It was a busy weekend for cryptocurrency. And, with Consensus – the largest event in the Bitcoin, blockchain, and cryptocurrency industry – getting started this week, you might be in for a crazy ride of hype, more hype, and even more, uh, hype.

Today, we’re going to talk about the “signal to noise ratio” – expected to be heavily weighted this week in the direction of NOISE – as well as what to potentially look for coming out of the event.

Weekend Headline #1: BTC and ETH

First, Bitcoin and Ethereum jumped over psychological hurdles ($2000 for BTC, $120 for ETH), then pole vaulted over the same hurdles, with prices for each reaching all-time highs that might have seemed folly just a couple of weeks earlier.

In fact, we looked at our own screenshot from April 26, where we saw that Ethereum was in the 50s and we thought…WHAT?

This is not unexpected, however: for every case out there that “Bitcoin is overvalued” or “Ether is just a me, too technology,” there seem to be dozens of stratospheric projections – some based on math! – that both coins are only scratching the surface.

Weekend Headline #2 – Altcoin Roulette

Meanwhile, the “Altcoins” – those non-BTC coins that are highly volatile – were also doing some rather odd things in the markets. Take two of the more interesting cases from one of our hypothetical portfolios: Digibyte and Dogecoin.

Here’s a screenshot from our “Hedge Portfolio,” with the three-week growth of those two coins highlighted.

Anyone else think this all looks eerily like the late 90s? Instead of a high-flying Internet stock tip, it’s a high-flying cryptocurrency bet that could go from, in the case of Digibyte, $1,000 to $15,304.77?

The flipside of the late-90s argument is the “how are these used in the wild?” argument. Digibyte went “Segwit” before the other mainstream coins. Doge is called by some “the world’s tip jar.” With real use cases and actual nine-digit market caps for both coins, it’s not that you’re betting on cocktail-napkin business plans.

Signal to Noise

We’ve talked for the past several weeks about things like “fundamentals,” and business plans, and use cases, and white papers. And, the fact that we spent so many years in financial services and fintech marketing and communications means, frankly, that we can see through a lot of the BS that accompanies any launch.

This week, as the industry gathers in NYC for Consensus, we invite you to be on the lookout for BS. For hype. For marketing double-speak – which, it should be no surprise, exists in the blockchain and crypto universe, too.

Honestly, and this is not trading advice and you should of course seek your own counsel, fundamentals are what attracted us to investments such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Digibyte, and Dogecoin in the first place. Sure, each has its fanboys and fangirls on the various chat boards, but the reality here is that each has the fundamental potential to make serious noise in this emerging industry.

We invite you to do the same: watch for the “check out this COIN, bro!” posts vs. the announcements of actual news from the businesses. See what looks like an engaged, active community online vs. a coin with lots of questions but very few answers.

And as always, stay grounded. Do your research. Don’t dive in with more than you can handle.

Have a Great Week!

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