comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who hinted at the possibility of stopping the roll-off of assets from the Fed’s balance sheet, as well as a recent statement from Bessent about the impact of removing the SLR, which could lower treasury bill yields and boost liquidity by tens of billions of dollars.
Hayes’s analysis also addresses the potential inflationary impacts of proposed tariffs. While Powell has maintained that any tariff-induced inflation would be “transitory,” he argued that the Fed’s commitment to easing will remain firm, even if inflation spikes.
This belief in “transitory” inflation allows the central bank to continue its policies of monetary expansion without fear of long-term consequences, making it less concerned about the inflationary effects of tariffs on goods or services.
Bitcoin: “Anti-Establishment” Asset?
Further elaborating on the liquidity dynamics, the 40-year-old American entrepreneur noted that the US Treasury has already reduced its pace of quantitative tightening (QT) from $25 billion per month to just $5 billion post-April 1, which has created an annualized liquidity boost of $240 billion. He predicts this number could rise to $420 billion as the year progresses, which could essentially mean a shift toward more aggressive easing.
For Hayes, these conditions mirror those of the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC), where gold and other commodities outperformed traditional assets as the Fed’s liquidity injections began. While Bitcoin did not exist during the GFC, he believes it now serves as the “anti-establishment” asset, set to benefit from the same liquidity-driven tailwinds that propelled gold during the last crisis.
Hayes also doubled down on his $250,000 Bitcoin prediction while arguing that the Fed’s eventual return to QE will drive the cryptocurrency higher, as it thrives in environments of fiat currency debasement. He believes Bitcoin’s technology and its positioning as a store of value make it the ideal asset to capitalize on the flood of liquidity that he expects to come.
Despite acknowledging market risks, Hayes remains confident that Bitcoin’s value will soar as the Fed’s monetary policies align with his outlook for a higher price in the coming months.
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Cryptocurrency
Why Is Pi Network’s PI Falling While the Entire Market Rallies?

TL;DR
- The broader crypto market has posted impressive gains over the past 24 hours, led by bitcoin’s surge past $85,000.
- However, PI continues to disappoint even in such more positive times, as its price is close to breaking below $0.7 after another minor daily decline.
As the graph above demonstrates, it has been nothing short but a volatile downfall for PI, which was released to the public and for global trading just over a month ago. The asset peaked in late February, but has dumped by more than 75% since the $3 all-time high.
Despite some promising developments on the Pi Network front, such as verification process updates, the native cryptocurrency has failed to recapture its momentum and is down by 3.5% in the past day.
This is particularly disappointing given the fact that almost all other crypto assets have marked gains within the same period. Bitcoin surpassed $85,000 for the first time since Friday, ETH is above $1,900, while DOGE and ADA have jumped by over 4% daily.
Nevertheless, Pi Network’s community, which has grown exponentially in the past several years when the project was still under development, remains bullish despite the negative price performance as of late.
Numerous X users predicted that its price could bounce-off the current $0.7 support and head toward $2 once “the market volume returns.” MOON JEFF was even more bullish for PI’s short-term price movements, indicating that it could go to $2.73 by the end of the month.
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