{"id":369552,"date":"2019-01-29T15:03:36","date_gmt":"2019-01-29T15:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wncen.com\/?p=369552"},"modified":"2024-06-11T07:43:51","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T07:43:51","slug":"bitcoin-rally-preceded-crypto-dead-layoffs-regulation-investor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wncen.com\/news\/bitcoin-rally-preceded-crypto-dead-layoffs-regulation-investor\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin Rally To Be Preceded By More “Crypto Is Dead,” Layoffs, Regulation, Says Investor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since Bitcoin began to tumble in early-2018, crypto investors en-masse have been sitting on their hands, eagerly waiting for the eventual<\/em> market turnaround. And while hopeful sentiment has begun to mount, especially as this industry’s news cycle indicates that common Joes & Jills shouldn’t be disconcerted, one fund manager believes that crypto will take another bone-breaking, heart-stopping, and blood-inducing blow before a rally.<\/p>\n

Related Reading:\u00a0Fred Wilson: Bitcoin May Take Much of 2019 to Bottom Out, But There Are Catalysts<\/a><\/em><\/h6>\n

Crypto Winter Isn’t Over… Yet<\/h2>\n

The broader crypto & blockchain ecosystem has been struggling. Full stop.<\/p>\n

Haven Protocol (XHV), a project focused on creating a privacy-centric, stablecoin-esque digital asset, effectively lost<\/a> its core developer one week back. Just weeks after Cryptopia got hacked<\/a> for a supposed $16 million in Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens, Liqui, a Ukranian crypto exchange, revealed<\/a> that it, ironically enough, couldn’t provide liquidity due to financial constraints, and would thus be shuttering its platforms. Giga Watt, a U.S.-based Bitcoin mining upstart, closed up shut mere days ago, revealing<\/a> it was unable to provide its offerings following its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.<\/p>\n

Even for more notable crypto-centric companies, times have been tough. In the past weeks\/months, an array of preeminent startups, even so-called “unicorns” valued at over $1 billion apiece have been struggling.<\/p>\n

Bitmain, the Beijing-based crypto mining giant, purportedly<\/a> began to purge much of its mining division (not manufacturing), with other reports claiming<\/a> that the company also lost its co-chief executives. Huobi, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, has also begun<\/a> a drastic layoff, with the company’s chief executive telling local outlets that 100 positions had been purged.\u00a0More recently, ShapeShift, the company behind the exchange that shares its name, CoinCap, and KeepKey, laid off<\/a> 37 employees \u2014 one-third of its staffers \u2014 in an evident bid to extend the potency of its war chest.<\/p>\n

Blockfolio, BlockEx, Steemit, SpankChain, and ETCDEV are among other notable industry participants to have either folded or laid off employees to extend their financial runway.<\/p>\n

All of this internal tumult has led notable commentators, even a blockchain enthusiast<\/a>, to remark that Bitcoin is likely to plunge to a value of zilch over time. While many lambast crypto’s naysayers for their seeming inability to grasp this innovation, deemed paradigm-shifting by its zealous knights, one unlikely pundit has welcomed such criticism.<\/p>\n

Travis Kling, a former Wall Streeter turned founder of crypto fund Ikigai, says that if Bitcoin is to see a resurgence, this array of shortcomings, including layoffs, exchange collapses, stringent regulation, and cries that “crypto is dead,” will be just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Kling, a former portfolio manager at Steve Cohen’s Point72, recently took Twitter to claim that not enough horrors have befallen this industry to warrant a bull run. He explained:<\/p>\n

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We need more. <\/p>\n

More exchanges gone. More projects shuttering. More SEC enforcements. More developer ragequits. More ICO Treasury selling. More layoffs. More fund liquidations. More scammers exposed. More failed cap raises. More \u201ccrypto is dead\u201d. <\/p>\n

Only then do we move higher \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

— Travis Kling (@Travis_Kling) January 28, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n