Crypto’s Macro Shake-Up: Hyperliquid Surges, Altcoins Roar, and Binance France Chief Decodes the 4-Year Cycle (Exclusive Interview)

Macroeconomic tremors are reshaping crypto—again. Hyperliquid’s rally defies gravity, altcoins are staging a coup, and Binance France’s David Prinçay drops truth bombs about Bitcoin’s infamous 4-year cycles.

Forget 'soft landings.' The Fed’s policy whiplash just became crypto’s rocket fuel. Prinçay reveals why institutions are quietly stacking sats while retail traders chase memecoins.

Altcoin season? More like altcoin siege. ETH killers are outperforming—for now. But Prinçay warns: 'Liquidity flows where regulators blink first.'

Bonus jab: TradFi banks still think 'blockchain, not Bitcoin' is a viable strategy—meanwhile, their clients are YOLO-ing into shitcoin leverage.

Macroeconomic factors have increased market uncertainty, which has affected crypto in similar ways to traditional asset classes. Crypto increasingly behaves like risk assets, which means that prolonged trade wars or geo-political tensions could result in capital that might have entered crypto either staying on the sidelines or shifting into perceived SAFE havens like gold.

Despite its reputation as ‘digital gold’ and a potential safe-haven, BTC has shown a stronger correlation with equities in the first half of the year than with traditional hedges like gold. However, a deeper look at the market also shows that BTC was less affected by ‘risk-off’ episodes than other crypto assets.

According to Binance Research, in April, BTC had dropped 19.1%, while ETH dropped over 40%, and categories like Memecoins and AI plunged more than 50%, suggesting that it is much more resistant to shocks than it may have been in the past.

While we have seen price recoveries since then, these types of movement show there can be a vulnerability to sudden policy shifts and macroeconomic drivers.

However, analysts will be watching closely to see if BTC is able to retain its appeal as a non-sovereign, permissionless asset in an increasingly protectionist global economy. If inflation and rate cuts become a concern, we could expect to see BTC grow its appeal as an inflation resistant asset once again.

There are a number of reasons for Bitcoin’s current dominance. We continue to see strong interest in crypto from institutional investors and corporate treasuries (and even from sovereign wealth funds), and naturally their primary interest is in Bitcoin as the most established cryptoasset.

There has also been a great deal of economic uncertainty in global markets, whether caused by national economic policies, conflicts or other factors. Both of these factors typically drive BTC dominance in different ways, one as an effect of sustained interest and investment in it as a novel asset class, and the other as a familiar impact of uncertainty and volatility in traditional markets.

In the longer term, it’s not possible to say how this might impact the next altcoin season. We may see institutions and corporations seek further diversification in their crypto holdings if or when BTC prices plateau, and markets for traditional assets will eventually regain their confidence. How an altcoin season plays out in a more mature and regulated crypto market will be interesting to see.

We are watching these developments with interest and it’s always good to see innovative projects challenging the status quo, it drives competition and inspires product innovation across the industry.

We are constantly taking inspiration from across the industry and adding new products that our users love, such as Binance Wallet which recently hit an ATH of $12.5 billion in daily transaction volumes driven by TGEs and airdrops through Binance Alpha.

Alpha allows our users to explore early-stage crypto projects with the potential to grow within the Web3 ecosystem as well as earning ‘Alpha Points’ which grant access to exclusive rewards for our most engaged community members.

Our focus is to ensure that we continue to develop our business in compliance with our regulatory obligations around the world. We are the largest exchange in the world, and we have a responsibility to ensure that we grow sustainably and, as always, prioritise user protection.

There’s not yet been any strong evidence to suggest that the four year cycle has been broken. Certainly, there have been corrections that correlate to macroeconomic events but we have also seen price recoveries and fresh all time highs.

Over the longer term it will remain to be seen whether macroeconomic factors and maturation of the crypto market will affect the historical pattern of cycles, but it’s not likely that we have reached that point yet.