Positioning for the next cycle, with Altcoin Daily's Austin Arnold

Transcript

always down to talk about my bags, disclose to the audience. In fact, you can go over to Altcoin Daily, go into any YouTube video and go down in the description, you can see everything we own. I would say, have I started buying altcoins, let's say, in the last 12 months, the bare market? The answer is the Bitcoin bottom might finally be in. Is it time to start thinking about which altcoins to have in your portfolio for the next cycle? Which ones are going to be the big winners and losers? And what belongs on your watch list? Hello and welcome to the Milkro Show, the podcast that knows that it's always alt season if you never sell. I'm your host, John Gillan. Today is Wednesday, August 5th, and today we are joined by Austin Arnold, better known as one half of Altcoin Daily. Austin is the co-founder

and host of Altcoin Daily, a major cryptocurrency news and analysis channel on YouTube with 1.6 million subscribers, maybe more than that by now. Uh he co-founded this and runs it with his twin brother Aaron Arnold. They've been doing this since 2018. Altcoin Daily is one of my favorite YouTube channels. I literally never miss an episode as I was telling him before we started here. Uh, I'm really excited to have Austin on the show today. So, if that sounds good to you, make sure you like and subscribe. Share this episode with somebody who's going to enjoy it. And as a reminder, our podcast today is free. That would not be possible without our wonderful partners at Securitize, the regulated rails for tokenization. So, keep an ear out for more information about them later in the episode. But for now, welcome to the Milk Road Show. Austin,

how are you, sir? >> John, thank you for having me, man. Honored. I am really happy to talk to you. I love your hat. Um, I thought a good place to start this conversation would be with you before we dive into altcoins and and have a conversation about that. You know, we we've met several times over the years at crypto conferences, but you've been running this channel for six years. I I don't think I've ever missed one of your episodes and yet I don't know a whole ton about you. Why have you stayed so locked in and dedicated to crypto all these years and through this really difficult bare market? Talk to me about your your your experience with all this >> running the channel for eight years and yeah when we originally started Aaron started the channel way back in 2018 and basically at that time came at it the

goal was to come at it from an average person's point of view meaning if crypto is for everybody if Bitcoin will eventually hit $100,000 which is what everybody said or a million dollars surely two average guys could figure it out. We don't have a coding background. I don't have a traditional finance background. And just started making a video every single day, cultivating that like-minded audience, cultivating a community that wants to learn, doesn't have a lot of time, but wants to learn about crypto every single day and have an edge in terms of the knowledge of what's going on in the space. Gotcha.

And that's how you guys started building this community. You now, I think you guys have, at least you say this on your YouTube channel, but you have one of, if not the largest community in crypto. Does that feel like a big burden for two guys who just wanted to, you know, start for everybody and just figure it out as you go along? Like is there a lot of pressure that comes with that or how do you deal with that? We do have uh the largest community in crypto, over 3.5 million subscribers across all socials, 2.6 I 2 I forget 2.7 something on X, another 1.56 on YouTube. And honestly, it's I I I think that the main thing when we started the channel, the main thing we wanted to promise to the audience is authenticity. And not

claiming I'm always going to be right. I'm just giving my opinions. But especially in 2017, 2018, John, I don't know if you're watching YouTube, crypto YouTube back then, but a lot of a lot of shilly channels, a lot of undisclosed paid content, a lot of content that I would not want to share with my friends if I wanted to get them involved in crypto. Of course, there was good ones, and those good ones are still around today. But um the only thing our our audience knows to tune in just um for our perspective and authenticity for our point of view of where the space is going.

>> Well, I think the reason why you guys have such a large and loyal community is because that content and that like clarity of mission has has come through and never really changed like I don't get a lot of shilly things from Altcoin Daily, but I do get tons of alpha and just like information about the market which I enjoy. And I will just tell you this, I personally have been watching the channel a long time. I keep track of the number of times I end up getting covered on your channel, which is five right now with this podcast and other things. The first time I made it into a YouTube video though on Altcoin Daily was in 2020. I think I have replied to something on Twitter and you guys put it into a video and I felt like I'd made it into the front page of the New York

Times. >> Dude, you put out great content. You put out great clips. I've been a fan of the Milk Road clips in the last year, year and a half. So, dude, your contri your contribution to the space big only getting bigger. >> Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate that. That's really flattering to hear coming from you. Yeah. And look, I mean, I think it's it's a great opportunity to get you on this channel because I've been following you for so long. And I think our our audience, our community is so dialed into crypto, but they may not be, you know, watching your videos. And if anybody is in crypto and not watching your videos, they're like living under a rock. Um, so thank you for the kind words. All right. I I want to dive into some alpha.

