Traditional finance looks at gold, while the future economy looks at computing power.
Article author, source: Followin
In the latest episode of the Cypher Capital video podcast, Bill Qian and Jack Kong, founder of Nano Labs, director of Hong Kong Cyberport, and member of the Hong Kong Third Generation Internet Development Task Force, engage in an in-depth conversation exploring the significant changes in the crypto market over the past decade.
The following are highlights from the interview:
5 explosive trend observations:
Macroeconomic landscape: liquidity siphoning. AI is the 'sun' of the present, ruthlessly absorbing global liquidity. In the short term of 1-3 years, the preferred investment is the AI industry chain (e.g., Nvidia), while BTC, as the 'moon', can only temporarily avoid the spotlight.
Strategic misjudgment of Ethereum: The shift of ETH to POS is 'self-inflicted injury.' If POW were retained, it would have had the opportunity to become a distributed energy and computing power network in the AI era. Current ETH is suppressed by BTC narrative above and eaten away by Solana's performance below, losing the physical foundation for integration with AI, falling into the awkward 'middle layer trap.'
Valuation logic reconstruction: Traditional finance looks at gold, while the future economy looks at computing power. When AI causes global productivity to increase exponentially, BTC will become the universal currency among AI agents. This ceiling will far exceed the total market value of gold.
Wall Street's 'yang conspiracy': The pricing power of the crypto market has changed hands. Through ETF and MSTR (MicroStrategy) models, Wall Street has completed its financial takeover of BTC. Referring to the oil futures market at the end of the 1990s, the era of retail pricing has completely ended.
Endgame thinking: Super individuals. The future of business will have only two extremes: super platforms vs. super individuals. The middle state (medium-sized companies, niche e-commerce) will face brutal clearing. Individuals should leverage the latest technologies (such as AI, short videos) to become super nodes in niche areas.
Three major strategies for personal breakthroughs
Investment strategy: Dumbbell-style allocation. One end is BTC (anti-inflation, Beta returns), and the other end is the absolute leader in AI (productivity dividend). If you can't outperform these two, don't waste your efforts.
Career path: Young people prefer Web3. The threshold for AI entrepreneurship is too high (competing on computing power, data, and background), while Web3 is still in its infancy, allowing grassroots individuals to still enjoy the benefits of 'random punches killing the master.'
Personal growth: Don’t wait for the track to mature before entering; start now by continuously producing content or building products in a new emerging niche (such as AI agents combined with crypto, new public chain ecosystems) to strive to become a 'super individual' in that field.
