Bonus: CoinSpot – Crypto Year In Review

Bryce: [00:00:15] Welcome to another episode of Equity Mates, a podcast that follows our journey of investing. Whether you're an absolute beginner or approaching Warren Buffett status, our aim is to help break down your barriers from beginning to dividend. My name is Bryce and as always, I'm joined by my equity buddy, Ren. How you going? 

Alec: [00:00:29] I'm very good. Bryce. Last episode for the year. We're taking a week off next week. Then we're getting into our summer series, which we've already recorded some of our best content to date, I would say. But I'm excited for this one. It's a strange night for us to be finishing on a share market investing podcast. But let's close out the year with crypto. 

Bryce: [00:00:49] Yeah, well, we know there's a number of people in our community who listen to Crypto Curious, our Crypto Currency podcast, but also that, you know, we've been dabbling in crypto throughout the year. So if some of the team members here at Equity Mates. So in the spirit of wrapping up, we're going to do a crypto year in review because boy, has it been an interesting time in cryptocurrency this year, most recently, and notably the collapse of FTX, which we will get to. But this episode is supported by CoinSpot, Australia's most secure crypto platform, trusted by 2.5 million Australians. CoinSpot were awarded the internationally recognised ISO 27001 certification and they are the only Australian exchange to conduct an external statutory financial audit. They are the home of crypto in Australia since 2002. 13 2022 Ren. What a year it has been. And we're going to go through ten notable moments for cryptocurrency in 2022. Some good, some bad. Coming off the euphoria of 2021. We got rug pulled in late 2021.

Alec: [00:01:55] Yeah, we did. 

Bryce: [00:01:59] Crypto markets were booming, but then it all kind of started going south. And there's been some positives which we'll get to. But yeah, what a tough year. 

Alec: [00:02:08] Let's start with the numbers because that's really what most people care about. So in Aussie dollar terms, at the start of the year, 65,000AUD, now about 25, 26,000 in US dollar terms, 47,000 at the start of the year, 17,000 today. Obviously that only tells part of the story of the decline because Bitcoin reached its peak in US dollar terms. What, November last year. And it's down 72% from there. So that's bitcoin.

Bryce: [00:02:42] Yes. I mean it's not, it's no worse than some of the companies in on the stock market. 

Alec: [00:02:49] To be fair to Bitcoin, though, it's really it it fell precipitously in the first half of the year and it's really sort of held in that high teens, low twenties for about six months. So it is that. 

Bryce: [00:03:06] You have been saying that a fair bit this year? I think it's just been. 

Alec: [00:03:09] I've been saying. 

Bryce: [00:03:10] Yeah, it's just been like holding it's pattern. It hasn't just been consistently bombing. 

Alec: [00:03:15] Didn't sound like a broken record. Yeah good to know. It is also worth noting that the two remember the the spike in 2017 when we were all like, what is going on here with crypto?That peak out about where it is now. Yeah. So it peaked at around 20,000 USD. 

Bryce: [00:03:35] That's right. 

Alec: [00:03:36] In 2017. 

Bryce: [00:03:37] Up from like four or five. 

Alec: [00:03:38] Collapsed to like 5000. No, even less like 3000 by the end of 2018 and then etc. on that for a bit. And then it went on a massive bull run in like 2020, 2021 got up to 64,000 USD and now it's back down. But where it is now is similar to its peak in 2017. It's good perspective, so that's important to remember. Even if you bought at the peak in 2017, you'd probably be about flat today, maybe down a couple of percentage points. 

Bryce: [00:04:08] There you go. 

Alec: [00:04:09] So important perspective. 

Bryce: [00:04:11] You bought at the peak?

Alec: [00:04:15] I did. I did. But I actually dollar cost averaging. So I've been averaging all the way down in this recent crash. 

Bryce: [00:04:23] Nice, well, look, I haven't kept my eye on the price of Bitcoin anywhere near as much this year as I have in previous years. But similar to you, I do put in a small amount. I think I did the maths 4.6% of my monthly investment allocation goes into cryptocurrency, the rest goes into into equities in a core portfolio. So that's Bitcoin now. Etherium The second largest coin. Yeah, yeah. Was down 64% across the year, so bitcoin slightly outperformed it. Some big moments for Etherium this year as well. 

Alec: [00:05:00] We'll get to. 

Bryce: [00:05:00] That, to that. But in Australian dollars it was 5183 at the start of the year and it is now $1,926.