>> John, can I ask you one question firstly? And to the audience, we will get to the Bitcoin. We will get to the crypto content, but I I I was trying to do my research and I saw I forget their podcast name, but my first million, those guys originally had Milkro as a newsletter and they sold it. So, how did you get involved in Milkro? Are you the hired on air talent? Did you buy it? I truly don't know. >> Yeah. No, that's a good question. I do not own Milk Road, although I would take it if it was given to me. Um, no, I'm just kidding. I So, my story is a little bit different. I worked at Black Rockck for six years and this is one of the reasons why I was kind of like under the radar in crypto for a long time because

I was working at Black Rockck on the Aladdin platform um and trying to get involved in digital assets and interviewing and like looking for a way to go like move my career in the direction of crypto um but was was still doing that and uh I started reading Milk Road. I first heard about Milk Road um from Coin Bureau actually they did a YouTube video about their favorite newsletters in crypto. Milk Road was one of them. Uh, and so I I really liked Milk Road. I kept reading, kept subscribing just because it was it was great, informative content, but also entertaining and accessible. Um, so I love Milk Road. And then, uh, yeah, there's been a lot of, um, history with this. But, um, Milk Road got bought by a couple of guys out of Canada. Um, Kyle Reedhead is is the the big jug of milk,

as I like to call him. Um, and there's some other partners involved, but I I just got hired because they were they launched podcasts a couple of years ago. Um, and they were launching a new podcast called Milk Road Macro. And so I interviewed to be the on air, you know, host of the show because I kind of live a little bit at this intersection of of macro and tradi analysis, but also very passionate about crypto and digital assets, too. So, it seemed like a natural fit. Um, and then we've kind of reorganized the channels here. So, now we have Milk Road crypto, which is this channel, and then Milk Road AI. Um, this is great. I feel like I'm just catching up with my buddy at the water cooler here, but um, that's a little bit about that. I don't own Milk Road, but I'm

just I'm happy to be part of the community because just like you said, right? Like community is really important. And I end every episode by saying stay safe, stay educated, stay bullish. And I think doing that in community is much easier than trying to navigate these volatile crazy markets by yourself. So yeah, that's a little bit a little bit about me and and Milk Road. >> I love it. That was a great ad bringing you in. >> Yeah, [laughter] thank you so much. Well, I think it's a great ad bringing you onto the channel. Um, so I think we should talk about some crypto stuff because that that is what we're here for. And I think I want to start with the big the big kahuna, which is Bitcoin. I I started the episode saying it looks like it may be bottoming.

There's still a lot of debate about this. Where are you on this question? Do you think Bitcoin has bottomed? Are you expecting lower lows before this cycle, this bare market cycle ends? What do you think? >> Short answer is nobody knows what Bitcoin will do tomorrow, let alone two months from now or 12 months from now. um we'll know when the bottom happens, you know, six months after, 12 months after, we'll look back and say, "Oh, of course that was the bottom." I believe though, and this is what I'm sharing with my audience, um that Bitcoin is in the bottoming process. And the three things I look for, number one, when the net buyers of the top, the top of last cycle become force sellers, that's around when bottoms are happening. What

I mean by that is the DATs, the digital asset treasuries, which was the hype that made all the news. They kept buying the top, buying more. Michael Sailor, nobody would have ever thought he'd be a seller 12 months ago, 18 months ago. They now become four sellers near the bottom. That's how bottoms are formed. Number two, the technical analysis, which is Bitcoin always acts like a magnet to the 200E moving average. Some say the 200E moving average is fair value for Bitcoin. some for any asset. Some say it's undervalued for asset or when it asset with product market fit gets to that 200E moving average which Bitcoin is around right now has been around for the last several weeks. Uh that's around when bottoms are formed.

You can look back at every single Bitcoin bare market four out of four, five out of five, whatever it's been every single time. So that's number two. Number three thing I look for is when Bitcoin no longer sells off the most acts. Uh what I mean by that is we're seeing the NASDAQ sell off now and Bitcoin maintains is even up a little. Before Bitcoin was the easiest liquidity. It sold off first. Now we're seeing other markets start to sell off. Bitcoin might have been that canary in the coal mine and Bitcoin is maintaining slash grinding higher. So three things.

