Tag: Pantera Capital

Pantera Capital Predicts Bitcoin to Hit $35k Before 2024 Halving and Surge to $148k Afterward

by Blockchain News

In a recent publication by Pantera Capital, the firm delved into the concept of a “positive black swan” event in the blockchain industry. The term “black swan” traditionally refers to unpredictable events with potentially severe consequences. However, in this context, Pantera Capital highlights the positive implications of such events for the blockchain sector.

Key takeaways include:

Historical Bitcoin Price Predictions

Pantera Capital references historical trends to make a significant prediction about Bitcoin’s price trajectory. The firm states, “If history were to repeat itself, the next halving would see bitcoin rising to $35k before the halving and $148k after.”

Blockchain’s Rapid Growth

The blockchain sector has witnessed exponential growth over the past few years. Pantera Capital cites that the number of blockchain users has doubled every twelve months. This rapid adoption rate underscores the increasing acceptance and integration of blockchain technologies in various industries.

Bitcoin’s Resilience

In the face of regulatory hurdles and market shifts, Bitcoin has showcased significant stability. Pantera Capital points out that, over the last 90 days, Bitcoin’s price fluctuations have been steadier than 87% of stocks in the S&P 500.

DeFi’s Potential

Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms have garnered significant attention and investment. Pantera Capital emphasizes the potential of DeFi to revolutionize traditional financial systems by offering decentralized alternatives.

Blockchain’s Positive Impact

The article suggests that blockchain technology can play a pivotal role in addressing global challenges. From improving supply chain transparency to fostering financial inclusion, blockchain solutions have the potential to drive positive change on a global scale.

Future Outlook

Pantera Capital remains optimistic about the future of blockchain and its transformative potential. The firm believes that as the technology matures, its impact will be even more profound, touching various facets of our daily lives.

In conclusion, while black swan events are typically associated with negative outcomes, Pantera Capital presents a compelling case for the positive impact of such events in the blockchain domain. The firm’s insights underscore the transformative potential of blockchain technology and its role in shaping the future of various industries.

About Pantera Capital

Established by Dan Morehead, the former Head of Macro Trading and CFO at Tiger Management, Pantera Capital stands as a prominent figure in the investment arena. The firm’s adeptness in global macro strategies has seen it oversee more than $1 billion in institutional allocations. In a pioneering move in 2013, Pantera introduced the United States to its first blockchain hedge and venture funds. The firm observed a swift rise in the adoption of digital assets globally, a trend accentuated during the COVID-19 pandemic, serving as a countermeasure against unparalleled fiscal and monetary expansion. Additionally, a noteworthy transition in the fiscal domain is evident as major public corporations have begun incorporating Bitcoin into their financial reserves.

Pantera Capital’s investments span a myriad of blockchain initiatives, encompassing but not restricted to Zcash, Xapo, Wintermute, Ripple, Polkadot, Near, Filecoin, Coinbase, Circle, BitGo, and Bitstamp.

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Despite Current Turmoil, Crypto will Rise Again Based on its Own Model – Pantera CEO

by Blockchain News

Dan Morehead CEO of Pantera Capital has shared his view on the current state of the blockchain economy in a recent interview with Real Vision’s Co-founder & CEO Raoul Paul. 

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According to Morehead, crypto is experiencing a change similar to risk assets based on flexibility and therefore likely to bounce back based on its own principles. As a result, it will be connected to the macro dynamics over a short period of time.

In a news report, Morehead highlighted that investing in stocks and bonds is getting more difficult because of high-interest rates, unlike blockchain which can trade on its own without the influence of interest rates. Therefore blockchain can continue trading under its existing structures.

Morehead is optimistic that Bitcoin (BTC) will eventually rise despite experiencing lows earlier in the year. A lot of tokens are now up, and Ethereum (ETH) has risen up to 60% since the lows. He predicted that bitcoin will go up 10 times in the long run despite experiencing a turndown from users due to the dominance of other tokens.

‘’Blockchain is one of the of the most interesting trade in today’s world’’ says Morehead. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is currently worth $20 billion while traditional finance is worth $3 trillion. DeFi might eventually do stuff that is not covered by traditional finance.

Ethereum and the Merge

Morehead thinks that Ethereum’s transition from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake through the Merge is a big move for the blockchain industry. 