Alec: [00:05:11] I mean, the story is very similar to the Bitcoin story. It peaked November last year. From November to now, it's down about 73%. Bitcoin, I think we said it was 72%. So very similar where it is now is very similar to where it peaked late 2017, early 2018. I think it's down if you bought at the peak in January 2018, which I actually did, I bought Etherium at the peak and held it until today. You'd be down 5%. You would have been up over 200% if you went from paycheque to paycheque. But yeah, it's just an interesting perspective that like, what do they say, higher highs, higher loads. 

Bryce: [00:05:53] They go anyway. Like for perspective, where to from here? Where will it be next year? 

Alec: [00:05:59] I mean, not a surprise flat. A flat. Well, I mean, you look at you look at what has happened in previous crypto cycles. And I'm a little bit reluctant to say history is a good indicator because it's such a new asset class. But, you know, post 2017, it had a massive fall and then it just held for what, like two years and then it ran up again. Anyone predicting that we're going to hit a bull market next year probably is more hopeful than realistic. Hmm. 

Bryce: [00:06:30] Who knows? 

Alec: [00:06:31] But who knows? Yeah, it's just a supply and demand driven, I guess. Yeah.

Bryce: [00:06:35] All right. We've got ten moments from 2022. Not all of them are related to price or anything like that. It's just some key moments that have happened in cryptocurrency governments getting involved. You know, we've seen what happened with the theory and nfts, you name it. So let's get stuck in in the first. And this is somewhat in order from January through to now. So first one was Canadian government getting involved, trying to freeze access to cryptocurrencies and fundraising platforms in Ontario through a petition to a court. So the story here was that there was a convoy protesting COVID 19 restrictions in Ottawa and they were getting $24 million in support through cryptocurrencies and and and the like. And so the Canadian government tried to step in and freeze it. 

Audio Clip: [00:07:25] Justin Trudeau is not done going after the Canadian truckers, even though the police broke up the convoy and arrested nearly 200 protesters this weekend.

Audio Clip: [00:07:33] If you are involved in this protest, we will actively look to identify you and follow up with financial sanctions and criminal charges. 

Audio Clip: [00:07:41] This state of emergency is not over. 

Alec: [00:07:45] That's the first story. The second story is similarly about paying in crypto. But while the first story was about cover denying truckers, the second story is about the Ukrainians. So after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian government reached out to the crypto community on Twitter. That's such a 2022 way to fundraise for your war effort. But yeah, the crypto community on Twitter to raise funds and in February they began accepting cryptocurrency donations in Bitcoin, Ether and Tether. Since Moscow's invasion, more than 130,000 payments have been made worth 54.7 million USD. 

Audio Clip: [00:08:29] Ukraine has seen an outpouring of support from around the world. As it tries to fend off the Russian invasion. Some of that outpouring has come in the form of cryptocurrency donations.

Alec: [00:08:38] It's pretty exciting. 

Bryce: [00:08:38] Yeah. Nice.In the grand scheme of things, I don't know how far $54 million would go in a war. But great to say 102,000 payments coming through. And that the cryptocurrency ecosystem has been able to facilitate that. 

Alec: [00:08:55] And for me, those first two stories really point to a use case for cryptocurrency outside of the speculative investment asset class that so many people know it as, which is frictionless, borderless, permissionless, instant payments. Like it is truly a way to transfer value. Instantly. It's just that that value fluctuates profoundly. 

Bryce: [00:09:21] Well, that would be worth today. The third headline was again regulation related. And it was Biden signing an executive order to do with regulation. 

Audio Clip: [00:09:32] Well, I think it's really interesting. I mean, this is the first time that the federal government has looked at crypto regulation from a comprehensive perspective. As you recall, President Biden issued this executive order back in March. He gave various federal agencies, both financial regulators and some non-financial regulators, mandates to look at different issues, to look at some of the concerns we have with the space, but also some of the benefits that the crypto industry and sector could provide and come up with recommendations about what types of regulation are needed going forward. 

Bryce: [00:10:08] After 13 years, three administrations since Bitcoin was formed, President Biden signed an executive order instructing nearly all federal agencies to develop detailed plans for US crypto regulation and enforcement. In hindsight, how interesting this is. However, it was sort of criticised as Biden's order only really amounted to little more than a research mandate requiring the departments to finalise a strategy and submit it to the White House. 

Alec: [00:10:37] What do you say in hindsight, how interesting this is? Well, I find this thoroughly uninteresting.

