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 Monday, February 12th, and today we are talking about Bitcoin,

hitting $50,000 for the first time since 2021.

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. All right, friends, you probably don't need me to tell you that Bitcoin has been

on an absolute heater. Over the weekend, it extended its recent rally into its fifth day of

strong price action, with Bitcoin

gaining 12.6% for the week, the best week so far this year. On Sunday, the price flirted with

the new year-to-date high, coming just short of reaching the $49,000 mark, which was touched

on the morning of the ETF launch. Bitcoin's market cap is now right around that $1 trillion mark,

which hasn't been reached since

November 2021. Bitcoin led both Ethereum and Solana for the week, also outperforming the overall

crypto market, which rose by around 10%. Unlike its previous trip above $48,000, Bitcoin

appears to have found a stable level at these prices. Just prior to the ETF launch, Bitcoin

spiked and then quickly collapsed into a major

drawdown. This time around, we saw price action grinding higher over the weekend before holding

steady above $48,000 for all of Sunday. And by the time that you are listening to this, Bitcoin

will have claimed $50,000 for the first time since the end of 2021. Interestingly, short liquidations were elevated throughout the week,

but there was nothing that looked like a major short squeeze.

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