Traditional Finance "Finally Waking Up" to Crypto? Bitcoin's New Bull & Bear Case

the Clarity Act as both chambers of Congress return to Washington today. So what's next for crypto? Let's bring in our panel to take a closer look. Joining us, Tom Kwok, the co-founder and COO of easy A, and Gracie Chen, CEO of Bit Get. Great to have you on, Gracie. As I just mentioned, we've seen Bitcoin climb a little bit more than 25% on the month. We were about 62,000 and some change. We got north of 81,000 fallen off a little bit since then. But what's the real driver behind this move? Is it institutional demand? Is it the headlines? In my opinion, Bitcoin's rally in August has was mainly started before the Jackson Hole. So the concerns around U.S. debt and the dollar strengthened the demand for scarce assets such as Bitcoin and gold. So the ETF inflow did confirm that that there were also large short squeeze both accelerated the move. But I think it's mainly macroeconomics and political. You know, some some some of the conversations that President Trump gave right before the rally was the main reasons behind it. And Dom, as we look at this, when we got a more hawkish fed message at Jackson Hole, but Bitcoin has held on to quite a bit of those gains. It didn't give much back. Is that a sign that the cryptocurrency is becoming less sensitive to interest rate expectations? Definitely. I mean, I think the reaction that crypto had in general, not just Bitcoin, some of the other altcoins as well, really shows there's a much more risk on environment. And to see that still hold full effect, even when, for example, we get a hawkish fed announcement is really cool to see. And it's very bullish for the overall trend. So once we do start to see, eventually, you know, maybe not in the near term future, but in sort of the mid to near term future. When we do start to see those rates come down, we will start to see the crypto assets rally even harder. So definitely good signs to see all around. And again, you know, I think the price is being driven by institutional adoption finally, as opposed to just pure sentiment, which crypto has been largely driven by over the last couple of years. And Gracie, you said you were cautiously optimistic, but in the notes that you sent over, you said you wouldn't call this a new bull market after just one strong month. So what do you need to see that would convince you that this is part of a much larger move to the upside? Well, the the short squeeze or more sentiment around politics and macroeconomics was just the start. I mean, those short squeezes can probably start a rally, but it cannot sustain a long bull market. What matters more is again long term capital inflow that the other panelists mentioned. And also, I guess interest rate can also be a very important factor. So I would continue watching the ETF flows liquidity and the dollar. How strong the dollar continues to be. And all these fiscal and monetary policies all together. 2026 is, I think, again, in in our opinion, more of a, I call it a monkey market rather than bull market or bear market necessarily, because monkey what monkey does is it jump up and down. Right now Bitcoin or cryptocurrency still hold the four year cycle. So if we were to compare 2026 to 2022, there could be more black swan events like what happened in 2022. In November. FTX collapse when everyone was pretty optimistic. But you know, that's the, the, the black swan event that the Bitcoin price to 16 K at the in 2022. So right now that's why we remain cautiously optimistic. So I wouldn't call this a new bull run just based on this current you know, 1 or 2 weeks of strong rally. And Dom I like what you said in the notes you sent over. You said this is traditional finance finally waking up. So I was looking over some of the holder behavior in preparation for our talk. And there's some interesting divergence here. Smaller wallets appear to be distributing, while the larger holders seem to be accumulating. As you look at that. Is this actually bullish because we're seeing Bitcoin move into stronger hands. Or do you have concerns about seeing that retail selling as potentially an early warning sign. No I think it's always good to see institutional money come in and hold assets like Bitcoin and some of the other altcoins as well. I think we're seeing that typically, you know, happen in bigger and bigger fashion. We're seeing institutions come in and institutions typically are much more diamond handed, so to speak, than retail investors. Retail investors are much more sentimental. They're much more emotional when they trade. When they see prices go down, they typically sell. And when they see prices go up, they typically FOMO in and want to capture the upside when the going is good, whereas institutions typically buy in accumulate. And so that's a really bullish sign not only for Bitcoin, but also other altcoins that we're seeing similar accumulation in like XRP, like Solana and many others. So very good to see that we never complain about institutions buying and holding or adopting. Yeah. And as we, as we look across Bitcoin right now, we're at 78,589. We are up more than 25%. You just mentioned XRP there. That's got a 29% gain under its belt for the month of August. Really appreciate you both being with us to take a look