Bryce: [00:10:43] Well, it's like, hello, look at what happened to FTX. We need regulation. Let's get going. Like, get moving. And it's it's like he's started, but it's pretty soft. And this is going to take ages. 

Alec: [00:10:59] FTX US was a US financial institution. Yeah, but that's why it was like, you know how they like FTX international. 

Bryce: [00:11:07] That's true. 

Alec: [00:11:08] But like, I don't think I really speak. Yeah. Yeah. 

Bryce: [00:11:11] That's wild. And that's been arrested. Which we'll get to in a moment. 

Alec: [00:11:15] Yuga Labs, a leading NFT firm, introduced other side. Now, I've got to say, I did not include this story because I have no idea what sentence I just read to you for this. 

Bryce: [00:11:26] Well Ren, this is all things NFT related and Yuga Labs created for apes. 

Alec: [00:11:32] That is something I'm familiar with. 

Bryce: [00:11:33] Apes Yacht Club. Some of the most valuable or were the most valuable NFT probably. 

Alec: [00:11:39] Still the most. 

Bryce: [00:11:39] Valuable. I don't know where they stand at the moment, but they acquired the cryptopunks and made bits collections cementing themselves as the leading NFT firm. Do you own any NFT? 

Bryce: [00:11:52] I thought someone got it for you for secret Santa last year or so. 

Alec: [00:11:56] I screenshotted Alf's nfts and printed them out for him and put. That's right. 

Bryce: [00:12:02] Oh, my goodness. They then introduced a magical planet named the other side, allowing community members to buy into this. The introduction was the most anticipated NFT drop of the year and the sale netted them over $310 million, making it the most significant NFT drop in history. There you go. 

Alec: [00:12:23] All right. I'm going to move on. 

Audio Clip: [00:12:26] So yesterday, developers of the Running Network, which was created by Axie Infinity, it's essentially the blockchain that the game runs on for payment. Rails announced through a blog post that they had discovered a hacker and so on. $540 million worth of cryptocurrency last week on March 23rd. 

Alec: [00:12:46] So story number five hackers stole 500 million USD from the Ronin Network. There were several pretty high profile crypto attacks crypto hacks this year. I think this this attack didn't happen this year, but the one that really stands out for me is that SoundCloud rapper. I remember her. 

Bryce: [00:13:06] No, not really.

Alec: [00:13:07] We did a whole feature on her for Tik Tok Investor Fridays who I think the allegations were her and her boyfriend stole billions. 

Bryce: [00:13:16] Oh, yeah, I do remember. Yeah. Yeah.

Alec: [00:13:17] The biggest crypto theft, the biggest, biggest crypto heist in history. And they caught them this year and they. 

Bryce: [00:13:23] Yeah. They're in jail aren't they. Well they got, they got arrested. 

Alec: [00:13:26] Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But in terms of the biggest actual theft this year was the 500 million stolen from the Ronin Network, which I believe to Axie Infinity. Yeah. For people who are unfamiliar axie infinity. Think of it like an NFT enabled pokemon game where you can actually get. It's like the leading player earn game where you get paid to play the game. And people were making so much I'm not sure about now, but in 2020 and 2021, people are making so much that you could actually invest and buy someone their first axie and then get paid a percentage of their winnings like it was seen as an investment in not in the nfts themselves. But you invest in a player to play, they play to earn games. So it was a crazy world. Turn off is still going on. 

Bryce: [00:14:16] Hey, guy. It's all happening. 

Alec: [00:14:18] It's all happening right now. They believe it was North Koreans that did the hack as well. The US have said it was a North Korean backed group. So there you go. 

Bryce: [00:14:27] Yeah, 500 mil gone. 

Audio Clip: [00:14:29] So I've never seen anything like this. This is the collapse of what was the third largest stablecoin. And it's basically been collapsing in real time. There have been a lot of concerns about Stablecoins, including from regulators and lawmakers. 

Bryce: [00:14:43] So the sixth story, this was one that really shook markets, the collapse of terror. And they say it was one of the greatest failures of decentralised finance and the effects of this implosion are still unfolding. 

Alec: [00:14:57] So the one on one on terror was it was a stablecoin and it was meant to be pegged to the U.S. dollar. So one U.S. dollar could always be converted to one terror. But then that peg broke and then it collapsed. And I'm pretty sure it was like a coordinated attack, but not an attack, but like a fund figured out a way to break the peg. 

Bryce: [00:15:19] It was an intentional break. 

Alec: [00:15:20] I think so. 

