BTC $86,012.85 +2.56%
ETH $2,729.01 +1.56%
BNB $777.84 +1.26%
XRP $1.53 +3.23%
SOL $121.46 +3.68%
TRX $0.3350 +0.60%
DOGE $0.0961 +2.24%
ADA $0.2548 +4.10%
BCH $313.77 +2.28%
LINK $14.33 +0.52%
HYPE $90.17 +1.85%
AAVE $184.07 +11.26%
SUI $1.18 +4.03%
XLM $0.2237 +2.51%
ZEC $1,382.37 +0.40%
AAPL $333.46 +0.95%
AMZN $251.67 +1.98%
GOOGL $344.88 +1.14%
MSFT $516.44 +0.44%
META $732.85 +1.01%
NVDA $236.82 +3.09%
TSLA $372.23 +3.91%
SNDK $1,722.88 -0.15%
INTC $123.28 +3.18%
SPCX $157.50 +2.96%
MU $1,080.60 +3.74%
AMD $638.03 +4.68%
BTC $86,012.85 +2.56%
ETH $2,729.01 +1.56%
BNB $777.84 +1.26%
XRP $1.53 +3.23%
SOL $121.46 +3.68%
TRX $0.3350 +0.60%
DOGE $0.0961 +2.24%
ADA $0.2548 +4.10%
BCH $313.77 +2.28%
LINK $14.33 +0.52%
HYPE $90.17 +1.85%
AAVE $184.07 +11.26%
SUI $1.18 +4.03%
XLM $0.2237 +2.51%
ZEC $1,382.37 +0.40%
AAPL $333.46 +0.95%
AMZN $251.67 +1.98%
GOOGL $344.88 +1.14%
MSFT $516.44 +0.44%
META $732.85 +1.01%
NVDA $236.82 +3.09%
TSLA $372.23 +3.91%
SNDK $1,722.88 -0.15%
INTC $123.28 +3.18%
SPCX $157.50 +2.96%
MU $1,080.60 +3.74%
AMD $638.03 +4.68%

ben

All
Article
Flash

first_img Variant Fund Investment Partner: The bottom of the cryptocurrency market may have appeared in July, and three types of assets will benefit from the market recovery

Variant Fund investment partner Alana Levin stated in her market thoughts for Q4 2026 that the bottom of the crypto market likely occurred at some point in July. She wrote in early July that the bottom seemed close, with Bitcoin at $59,000, Ethereum at $1,600, and ZEC at $420. She mentioned that the question has shifted to whether the bull market is genuinely starting or if it's a false rally, and which projects will benefit the most in the early bull market, assuming the market is in the early stages of a new crypto bull market.Levin indicated that the increasingly formed consensus is that marginal funds are most likely to flow into value storage protocols as currency and protocols that can generate income. She believes Bitcoin is the dominant asset for digital value storage currently, while other competing assets may be valued based on their market capitalization relative to Bitcoin's market cap and its changes. For income-generating protocols, she expects investors to examine whether the income comes from crypto-native activities (like Pump) or traditional financial activities (like Hyperliquid), whether it persists during market downturns, and profit margins; projects with exposure to real-world assets and stablecoin growth, which are expected to attract institutional users and are still led by founders after surviving a bear market, are more likely to achieve higher multiples.She also categorized on-chain projects that can benchmark against non-crypto businesses as a third category, believing that most belong to narrative trading rather than long-term investment. Themes include routing, reasoning, computing power, data collection, and interface-related directions in artificial intelligence, and she is skeptical about whether most scenarios require blockchain; if such projects significantly outperform, she would view it as a signal of nearing the top.

