Mm.
Well, on this Friday morning, Bitcoin briefly fell below the 81,000 level and not surprisingly, the CMC Cryptoe and greed index is on extreme fear.
Well, we saw coin glass data showing that almost $2 billion worth of leveraged crypto positions have been liquidated in the past day.
Now Bitcoin is sharply lower on the euro it did hit. lowest level since April and broke below that key 81,000 level.
It also hit its lowest point since July and dipped below the 2630 level overnight.
Still, AI bubble theaters are sticking around.
Some crypto analysts such as Tom Lee and Matt Hogan suggest falling crypto prices are a leading market indicator and a signal equities could go much lower.
Joining me to weigh in this morning is Nick Roberts, Hutley, CEO and co-founder of Blueprint Finance.
Well, Nick, happy Friday.
What a week it has been.
It's been interesting this week for sure.
Thank you very much.
My pleasure.
Well, let's look at Bitcoin first and foremost in terms of what's happening to the actual token itself, but also funds.
So tell us why we're seeing this price action.
There's been a pretty extraordinary amount of ETF outflows over the last month or so, which obviously creates quite a significant amount of structured selling into Bitcoin particularly.
I think that ends up with a lot of outflows just from liquidity and depth more broadly.
I think coupled with some other.
Slightly more miso trending behaviors of long term holders beginning to divest their positions, which is net net healthy, has led to some pretty structured selling off of the asset.
And when we take a step back and look at the crypto market, it's not just Bitcoin that is selling off.
We're looking at the other crypto major lower as well by around 10% on this Friday morning.
But when we take a step back and look at the broader market, equity markets, as well as macro factors, Morning we saw stock futures turn higher as we had Fed comments expecting a December rate cut and right now we're looking at a 25%, 75, 70% chance of a 25 basis point cut at the December meeting.
So tell us how all of this is affecting digital assets.
I think we're seeing a resilience in the altcoin market on BTC pairs for the time being, primarily because there isn't so much structured cell pressure within the ETF outflows that typically has a bit of a bullwhip effect.
So we'll see how the broader digital asset market on the slightly more alternative assets within the field perform over the next coming weeks.
I do think, however, you know, as with a lot of structural patterns towards the end of a financial year, there is a lot of rebalancing and reorientation.
And so my opinion is largely that we're seeing that take hold on what is obviously a risk asset, which is typically a smaller proportion or viewed as a liquidity tranche in most asset managers' books, and you mentioned a key word there, and that is risk.
So of course all of us were anticipating Nvidia earnings.
We got those results as well as the outlook, the guidance.
So how does that play into the risk scenario here?
There's a lot of narrative and discussion around the kind of AI potential bubble.
I think that's been something that has caught a little bit of momentum in the last few weeks.
Obviously, despite Nvidia having such a strong earnings report, we saw some very, very significant rise and fall over a 36 hour period.
I think for us as a company, we generally view the AI investment drawing some risk capital out of digital assets primarily because it is such a capex intensive area of development, research, and productivity.
So our view is we'll continue to see more capital invest in AI and we will look to some guidance from the state and the Fed in terms of where we might trend over the coming months.
Yeah, and speaking of which, we are.
On Wall Street, but we've been paying attention to what's happening in the nation's capital in Washington DC and now that the government shutdown is over, we're paying attention to the regulatory landscape.
So when it comes to crypto, what are your expectations as we head into 2026?
I think we've had a great year in 2025 in terms of starting to get some better regulatory clarity on how to define.
That's around securities and commodities.
The stablecoin bills that have come through have provided some really fantastic frameworks for people to start hanging their hat on, and the mapping between the Genius Act and the Mica within Europe creates some more broader economic clarity between different markets.
2026, I'd love to see some better clarity and some regulatory frameworks about how we can move beyond just stablecoins and outside of ETFs and more kind of native implications of what we can do with digital assets as an investment class.
And soon we will be hearing the opening bell with Fidelity ringing the bell, but I do want to get your take on layer twos and what we're seeing.
I think we're seeing people look again for a disproportionate rate of return.
Obviously everybody who has been a long holder, a long participant within the world of digital assets has sought a greater than average rate of return because they have taken on what has been perceived as a greater rate of risk.
Layer 2. are starting to become a performance sector specific area for execution whether that be around payments, infrastructure, AI, and more discrete areas of industry for digital assets and blockchain technology more broadly to be effective in scaling those companies more effectively.
I think it's net net positive.
We may just see some distribution outside of traditional layer 1 flows.
OK, Nick, well, thank you so much for joining us and weighing in on all the market moves that are taking place not just in crypto but also across equities as well.
Thank you so much.
My pleasure.
Thank you.