Bryce: [00:15:21] Yeah, right. Well, the terror ecosystem was worth over $40 billion. Was at its peak at the start of 2022. 

Alec: [00:15:28] Yeah. So I think it was the second biggest stablecoin after tether. Okay. I think it was the second it was big but yeah. Tether and Tera are different Stablecoins. 

Bryce: [00:15:38] Yes. Well, on on May 7, a series of massive sell offs really threatened terror. Essentially, it led to a liquidity crisis for some some major platforms, which we'll get to in a moment. Celsius three arrows. Alameda Research. 

Alec: [00:15:52] Genesis. 

Bryce: [00:15:53] Genesis. And it really put the interest of legislators around the globe who really were condemning the dangers posed by these stablecoins. It wasn't great. It really was the start of the end for a lot of. For the second half of 2022. 

Alec: [00:16:09] There's arguments that this is what broke tax as well. But let's let's move on to story number seven, which is Celsius three arrows capital and I guess almeida's crisis. So for people who are unfamiliar, three arrows capital, they were a big, I guess, crypto hedge fund and they were seen as the smartest guys in the room sort of thing. They actually spent $50 million on a yacht. The name of the yacht much? Well, actually, they never got on the boat.

Bryce: [00:16:40] They never got on it. 

Alec: [00:16:41] Well, because their firm collapsed. 

Bryce: [00:16:43] Before they even got possession of it. 

Alec: [00:16:45] Yeah. Before it was even finished being built, I guess. Wow. Yeah. And then the liquidators came in. But I think what it showed was just how interconnected the crypto ecosystem was. And it was like a cascading series of failures after Terra's collapse and the company that was supporting Terra or the Credit Terra Luna and Celsius, then three arrows and it just showed how much everyone had been lending to each other. Yeah, it was just a cascading series of crises. It takes us to X because at that time Sam Bankman-Fried was seen as the it was it was being called the J.P. Morgan of Crypto and it was seen as the saviour. Yeah. And interestingly, he was buying out a lot of these companies before they went into bankruptcy proceedings. And at the time it was like, Oh, he's doing so much. But in hindsight, people think it was to cover up the amount that he was like the FTX's and Alameda were in this whole interconnected web of borrowing and lending to each other. And what he didn't want was for someone else, you know, a liquidator to come in or someone else to buy the company and then call in the debts that FTX and Alameda owed a Celsius or 3 hours capital and something like that. 

Bryce: [00:18:04] Because then he couldn't pay. 

Alec: [00:18:05] They would default as well. And so he was buying them upfront to protect his company.

Bryce: [00:18:11] There's tweets from him trying to justify why he's paying the prices that he was for companies that were essentially bankrupt. Yeah. Yeah. So again, in hindsight, it's interesting to see how it played out. It is fascinating how interconnected they all were, how they were aligning against each other. And and the that just it's so dodgy. 

Alec: [00:18:34] So, you know, Mark Cohodes. Yeah. The short seller. Yeah. For people who aren't familiar with that term, maybe the best short seller in going around today. Definitely the most dogged short seller going around today. He was he wasn't short FTX because it was private, but he was publicly ringing the alarm bell for FTX for months, like back before every man and his dog said I knew there was something dodgy with FTX. Back when Bankman-Fried was still seen as the crypto saviour, he was interviewed on Faber's show maybe a week or two ago. It's worth listening to just to hear how he came across his perspective on the whole thing. Um. But. Yeah. Him when Bankman-Fried started buying all these companies, rather than waiting for them to go into bankruptcy and buying them for pennies on the dollar. He was like, I'm right here. I know I'm right here. Wow. Yeah. But even before that, he was like, the whole backstory of Bankman-Fried was bull and really, really interesting. Listen, given this. Yeah. 

Bryce: [00:19:36] Well played.

Alec: [00:19:37] Yeah. Anyways, so that was probably the biggest story in the first half of the year. 

Bryce: [00:19:41] Yeah. Big time. And then some massive ones continued in a positive. On a positive note, we had a ethereum's proof of stake upgrade completed. 

Audio Clip: [00:19:51] Tonight around 1 a.m.. Ethereum, the most widely used blockchain protocol is completing the software upgrade now called the merge. The event itself is going to take about 12 minutes. 

Bryce: [00:20:03] Now, this had been in the works for a long time and it was finally completed. Now going to need your help Ren and I'm pretty sure it was to do with the way that work is validated. 

