$300 Billion, And Other Crypto Numbers I Don’t Understand

Morning Report: Bitcoin’s recent price appreciation staggers the mind. As long as it continues to boom, the crypto world will stay frothy. How long can this go on?

Bitcoin’s recent value explosion to more than $9,000 per coin, along with the rapid ascent of other cryptocurrencies like ethereum, have pushed the aggregate crypto market cap over $300 billion dollars today.

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That’s a huge chunk of value.

(But, of course, there are caveats. Bitcoins that have been lost forever are estimated to have been worth over $30 billion at current prices. That’s a around a fifth of the value of all bitcoin in the world.)

I am writing today to confess that I don’t get it. I don’t understand why cryptos were worth $17.7 billion at the start of the year and $302 billion today.

I get that blockchain technology has real, potential merit. I don’t think that most things are better off on the blockchain, but it’s certainly worthy in some cases. And ICOs aren’t stupid by definition. It’s just that most ICOs to date have been definitionally stupid. And I don’t think that bitcoin itself has no value. I just don’t think that it has anything near $9,000 of utility in it at the moment or even in the foreseeable future.  So its entire price premium feels precisely like hype, or, more simply, the expectation of future gains. And we have a phrase for that.

I don’t get why 100 crypto hedge funds make sense. And I don’t get the arrogance in the market as if this will go on forever. And I don’t get how this bitcoin price chart doesn’t seem to be just a bit too bullish:

Anyway, Twitter, over the last few days, has made me feel like I’m the most-behind person in the world. If you understand these happenings please email me.

From the Crunchbase Daily:

Niantic raises $200M

• Niantic, maker of the hit augmented reality game Pokemon Go, has raised about $200 million in fresh funding as it prepares to roll out a new title based on the Harry Potter series. Spark Capital led the round, with participation from Founders Fund, Meritech, Javelin Venture Partners, and others.

McAfee acquires Skyhigh Networks

• Eight months after spinning out of Intel as a standalone security business, McAfee has announced its first acquisition. The company is acquiring Skyhigh Networks, an enterprise security provider for cloud-based data, for an undisclosed sum. Silicon Valley-based Skyhigh, founded in 2011, previously raised about $107 million in venture funding.

Balderton closes Europe VC fund

• London-based venture firm Balderton Capital has raised $375 million for a sixth fund focused primarily on Series A investments in European technology startups.

Dell ramps up startup investment

• Since coming out of stealth mode in May, Dell Technologies Capital has continued to pursue the fastest pace of investment in its history, Crunchbase News reports. The fund closed 27 investments in the first half of its fiscal year. To date, it’s made about 80 investments, culminating in 33 exits so far.

iStockPhoto / vladwel