Monero is showing a sort of strength and resilience I do not believe we have seen since 2017-18.
- The macro environment is EXTREMELY uncertain right now, and all signs are pointing in the down direction.
- Money is moving away from risk, and to the dollar (amazingly) and ruble.
- Tech is getting whallumped. We are seeing draw downs that look like Bitcoin bears in strong tech stocks
- Crypto in general is correlated to the stock market, and particularly the tech side
- Arguably we are seeing an altpocalypse. ETH is down like 2/3rds and almost all alts are getting killed
- Bitcoin dominance is up sharply to level not seen since last year
- Terra/Luna/UST need I say more?
And Bitcoin, while also down is showing fairly strong support and not doing the sort of draw down we have seen in past bears. Many are still calling for Bitcoin to do something it never has and pull back to below the last cycle's highs.
But Monero... Well this is complicated. But it is showing some unique things in the midst of this.
- Monero DID draw down with the other alts during the Luna fiasco. Losing (like ETH) about 60% from JUST LAST MONTH.
- But while the rest of the alts are either continuing downward, or at best not recovering Monero is up 60% from lows
- Monero transaction volume remains high but flat. Down from it's peak, but still high.
- Monero short interest is still higher than most other coins. Backwards from BTC and ETH
Before the Luna debacle Monero was seeing huge gains, out of proportion with the rest of the crypto sector. And though It participated in the crash, it has resumed it's prior upward trajectory to some extent. Much more so than other coins which remain beaten down.
What is driving Monero's buying pressure? We are not seeing anything that would support this in the on chain data. Transaction volume is fairly flat. The comically backwards short/long makeup of interest in Monero continues to be an anomaly. Yet the price is showing strong signs of buoyancy often being one of the only green alts in the top 100, or at worst at least holding.
I think we are seeing organic interest in Monero. And I think we are only seeing the very beginnings of it. New crypto folks are trickling in and one by one the lightbulb goes on for some of them. It's unique use case, and excellent properties put it in the position of being a peculiar draw. Monero has made clear and decisively different choices than bitcoin in the areas or privacy (obviously), issuance (tail emission), ASIC resistant mining , and block size. Some Bitcoinners who would even be seen as Maxis by most are starting to come to Monero because of it's very unique and potent properties.
I think we COULD be in the early stages of it's most epic rise. And I think the cartoonish short interest may end up fueling the rise dramatically enough to cause some fomo out there amongst the dog-coin types. They might not know they are actually fomo-ing into something really good for once... but that will not matter to Monero's bottom line.
I remain bullish.