Best-selling author and bitcoin miner Giannis Andreou says it’s not just bitcoin that’s getting attention from serious investors. Ethereum, written off by some as dead just a year ago, is back with a bang, as are some of the minnows of the crypto world. From Moneyweb.
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They are back in vogue. Altcoins have been sidelined for months by bitcoin’s overwhelming dominance of the crypto market. Institutional adoption through exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has exploded on a scale few people could have imagined just a year ago.
The next wave of adoption is being fuelled by hundreds of companies – many of them quite sizeable – stacking bitcoin on their balance sheets as part of what is known as a bitcoin reserve strategy.
Giannis Andreou, author of the best-selling book Bitcoin: The New Gold, and founder of bitcoin mining company BitMern Crypto Mining, says the recent altcoin surge is precisely on time compared to previous crypto cycles.
“Usually, the market cycle goes first bitcoin (BTC) does a rally, then Ethereum follows and then altcoins come just right. The allocation goes from bitcoin to Ethereum and then from Ethereum to altcoins. This happened in every cycle.”
Ethereum has found new favour among companies for its ability to embed smart contracts with no human intervention into contracts and execute them when certain conditions are fulfilled. This, and the ability to earn yield on funds, has revitalised interest in a crypto which many had written off as dead a year ago.
Andreou sticks to billionaire Kevin O’Leary’s investment principle that no more than 5% of your funds should be allocated to any single asset.
This also explains why some crypto enthusiasts – even bitcoin miners – are embracing ethereum strategic reserves.
Andreou also discusses whether there is potential to mine bitcoin in SA, given the explosion in solar power over the last four years.
It’s possible he says, provided you can get electricity at less than $0.06/kWh (R1.08/kWh). His company, BitMern Mining, has 1 250 miners located in UAE, Dubai, Ethiopia and United States. It’s not easy to get electricity prices this low as a solo miner, so the best way of getting involved is to join a group with size and bargaining muscle.
“I started this as a solo mining in 2023, almost two and a half years ago, in the UAE. Then I expanded to [using] clean, cheaper energy in Ethiopia since last year, October.”
The US administration under President Donald Trump has removed many of the restrictions of the previous administration that were hostile to crypto.
“Suddenly the US is the place for the crypto. It has become officially the crypto capital of the world, no matter how much other countries try to compete,” he says.
Andreou’s book Bitcoin: The New Gold is aimed at those unfamiliar with crypto and what makes bitcoin unique – digital gold, digital scarcity, decentralised over thousands of nodes, and outside the control of central authorities. Companies, individuals and governments are awakening to the fact that fiat currencies are steadily debasing. Even the revered US dollar under Trump has lost 10% of its value this year.
How, then, does bitcoin become a currency that people spend rather than just save? It will happen, says Andreou, as people will be forced by popular pressure to make and receive payments in BTC.
“I believe that in a few years [we] will be forced to use bitcoin and crypto [just] as we were forced to use social media. For example, I have a business and the customer comes to buy a product or a service and says that I can only pay in bitcoin, then you will be forced to accept payment in bitcoin.”
The real use case of crypto has yet to be fully realised, as tokenisation of real world assets like real estate, stocks, bonds, art and much else unlocks trillions of US dollars in otherwise frozen wealth.
What will drive the adoption of crypto – such as is already happening with stablecoins – is much lower costs of transacting and settlement that takes minutes rather than days.
Looking towards the end of 2025, Andreou sees a correction by BTC by December, followed by another rally early in 2026. Future corrections in bitcoin are likely to be far less severe than was historically the case. Don’t miss out on this fascinating podcast exploring what’s in store in our crypto futures.
For previous Moneyweb Crypto Pod episodes, click here.