Alec: [00:20:14] So traditional crypto is proof of work and you have supercomputers mining by and by mining we mean solving incredibly complex algorithms which have a supercomputer solves that algorithm. They then update the update the blockchain, the record is updated across the network and then that miner is rewarded with the cryptocurrency. It's an incredibly energy intensive way to maintain a decentralised record. And so that's how Bitcoin is still managed today. With miners and a proof of work system, Ethereum pivoted or switched to a proof of stake system where rather than people having to mine and use all that energy and supercomputers to update the blockchain instead, if you prove that it's like you, you basically stake your theory and you use the proof that you own the Etherium to validate that the transactions on the block that's being updated are correct. And then the the blockchain gets that, the ledger gets updated. Yeah. So like the long and the short of it is they pivoted the way that it's managed to take out mining. 

Bryce: [00:21:26] Yes. Yeah. The result of that is an energy efficiency improvement of 99.95% and a 90% reduction in ACE emissions. 

Alec: [00:21:37] Now the Bitcoin maxes will say it is no longer a decentralised network and instead now the biggest owners of Etherium can control the network, which is fair. There may also be an argument that there's a fair bit of consolidation in the Bitcoin mining community as well, and there's a real 8020 rule there as well. It probably did centralise it a little bit more. 

Bryce: [00:22:01] Yeah, well, the price climbed 100% from its June low, but we it's still down 64% year to date. So it was successful in the end when it was finally completed on September September 15 to go ren, the number nine US Treasury sanctioned tornado cash, the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury said on 8th of August that it added the Tornado Cash Protocol to its sanctions list. It said this because the CIA stated that cyber criminals used tornado cash to launder money. Find me a cryptocurrency that probably isn't used for that. 

Alec: [00:22:35] Find me a currency that isn't used for that. 

Bryce: [00:22:37] That's a very good point. 

Alec: [00:22:38] Thank you.

Bryce: [00:22:38] Sanctions the US dollar. 

Alec: [00:22:40] Yeah. Well, I mean, I allegedly, according to AUSTRAC, our three biggest casino operators have all been embroiled in this, allegedly according to us truck. But yeah, look, it's a year where crypto hasn't. I think you've pulled out ten stories. One of them was positive. The theory emerged was completed, but some would say that wasn't a good thing. Yeah. 

Bryce: [00:23:08] I mean, look, you could you could say the same for stocks this year as well. We're not here ripping on crypto. There's been plenty of. 

Alec: [00:23:13] We are here repealing. 

Bryce: [00:23:15] There's been plenty of negatives as well in the in stock market. But Rand, let's close out number ten. FTX Yeah.

Audio Clip: [00:23:22] We're headlining this block with Bitcoin which has just dropped below $17,000 per coin. There is news going on here. This is the story of the day, especially if you're in crypto. FTX The big exchange has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The chief executive, Sam Bankman-Fried, has resigned. 

Alec: [00:23:40] When it really started really started with finance and sees a dumping FTX is cryptocurrency or that token FTT that led to a run on the bank a run on the exchange. PayPal tried to withdraw their money. FTX didn't have the money to give it back. Everything went wrong, Binance said it would buy it 24 hours later, it said it wouldn't buy it. FTX couldn't return its money to investors. Turns out it was giving a lot of money to Sam Bankman-Fried hedge fund Alameda Research, and it looks like a lot of that was required because Alameda was swept up. In the terror collapse. 

Bryce: [00:24:18] And now. Long story short, he's been arrested by federal authorities in the US. Arrested in the Bahamas. Extradited to the U.S.. Facing criminal proceedings of fraud, embezzlement. And Mr. Roy. 

Alec: [00:24:35] John J. Ray. 

Bryce: [00:24:37] Ray. That's it. John J Ray III he was in Congress, I think, earlier this week and has said and said that despite unwinding Enron through a massive period of fraud, he said he's seen nothing as bad as what has been going on. At at. Not great for Sam Bankman-Fried and all the investors that were involved in it. 

