Crypto Just Had Its 1996 Moment. (What Comes Next)

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Crypto just had its 1996 moment. And if you're only looking at Bitcoin's price, you'll probably miss why that matters. Because in 1996, the internet didn't just explode because the technology was suddenly invented. The technology was already there. The users were even already there and the companies were already there. What changed was the rails. The legal and financial system finally started giving Wall Street a way to turn the internet into an investable market. And that is the part people are missing in crypto right now. The headlines look boring, but historically that boring stuff is exactly what happens before the violent part of the cycle. So, in this video, I want to show you what just happened, why it looks so similar to 1996, and what could come next if crypto is finally moving from a retail speculation market into an institutional capital market.

[00:00:58]To understand why Riot now looks so familiar to what happened in 1996, so much so that the comparison's probably going to shock you. and why and how that helped create the dot bubble as we know it. I need to take you back to that period of time and give you the leadup to it. So, it kicked off in 1989.

[00:01:20]We saw the web proposed. That's the worldwide web, not the internet. Okay?

[00:01:24]Soon after the public web was introduced and then Mosaic helped usher in the commercial internet as we know it. All right? Mosaic being one of the first web browsers. So, it helped everyday people like you and I access the internet for the first time in an understandable way.

[00:01:39]at Netscape. Well, this company took things to a whole new level because in this commercial internet/adoption phase we saw over these last few years and many companies IPOing on the NASDAQ, Netscape created a template because it was a very new company that showed the world that you could be a new fresh internet-based company, which by the way was a competitor to Mosaic, essentially being an even larger and much more adopted web browser. It showed the world that you could create a company and create interest not on current profits but on future expectations. The idea was pretty simple. Build an internet company, grow users fast, tell a huge future growth story list on the NASDAQ and then public investors end up buying the dream because at that stage the internet was this thing that was up and coming. People began to believe in it and of course theories about how far this thing could go to began to circulate. That's what helped pull in more retail and institutional money. And then with a high stock price, you can use that to hire, acquire, and expand the company. Does that model sound familiar to anyone? Because to me, it sounds pretty familiar to what many of these cryptocurrency altcoins have been doing now for the last, call it roughly 10 years. But let's not get into Netscape too much. The important part of this video is telling you what happened just briefly after that. the legal rails were created and essentially helped accelerate the dot boom. This is what helped give institutional access to these companies because before the legal rails which came from the telecommunications act of 1996 particularly section 230 within that act institutions and VCs were hesitant to invest in some of these companies because they were fearful that they the companies could be sued based on what users were posting on that particular website. So, not only did the Telecommunications Act provide a lot of these new and upcoming internet companies with legal protections, therefore spurring innovation, but it also gave Wall Street and all the money sitting on the sidelines in Tradfi access to these internet companies because they could finally invest without any fear of legal ramifications really. So by now I hope you've understood the power of 1996, the power of the telecommunications act and how it became a massive accelerant for the dotcom era. Essentially it created the guard rails for the big money to come in and as a matter of fact did help spruce a lot of innovation within the new and upcoming internet industry which is exactly what I think is happening right now to crypto. It is not official yet, but hopefully with the next coming months, uh, it'll be official. And I want to explain more about what I mean here. But just so you understand how comparative the last, let's say, 10 years has been for crypto to the dot bubble, I've created this chart here just to visualize it. So in 2010, we saw, you know, Bitcoin launch. Then from roughly 2010 to about 2015, we saw exchanges and wallet rails being created. Essentially, it's akin to the web being proposed. Then 2015 to 2017, we saw ETH launch with the ICO boom.

[00:04:55]Kind of like the public web first coming online. Then as Mosaic and the commercial internet began to kick off, I think crypto's similar adoption curve here was public companies coming online like Micro Strategy, other DATs for example. We also saw just a whole bunch of retail come in as well. So I think very very comparative. We also saw more mature exchanges, better wallet handling. Then the Netscape IPO, I think, can be quite comparable to the ETFs that came online in January of 2024. Again, kind of like the first introduction of big money into crypto.

[00:05:30]That's Bitcoin and ETH ETFs particularly. And of course, we're yet to see the equivalent of the IPO boom, I think, so far, which could come from this regulated capital. So the legal rails forming here. Well, one, we know the Genius Act already has been officially passed into law. Of course, I'm talking specifically about the United States here. Many other countries of course will follow like we saw with the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

[00:05:54]Australia, for example, passed theirs in 1997. So again, Genius Act, of course, the Clarity Act is just passed the House now moving into the Senate. And with that, big money essentially gets the green light. There's clarity, there's there's custody, there's compliance, there's just so much on offer now.