He stated that prices for Ethereum were previously drifting but started rallying after a date was scheduled for the Merge. Institutions will find it easy to grasp the Proof-of-stake model easily because it is similar to how corporate governance works.

There might also be the risk of experiencing lows if the Merge doesn’t go as planned in terms of regulatory laws that are not very clear, particularly in the United States, this might prevent innovation and cause companies to go offshores. ‘’The biggest risks are no more because they have been taken care of over the past 13 years’’ says Morehead.

Blockchain is set to become an asset class where everyone will have a blockchain team and a blockchain allocation.

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Crypto Venture Capitalist Breaks Down Potential Winners and Losers from Ethereum Merge

by Blockchain News

Paul Veradittakit, a Partner at Pantera Capital which is a crypto investment firm based in California, talked about on Sunday what he thinks about winners and losers from the Ethereum “Merge.”

In an interview published by Forbes on Sunday, the media inquired whether the Ethereum merge would happen in September as planned earlier and requested which tokens would rise or fall as a result of the upgrade.

Veradittakit assured the public that the merger will happen – the transition from proof of work to proof of stake through a merging of two blockchains.  

The executive said the merge will bring a lot of visibility and growth to Ethereum.

“The Ethereum ecosystem is about to flourish, and people are going to see Ethereum, layer 2s. I also think it could be helpful for DeFi and potentially lead to some other use cases like NFTs on Ethereum as well. Therefore, it will probably focus a bit more on Ethereum. The other layer 1s have to evaluate how it goes and figure out what their differentiators are going to be after the merger,” Veradittakit explained.

Optimistic Remains About the Merge

Next month, the launch of Ethereum’s crucial update, the Merge, will signify the transition from the Proof-of-Work-based consensus mechanism to the more sustainable and less wasteful Proof-of-Stake system.

There has been a growing buzz within the crypto community about what the consequences that the Merge may bring for the blockchain network founded by Vitalik Buterin.

Some crypto experts have, however, urged that Proof of Work will live on after the merge.

The update, which is scheduled to be launched on 15th September next month, is expected to revolutionize the blockchain network, making it more scalable, cheap, and accessible.

The upgrade is expected to bring significant changes with the likes of mining, which could disappear. Miners, who have invested in infrastructure to mine on proof-of-stake networks, are most likely to become redundant after the merge.

Some believe that even after 15th September, the Proof of Stake consensus will continue to exist alongside the Proof of Work consensus, mainly to allow for a less traumatic transition and to take care of things in case the merge fails to complete its upgrade.

Some argue that miners could try using their pricy rigs on other networks. In recent weeks, Ethereum Classic (ETC) has witnessed a veritable price explosion. ETC, the hard fork of Ethereum created in 2017, will still maintain the Proof of Work system.

Ethereum’s proof-of-stake is considered more environmentally friendly, as it can validate transactions without consuming so much energy. The proof-of-stake mechanism is estimated to use 99.95% less energy than its proof-of-work chain.

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Three Top JPMorgan Executives Jump Ship to Crypto Startups

by Blockchain News

According to Fortune media, three top executives at JPMorgan have left the leading major bank to join the cryptocurrency industry. 

Despite the current crypto winter, this week has seen three executives working at the giant bank depart and joined crypto firms.

Eric Wragge, a former managing director at JPMorgan with 21 years working at the bank, has joined the Algorand blockchain technology firm as Head of Business Development and Capital Markets.

Puja Samuel, a former Head of Ideation and Digitization at JPMorgan, has also joined Digital Currency Group (a parent company that owns Bitcoin brokerage firm, Genesis Trading and CoinDesk crypto media) as Head of Corporate Development.

Also, early this week, Samir Shah, JPMorgan Chase’s Head of Asset Management Sales, left the bank and assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer at cryptocurrency-focused investment firm Pantera Capital.

Wragge’s joining Algorand shows that he will report to Algorand Foundation CEO Staci Warden. In the new role, he will be expected to chair the foundation’s investment committee as well as lead initiatives in both traditional capital markets as well as decentralized finance (DeFi).

Wragge talked about his appointment at Algorand and said: “Coming from a leading global investment bank, I understand the uncompromising performance requirements for a layer 1 blockchain to compete against and improve upon many aspects of traditional finance.”