We're in the bottoming process. We hit the 200WE moving average around February of this year. Last time last cycle we hit the 200WE moving average. It took eight months to wash out. get, you know, finish up, complete the bottoming process. If that same thing happens now, it takes us to October. >> Hi everyone, this is John. Listen, our Milk Road Pro analysts nailed this AI bull market. They had dozens of calls pay off in a big way for our community. If you want to see how our entire team of analysts are positioning for the crypto bull market that's going to come after this bare market finally ends, you can join us now at Milkroad Pro. It's just a dollar. Link is in the description. and you'll get access to all of our analyst trades, their watch lists, and see how they're navigating this in their portfolios and get access

to ask us questions in Discord anytime, day or night. It's just a dollar links in the description. Milk Road Pro, join now. I'll see you there. Okay, so there's three things that you're watching for, but the the long and short of it is we're going through a bottoming process and that is playing out in a number of ways. I'm curious how the Clarity Act fits into this picture for you because this week, one way or another, it seems like we might get a final yes or no on the Clarity Act. If that comes through, what do you think their market reaction is? Or if it doesn't, you know, does that mean we're going to go to Goblin Town? How do you think the Clarity Act fits into this picture?

>> I think the prediction markets right now have around a 30% chance that the Clarity Act passes by the end of the year. I think that's I I I would put the overunder as over to that. I'd put it around maybe 50%. Like right now it's clear maybe we don't have the votes but we especially don't have the time. The interesting thing and Senator Cynthia Lumis just announced this this morning that while the last day before the monthlong August recess is this Friday. they will go into the weekend and vote on clarity as well as a number of other issues into Saturday into Sunday before their recess starts on that Monday. So I believe before the end of the week we will get a vote on the Clarity Act. Let

us know where every senator stands and then we'll have a few weeks in September, two days in October to work that out and that's really it. I think if the Clarity Act does not pass, which let's just assume, odds say it's not going to pass. A betting man, easiest odds say it's not going to pass. I think that could be I think that could be a lower low for Bitcoin. That could be the final rung of the of the bottoming process. Uh push us maybe into the 50s. Uh maybe in to 48. I think that's the e the two easiest uh support levels. And then from there, Bitcoin will be fine.

Bitcoin has grinded higher for 16 plus years regardless when there was no f uh regulatory clarity. Bitcoin will continue to get adopted. The network effect will continue. The uh use case and product market fit for Bitcoin is governments will continue to print money irresponsibly. Uh Bitcoin is a fixed gold like digital gold-like asset that still fits. So Bitcoin will be fine. I also think based on the uh what we're seeing in the headlines, the adoption from these new buyers coming in, the institutions Ethereum Solana large caps like that will be fine because we're seeing Black Rockck, Morgan Stanley, all these institutions say, well, we believe in smart contracts.

Ethereum is the biggest network. That's going to be okay. We believe in Solana. That's going to be okay. So, they'll be fine, although they'll only benefit more from the Clarity Act. If the Clarity Clarity Act would pass though, John, I think the bottom is in regardless of, you know, anything can wick down in a day or in a week. Um, and I think it's a it's a brand new renaissance, sort of a 1934, 1933 moment, just like when we had the SEC got formed in the 1930s to regulate the financial markets. I believe that the Clarity Act will be that 1933- like moment and uh finally big money finally for the first time in crypto's history will feel comfortable entering the space because they now know the rules.

Austin, I really appreciate that analysis there. I agree with a lot of those thoughts. I want to talk about Ethereum here because a lot of digital asset native investors were very disappointed by Ethereum's price performance in the last cycle. But, you know, clarity, you know, we still have to see whether that comes one way or the other. But there has been this kind of like huge push towards tokenization, real world assets coming on chain. A lot of this is going to Ethereum. Do you think that there is a chance that Ethereum outperforms this cycle relative to what it did last cycle? And how are you framing your outlook on ETH here? >> Let me ask you this, John. If you had to name one two things that give Ethereum value, what would be those two things?

