Azam Ali Baltistani

Crypto markets love simple narratives. Capital flows into whatever chain looks fastest, whatever ecosystem feels hottest, whatever ticker is moving. But every few years, someone steps back and points out that the real rotation is happening somewhere else entirely.
That’s what ElonTrades did in a recent post on X.
ElonTrades, known for calling Solana early when it traded below $1, shared a new thesis that challenges one of the biggest assumptions in the space: that institutional capital will eventually settle on the major public blockchains.
His view is blunt. The next rotation may not be Ethereum versus Solana. It may be public chains versus private infrastructure.
The Solana Call That Built His Reputation
ElonTrades reminded followers that his original Solana thesis back in 2020 was straightforward: Ethereum would not scale fast enough, and users would migrate toward chains built for speed and smooth execution.
That played out. Solana grew into one of the most active retail ecosystems in crypto, driven by low fees, fast transactions, and an integrated user experience that many traders prefer over fragmented Layer 2 setups.
But his 2026 view is very different.
“L2s Were a Band-Aid”
One of the sharpest parts of the thread was his critique of Ethereum’s Layer 2 landscape.
ElonTrades argued that L2s solved one problem but created several others:
Liquidity fragmentation
Bridging risk
UX complexity
A confusing multi-chain experience
Instead of one unified network, users now face a maze of rollups, bridges, wrapped assets, and shifting liquidity pools. For retail, that often pushes activity toward chains that feel simpler and more seamless.
I Called Solana Below $1. Here’s Where I Think Capital Flows NextToday I still think L2s are a band-aid that created more problems than they solved — liquidity fragmentation, bridging risk and UX complexity that pushes users toward integrated chains like Solana.But… pic.twitter.com/uxcnN1VB3d
— ElonTrades (@ElonTrades) February 4, 2026
In his words, integrated chains like Solana benefit from that reality.
Institutions Aren’t Choosing Solana Either
Here’s where his thesis becomes more controversial.
ElonTrades does not believe institutions are picking Solana as the endgame. In fact, he thinks they are not choosing any public chain at all.
His argument is that traditional finance has looked at the full landscape (Ethereum, L2s, Solana) and decided none of it meets core institutional requirements:
Privacy
Permissioning
Regulatory compliance
Control over counterparties
Instead of adapting to public crypto infrastructure, institutions are building parallel systems from scratch.
Read also: XRP Is Bleeding Fast, Could Get Ugly If Price Crosses This Line
The Canton Network Angle
ElonTrades pointed directly to the Canton Network as the clearest example of this shift.
Canton is designed for financial institutions that want blockchain-style settlement and tokenization, but within a framework that allows privacy and permissioned access.
The implication is simple: the largest pools of capital may not flow into Ethereum or Solana at all. They may flow into purpose-built private rails that never touch retail ecosystems.
That would represent a major structural change in how people think about adoption.
The L2 Ecosystem Gets “Stranded”
His most striking conclusion is that Layer 2s end up stuck in the middle.
Too fragmented for retail users who want simplicity.Too open and permissionless for institutions that need compliance.
If that plays out, the crypto landscape could split into two worlds:
Retail speculation consolidating on the best UX chain
Institutional tokenization happening on private networks
Public L2s would struggle to dominate either lane. ElonTrades is talking about infrastructure gravity.
Retail flows chase usability and liquidity.Institutional flows chase regulation, privacy, and control.
If institutions truly build their own rails, the biggest winners in crypto may not be the chains people expect. The next rotation would not be “ETH to SOL.” It would be “public to private.”
Read also: Bitcoin (BTC) Is Still Going Down, and the Real Panic Hasn’t Even Started Yet
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The post Analyst Who Called Solana at $1 Predicts the Next Capital Rotation Will Shock Crypto appeared first on CaptainAltcoin.
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Following Sunday's market crash, Bitcoin's derivatives market flashed an important signal: perpetual funding rates briefly turned negative. This reflects a phase of aggressive deleveraging, where the balance of payments temporarily shifts in favor of longs, making it more expensive to hold shorts. In this context, negative funding indicates not a change in market regime, but rather a process of forced liquidation of over-leveraged positions.
The key point is that negative funding was short-lived, lasting only two days before returning to positive territory today. This means the positioning skew toward shorts did not persist, and the derivatives market has returned to a more neutral state.
Practically, this reads as follows: if funding turns positive and open interest rises simultaneously, it signals new longs entering the market and the formation of a directional move. However, if funding turns positive without OI expansion, it more likely indicates short covering and profit-taking rather than an influx of new aggressive demand.