Samuel, also commented about his role at Digital Currency Group: “I am excited to help build out new strategic partnerships alongside an energized team that is driving change across the financial system.”

Embracing Crypto World

The latest move of JPMorgan executives jumping ship to the crypto industry is a trend that has been developing lately. Several executives have moved from big corporations to crypto startups.

In February, Goldman Sachs executive Roger Bartlett left the leading global investment bank after 16 years and joined the Coinbase crypto exchange. In his LinkedIn profile, Bartlett stated that it was time to embrace the cryptocurrency economy. He described the change as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become part of building the next stage of the digital revolution.

That is the same sentiment held by several big tech executives and finance professionals making the move into cryptocurrency, as they look to be part of the rapidly growing crypto industry.

Some Wall Street executives have left to launch their own crypto or Web3 ventures. In 2018, Amber Baldet, a prominent blockchain executive at JPMorgan Chase, left the bank and co-founded decentralization startup Clovyr.

In March, Revolut’s chief revenue officer Alan Chang departed the British fintech to start a new crypto venture.

In April last year, Konstantin Shulga, a former senior executive of Russia’s largest bank, Sber, co-founded Finery Markets, a crypto-over-the-counter service, where he serves as the CEO.

The rise in executive moves is an indication of the growing attraction to the crypto world for financial and tech executives who are believed to have amassed a fortune but are keen to become part of the next disruption.

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Venture Capital Firms Reportedly Cashed Out in advance before LUNA Crash

by Blockchain News

The collapse of Terra Classic (LUNC) – the name of the old Terra chain and token – may come as a shock to many, but quite a number of venture capital firms or backers cashed out before the protocol was attacked.

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As reported by CNBC, Pantera Capital, the largest crypto hedge fund in the world by Assets Under Management (AUM), said it made over 100x from its initial investment of $1.7 million in the project. This implied that the firm cashed out as much as $170 million on LUNA holdings. The firm’s co-chief Investment Officer, Joey Krug, said as much as 87% of its investments were cashed out between January 2021 and April 2022. 

Noting that the sell-off was the fund’s way of de-risking its position and rebalancing, he shared that Pantera Capital also sold another 8% in May when the UST stablecoin had broken its peg but notably got stuck with 5% of its total holdings.

“For the large portion which we sold over 2021 and part of 2022, it was a really simple risk management reason,” said Krug, adding that  “It kept becoming a larger and larger part of the fund, and so we had to de-risk it since you can’t really run a liquid hedge fund with one position being a super large portion of the fund.”

Besides Pantera Capital, Hack VC said it exited its position in the project back in December last year, while CMCC Global, one of the investors who backed Terraform Labs at the seed stage, said it exited its position in March. 

While the hoard of venture capital firms typically has their personal investment strategies, the sell-offs from the big investors have often been touted as one of the reasons for the imminent crash of the project. Irrespective of how factual this is, investors like Pantera Capital will still benefit immensely from the Terra 2.0, which airdropped new LUNA tokens to holders of the old coin before the attack.

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Comments On Pantera Capital’s Predictions For The Crypto Market In 2022

by NEWSBTC

One of Pantera Capital’s investors, Paul Veradittakit, was brave enough to make predictions for this year in the tumultuous world of crypto. Even though we applaud the courage, we’re going to poke holes in them. Because this is the Internet and that’s what we do here. To be clear, the author went through 2021 biggest trends and extrapolated them into the future. Which is a safe enough technique.  

Related Reading | Sports NFT Marketplace Lympo Suffers An $18.7 Million Hack

Considering Pantera defines itself as the “first U.S. institutional asset manager focused exclusively on blockchain,” you know Veradittakit didn’t even mention Bitcoin. The following is a purely crypto affair. It’s also worth noticing that the biggest criticism that Web3 gets is that it’s funded by venture capital and they’re the ones who will ultimately benefit from it. And, well, that’s just what Pantera is and does.

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In any case, let’s explore Veradittakit’s ideas and predictions.

Pantera On L2s and Rollups

Surprisingly, the article starts by throwing Ethereum under the bus. According to Veradittakit, all the action will be on L2s. Those grew tremendously in 2021, and the Pantera investor considers them essential to Ethereum’s scalability. 

“As mainstream adoption of crypto continues to grow, Ethereum’s network congestion will only become worse, exacerbating its problems with latency and fees. Rollups are critical to sustaining the growth of Ethereum by ensuring that compute infrastructure is highly scalable, allowing users to interact with dApps with similar or even better expectations around usability as with traditional web apps.”