The big two things. >> Oh man, this is going to put me on the spot. Um, I think the biggest thing that gives Ethereum value is the the fact that it's offering the market a credibly neutral, censorship resistant, open, permissionless secure scalable global financial infrastructure and the world is desperately seeking that right now and the the the benefits uh to all stakeholders that come from the improvements from blockchain technology. So I think you're seeing tons of capital showing demand for that and it's it's going to Ethereum first and so like a lot of these things are downstream of that that big value offering. Um so I think it's it's the the place where you can you can store value and bring a lot of these pristine capital assets and that's creating a lot of that economic

activity and demand that we're seeing on Ethereum. Um I didn't mean to go into a whole bull pitch on Ethereum but that's kind >> it is why I subscribe to Milk Road because you bring you have quality perspective. I agree with you. The two things to me that give Ethereum value, one is the decentralization. It's the most decentralized of the smart contract platforms. Has the most liquidity. And then also the network effect. Like obviously there is faster, cheaper, bells and whistles, more options. You can go down the list. Solana, you can keep going list supra. There's many. You can always keep going down the list. But the thing that Ethereum has still in 2026 into 2027 is network effect and liquidity. I think that's why we're

seeing huge juggernauts like Robin Hood choose to build on Ethereum and Ethereum L2. So I'm insanely bullish on Ethereum into the next cycle in the next four years. I still believe Bitcoin is the market mover, meaning nothing's going to happen until there's confidence back in Bitcoin. I think that has the Bitcoin is going for the largest market. I think it still has insane upside. But if you believe that smart contracts, the technology is not going away, which obviously smart contracts are here to say automatic contracts, then number one, nobody ever got fired for betting on Ethereum, putting their company on an Ethereum L2. That's the safe one. And

number two, it has the most liquidity and the biggest network effect. and we washed out a lot of the of the sellers and the non-believers and we're getting a new crop of investors. >> Okay. So, huge liquidity, huge network effect, strong thesis on Ethereum. Where does Salana stack into all of this for you? I think Salana has seen a lot of negative sentiment this bare market. It's gotten beaten up really bad and people are saying that, you know, Hyperlid and Pump Fund have sort of stolen some of their thunder. Are you still bullish on Salana and what does the thesis for that look like for you?

>> Insanely bullish on Salana. It's one of my biggest altcoin holdings besides Bitcoin and ETH. If you obviously ETH is an altcoin as well. The one thing I worried I So that being said, I I'm betting on Salana. I think that's going to be especially the institutions which are the next biggest buyers and even retail from what we saw with the memecoin revolution last cycle. That was test that was a stress test on the market. Wall Street then saw oh Salana can handle this. Solana is is the place where we can tokenize um and put bring on real world assets.

So, insanely bullish on Solana long term. Um the only thing I worry about is typically the gems of prior cycles, the coins that had the most hype, the the gems of prior cycles, it usually takes them an extra cycle to kick back into gear. Um I think we saw it with XRP in 2017. I think we saw it in Cardano after 2021. Um, so will Solana have the biggest performance? Um, even compared to last year, I would say that's my biggest fear. But in terms of adoption and Wall Street seeing, oh, this works.

We saw the stress test. Um, Salon, I think, is one of the chosen. Real world assets like funds, treasuries, and private credit are still running on rails built decades ago. Gated, paperwork heavy, slow to settle. Everyone's talking about tokenizing them, but far fewer can actually do it and do it without cutting regulatory corners. Securitize can. It's the SEC regulated infrastructure bringing real world assets onchain. 9 years in native tokenization not wrapped, backed by Black Rockck, Morgan Stanley, and Kathy Woods Arch Invest, and chosen by the New York Stock Exchange, Van, BNY, and Apollo to do it at scale. It's the regulated bridge between traditional finance and crypto. tokenize the world at milkroad.comsecuritize.

>> Yeah, I think I agree with that perspective. It may not be like, you know, 10,000x, but the the thing that impresses me the most about Salana is the way they've pivoted from being a retail focused chain towards now real real world assets um Wall Street and and tokenized stock trading coming onto Salana in a big way. And I think that that ability to adapt and survive is something that Salana does really really well. Um, so I'm really bullish on them as well. Um, I do want to get your thoughts on a coin you mentioned, which is XRP. We don't talk about XRP often on this channel, and yet it's one of the larger um, digital assets by market cap that's out there. They fought this huge legal battle, and it seems like they finally made it through that. Right now,