Conclusion:
The brief dip into negative funding and its quick return to positive territory point to a localized leverage flush, not the formation of sustained bearish pressure. Until rising funding is confirmed by expanding open interest, the base case remains consolidation and range-bound price action. A directional impulse will only emerge with a synchronized increase in both Funding Rate and Open Interest.
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From losing sleep to earning a million a month: My 'foolish method' works.
In the world of cryptocurrency trading, I went from losing sleep over my losses to now earning a stable million a month. It's not due to talent or luck, but rather a set of 'extremely simple' methods—easy to implement and particularly effective.
1. Capital Iron Rule: To make money, first protect your principal
No strategy can survive a single liquidation; it’s all for nothing. My iron rules are three: diversify your positions, with a principal of 100,000, only risk 10,000 per trial, and never exceed 20% total exposure; set fixed stop-losses, exit immediately if a single trade loses 2%, without hesitation or holding; avoid high leverage, which is completely prohibited for beginners, and even experienced traders should not exceed 10% leverage, as this alone can avoid 90% of liquidation traps.
2. Core Strategy: Do less to earn more
The market does not make money based on the number of trades, but rather on making the right trades for profit. I teach only three key points: one-way trading, either only long or only short, no back-and-forth, which naturally increases success rates; mechanical execution, set a 3% stop-loss and a 5% take-profit in advance, which is more reliable than judging based on feelings in the moment; control frequency, the first 1-2 trades of the day are the highest quality, more than 3 trades basically means handing out money.
3. Warning Zone: 90% of beginners fall here
Increasing your position against the trend is absolutely inadvisable; every time you add to your position, you get closer to liquidation; don’t engage in meaningless trades, as transaction fees accumulate and can eat up more than half of your profits; not taking your profits is equivalent to not earning; most liquidations stem from the greed of 'it can go up more.'
With the same 100,000 capital, different methods lead to vastly different outcomes. The wrong method is to go all-in with high leverage, averaging down on losses, and holding, ultimately leading to liquidation; my method is to use 20,000 as a base position, strictly execute a 3% stop-loss and a 5% take-profit, only engaging in two high-quality trades per week, with monthly returns stabilizing at 8%, compounding annually over 150%.
Remember the expert’s mantra: use spare money, stick to discipline, only engage in one-way trades; don’t go all-in, don’t hold positions, don’t block both sides. Lastly, a reminder, contracts are not a casino; those who gamble with their living expenses will eventually exit, protect your principal, live long enough, and you will qualify to earn big in the cryptocurrency space. @温舟-主流

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1. Is the cryptocurrency world going to end?
Recently, many posts in the industry that are pessimistic about blockchain are very popular. Many people outside the industry are asking me if the blockchain scam is over? People in the industry are asking if the industry has no future? What stage of the cycle are we in? Compared with good news, bad news is more likely to make headlines, and bad news is also more likely to get more traffic and attention. What is more worthy of ridicule than people in the cryptocurrency circle pessimistic about the cryptocurrency circle? These behaviors and emotions are constantly contagious, engulfing traffic and intensifying. Even some OG retirements have been magnified as evidence that "the cryptocurrency circle is over." Some industry-firm idealists also reveal anxiety and confusion in their chats with me.
In fact, it is not just the cryptocurrency industry that is anxious. We live in this world and cannot do without the environment, water and air. Whether the investment market is active or not is inseparable from the economic cycle. Whether the economy is going up or down will determine where the public's budget is allocated. As an ordinary person, you will consider investing only when you have enough food and clothing. Therefore, every news from the Federal Reserve is a baton for the market trend for senior cryptocurrency players, especially as the overall market size of the cryptocurrency industry continues to expand, large financial institutions are participating in the industry, and the blockchain industry is gradually maturing. Especially after the approval of BTC and ETH ETFs, as a "configurable asset" in the investment category, the cryptocurrency market and the stock market have become two sides of the same coin.
Hindsight: What has changed in the cryptocurrency world over the past decade? I once compared the cryptocurrency world to the Wild West, so the early influx of people into the industry were the early Western gold diggers. In the economic upswing, a little bit of capital overflowing into the cryptocurrency world can also make the cryptocurrency world grow exponentially. In the early days of the wild growth of the blockchain industry, as long as you dare to go all-in, it is not uncommon to see a hundred or a thousand times the value of a coin. This is the dual blessing of the early niche market and the macro economy. In such an environment, if you go all-in today, you will get it back tomorrow if you go all-in. But as time goes by, the economy enters another cycle, consumption is downgraded around the world, and more players join the gold diggers. The gold diggers wielding shovels continue to upgrade their equipment, and there are more and more professional players in the traditional market, and everyone will feel that "the cryptocurrency world is not as profitable as before."
