A case can be made this time since the introduction of wrapped btc which allows holders to lend and earn something from their bitcoin holdings [DeFi]. I just don't know if the amount is significant enough to contribute to the current btc run. Maybe someone can pull up the numbers.
Wrap BTC is not bitcoin and anything happens with it can affect bitcoin reputation. I don't like it (try to connect DeFi to bitcoin to show bitcoin is decentralized) and try to connect Ethereum to DeFi by the article to predict bitcoin can rise higher).
What makes me quite confident for this 2020 bull run is that a significant amount of money are actually from institutional investors, and it's pretty safe to assume that they're far far less easily affected by beginner investor emotions like FOMO and panic selling.
If they withdraw their bitcoin from exchanges, and don't sell when price dips or corrects, retail investors can be main forces of panic sell. With whales or without institutional bitcoin, panic sell will be done. It is the market.
With that said, I really don't want to say the classic "this time it's different", as there's still a good chance that we're going to have something similar to 2017, just with a different price roof and price floor.
Can not disagree. Roof and floor can be not the same but how it moves up and down are the same.