Let's get to the big story breakdown in New York morning trade.
We are looking at Bitcoin pulling back a little over 2% and holding below the 70,000 level.
Now instead of breakouts, we keep seeing what some may call yet another failed rally while behind the scenestratify integration is in an absolute sprint.
And crypto faces a perfect storm.
Nearly $15 billion worth of Bitcoin options are set to expire on Debit, representing almost 40% of their total open interest.
The expiration does align with the end of the day diplomatic with a diplomatic window following Trump's decision to pause strikes on Iran.
Well joining me to talk energy, all types of energy, is Andy Baehr, Managing Director of Asset Management at GSR.
Andy, great to have you here.
Thank you so much for joining me.
It's good to be back and I'm going to take a quick look to make sure I get this quote right.
One of my colleagues at GSR said this was the noisiest crypto bear market he can remember, and that basically sums it up as you did in the introduction there, you know, Bitcoin is still around $70,000.
Ether is still a little over 2000.
Soon is still between $85,000.90 dollars.
Resilient, we're still at base camp level here.
All the action is elsewhere and so it's from a token watcher and investor point of view, it's requiring even more patience, but at the same time the news flow is almost deafening.
Yes, absolutely, because if we look away from our monitors or devices for even 30 minutes or an hour, we know there have been different updates and the verification process is also something that we need to keep our eyes on when it comes to this news flow that is.
Out from the conflict in the Middle East, but at the same time, when it comes to what we're seeing across the digital asset space this week, it was a busy week here in New York City with Digital Asset Summit 2026.
So tell us what's really happening below the surface.
Yes, we're getting, I was telling you when we were prepping, you know, people are coming up and pitching us on all kinds of ideas.
GSR is a big market making firm, so people are saying we need market making services.
We're building an asset management business.
We need asset management services.
I got pitched to by DeFi people.
I'm not sure what I could offer them right away, but they were really excited to tell me about what they were building in as far distant industries as Bitcoin layer 2s and the film industry.
So there's a ton going on.
These big name integrations with Invesco and Franklin Templeton matching up with Superstate and Ono.
These are huge.
Right, and this idea, there were 8 Kraken announcements, right, tokenized equities, Defi yield vaults, and actually crypton native structured product integration with a Swiss firm all in a couple of days.
So it is extremely noisy.
There's a ton of product being built.
We hope that the demand will be there, but in the meantime, investors who are sitting there allocating to crypto have just for most of the last 6 weeks just had to be.
Super super patient and we are heading into a new quarter next week.
So when we take a step back and look at Q1 price action for Bitcoin, tell us where we are.
Well, this is that we can pull up the chart that we had talked about a little bit before the segment.
One of the most encouraging things that I'm seeing is that when the market has these attempts at rallies, right, ether tends to do pretty well.
So on a day like today when things are pulling back.
You know, you kind of wish that you were all else equal being in Bitcoin because Bitcoin is going to be kind of the safe haven in the context of crypto, but when those rallies start to come out, those green shoots come out, you see ether ahead.
So if you look at the ether to Bitcoin ratio, you'll see that it increases at the kind of time when the markets are pumping, right?
And if last year was The indication of that that's a sign that breadth can follow.
That's the sign of a healthy market to me anyway.
So that means that your sort of Bitcoin, ether, Solana kind of core portfolio should be able to pulse well on the layer one side when things are good.
You kind of want to be more towards Bitcoin when things pull back.
Of course we've gone nowhere for six weeks, so we'll see how this theory tests.
But the other point you brought up about the quarter ending is really important.
You and I have talked about how Bitcoin has this attention span of a quarter.
We've actually done some work on this, and you know there's something to it.
So let's see what happens after March 30th.
The chapter turns and that might just be enough to get some energy back into the market.
Yes and looking at traditional markets here, of course we know when it comes to the equity markets, traditional trading hours are Monday through Friday and are from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and I understand that over the weekends you have been paying attention to S&P 500.
Action on decentralized exchanges.
So we know there has been plenty of activity ahead of the market open on Monday.
So what's going on?
So this is, I think it's a phenomenal thing that happened very, very quickly that S&P actually licensed its yellow box Cheerios, its S&P 500, to hyperliquid to actually a platform on top of hyperliquid called Trade XYZ.
Equities here on the New York Stock Exchange close at 4 p.m., Futures close at 5:00 p.m., and then futures open up again on Sunday night, New York time at 6:00 p.m.
Growing up watching those futures, you know, Sunday comes around, you get a case of the Mondays, and you're waiting for 6 o'clock, and that's when the market really opens Sunday night.
But this past weekend for the first time I could.
S&P trade all weekend and to see how it kind of hung on right as the futures were closing on Friday and it kind of hooked back up when futures opened Sunday night with pretty good volume and I checked this morning there's about 100 million of open interest for a one week old PRP contract.
It's phenomenal.
So I don't know if that kills our weekends for the rest of our lives, but certainly.
The velocity with which that was put together and adopted was really quite interesting, and now we have oil markets, gold markets, and equity markets pretty tradable all the time.
So hopefully those can absorb weekend shocks alongside Bitcoin and other crypto native assets, but also just incredible to watch and just incredible innovation.
And the less than 60 seconds here but you and I have been attending side events as well as going to the digital assets summit itself and there has been tra by the policymakers, builders, and everyone in between.
So what is the sentiment right now?
The sentiment is that regulators are really trying to do their best to do what's sensible, you know.
The harmonization between the CFTC and the SEC, the availability of the commissioners to speak on podcast and to articulate their views, the common sense of the tokenization rules and the definitions.
My colleague, actually the same colleague who came up with a quote earlier, Josh Friesman, had a great op ed out on X the other day about, you know, how to interpret those definitional rules.
It's clarity.
It's not the Clarity Act, which still remains a bit muddled in this stablecoins reward kind of stalemate, but it is clarity, and the builders are coming in and saying, OK, now I know what I can do, can't do.
Now I know when I have to register or don't have to register.
These are the safe harbors I can use, and it's joyous, right?
It just means that a lot.
Of activity has swung all the way back to the United States, so this will take time to move through the system, as will the integration steps from the other side of tokenization and clearing and collateral management and things like that.
But gosh, I'm almost a little surprised that prices aren't more elevated based on the enthusiasm.
It feels like a coiled spring to me.
Well, Andy, always great talking to you.
Next time you're back on the show.
It'll be Q2 so we can look back on this quarter.
So thank you so much for joining me today, Andy.
Thanks, Rey.
Thank you.