From Bitcoin being called a "Ponzi scheme" by countless people over and over again, and being criticized by the mainstream circles countless times, to the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, it is of course a great victory. At the same time, we can see that the trading scale of traditional financial products related to cryptocurrencies is steadily expanding, such as: CME and ETF trading volume. Yes, the big ones are coming, but the way they come is different from the way everyone imagines that capital will take over without thinking. Just like the Internet changed the publishing industry and the television industry, it did not happen overnight, but it moistened things silently, and brought more than just the rise of Bitcoin.
2. Is Binance flat?
We are the pigs at the vent of the wind. We have stepped on the pulse of the times and stood together with our users to reach today's Binance. We hope that the blockchain industry is not a playground for niche players. We hope that Binance can serve one billion users in the future. We hope to become the infrastructure of the future world. We have been working hard for this goal. When we want to promote the large-scale adoption of the blockchain industry, when we want to meet the needs of most people, when we need to protect the rights and interests of the vast majority of users and the security of their assets, it means that we need to find a balance between ideals and reality. Binance is not a child anymore, so we need to reconcile with the world, comply with regulations, fight money laundering, and follow the existing rules of the traditional financial industry. History always repeats itself. There were countless technological innovations in the early days of the Internet, and the turning point was that the company that served most people became today's Internet giants, and the absolute liberalism of the early Internet eventually went to the dark web.
We have no way to predict the future, so we can only learn from history. Products need to be able to serve the majority of people in order to become the financial infrastructure of the future world. Binance's products start with transactions, but not just transactions. You will see the emergence of Earn, Square, Pay, and web3 wallets. We hope to try and explore how to cross the gap and truly popularize blockchain technology, so that ordinary people can use blockchain instead of just speculating on it. They may not know what blockchain technology is, but they can benefit from it, just like your grandma doesn't understand Internet technology, but can enjoy the convenience brought by mobile phones. Bubbles will burst, and those products that truly solve user needs will change the world and create history.
3. Is your coin listed on Binance?
The community has been discussing the listing of coins on Binance very intensely in the past few days. We have carefully read everyone's opinions. Whether they used to think that Binance's listing of VC-invested coins was a betrayal of the community, or that Binance's listing of MEME coins lowered the listing standards, or that Binance's listing of TG game projects was all nonsense, and that it was all studio players, and that rumors of insider trading were also investigated, we have all paid attention and are constantly reflecting on it. "The deeper the love, the more severe the blame." People who don't care will not spend time on you. Binance relies on users to get to where it is today, and every user's opinion will be valued. I will try to explain the basic framework and process of coin listing that everyone is calling for:
Binance listing consists of four parts: business, research group, committee, and compliance review.
I will roughly summarize that the aesthetic preferences retained by previous committees can be roughly divided into:
1) List projects that users need, projects that have users and traffic. In the past two cycles, we have missed many opportunities to list coins. In the early days, we did not pay enough attention to MEMEcoin, so we were late to list Shib, PEOPLE, PEPE, and even the recent MEME projects, and only listed them after they had risen very high, so that we were humiliated. The experience and lesson here is that Binance, as a trading platform, cannot just think it is good itself, but also needs users to think it is good.
In the dispute between big and small neiro, it is also because of the criticism from the community that we are more reflecting on what is a good MEME. If the essence of the MEME community is another "anti-Wall Street movement", then the tokens are highly concentrated, the price has been pumped up, and it is unknown when the bubble will burst. Is MEME still MEME? Or is it a Ponzi scheme dressed in MEME? Therefore, we listed several MEME projects with relatively decentralized tokens and low market capitalization. There are more than ten projects screened in the early stage, and many of them failed due to compliance review and token concentration.
