So, after a week of trying to digest what we were witnessing, listening to take after take and feeling so sure that it is a bigger twist to the tale than we realize, I’ve been struggling to put into words why it matters. 1/n

It’s proven surprisingly hard, which of course got me wondering: why is it hard? I’m an analyst, I should have been able to hit the keyboard running. I knew this is what I had to write about for the newsletter, ‘cos it feels… 2/n

…like the biggest shift in the market landscape for decades. But I really struggled to get my thoughts coherent. It’s not just the many moving parts and sides to this story – those we can map out. It’s something else: 3/n

The emotion. Let’s face it, everyone witnessing this has to feel some sort of emotion. Excitement, rage, disbelief, horror, hope, fear, awe - they’re all in there. Compelling viewing, pull up a seat and bring the popcorn. 4/n

Or the pitchforks. Let’s unpack the emotion a bit. Pretty much all of us working in the crypto industry are here because we care about financial access, equal opportunity and freedom from oppressive power. 5/n

This week we watched a large and well-equipped army emerge from a corner the establishment did not expect, and strip bare what we have long felt was wrong with the established system. Who doesn’t love a feisty underdog? 6/n

An underdog that might or might not care about crypto, but that does seem to want to change the rules, fueled by what seems like generational anger. “Old” vs “new”. I watched this and felt… excited, hopeful and, yeah, a bit alarmed. 7/n

Excited and hopeful because, game on. Some of the structural inequalities revealed this week, blockchain can help with. There’s no way this can’t encourage more people to look at the advantages of crypto assets. 8/n

There’s also the fact that regulators are now paying attention. This could be good if it addresses the skewed system and accelerates a change I thought would take a decade. Or, hence the alarm, it could lead to… 9/n

… more crackdowns on retail platforms, further exacerbating unequal access. Another emotion thrown in there is hope. Hope that this IS an accelerant, and that the new army doesn’t lose interest in the opportunity it has. 10/n

Also, fervent hope that we are heading towards more transparency and opportunity for investors and savers at any level. Because the generational anger is real, and not unreasonable. 11/n

So, I think that’s what made this week challenging to synthesize: the mix of emotions. Us human beings are generally bad at understanding them, and they make it harder to analyze with detachment. Some of the week’s hasty and unfortunate takes… 12/n

…can be attributed to that, so we should be understanding. And give ourselves some time to absorb and think. This is just one step in a long journey. But, exchanging ideas even prematurely helps us form other ideas, so we need to do it, even if we don't yet have answers. 13/n

The newsletter’s out tomorrow. I ended up writing about one small aspect of what I saw: the emergence of a new market paradigm. And a new valuation vocabulary. I am a nerdy analyst, after all. (If you don’t subscribe, you can do so here - https://www.coindesk.com/newsletter/crypto-long-and-short ) @CoinDesk