Bitcoin OGs Made RECORD Profits - Wall Street Paid Them

**Scott Melker** (0:00)
Surprisingly, Bitcoin OGs made record profits during this cycle. And the reason may be because they had Wall Street to sell their Bitcoin too. We're going to unpack that and everything else that's driving crypto markets right now with special guest Dave from Coindesk. Let's go.
Good morning, everybody. Happy Thursday and welcome to, is that Rainy? Is it raining? Rainy New York.
I think it's New York. I don't know what city I'm in on any given day. Today it's rainy New York. Yesterday, we were at the beach with Jordy Visser. We're really trying to do anything to keep engagement high by changing our very scenic backgrounds on a day-to-day basis. So listen, before I bring on Dave, I want to talk about one thing because people keep asking my opinion on it, and I think it's so nonsensical that we have to bring it up. There is this thing that went viral from Thread Guy here, saying that, oh, geez, I guess traders from previous cycles, this is the crypto Twitter degeneracy that I never touched, but here we are. We're trading against plumbers and had it super easy, basically saying that it's much more difficult to make money in crypto now if you're like a meme coin trader and blah, blah, blah. What I found interesting is that this is just extreme bear market behavior, in my opinion, when people literally have nothing better to do than to debate who had it easier. Shockingly, all the people who were there in the past said that it was harder for them, and all the people who are here now think it's harder for them. I know it's shocking that everybody needs to be a pressed person in this story, and I would just say that you've all had it easy, and go try actually being a plumber, like maybe in Bangladesh, and see if you think that your job as a meme coin trader is difficult. Okay, that was, I don't even know why I did that. I'm gonna bring on Dave, because he's got to have something. Dave, I asked you how to make sure I had your pronunciation right, and you told me that people used to call you Dave LaValle, you're male, and it's gonna be forever.

**Dave LaValle** (2:08)
That's right. Well, let me, Scott, let me tell you that. I started my career on the floor of the American Stock Exchange. Every single trader that I've ever met said that they wish they started trading five years earlier, because it would have been easier. Yeah.
I don't think this is a crypto thing. I think this is, you know, in the crypto, this cycle versus last cycle. I mean, this is just a trading thing. I mean, you know, I started on the floor of the American Stock Exchange in the late 90s with singly listed options, and I wish that I was an Intel options trader five years earlier.

**Scott Melker** (2:41)
I mean, aren't we all just grumpy old men who think that everybody has had it easier than us? I agree. I used to walk uphill both ways in the snow, carrying 400-pound weights to go to school.

**Dave LaValle** (2:53)
I just got off the phone before I hopped on with one of my sales guys who's out in London. I said, hey, man, it's tough. It's a tough slog, but I'll tell you what, every tough slog I've ever had, when I've gotten through it, I look back, I'm thrilled that I achieved it. Let's just keep on pressing forward. It's a tough market.

**Scott Melker** (3:08)
Let's talk about the tough slog that is the market. You went ahead and did the nice segue for me first. This was shocking and it became our title.
Bitcoin OG traders just had their most profitable cycle ever. Unlike past cycles, crypto exchange traders were not the exit liquidity. It was ETF and DATS. And I know you have some strong opinions on ETFs. I know that you have some experience there, so we can talk about that. But the structural bid pushed Binance traders' unrealized profits to nearly triple the 2021 top. I mean, I think that we can go through it. I don't think it's necessary. But the idea here, and I think it actually is obvious, is that if you were a Bitcoin holder for a very long time, we saw clear evidence that those guys finally sold above $100,000 and higher and then on the way down and made a whole lot of money. But the point here is that they were able to sell it to digital asset treasury companies, right? We thought we were going to be the liquidity, but they ended up in the exit liquidity instead of the buyer.