Let's talk about the crash • CEO Letter #45

Taylor Culbertson -

Welcome to my crib, it’s Taylor! In case you don’t know me, I’m the CEO of Hedgehog, where you can track and trade your whole crypto portfolio across whichever wallets and exchanges suit your fancy.

However, it’s a teensy bit depressing to track your portfolio this week, right? Maybe you already noticed, but uhhh… the market crashed. Which market? Fam, it’s every market. Stocks, BTC, ETH, altcoins, everything is down. This happens periodically, so don’t panic. Whenever people start freaking out, I like to go look at the five-year price chart for bitcoin:

It puts things into perspective. Sometimes “number go up.” Sometimes number go down. Usually, after going down, number go up again. Of course — say it with me — Past Performance Is No Guarantee of Future Returns™ but keep in mind, the last chance to buy bitcoin for less than today’s price was in 2020.

How about ethereum? Well, in that case the last chance to buy under today’s price was summer 2021:

Point being, while past performance is no guarantee of future returns (ouch, compliance team twisted my arm to say it twice), another way to look at market crashes is that assets are on sale for the next growth cycle. Exchanges out here lookin’ like JCPenney with all these 15% dips. Granted, it’s hard to time the bottom, so it’s totally possible to buy your favorite cryptocurrency and then watch the price keep sliding. Bitcoin and ethereum have also provided ample opportunities for that experience throughout their history! And some altcoins will never recover, just like some companies go bankrupt and disappear during a recession.

One such altcoin — at least that’s the chatter right now — is Terra’s LUNA and the associated stablecoin, UST:

Three explanations of how the plunge went down: 1 & 2, 3

Brutal timing for Hedgehog, purely because we just published a little profile of Terra LUNA and UST on the blog, which is now abruptly obsolete. Them’s the breaks — crypto moves fast!

Tldr: First it’s “LUNA to the moon!” then it’s “oh no are we sure the landing equipment on this spacecraft is operational?!”

Much more cheerful news: Hedgehog is going to participate in a couple of CoinDesk’s Crypto Unlocked webinars next week! Specifically:

Who Let the Doge Out? A Deep Dive Into Meme Coins
feat. Sonya, Hedgehog content lead
Tuesday, May 17 • 1:00 PM EST

Code-Driven Communities: An Exploration into DAOs
feat. Colton, Hedgehog CTO
Wednesday, May 18 • 1:00 PM EST

CoinDesk hasn’t put Sonya and Colton on the webinar signup page yet, but check out this sexy promo graphic from the email announcement:

Hopefully Sonya and Colton will see some of y’all at their sessions!

Side note, the only reason I know about the CoinDesk promo email is that my dad received it and forwarded it to Hedgehog. Thanks Dad 💖 Heck, thanks CoinDesk — for having us, but especially for making the company look good in front of my parents! #winning

That’s all for this week, keeping it short and sweet. Oh wait! The giveaway! I didn’t mention it up top, so I wonder how many of you remembered. Give it to me straight: Did you scroll down looking for the giveaway, or did you read the whole newsletter this is just a nice surprise? Reply to this email with your honest answer (I swear I won’t be offended either way, founders need thick skin) for the chance to win a Ledger Nano S hardware wallet.

XOXO,
Gossip Girl Taylor

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