This is a strong reminder that the thing that got those institutions interested in the first place,

the extreme variability and just the extremes of monetary policy,

is every bit as true today as it was a year ago.

You have to think that the nydigs of the world are working double time

to reinforce this perspective with the institutions who are hovering on the edge of a bet.

Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.

The breakdown is sponsored by nexus.io and BitStamp and produced and distributed by CoinDest.

What's going on, guys? It is Monday, June 14th, and today I'm going to cover a few topics,

but if I had to sum up the vibe here at the beginning of the week, it's the Bulls

trying to mount a comeback. As you've seen over the past few weeks, the mood had turned pretty significantly

bearish. People were starting to ask whether we were settling in for a new crypto winter.

At the beginning of the week last week, I talked about the inflation and digital gold narrative

that had set the overarching framework for the previous year. This was the force that drove new market participants

in, fueling the bull market that pushed Bitcoin from 10K all the way to 60K plus. Then again,

Bitcoin hasn't been at 60K since early April. Since then, the bull market has felt the wind

leave its sales. I speculated last week that the digital gold, institutional

momentum had largely stopped, thanks to a combination of two things. First, a macro environment

which was largely waiting to see what happens next with rising inflation and expectations

that the Fed would feel pressure to unwind monetary support and low interest rates, and two, a nearly

endless barrage of fud, particularly around the environment and China. Because of that, I wondered

if Bitcoin needed a new macro-driving narrative to bring excitement back to the space. That seemed to

...