Future financial systems will blend traditional and blockchain elements for a 
more personalized experience.
The post Nick Shalek: The future of finance blends decentralized and permissioned systems, why regulatory clarity is crucial for digital asset adoption, and how tokenization will personalize financial interactions | Empire appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Nick Shalek: The future of finance blends decentralized and permissioned systems, why regulatory clarity is crucial for digital asset adoption, and how tokenization will personalize financial interactions | Empire

Bailey&#8217;s appointment could enhance SEGG Media&#8217;s strategic growth and 
innovation in digital media, esports, and global partnerships.
The post SEGG Media nominates Trump&#8217;s Bitcoin advisor Daniel Bailey to board 
appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

SEGG Media nominates Trump’s Bitcoin advisor Daniel Bailey to board

Ethereum price is compressing into a tight bearish pennant, with declining 
volatility and converging structure signaling that a decisive move is 
approaching as downside risks continue to build.

Ethereum price prints bearish pennant as breakdown risk grows

Bitcoin price remained in a tight range this week, and the waning Coinbase 
Premium Index points to more downside as institutional demand wanes.

Bitcoin price at risk of hitting $50k, Coinbase premium sinks

A fraying global order and a renewed bid for gold may be the early setup for 
the next crypto cycle, even if Bitcoin hasn’t confirmed the signal yet. That’s 
the argument from Will Taylor (@Cryptoinsightuk), who laid out a macro-to- 
crypto framework in a Jan. 17 X post. Taylor framed his post as an attempt to 
timestamp his thinking rather than deliver a clean forecast. “I’m going to try 
and relate this as much to crypto as possible, because that’s where the 
majority of my investments reside,” he wrote. Taylor’s starting point is 
qualitative but clear: “something feels different,” and the shift has 
accelerated over the last five to six years. He points to a US-led “rules- 
based order” showing “early signs of fragility,” referencing Trump’s tariffs 
and the Russia-Ukraine war, particularly the decision to limit Russia’s 
ability to transact in US dollars. Gold, in his view, is the market’s canary. 
He argues sanctions pressure may have helped push gold out of a long 
consolidation, and that gold’s acceleration is less about a simple inflation 
trade and more about confidence. “When you see an acceleration in gold… what 
it’s displaying… is a lack of trust in the world’s current economy and 
structure,” he wrote. “The lack of trust is displayed by the price 
accelerating higher… because that trust is starting to break.” Related 
Reading: Crypto Funds Bleed $173M As Outflows Extend To Fourth Week – Report 
That’s where Taylor turns the lens onto crypto. If the defining macro variable 
is trust decay — a scenario where decentralisation should be valuable — why 
isn’t crypto already repricing? Taylor frames it as a fork: either crypto’s 
value proposition is impaired, or the market is simply in a short-term 
pullback inside a larger cycle. Taylor highlights a specific narrative 
pressure point: Bitcoin’s relationship to gold. Since October, he says Bitcoin 
has deviated from its prior correlation with gold. To realign that 
relationship, he argues Bitcoin would need to be “currently around $170,000.” 
He presents that level less as a target and more as a marker for how wide the 
gap has become between “gold is screaming uncertainty” and “Bitcoin is still 
negotiating its role.” He also acknowledges the uncomfortable alternative: 
that the narrative breaks and the correlation doesn’t return. Taylor’s 
counterweight is a late-cycle liquidity argument. He notes that in end-of- 
cycle transitions “everything in the market pumps,” pointing to historical 
episodes where asset prices surged before major resets, and he argues 
governments will lean on the familiar lever: fiat creation to try to preserve 
the current system. In that framing, gold’s strength could be a symptom of 
currency debasement already underway, while Bitcoin’s lag could be exactly 
that: lag. The Bull Case: Exponential Repricing, Crypto Rotation Taylor 
ultimately leans toward a sharp upside repricing. He argues Bitcoin is 
technically coiled and narratively positioned as a borderless asset in a world 
drifting toward bipolar or multipolar blocs. Even if the system becomes more 
fractured — and even if there is “rot” in parts of crypto — he argues the 
market lacks a better digital alternative for portability and speed, 
especially for machine-driven activity. He then pushes the idea into a mania 
scenario, writing that Bitcoin could reach $200,000 to $500,000, and 
potentially “$500,000 plus” if liquidity from larger markets moves 
meaningfully into Bitcoin. His core mechanism is not just market-cap 
arithmetic, but supply-demand dynamics: a concentrated wave of demand 
colliding with limited marginal supply can move price faster than most models 
expect. Related Reading: After Extreme Pessimism, Crypto Market Conditions 
Begin To Stabilize: Analysts Taylor’s more distinctive claim is that altcoins 
could lead the next leg. “If crypto is going to survive as an asset class, it 
won’t be Bitcoin as leading the market,” he wrote, arguing Bitcoin is largely 
a store-of-value rail, while a functional financial layer requires faster 
value transfer, smart contracts, and “a bunch of other financial tools” 
associated with legacy markets. In his view, if crypto becomes infrastructure 
— for AI-era payments and global settlement — “an altcoin is going to, or a 
mixture of altcoins are going to have to come to the center of the stage.” 
Volatility Compression And Price Targets Taylor also leans on technical 
signals. He points to a broader bearish structure in Bitcoin dominance and 
tight Bollinger Band compression as evidence that volatility is “around the 
corner.” He notes the emergence of a “quantum risk” narrative around Bitcoin’s 
cryptography, while arguing that negative narratives tend to cluster when 
sentiment is already depressed. On cycle structure, he argues crypto cycles 
have compressed in both duration and magnitude: 22,000% over 853 days (2015 to 
Feb. 2018), then roughly 1,200% over 395 days in the next cycle (starting from 
the C19 sell-off). Extending that pattern, he suggests the market could add 
roughly 600% “within 184 days,” sketching a “back of the napkin” path toward a 
total crypto value around $16 trillion. From there he proposes a scenario 
where $6 trillion flows into stablecoins and the remainder into liquid crypto 
exposure, implying downstream effects on DeFi and the networks stablecoins run 
on. Under that backdrop, he floats aggressive price outcomes: ETH at 
$30,000–$40,000, XRP at $20–$25, and Solana at $2,000 — while acknowledging 
how extreme those projections look from today’s vantage point. At press time, 
the total crypto market cap stood at $2.3 trillion. Featured image created 
with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Cryptocurrency price in VND