Benson Sun: This round of Bitcoin may show a slow bull trend, gradually reaching new highs

Cryptocurrency KOL and former FTX community partner Benson Sun stated that he expects the current Bitcoin market to show a gradual new high slow bull trend, rather than forming a clear top after a rapid short-term rise like in 2013 and 2017. Before the true cycle top arrives, the market may experience multiple local top signals. He believes that after 2021, the main buyers of BTC have gradually shifted from retail investors to institutions such as publicly listed companies, spot ETFs, and corporate treasuries.Since institutions mainly buy spot, some funds will also use Delta Neutral strategies for arbitrage, and traditional indicators such as funding rates and MVRV Z-Score may not rise to extreme levels again at the cycle top. Recently, the cycle top is more likely to manifest as institutional funds losing momentum rather than retail sentiment becoming overly heated. The Institutional Liquidity Index (ILI) mainly references overall dollar liquidity, the mNAV of Strategy, and the net flow of Bitcoin ETFs to determine whether institutional funds follow up when BTC reaches new highs. When BTC sets a new rolling 30-day high while ILI does not rise simultaneously, it constitutes a yellow divergence; when BTC breaks historical highs while ILI diverges and is below 50, it constitutes a red divergence.Benson Sun indicated that he would use the frequency of yellow divergences as a reference for judging the cycle process: each occurrence would lead to a proper reduction in altcoin positions and leverage; as the market enters the later stages, he would gradually increase the proportion of BTC and ultimately retain only spot. If a red divergence occurs, he would stop participating further.

Analysis: Global debt continues to rise, Bitcoin benefits from the decline in fiat currency purchasing power

According to Forbes, Bitcoin approached $90,000 earlier this month. Meanwhile, global debt continues to rise, and the "currency depreciation trade" surrounding the decline in purchasing power of fiat currency has become one of the factors driving up assets like Bitcoin and gold.Data from the Institute of International Finance shows that global debt increased by $10 trillion in the first half of this year, surpassing $365 trillion in total. The U.S. debt has exceeded $40 trillion, with annual interest payments rising to $1.27 trillion, surpassing defense and Medicare spending, and only lower than Social Security spending. The institute warns that as benchmark interest rates rise, interest costs will also increase.Nic Puckrin, founder of Coin Bureau and cross-asset analyst, stated that the current environment is favorable for "currency depreciation assets" like Bitcoin and gold, which is part of the reason for Bitcoin's recent rise. The larger the debt of major economies, the more likely it is to suppress real borrowing costs and allow inflation to erode the real value of debt, thereby enhancing the attractiveness of such trades.Analysts from The Kobeissi Letter pointed out that the purchasing power of the dollar has declined by 23% since 2020; if assets only increased by 30% during the same period, investors have essentially just broken even in terms of real purchasing power. The U.S. inflation rate has been above the Federal Reserve's 2% target for 60 consecutive months.

Arthur Hayes: AI "Safety First" is essentially a destruction of computing power demand; the U.S. government's ultimate choice in all scenarios is to print money, which ultimately benefits Bitcoin

Arthur Hayes published a new long article titled "Safety First," with the core argument that the claims of "safety first" by Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX, which lead to a slowdown in AGI development, are not out of concern for human welfare but rather due to economic realities. The market does not want AI; it wants AI at "Chinese prices," meaning it needs intelligence that is 100 times cheaper than what is currently available. Hayes points out that "safety first" essentially destroys the demand for computing power. If the spending on training new models decreases and laboratories shift towards efficiency optimization, customers will spend less on computing power. The three major AI laboratories do not generate any profits, and their demand for computing power supports over $10 trillion in investment-grade debt and hundreds of billions in low-quality debt, which rely on profitable tech companies like Nvidia, Broadcom, Google, and Microsoft for off-balance-sheet endorsements. The real backstop is the holders of insurance policies in the United States.Hayes cites an analysis by Nick Nameth that reveals a "self-insurance scam": private equity giants (such as Apollo, KKR, Brookfield, etc.) acquire insurance companies, stuffing AI data center debt and SaaS private credit impacted by AI into insurance assets, and then provide false endorsements with minimal capital through affiliated self-insurance reinsurance companies. Nameth estimates that the total amount of these false reinsurance assets reaches $1.54 trillion. Once the AI data center debt is downgraded by rating agencies due to insufficient demand for computing power, insurance companies will be forced to add capital, while the affiliated reinsurance companies will be unable to pay, leading to insolvency for the insurance companies. In most states in the U.S., the insurance protection limit is only $250,000 to $300,000, and existing insurance companies only pay into the protection fund afterward, which encourages all parties involved to maximize risk-taking. When AIG was bailed out in 2008, TARP funds ultimately flowed to Goldman Sachs and led to record bonuses, while the general public only received foreclosure notices; Hayes believes this scenario will repeat itself.For cryptocurrency investors, the conclusion is a win-win situation. If the U.S. government chooses to become the "last buyer of computing power," it will print money in the name of national security to fund unproductive economic goods, driving up financial speculation and Bitcoin prices; if the government chooses to bail out insolvent insurance companies, it will also need to print money to cover bad AI debts, increasing the money supply and pushing up Bitcoin. Hayes specifically points out that the Federal Reserve voted unanimously last week to raise interest rates by 25 basis points, and RMP bond purchases have stopped since August 14, but commercial banks have taken over to create over $100 billion in currency, and the interest rate hike allows banks to earn an additional $7.5 billion in excess reserve interest each year. This money will be used to expand loans and market speculation, and the net effect remains stimulative. The fluctuations in the cryptocurrency market, which saw a slight increase at the end of August, are about to end, the supply of dollars will continue to grow, and Bitcoin and some selected altcoins will rise. Hayes also described this situation as "incredibly wonderful," stating that the government will not allow the free market to stop building AI data centers, there will be an oversupply of spot computing power, the usage of AI agents will increase, and the surge in money printing will drive investors to chase cryptocurrency assets.

