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In a conversation this week, Empire co-host Jason Yanowitz described a return of market sentiment, dubbing it “animal spirits,” a term signifying that market movements are driven by investor emotions and behavior rather than fundamentals or technical analysis.
Commenting on this phenomenon, Round Up host Rob Hadick noted its peculiarity given the prolonged absence of mainstream retail investors from the crypto scene and the apparent eagerness currently present.
However, Hadick cautioned that the speculative fervor is potentially subsiding. He anticipates either a market bottom or reduced volatility within the coming weeks and reminded readers that August traditionally performs poorly in markets, which could influence crypto.
The discussion then focused on pump.fun, a launchpad platform facing concerns following a notably unsuccessful token launch. Hadick highlighted pre-existing worries about liquid fund demand, exacerbated by pump.fun’s token distribution revealing significantly more capital flowing to liquid funds ($770 million) shortly after the company had announced plans for $250 million in that segment.
Speaking with Blockworks Research, pump.fun founder Alon Cohen further fueled these concerns by stating that the promised airdrop was not imminent.
Hadick pointed to price action data from Blockworks Research illustrating the flat trajectory of Pump’s token.
Looking ahead, Hadick suggested shifting investor interest towards competitors such as Bonk, owing to Bonk’s model of sharing greater revenue with creators, which increases both user incentives and potential demand.
