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 Thursday, February 29th, and today we are talking about

Coinbase outages, liquidations, retail waking up, and more. 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. Yesterday morning, when I was finishing up recording the show,

Bitcoin had passed 62,000, we were seeing the price move in $1,000 increments, and the vibes

were euphoric. Bitcoin had run up by almost 12% throughout the morning, hitting a high of

64,000 around midday. Then something broke.

Bitcoin plunged by 8% and half an hour, ending the streak of green candles and causing a

widespread freakout. The chart recovered a decent amount and entered the evening range bound

between 61,000 and 63,000, where it is currently over at the bottom end of that range as we are

recording. Although the volatility was something to behold, this was still the biggest daily gain since

October.

Indeed, when we look back on yesterday, I think there's a strong argument that it will be viewed

as the first day of the next phase of the bull market.

What does that mean?

Well, let's turn to a thread from Blockworks founder Jason Yanowitz, who wrote,

There are four phases of a bull market. We just entered stage two. Stage one is rebirth. The

exhaustion from the bear market still exists. Sparks of hope pop up, then fade. A few new narratives

arise but are quickly killed by apathy. Your friends in the media still focus on the bear market

...