[00:06:11]Essentially, there's no reason that companies don't want to get into crypto.

[00:06:16]And I think particularly what people are forgetting is that just like the telecommunications act for the com era, it's going to help increase innovation.

[00:06:24]I mean, you have a look at tornado for example, the founder of tornado that created this decentralized leaderless project. He was arrested for his project, right? So again, this is just going to help create much more innovation. As a matter of fact, Franklin Templeton said the Clarity Act took one step closer to becoming law.

[00:06:44]Clearer rules, bigger playing field.

[00:06:46]What they mean by bigger playing field here is bigger money getting access to this industry. We're so much closer now.

[00:06:53]Need I remind you, Franklin Templeton aren't messing around. These guys are a $1.7 trillion asset management company.

[00:07:00]But make no mistake, we are already seeing the early signs of this major adoption curve kicking off. I want to spend the next few minutes just reminding you of some of the incredible stuff, particularly because we have recent access to the latest 13F quarterly filings from a lot of these major companies. Remember, don't listen to what they say, follow what they do.

[00:07:23]But before I want to get into that, just remind you guys if you are enjoying this video at all and you appreciate the no BS take on the crypto market, zooming out, looking at things objectively, then leave a like down below. I sincerely appreciate it. Of course, if you are new, hit that subscribe button. JP Morgan's quarter 1 filing this year revealed the bank increased its IBIT Holdings, that's Black Rockck's Bitcoin ETF, by 174% worth roughly $390 million.

[00:07:52]They also expanded exposure to Fidelity, Bitwise, and ProShares Bitcoin funds and added a new position in Salana and Ethereum linked ETFs. This accumulation, importantly, remember this, happened while BTC fell over 22% in Q1. They've been buying the dip, guys. Here's Morgan Stanley's quarter 1 filings. You can see they have $50 million in Fidelity's Bitcoin ETF. Goldman Sachs has $671 million in Black Rockck's Bitcoin ETF.

[00:08:25]And here is Citadel again with Black Rockck at $50 million. Back in April, Morgan Stanley also entered the Bitcoin ETF race with their own new fund as well, the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust.

[00:08:38]We also saw Schwab Crypto launch. This is direct spot access, not ETF access, but direct spot access to Bitcoin and Ethereum. And as they mentioned here, other cryptocurrencies are coming, which of course means altcoins are coming as well. Charles Schwab manages $12.61 trillion. So they're definitely not a small institution. Black Rockck is now filing for a brand new product called the Black Rockck Bailey reinvestment stable coin reserve vehicle. So again, stable coin reserve vehicle. You see how powerful, for example, the Genius Act has been now, a lot of these things will begin to come online, guys. If it's not the 13F, so quarterly filings reports that are opening your eyes, it's got to be what they're doing, the products they're launching. They see dollar signs. They wouldn't be doing this if they didn't see that there was any possible demand coming in here. Now, we've made some pretty interesting comparisons in this video with the com/inet boom to what's happening now in crypto. And so I wanted to bring up this chart from Royal Paul's Real Vision which shows you at least this was back in 2025 that the crypto adoption even back then even 12 months ago was more than the internet in 2001. So crypto is growing at a very very very fast rate right now even more than after the dotcom bubble. Now, that doesn't automatically translate to an instant 8x price increase for the crypto market cap once the legal rails are in place or essentially once the Clarity Act is finally passed. I quite like this post from Freddy Krueger on Twitter, if that's how you pronounce his last name.

[00:10:13]He's expecting, at least according to Claw, that this doesn't really become effective until summer of 2027. And even if the Clarity Act is, let's just say enforceable when it is signed, let's pretend that Marty party here is right and assuming it'll pass on July 4th, then we still need the institutional capital to begin flowing in. And that's only going to happen if the macro environment is giving us a chance to do that. So there's a whole bunch of moving pieces here. And comparing it directly to the dot bubble and saying the next three or four years is going to be an 8x moonshot, it is not accurate. But again, what it does is create the environment very similar, the accelerant, so to speak, to allow innovation to occur and that to be possible. Whether it does or doesn't is up to the market to decide that. So, thank you all so much for watching this video. Let me know what you think down below. Either way, very exciting times at the Clarity Act now moving forward. And again, I'm just really excited to see what happens over the next few years. Thank you so much for your time today, guys. I sincerely appreciate it. If you made it this far, let me know with a like down below. And I'll talk to you very, very soon. Take care. Bye-bye.