Speaker 1: Hey, it's Alex with the Token Metrics daily polls for
Speaker 1: April nineteenth, twenty twenty six. Big day institutions are more
Speaker 1: bullish on crypto than ever recorded, and prices are going
Speaker 1: the other way. We've got a two hundred and ninety
Speaker 1: two million dollar hack, Mean Coins running wild, and Schwab
Speaker 1: and Citadel eyeing a space that crypto built. Let's get
Speaker 1: into it, but first a quick word from our sponsor. Okay,
Speaker 1: so here's what's happening. Nomura just dropped a study showing
Speaker 1: sixty five percent of institutional investors now call crypto a
Speaker 1: vital portfolio diversifier, not interesting, not worth a look, vital.
Speaker 1: That's the highest reading Nomura has ever recorded, and Bitcoin
Speaker 1: is sitting around seventy five thousand dollars sliding. Here's the
Speaker 1: uncomfortable math. Conviction is at a record high while price
Speaker 1: is down from the February peak and ETF flows have
Speaker 1: been choppy for weeks. That's not a contradiction, it's a setup.
Speaker 1: Either price catches up to the conviction or the conviction
Speaker 1: was just survey speak, and institutions stay on the sidelines.
Speaker 1: The real question is whether their compliance departments agree with
Speaker 1: their portfolio managers. Bitcoin also broke a seven month resistance
Speaker 1: level this week, though on moderate volume, traders are watching
Speaker 1: whether it holds pretty quiet on the price front, Bitcoin
Speaker 1: around seventy five thousand ethereum just above twenty three hundred
Speaker 1: solana in the mid eighties, Everything down less than two percent,
Speaker 1: nothing dramatic, Bitcoin dominance holding at fifty seven point five percent,
Speaker 1: which means capital isn't rotating into alt coins. It's parked
Speaker 1: total market cap around two point six trillion, defied total
Speaker 1: value locked near ninety billion. But the narrative tracker is
Speaker 1: telling a different story. Meme tokens are up thirty three
Speaker 1: percent in seven days roll ups and liquid staking tokens
Speaker 1: up eleven to thirteen percent. Meanwhile, the majors are flat
Speaker 1: to slightly red. Polymarket is pricing Bitcoin at a two
Speaker 1: percent chance of hitting five hundred thousand by year end,
Speaker 1: and aggressive FED rate cuts at basically zero probability. The
Speaker 1: macro tailwind that drove the twenty twenty four rally, the
Speaker 1: market isn't counting on it coming back. Let's start with
Speaker 1: the hack, because this one keeps getting worse. Kelpdoo's restaking
Speaker 1: bridge was exploited for two hundred and ninety two million dollars,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six's largest crypto hack so far. Wrapped Ethereum
Speaker 1: is stranded across twenty chains after an attack on a
Speaker 1: layer zero based bridge. Layer zero is supposed to be
Speaker 1: the safer crosschain option. When the safe option loses that
Speaker 1: much money, you have to ask what the unsafe options
Speaker 1: look like. The core problem is that restaking protocols stack
Speaker 1: complexity on top of complexity. Kelpdao was sitting on top
Speaker 1: of eigenlayer, sitting on top of Ethereum, sitting on top
Speaker 1: of a bridge, four places something can go wrong. One
Speaker 1: of them did. Watch eigenlayers total value locked over the
Speaker 1: next few days. A sharp drop there signals the restaking
Speaker 1: narrative is taking real damage, shifting gears. Memes up thirty
Speaker 1: three percent in a week while bitcoin slides. Maybe that's
Speaker 1: not bearish. Sometimes meme runs are early signals that retail
Speaker 1: is coming back. But when memes outperform this dramatically while
Speaker 1: everything else flat lines, you're either seeing the leading indicator
Speaker 1: of a broader rally or retail chasing the only thing
Speaker 1: moving and about to get caught when the music stops.