2) Long-lived projects; At the beginning of the last two cycles, some traditional VCs began to enter the cryptocurrency circle in a big way, frequently making investments and being generous. Then everyone found that all the projects in the industry that looked a little bit good were rising. After the project parties received valuations of hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars from the VC side, they had a lot of money to try and make mistakes and adjust their direction. The grand occasion of Matic, an infrastructure project that sold coins at a low valuation, is gone forever. With a lot of cash in hand, who would be willing to sell their own coins for tens of millions of dollars? It is not Binance that determines the price of their tokens, but the token model, circulation, buying and selling orders. These high-valuation projects of top teams have a large number of MMs willing to give them advice to maintain their high market value, and a large number of exchanges are flocking to them, especially AMM has brought about the rise of DEX, and it is not impossible without a trading platform. But it is undeniable that when other projects are ups and downs, they live longer and have more opportunities.
Many people would say that this shows that Binance is losing its voice. Yes, of course it does not have absolute voice. This is precisely the characteristic of the industry's decentralization. It is the result of the joint efforts of financial professional players and the rise of DEFI. Both of these are the key to bringing the industry to the next level. Without the intervention of capital, how could cryptocurrency become a hot topic in the US election? Decentralization and the lack of absolute authority, isn't this the charm of this industry?
3) There are projects with solid business logic. In the past ten years, I often heard a statement: "Coin circle projects do not need business models. Once there is a business model, the valuation can be calculated." But I think that whether it is Web2 or Web3, the essence of entrepreneurship is to create what the world needs. Naturally, someone will pay for it. Whether the customer is B-end or C-end, the financing method will change, but the essence of entrepreneurship will not change. Since the craze in 2017, I have been conveying a concept: issuing coins is a lifelong responsibility, which is guaranteed by long-term reputation. The community supports you, but your responsibility is also greater. If you sell the coins directly after issuing them and retire, then a person's reputation bankruptcy is the real bankruptcy.
Because we like projects with solid business models and revenue, we hope that the team is reliable, they have entrepreneurial potential and can take responsibility. We also hope that your valuation is not too high and that you can take care of the community's common growth. We hope that you can empower tokens, because if you stand with your users, your users will stand with you. If any project meets these standards, please contact us, or leave a message under this post, or fill in the information in the public application link on the site.
Official Business TG contact: @BResearchBD
In terms of the coin listing process and prevention of insider trading, Binance, as a system, has considered all links and isolated information. Just as the outside world has said, the Binance coin listing team has undergone several rounds of bloodbaths. Currently, the people doing coin listing research at Binance do not talk about business. When talking about business terms, they do not know what projects have entered the observation pool. Everyone only knows the progress of the projects they are responsible for. Even if they have passed the IC vote, these projects still need to pass strict compliance review restrictions and may be cancelled at any time.
According to the exchange's compliance requirements, all Binance employees need to complete relevant mandatory compliance training. At the same time, Binance also has an independent audit team that specializes in investigating such violations. If it is verified that there is information leakage or insider trading suspicion, Binance will immediately initiate legal proceedings to transfer the relevant personnel to the judicial authorities, and those who are serious will face criminal liability.
We can establish rules to constrain people, but it does not rule out the possibility that the current system or system still has information blind spots, so we are offering a high reward: We welcome all reports of any information involving coin listings and other corruption, or any other "coin listing observation indicators" that we have blind spots. If verified by the Binance team, we will keep your identity confidential and provide you with a security vulnerability bounty of US$10,000 to US$5 million; Report email: audit@binance.com
4. If we disagree, you may be right
In the past few months, I rarely posted on social media. The more I read, the more ignorant I felt, and the more I was in awe of the world. We are all just a grain of sand in the torrent of the times, swept to the crest of the wave by various coincidences. Everything I have today is the product of the times, the rapid economic development brought about by globalization, the information flattening caused by the rise of the Internet, and the opportunities for the blockchain industry to exist from scratch. It is not because I am gifted, but because in the early days of the industry, "there are no heroes, but the young ones become famous." This means: "I am not necessarily right", because according to the logic of listing coins mentioned above, even if Bitcoin is born today, it may not pass the IC. My inadvertent words, incomplete and inaccurate expressions may bring unnecessary misunderstandings and over-interpretations to the community, so I am less and less willing to express myself. Occasionally, when I see some misunderstandings, I will still try to explain them, and the more I explain, the worse it gets.
The world that everyone sees is not the same. We may be the intersection of different parallel time and space. If my words can touch you a little, and may lead you to a better dimension of the blockchain industry, if my words can make investors DYOR and entrepreneurs willing to calm down and move forward, then I will be deeply honored. Everyone can only see their own future. What you believe in is what you will build. We will continue to explore the future, just like the first day we entered this industry. Thank you for your cooperation.
ps: The pictures are from the community, thanks to the community creators❤️$BTC
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