Watch the video of this part of the fireside chat on Gamma Prime’s YouTube channel:
Fireside chat with Nenter Chow (Global CEO at Bitmart) and Yuri Rabinovich (Founder and Managing Partner at VNTR Capital)
BitMart’s Nenter Chow breaks down today’s bifurcated crypto market — from a U.S.-led Bitcoin and ETF rally to the ongoing liquidity drain in altcoins — and shares why selling pressure may persist even as IPO and treasury deal activity heats up.
Yuri Rabinovich (VNTR Capital):
Thanks for joining. The goal here is to learn. Probably not a lot we can learn about your experience at BitMart, but maybe we can start with Animoca. You guys invested in hundreds of companies. What do you see about what’s happening these days in terms of investments?
Nenter Chow (BitMart):
Sure. Well, I think even though my current job at BitMart is running the exchange, I still think being plugged into the investment world is absolutely critical just to see where trends are going. I would say the market right now is somewhat bifurcated.
On one hand, you have the US-led rally, which is more Bitcoin-centric, as well as ETF- and NASDAQ-centric. You’re seeing most of the deal flow and activity and investors, whether venture funds or liquid funds, piling into these sorts of pipe deals or reverse merger treasury deals in the US, because there’s a lack of liquidity in the altcoin market.
When you look at the altcoin market, you’re seeing most tokens bleed out. And I think that’s a function of supply and demand. What do I mean by that? You have over 4 million plus tokens currently in the market, and they continue to be launched on a daily basis. Not enough capital to deploy across all these projects, not enough capital that is actively trading.
Especially when you combine it with the amount of liquidity that has been sucked out from the retail side with some of these rug pulls, hacks, and token launches that drain liquidity. I would estimate easily above 8 to 10 billion that was drained over the last year from the retail side. So who’s holding up the bid, right? That’s why you’re seeing so much bleeding across these alts.
I don’t necessarily see it stopping anytime soon, just because especially the VC-backed ones, there are unlocks happening regularly. I was just in New York at Permissionless and I ran into some projects that I’ve spoken to in the past. The overall sentiment is a bit tough right now, just because you have projects that raised a lot, but at the same time you have 1% unlocking every month with investors selling that down immediately as they receive the tokens.
So I really think over the next 12 to 24 months, I do not foresee this selling pressure subsiding anytime soon. But then, on the other hand, you have a lot of excitement with what’s happening in the U.S. with all these treasury deals. And I think the IPO pipeline is pretty healthy. You’ll see some exchanges and more treasury deals continue to get printed.