Alec: [00:24:59] Now, you know Kevin O'Leary from Shark Tank. I tell you, I was watching his testimony at the congressional enquiry into FTX's and he was saying so FTX's over the years raised about $2 billion in venture capital. Kevin was saying that he called Bankman-Fried when all this went to shit and was like, What actually happened to that money on the balance sheet? Apparently the story goes. Binance as CEO says they owned 20% of FTX's, and every time Binance and FTX would go in, you go to a new jurisdiction to try and get regulated as like a financial institution says they wouldn't give FTX's the necessary information for it to get registered because and because he was a major shareholder, I think it was the second biggest shareholder after Bankman-Fried. They needed his information and he just wouldn't give a lot. And so it meant that in every jurisdiction Binance was getting regulated and registered. I have text before FTX and so apparently Bankman-Fried decided they'd just have to buy seas out. They have to. They have to get him off the books. Off the books. And so a lot of the money that they raised, especially in those light around, went to buying out seas and then says they dumped the token. So, like, there will be a Business Wars podcast on this. There'll be a documentary on it. And it will it will really focus on, I think, the rivalry between these two big. 

Bryce: [00:26:33] Time and who's and there's nothing to say that says himself wasn't doing dodgy stuff as well. 

Alec: [00:26:41] Have you seen the massive Binance withdrawals or hhe does, yeah. 

Bryce: [00:26:44] He's trying to say that happens regularly and it's nothing's unusual to say here. Yeah, but billions of dollars are coming out in 24 hour chunks. So who knows when? Who knows? But that that is ten crypto moments from 2022. Whilst it has been an incredibly interesting year in the crypto space, there are firms out there who are secure and one of them is CoinSpot. Firstly, a shout out to CoinSpot for supporting Equity Mates this year and specifically for supporting Fin Fest. They were one of the major sponsors. So thank you to the to CoinSpot. They are Australia's most secure crypto platform. Trusted by over two and a half million Australians, they are awarded the internationally recognised ISO 27001 certification and the only Australian exchange to conduct an external statutory financial audit. They've been home for crypto for Australia's crypto since 2013. Head to coinspot.com.au. 

Alec: [00:27:42] So Bryce. As we close out the key takeaways from the world of crypto and how are you going to invest in 2023? 

Bryce: [00:27:50] The key takeaways have been sort of how I've always approached it. I definitely don't know anywhere near enough about it to make value judgements and value statements. There's, there's so much that the regulation side still provides a lot of risk. And so my investing hasn't changed at all compared to, you know, even two years ago, nothing more than sort of 5% of my portfolio goes into cryptocurrency. I still think that having a little bit of the toe in the water in some of the bigger coins. It's probably it is where I play. But the takeaway has been, man, there is a lot going on and some regulation wouldn't go far. Yeah. What about yourself? 

Alec: [00:28:38] I think for me, it's really important to separate the cryptocurrency story from the businesses in the cryptocurrency world story, because what we've shared today. So the first two stories, the Canada trucker protests and Ukrainian military like they were, use cases of crypto currency where people from all over the world were able to get money to where it where they wanted it to go. Instantly frictionless like that is an incredible use case for cryptocurrency. This whole you go abs introducing other side not a world that I understand, not a world that I play in, but like those are the technology stories and that's really exciting. And that's why in 2023, you're going to hear a lot about central bank digital currencies because governments and regulators are saying the technology story for cryptocurrency and getting excited by it. So that's one side of the story. Then if we were to group a number of the other stories, I would say these are business stories, not technology stories, and that's Terra Luna, Celsius, 3 hours Capital FTX and whatever's happening with finance, these are all companies that are playing in the crypto world. But what brought them down wasn't anything to do with the technology. It was their business practises, it was how they were managing customer funds, it was how much collateral they had and how much they were borrowing and what level of leverage and risk they were taking on. And these are stories that aren't unique to crypto, but it just so happened that in the Wild West of crypto, all those people were trying to get rich quickly and blew themselves up. And so I think for me, the really important thing, the takeaway from this year is that the technology story and the business story often get conflated, but they are two separate stories, and I don't have a good answer on how to invest in it, but probably if I was to say how I'm going to approach 2023, I'm not investing venture capital into any crypto related businesses, but I'm probably going to keep dollar cost averaging into cryptocurrency itself. 

Bryce: [00:30:55] Well, 2023, what a year we are about to embark on. Who knows where this is going to go. But Ren, that is the end of today's episode and the end of our content for 2022. We are taking a break for a week. Enjoy your Christmas. Everyone in the Equity Mates community got a massive thank you for for your support as always. Thank you to CoinSpot for supporting Equity Mates as well. We will be back at the start of January with our summer series where we're diving into 12 stocks both here in Australia and over in the US, probably one of our best summer series to date. 11 experts joining us to help us unpack those stocks as well. It's going to be awesome. Make sure you tune in and have a safe Christmas and Ren will pick it up in January. 

Alec: [00:31:39] Sounds good.