Four Horsemen Destroying Crypto According to One of Wall Street’s Top Digital Asset Investors

While many investors continue asking why crypto prices have remained weak, ARCA CIO Jeff Dorman says the question itself is flawed. Speaking on the AllInCrypto podcast, Dorman argued that several parts of the blockchain industry are actually thriving despite Bitcoin’s recent struggles.

The veteran investor covered a wide range of topics, including token valuations, AI-driven productivity, and challenges facing Strategy, while also pointing to broader structural issues across the crypto industry. 

“Crypto is down is the wrong question.” Markets go down when the Fed is late to cut rates when they’re late to see recessions when they’re late to see unemployment.

Dorman says crypto shouldn’t be treated as one single market anymore since different sectors are moving very differently. He notes Bitcoin has been under pressure, partly due to Strategy-related concerns, while areas like DeFi, stablecoins, payments, and RWAs are actually growing and trading higher YTD thanks to real usage and revenue. 

He also points out that the market is starting to reward real value accrual, with Hyperliquid (HYPE) as an example of projects with strong revenues separating from pure speculation. Overall, he sees this as a sign the crypto market is maturing. 

“Misinformation is probably the biggest negative driver of price performance.”

Moving on talking about price factor, Dorman criticized what he called crypto’s “four horsemen of incompetence”: exchanges, market makers, venture capital firms, and token issuers. He said exchanges often list tokens without proper user education, market makers back overpriced projects, VCs fund too many unnecessary Layer-1s, and issuers fail at basic investor communication. 

Overall, he argued these issues have played a major role in weak market performance and growing investor frustration. 

“Powell might go down as the worst Fed chair in history.”

Dorman also took a jab at Jerome Powell, saying he relies too much on forward guidance instead of reacting to real-time economic changes. He argued the Fed got overly focused on signaling future moves rather than staying flexible. Dorman added that markets tend to perform better when policy adjustments are smaller and more responsive, especially during stable economic conditions. 

“This doesn’t help gold. It doesn’t help Bitcoin.”

Dorman said AI is now part of every ARCA employee’s workflow and is already boosting productivity across markets. He believes this is feeding stronger corporate earnings and supporting assets with real cash flows. 

However, he added that this setup benefits equities and fundamentally strong crypto projects more than traditional stores of value like Bitcoin and gold. 

“One of the biggest unforced errors I’ve ever seen.”

Dorman was especially critical of Strategy’s recent decision to sell roughly $2.5 million worth of Bitcoin.

According to him, the sale achieved almost nothing financially while triggering significant fear across the market. He argued that the move damaged investor confidence and unnecessarily reduced the company’s enterprise value.

“There really are no easy answers right now.”

Looking ahead, Dorman warned that Strategy’s debt obligations and financial structure remain key risks for the broader market.

While he remains optimistic about the long-term growth of revenue-generating blockchain sectors, he cautioned that any larger Bitcoin sales by Strategy could continue weighing on sentiment across the crypto market.