Crypto is Back! Bitcoin Rallies & Altcoins Wake up, SEC Releases Regulation! Zcash ETF | Zach Pandl

**Zach Pandl** (0:00)
One, two punch of demand for digital scarcity and regulatory clarity for blockchains, the fundamentals driving the industry forward, combined with the price move, give me some confidence that, yes, I guess we're so back at this point.

**Tony Edward** (0:20)
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Hey folks, welcome into the Thinking Crypto Podcast. I'm your host Tony Edward and joining me is Zach Pandl, who's the head of research at Grayscale Investments. Zach, welcome back.

**Zach Pandl** (1:59)
Tony, great to see you. Great to be back on the pod.

**Tony Edward** (2:02)
Yeah, absolutely, Zach. And it's a good time. You know, Bitcoin had this impulsive move to $81,000 today. It's reclaimed $80,000. Things are starting to look really good, Zach. So the big question on everyone's mind is, are we back in a bull market?

**Zach Pandl** (2:19)
Well, Tony, let me say two things here. The first is we've got a very strong signal from price. So not only did we have a big up move in price recently, but it followed a long bottom. So we went through a long period over the course of this summer where we sort of were testing whether there was further lows. We reached a low price of around $58,000 for Bitcoin at the end of June. And not only did we not head lower, we got a fairly strong signal that maybe the market was oversold and price bounced back pretty quick.
That's one important signal, the price itself. Maybe the more important factor is that the fundamentals that drive investors to digital assets are still very much in place. And so it's that mirroring of the price and the fundamentals that makes a bull market.
And I'm encouraged to think that those pieces are coming back together and I don't want to over extrapolate the recent move, but those fundamentals to me are the most important piece. And the things that stand out are first huge demand for scarcity, scarce assets at a time of fiat currency debasement and fiat currency risks, Bitcoin, Ether, still the largest assets in this marketplace. They're in demand for that scarcity premium that they offer, and that is in demand by markets. Today, we can see that beyond digital assets and things like gold. And the second, which I'll know we'll get into today also, is the process of regulatory clarity for blockchains as an aspect of financial services. And even if we haven't gotten the Clarity Act at this point, it looks like one way or the other, we're going to get some improvement, either through agency rulemaking or potentially through that legislation. I'm encouraged that the process of regulatory clarity is still going to move forward. So this sort of one-two punch of demand for digital scarcity and regulatory clarity for blockchains, the fundamentals driving the industry forward, combined with the price move, give me some confidence that, yes, I guess, we're so back at this point.

**Tony Edward** (4:37)
Yeah, absolutely. It's a really great time to be in the market. And you mentioned the backdrop, the two major items of currency debasement plus regulations for crypto assets. As it relates to currency debasement, I think it was just this week it was announced to the Treasury, they may tap up to $1 trillion for the bond buybacks, which, I mean, that's incredible. I don't think I've ever read or seen anything like that before. But to your point, a lot of investors are flocking towards digital assets as well as gold, looking for those hard assets.