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.

What's going on, guys? It is Tuesday, December 16th, and today we are talking about Bitcoin, taking another leg down. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit.ly slash breakdown pod. Well, friends, Bitcoin is heading back

to the lows as the bare market deepens. Bitcoin plunged at the Monday open, trading as low as 85,000.

Now, this is a slightly higher low than the past two drawdowns of this bare market, but the wipeout

snuffed out any hopes of a recovery. The drawdown was a violent affair to begin the trading

week. Bitcoin lost 4.3% across the first four hours of trading in New York. The drawdown was a violent affair to begin the trading week. Bitcoin lost 4.3% across the

first four hours of trading in New York. That drawdown liquidated 200 million in long positions,

once again rinsing leverage out of the system. Time after time over the past few months,

we've seen traders try to buy the dip on leverage only to come undone. Some claimed foul play,

with Defy Tracer tweeting, Binance and Wintermute dumping

millions of Bitcoin. They liquidated over 100 million in long positions in five minutes. This is pure

manipulation. That viral tweet was accompanied by block records of Binance hot wallet sending Bitcoin

to various other exchanges. Not really much of a smoking gun. But the virality of the tweet

captured the current sentiment a few months into this bare market. But the virality of the tweet captured the current sentiment

a few months into this bare market. We are now clearly past the denial and firmly into the second

stage of a bare market, which is, of course, anger. There's a ton of chatter around market

maker Wintermute, who are apparently both insolvent and also dictating price action across

the entire crypto ecosystem. And while we have nothing but

rumors to go on, it's going to be extremely difficult to form a bottom if everyone is revenge

trading on leverage. The bargaining stage should be next when CT begs for a positive catalyst.

And then eventually after that, we will reach the acceptance stage, and hopefully a strong

...