the price is struggling to hold on to a dollar. Uh, what is your your thought on XRP here? Are you bullish on this project? Do you think most of the hype is behind it? What are your thoughts on XRP? Generally speaking, we cover XRP all the time on the channel. If you want to stay updated on the news, Altcoin Daily will obviously cover, especially for a large community like XRP, I think. Now, that being said, not a lot of the XRP community is necessarily uh huge fan of me because it's so because listen, I'm going to tell them the truth. And in my view, the truth is the biggest thing XRP has going for it in terms of token price go up is the community. Especially in a bull market, it's outrageous. All the Tik Toks, all

the content you see about all the people all over the world, uh, saying how XRP is going to hit $10, $100, $500, whatever it is. Now, I don't own any XRP. I've never owned XRP in any grand scale because I I'm much more bullish on Ripple the company, like Ripple the stock versus the coin. I think if they're they're not the same thing. I think if you know the fiduciary duty of a Brad Garlinghouse, uh David Schwarz, who actually has left, um is was with Ripple, uh the the shareholder value, not necessarily coin. I do think one of the most bullish things I've seen for Ripple, they're not I'm so I'm I think

they're going to be fine. I think they're a legacy play. I think in terms of who's spending the mo most money around Washington, if it was just based on that, XRP and Ripple would win no problem. They're not going away. I think they're only getting bigger. But that being and I do think the best thing that they did in the last two years is have their XRP ledger RL and their stable coin RLUSD um which can bring some DeFi bring stable coin transactions onto their network. Now that being said, now they're competing with Ethereum, now they're competing with Solana and the share of the Pi just gets smaller as they attempt to get market share. So I don't think they're going away. Um, but if it was just based on bank adoption, which they [clears throat] which I I

don't know a bank using XRP in any large scale, um, although there's plenty of announcements, and I know they're using it in test scales, um, but if it was just based on that, then XRP would already be at $5 by now $10. The fact that we've seen all these positive announcements over the years and, uh, it's still struggling shows me that the priority is XRP. I mean, Ripple, the share, the shares, the value of the company versus and the coin comes second. >> Gotcha. I think that there's a lot of nuance to this and I I would like to learn more about Ripple and their strategy around XRP as well. Um because there's just a lot there, but you're right, there is a lot of very loyal, committed, and I respect them. But the XRP army is like one of the most

powerful communities in crypto. Um and you got to respect that commitment, you know. >> And my mind is willing to be changed by the way. Every day I'm scouring for the be most the best information. If new information presents it show it presents itself, I will share it on Altcoin Daily with the 3.5 million subscribers first. Um, but I I just want to tell it like it is. And as I start to see more adoption or more positive momentum, then my mind will obviously be changed. But time will tell. >> Time will tell. And we'll be watching the channel for those announcements when they come. Uh, I want to ask you about Hyperlquid because Hyperlid kind of came out not out of nowhere, but they launched relatively recently. Um, especially relative to something like an XRP and they've been on this monster bull run and perpetuals have really kind

of taken over a lot of the market here. But Hyperlid has kind of pulled back from its highs and now some people are saying that the the moat there isn't that defensible that other things like lighter or other people launching per contracts might eat into Hyperlid's market share. What's your outlook on uh Hyperlid here? Are you still bullish on hype? >> I think when I'm looking at altcoins, which I believe 99% are garbage, they'll trend to zero or trend to zombie coins. I like to, especially as I'm cultivating my portfolio into next cycle, and I know we'll get the top altcoins later, maybe we will. Um, but I'm just saying if what I like to bet on is uh mega trends. For example, I hold a lot of Bitcoin because the mega trend in my opinion is uh that

banks and governments, central banks will continue to devalue the currency. I want a uh digital gold-like asset. So, betting on that. I'm I also like Ethereum and Solana. The reason is I'm betting on smart contracts, smart contract platforms. I think the thing that Hyperlid has, which fits a different mega trend in crypto, is earnings. real earnings that institutions can look at and get behind. It obviously also has product market fit. We're seeing people, big institutions, hedge their bets by trading on hyperlquid on the weekends during this Iran war, whether that's oil, whether that's precious metals, whatever it is. So, they're not even

necessarily using it for crypto. They're using it because, oh, this is the the technology that works on a weekend when everything else is closed. The biggest unknown with Hyperliquid is regulation in the United States. That's still TBD. So, of course, anything can happen. But to answer your question, I am bullish on Hyperlid and I'm bullish on the coin specifically because with their coin, they'll buy back 90% uh uh with the revenue they get. That's different than XRP. That's different than Solana. I wish um those other networks would adopt the hyperlquid uh strategy because that will actually make their coin uh relate to the success success of the company. But given those things, Hyperliquid is going to be fine.