Speaker 1: Fifty one billion dollars in meme market cap is real money,
Speaker 1: making a real bet on pure sentiment. Here's one I
Speaker 1: didn't expect to be talking about. Alcoa is selling a
Speaker 1: dormant aluminum smelter in Messine in New York to ny
Speaker 1: DIG for bitcoin mining and AI data center operations. Aluminum
Speaker 1: smelters need massive, stable power, so do bitcoin miners. Alcoa
Speaker 1: gets cash for a dormant asset. Ny DIG gets grid
Speaker 1: connected industrial power without fighting zoning boards for years. When
Speaker 1: the aluminum business is better monetized as a bitcoin mine,
Speaker 1: something structural has shifted. And then there's this. Charles Schwab
Speaker 1: and Citadel Securities are reportedly weighing entry into prediction markets.
Speaker 1: Citadel is the largest market maker in US equities. Schwab
Speaker 1: has thirty five million active brokerage accounts. If either enters,
Speaker 1: they bring liquidity and retail distribution that crypt native platforms
Speaker 1: can't match. Crypto build prediction markets as a censorship resistant
Speaker 1: alternative to traditional finance. Now, traditional finance wants to build
Speaker 1: the same product with better UX and SIPC insurance. That's
Speaker 1: either validation the category works or the beginning of the
Speaker 1: end for crypto native platform's edge probably both quick Hits
Speaker 1: Strategy is making its STRC preferred stock dividend payments bi monthly,
Speaker 1: trying to compete with traditional fixed income products. A federal
Speaker 1: judge dismissed the class action against Caitlyn Jenner's meme coin,
Speaker 1: ruling it doesn't meet the legal definition of a security
Speaker 1: and Senator Warren is claiming Sec. Chair Atkins likely misled
Speaker 1: Congress on enforcement data, adding political pressure at exactly the
Speaker 1: moment the industry is lobbying for lighter touch oversight. All right,
Speaker 1: before we get into the risks, quick word from our sponsor. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're back. Let's talk about what to watch for. Three
Speaker 1: things on my radar. First, me mania asking weak market breath.
Speaker 1: When the top performing narrative is up thirty three percent
Speaker 1: and the majors are down, that's a crowded trade in
Speaker 1: the one corner of the market still moving. That gap
Speaker 1: closes eventually and not always gently. Second, restaking contagion from
Speaker 1: the KELP dow exploit. This isn't just a KELP problem.
Speaker 1: It's a stress test for the entire restaking stack. Igen
Speaker 1: layer total value locked all r SETPEG stability and confidence
Speaker 1: in liquid restaking tokens are all connected. If one cracks,
Speaker 1: pressure flows through the whole category at once. Third trad
Speaker 1: fi entry compressing cryptonative prediction market advantages. If regulated platforms
Speaker 1: offer the same bets with better insurance and a better app,
Speaker 1: the addressable market shrinks to ideological users, and that's a
Speaker 1: smaller market than most projections. Assume three things to watch
Speaker 1: this week. Kelp Dow needs to post a credible recovery
Speaker 1: plan within seventy two hours. If the rsth peg drifts
Speaker 1: more than five percent below ethereum parody, that's contagion spreading,
Speaker 1: not containment. Working Finance and bit get are both investigating
Speaker 1: unusual trading in the rave token after a sharp price spike.
Speaker 1: If either exchange finds coordinated manipulation and acts on it,
Speaker 1: that sets a precedent for how major platforms handle mean
Speaker 1: token pump activity. And the Senate Banking Committee has a
Speaker 1: digit little Asset Market Structure vote on the calendar for
Speaker 1: the week of April twenty first. The Clarity Act markup
Speaker 1: timing is still uncertain, but any committee vote would be
Speaker 1: the most significant US crypto legislation signal of twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: That's the pulse for April nineteenth. If you want the
Speaker 1: full written breakdown with charts, sources and watchnext scenarios for
Speaker 1: every story, check out the newsletter at tokenmetrics dot com.
Speaker 1: It's all there, and if you're finding this useful, subscribing
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Speaker 1: crypto is the best way to help us keep making it.
Speaker 1: This is educational content, non investment advice. Always do your
Speaker 1: own research. I'm Alex, See you next time.