first_img TSMC N2 mass production, Zhongsha Shengyang Semiconductor and other supply chains benefit

TSMC's 2-nanometer N2 mass production marks the transition of advanced semiconductor processes from FinFET to GAA generation. Industry analysts point out that with the simultaneous increase in process complexity, CMP track counts, wafer monitoring frequency, and material specifications, the demand for equipment, CMP consumables, reclaimed wafers, and advanced materials is rising, providing growth opportunities for suppliers like Zhongsha, Shengyang Semiconductor, Xinying Materials, and Songsheng. TSMC's N2 adopts nanosheet GAA technology, which can improve performance by 10% to 15% at the same power consumption compared to N3E, or reduce power consumption by 25% to 30% at the same speed, with chip density increasing by over 15%.In Zhongsha's largest customer Diamond Disk business, advanced processes account for 63%, with N3 and N2 each accounting for 22%, and 1.4 nanometers already shipped in small quantities; after N3 enters N2, the value of CMP content increases by 10% to 15%. Shengyang Semiconductor's monthly production capacity for reclaimed wafers is adjusted to 1.1 to 1.2 million pieces by the end of 2026, with a capital expenditure budget of 4.82 billion yuan for 2026, and it is estimated that the compound annual growth rate for reclaimed wafer expansion from 2025 to 2029 will reach 25% to 30%. Xinying Materials' core products Rinse, BARC, and EBR are expected to see shipments rise seasonally as N2 capacity ramps up, while Songsheng's semiconductor revenue accounted for 66% in the first half of the year, with a year-on-year increase of about 25%, and TSMC-related revenue increased by about 170% year-on-year.

Analysts: Coinbase, Robinhood, and Circle may be early beneficiaries of the SEC's tokenized stock policy

According to CoinDesk, the U.S. SEC has launched a five-year innovation exemption that provides a pathway for eligible tokenized U.S. stocks to be traded through automated market makers (AMM) on public blockchains. Analysts from Goldman Sachs and Citizens believe that Coinbase, Robinhood, and Circle could become early beneficiaries of this policy.The new framework requires tokens to retain shareholder rights such as dividends and voting rights while imposing limits on the number of stocks and trading volume that trading platforms can offer. Goldman Sachs stated that Coinbase's existing tokenized stock products already possess several of the required features, and its institutional custody business and Coinbase Tokenize may also benefit.However, Coinbase's current trading platform uses a centralized limit order book, and to operate a trading venue directly under the exemption, it will still need to build AMM infrastructure or route trades to decentralized trading platforms on Base.Currently, the stock tokens offered by Robinhood for markets outside the U.S. are derivatives that only provide price exposure and do not possess the complete shareholder rights required by the framework, thus requiring further adjustments to the product. Robinhood has previously stated plans to add 1:1 redemption and voting rights features for stocks.Analysts also believe that an increase in on-chain securities trading may drive demand for tokenized cash, benefiting Circle indirectly, with USDC potentially being used for settlement and collateral in on-chain markets.
app_icon
ChainCatcher Building the Web3 world with innovations.