Mike drop: There's no coming back from this for the faces of cryptocurrency

Michael Novogratz and Michael Saylor are two of the most-prominent evangelists of cryptocurrency.

They first made his reputation in financial markets and the second in developing technology but both pivoted hard to crypto. Novogratz made a series increasingly-insane headline-grabbing predictions about bitcoin, including price targets of $500,000. Saylor pivoted his software firm MicroStrategy into a levered bitcoin bet with an average cost above $30,000.

MicroStrategy's bonds are now pricing in a high chance of default as BTC has fallen below his average cost of $30,000. That could ultimately lead to a dumping of the 129,218 bitcoin that it owns -- valued recently at over $6 billion.

For Novogratz, there's this:

It's now the ultimate cringe.

Luna is imploding. It's down to 87-cents from $87 a week ago. It's fallen 97% in the past 24 hours after the luna-backed UST stablecoin broke. Just a week ago, Luna was a top-ten valued crypto. The retail pain is enormous and tragic.

In terms of credibility, Novogratz is on a bullet train from respectability to being a punchline. I have to believe Saylor and Novogratz will survive themselves or morph into something new but their pumping has left a trail of wreckage.

In the past 24 hours:

• Bitcoin -8.4%
• ETH -10.5%
• XRP -20.2%
• Cardano -17.9%
• Solana -25.9%
• Dogecoin -21.9%
• Avalanche (aptly named) -36.9%

I have to think that bitcoin is being held up by flows from alts at the moment but if $28,500 gives way, it could get very ugly.

What's also hurting crypto lately is the positive correlation with tech stocks. There was once a boisterous camp arguing that crypto was a portfolio hedge and store of value against volatility elsewhere. For months though now it's simply been a leveraged trade on the Nasdaq.

UBS today makes that point in a brutal one-sentence takedown, saying today that the "case for institutional adoption seems to be receding by the day, with the space affording no safe-haven Safe Haven Safe haven is a term for financial assets that investors turn to in order to better protect themselves, or sometimes even profit from during market turmoil. Safe haven assets most commonly are considered government securities in the United States, the US dollar, precious metals such as gold or silver, low-yielding stocks, or cash, among others. These assets are the most likely destination in times of political or economic crises, or unstable market conditions. Investors who prefer these types o Safe haven is a term for financial assets that investors turn to in order to better protect themselves, or sometimes even profit from during market turmoil. Safe haven assets most commonly are considered government securities in the United States, the US dollar, precious metals such as gold or silver, low-yielding stocks, or cash, among others. These assets are the most likely destination in times of political or economic crises, or unstable market conditions. Investors who prefer these types o Read this Term and only negative diversification via idiosyncratic risks."

Despite all this, I find it strangely comforting that Warren Buffett has won again. It's a reminder that there's nothing new under the sun.