I want to share with you some news that looks really powerful in the long term, but right now, crypto enthusiasts are traditionally ignoring it. Because, of course, when the news is filled with World War III, the brain automatically shuts down, and the planning horizon narrows down to the next news.
Firstly.
It's hard to believe, but the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has received an official master account with the Federal Reserve of the USA. That is, an account that provides access to direct interaction with the infrastructure of the US central bank for settlement operations.
To understand the scale of the shift: just five years ago, US banks could instantly encounter problems merely for hinting at a connection with the crypto industry. Any tangential activity related to crypto was perceived as almost financial terrorism. And now one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges is entering the Federal Reserve's perimeter not through the back door, but almost through the front doors with fanfare.
And this is a very clear signal: crypto is not a temporary market hysteria and not a teenage phase of the financial system. It is here to stay.
All these morally exhausting, bloody, nerve-wracking dips are not the 'end of history', but a banal transitional phase. Unpleasant, yes. But temporary.
The second piece of news is no less indicative.
Morgan Stanley, whose CEO a few years ago claimed that the fair value of Bitcoin was somewhere near zero, along with the ultra-conservative bank BNY Mellon, has applied to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF and plans to act as custodians, that is, Bitcoin keepers.
And here’s the most delicious part: these are not some crypto enthusiasts from Twitter who were trading meme coins yesterday and suddenly 'saw the light' today. These are players of such scale and such a level of systemic conservatism that if even they are entering this game, then not entering it is simply not an option. This is not a trend. This is a stage of integration.
In my opinion, the crypto industry is one of the next logical stages of the financial system in conditions of deglobalization.
The world on which the endless growth of the US stock market was built is changing.
The era of cheap credit, free money, and endless inflation of traditional companies is virtually over. Ahead is more expensive capital, higher structural inflation, geopolitical tension, sanctions, and fragmentation of global flows.
And it is precisely in such a world that decentralized financial instruments can become not an exotic, but one of the few real alternatives for placing excess liquidity.
While the retail market participant demonstratively hates crypto because he has been 'reset on altcoins' again, big capital calmly takes seats in the front row.
Therefore, in the long term, the picture, in my opinion, remains maximally strong.
While the crowd looks at the local dirt underfoot, systemic players are already carving out their place in the future architecture of the market.
And, as is often the case, when most finally understand what is happening, the best spots will have long been taken.