Reading between the lines, this prediction also says that Ethereum is not going to release any of its network upgrades this year. Which sounds about right.

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Pantera On Non-Ethereum/Bitcoin Chains

This prediction refers to the battle of the L1s, or the supposed Ethereum killers. The Pantera investor is obviously partial to one in particular:

“Recent activity in the Solana community, including the launches of massive funds for decentralized social media and gaming, suggests that the ecosystem will continue to grow immensely in the coming year.”

First of all, you can’t have “decentralized social media and gaming” in a centralized platform like Solana. Second, Veradittakit forgets to mention Solana’s constant technical problems and outages. Make of that what you will. 

Another tendency the author mentions are bridges, “which enable interoperability between vastly different networks,” which he considers will “accelerate the growth of non-Ethereum ecosystems.” Or, to put it more bluntly:

“Overall, these advancements in cross-chain infrastructure will accelerate the speed at which alternative layer one chains gain traction, fostering the development of a truly robust, diverse multi-chain crypto ecosystem.”

What the Pantera investor really means is that all other L1s will keep leaching on Ethereum. Which sounds about right.

SOLUSD price chart - TradingView

SOL price chart on FTX | Source: SOL/USD on TradingView.com

Veradittakit On Composability and Web3

This theme ties with the previous one. But the Pantera investor gets into a very interesting topic:  

“Decentralized identity projects, which allow users to maintain full, more precise control over personal data and reputation, enabling use cases around un-collateralized loans, know your customer (KYC) rules, and more. In 2022, we’ll see more projects expand the scope of on-chain ownership, allowing users to have full, functional control over their identity and holdings in the digital world.”

One thing’s for sure, the world needs “a single login across all services”. No one can handle the number of passwords we’re supposed to remember. This is a real problem. In the article, however, the author focuses on Ethereum-based solutions. We would like to mention that there’s an alternative that uses the Lightning Network. And, you know, that runs over a network that’s actually decentralized.

Pantera On Expansion of NFTs 

This is his least controversial take. Veradittakit thinks “NFTs will continue to grow immensely in popularity through the coming year”. He elaborates:

“NFT projects in 2022 will show substantially more diversity in use cases and will reconfigure how we interact with and think about ownership of digital media more broadly.”

However, paraphrasing Vitalik, NFTs have to live through a bear market before they can be considered a success. Is there going to be a bear market in 2022? Probably not. So, Pantera’s prediction stands.

Veradittakit On Decentralized Autonomous Organizations

This prediction  is also fairly uncontroversial: 

“Given their heightened prominence, I expect to see DAOs become a mainstream vehicle for online organizing and collective action, helping individuals across the globe get actionably involved with causes they care about.”

And the Pantera investor follows it up with this one:

“As DAO operations grow in complexity, I expect to see even more projects building out DAO tooling and infrastructure in 2022.”

More DAOs and tools to manage them? That sounds about right.

Related Reading | Solana: A Quick Review And Look Ahead

Pantera On DeFi Security

This prediction starts with chilling stats:

“More than $610 million were stolen through DeFi exploits in 2021 (a staggering eightfold increase from $77 million in 2020), and an additional $704 million in funds were stolen and then later returned by white hat hackers, like those behind the $600 million PolyNetwork exploit.”

Considering 2021 was the year of DeFi, this should come as no surprise. Criminals follow success and attention. In any case, look at those numbers and extrapolate them to what they would be if DeFi achieves mainstream status.

“In 2022, I expect to see security become a tremendous focus for DeFi projects, and anticipate several more projects launch around better smart contract auditing, precise runtime monitoring, and consumer protections.”

The question here is, is that enough? Or are smart contracts a security risk by definition? Will anyone be able to build an unhackable DeFi protocol? Who will win this race?

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Pantera-Backed Crypto Exchange Reportedly Freezing User Funds

by Cryptobriefing


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Coinsuper, a Hong Kong crypto exchange backed by Pantera Capital, has come under fire after customers reported not being able to withdraw their assets since November.

Coinsuper Exchange Stops Withdrawals

Coinsuper customers are unable to withdraw their funds.

