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Crypto Comes In From The Cold
How crypto might have gotten through its nasty winter . By Christopher Robbins
AFTER SOME POSITIVE REGULATORY NEWS , RELAtive quiet on the legal front and a surge in token prices , investors and advisors may wonder if the thaw is here and a prolonged “ crypto winter ” may finally be over . The man who founded Edelman Financial Engines , the largest U . S . RIA by assets under management , believes it is .
“ The crypto winter is thawing fast , and soon we ’ re going to be in the crypto spring ,” wrote Ric Edelman in a blog post earlier this year . “ Bitcoin ’ s price is already almost doubled from its low , and many are predicting that it ’ s going to double again within the next several months .” Edelman , who stepped away from his role as chairman of Edelman Financial Engines a couple of years ago , has turned his attention to cryptocurrency and currently acts as CEO for the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals .
The crypto winter has been a long one , its beginning marked by bitcoin ’ s previous peak , the all-time high of $ 68,789.63 set on November 10 , 2021 . The price receded slowly until hitting a low of less than $ 16,000 in November 2022 , a 76 % decline from its high . Through that period , the crypto industry weathered several business failures linked to declines in investor interest and a few major scandals , including the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and the conviction of its founder and CEO , Sam Bankman-Fried , for fraud charges in the U . S .
Over recent months , however , there ’ s been a surge of optimism about the crypto universe , not in small part due to the recovery of token prices . Edelman ’ s argument , which he most recently made in an October blog called “ Here ’ s Everything You Don ’ t Know About What ’ s Happening in Crypto ,” is founded , in part , on faith that U . S . regulators will soon approve spot cryptocurrency ETFs , funds that will track the prices of major tokens like bitcoin and ethereum .
In August , Grayscale Investments , manager of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ( GBTC ), won litigation against the U . S . Securities and Exchange Commission , and a federal judge ordered the agency to give an up-or-down ruling to the company ’ s application for a spot-bitcoin ETF within a reasonable amount of time .
To people like Edelman , it ’ s now a foregone conclusion that Grayscale ’ s ETF will be approved at any time , as could nine other spot-bitcoin ETF proposals pending at the agency . Edelman went so far as to predict that bitcoin prices could climb to six-digit record highs by the end of 2024 if the products get the nod .
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