According to a Friday investigation by Bloomberg, reports have emerged that the Hong Kong exchange Coinsuper has frozen users’ money and crypto assets. 



Five customers have filed police reports after withdrawals were apparently frozen in November, leaving them unable to retrieve approximately $55,000 worth of tokens and cash.

While only five users have reported the situation to the police so far, the actual amount of frozen funds is likely much higher. Throughout 2021, daily trading volumes on Coinsuper consistently remained above $20 million. However, in October, volumes started to wane, dropping to a low of $2.59 million, according to crypto data site Nomics. 

Regulation surrounding crypto exchanges in Hong Kong follows an “opt-in” model, meaning that it is not mandatory. According to ONC Lawyers consultant Joshua Chu, many exchanges see complying with the opt-in system as too stringent and restrictive, meaning few undergo the proper checks and balances. 


U.S asset management firm Pantera Capital was one of Coinsupers’ earliest investors, contributing to the exchange’s 2018 Series A funding round for an undisclosed amount. Despite the recent controversy, Pantera Capital still lists Coinsuper among its investments on its website. 

Coinsuper’s asset freeze highlights the danger of leaving money and tokens on centralized exchanges. AscendEX, a Singapore-based crypto exchange, recently lost an estimated $77.7 million to hackers, according to blockchain security firm PeckShield. Although AscendEX has assured customers that it will compensate them for any lost tokens, the hack will likely interfere with users’ ability to withdraw funds. 

Crypto Briefing reached out to Coinsuper and Pantera Capital for comment, but did not receive a reply at press time. 



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Bitcoin bull market ‘2nd leg has started,’ says BTC price model creator

by Cointelegraph

Bitcoin (BTC) marking a new high of $67,000 last week has opened the possibility of hitting $100,000 by the end of this year.

PlanB, creator of the popular Bitcoin Stock-to-Flow (S2F) model, called Bitcoin’s price retracement from the $60,000-level the “2nd leg” of what appeared like a long-term bull market.

In doing so, the pseudonymous analyst cited S2F, which anticipates Bitcoin to continue its leg higher and reach $100,000 to $135,000 by the end of the year.

The price projection model insists that Bitcoin’s value will keep on growing until at least $288,000 per token due to the “halving,” an event that takes place every four years and reduces BTC’s issuance rate by half against its 21 million supply cap. 

Bitcoin after the 2012, 2016 and 2020 halving. Source: PlanB

Notably, Bitcoin has undergone three halvings so far: in 2012, 2016 and 2020.

Each event decreased the cryptocurrency’s new supply rate by 50%, which was followed by notable increases in BTC price. For instance, the first two halvings prompted BTC price to rise by over 10,000% and 2,960%, respectively.

The third halving caused the price to jump from $8,787 to as high as $66,999, a 667.50% increase. So far, S2F has been largely accurate in predicting Bitcoin’s price trajectory, as shown in the chart below, leaving bulls with higher hopes that Bitcoin’s post-halving rally will have its price cross the $100,000 mark.

Bitcoin S2F as of Oct. 26. Source: PlanB

PlanB noted earlier this year that Bitcoin will reach $98,000 by November and $135,000 by December, adding that the only thing that would stop the cryptocurrency from hitting a six-digit value is “a black swan event” that the market has not seen in the last decade.

An 80% crash later

Despite the high price projections, Bitcoin can still see big corrections in the future. PlanB thinks the next crash could wipe at least 80% off Bitcoin’s market capitalization, based on the same S2F model.

Related: COVID-19 vaccine will spark Bitcoin ‘crash’ — Rich Dad Poor Dad author

“Everybody hopes for the supercycle or the ‘hyperbitcoinization’ to start right now and that we do not have a big crash after next all-time highs,” the analyst told the Unchained podcast, adding.

“As much as I would hope that were true, that we don’t see that crash anymore, I think we will. […] I think we’ll be managed by greed right now and fear later on and see another minus 80% after we top out at a couple hundred thousand dollars.”

BTC/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView

But not everyone thinks the next correction will be as dramatic as the previous ones. Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital, said in mid-October that the next Bitcoin price drop will be less than 80%, citing a consistent drop in selling sentiment after each halving cycle.

Last week, Bitcoin established a new record high at around $67,000 following a 53% rally in October so far. But the new highs prompted profit-taking among traders, resulting in retests of the $60,000 support level.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.