I believe I think the other uh protocols nipping at their heels like a lighter, they're going to steal market share. But I think Hyperlid will grow in spite of that much like when Ethereum was invented. Oh, then we saw Solana and Tron and anything like that steal market share. But the space in general and Hyperliquid is the name brand. >> Really helpful insights there. And yeah, that revenue narrative has really gotten a gotten a lot of attention and found a lot of success. So I agree with you. I would love to see more digital asset projects focused on how they're actually generating revenue and then tying that to their token. Hopefully the Clarity Act will help with that so people can actually do that legally. Um, another another project I want to ask you about is Chain Link. Chainlink has been around forever. It's like an indispensable part

of the infrastructure that makes digital assets and smart contract ecosystems run. However, the link token has struggled on performance in in recent uh cycles here. Um, but they've made a lot of changes. They they've got a lot of uh business success and like integration with Swift and others and they instituted a new um I think it's the Chainlink reserve like a buyback program of their own. What are your updated thoughts on chain link? Do you think we're going to see performance from the link token again or do you think this is one of those zombie projects that'll never go away but is maybe never going to moon again?

>> Chain link I think it to me is in the past has been in like a similar boat as my views on Ripple and XRP that man I'm insanely bullish on the company but the coin just hasn't really done anything since 2017 or before. Um, I did get a chance to speak to Sergey on stage at SmartCon in New York and I liked that they added the what is it called? They're buying back some of the token with the thing. I I like that. So, they're making positive steps forward. I think I I'm insanely bullish on Chainlink the company. And I want to relate my answer to thoughts going forward on ETH. Like many people uh knock ETH for saying who cares if people are building uh layer 2s. Who cares for

Ethereum if all these stable coins are building on top? We're not seeing direct value for fees being generated or the value acrew back to the main chain. You know, we're seeing all this adoption, but is it acrewing back to the main chain? Meaning is main chain coin going up. I believe Ethereum is the one thing they're doing the one of the main things they're doing right is they're getting network adoption global adoption first and then anytime they want I believe they can turn on the feed generator or turn on the aspects that make that a value acrruel the main chain makes that money much like any network whether it's the Uber network growing they gave out tons of subsidies sign up you get $ 20 all this thing you're now making money

once they got network adoption they turned turned all that up and now it's expensive to take an Uber I think compared to what it was 10 years ago. So I think Ethereum people that knock Ethereum for that I think focus on the network first. You can turn the fee generation on any time. I hope I have no inside knowledge but I hope Chainlink is doing something similar there. They're clearly getting adopted by the biggest institutions in front of the biggest people, presidents, the United States, everything. They are getting adopted by legacy systems that are the safest. They'll only go for value. And you need a chain link to be able to be interoperable with all the different blockchains going forward. Now I will that acrue to the token. I don't know.

But I would hope that after as they gain network adoption, they can turn that on much easier than it is to switch up the fees and turn on network adoption doesn't quite work like that. Get the adoption first and then turn on what makes you money. >> Yeah, I I totally agree with that. I think chain link's priorities have been in order in that way and it it is going to be much easier for them to drive that value that they've captured back to the token. Um so I I do have a very strongly bullish outlook on on chain link. I'm glad you kind of share that. I want to get your thoughts on DeFi and I want to like kind of center this question around a itself because we saw a lot of hacks this year um where like the cold card situation with Bitcoin has been a

tragedy to watch play out but there have been a lot of hacks across the ecosystem. The kelp incident uh got a lot of attention. A struggled a lot with this, but they had this DeFi United thing. They seem to have recovered. The price is back at around $100. What is your outlook on DeFi here? Do you think that there we're going to see a resurgence in DeFi? Is AI going to recover and and go back to riding high again or or what what do you think is going to happen with the the DeFi sector overall? I think after stable coins get regulated and stable coins get adopted, which is clearly what the United States is doing with the Genius Act, that's clearly the best incentive for the United States because they're the ones that are going to buy the treasuries once you have a lot of stable coins.

What do you do with it besides transact? You want yield. And that's where DeFi comes in. I think that's why we saw DeFi summer back in 2020 once stable coins started to be adopted. That was on a sort of a retail scale. I think think the same thing is happening with an institution scale and again a earns revenue. A has been around for many bare markets which makes companies comfortable invest a little bit of money into big money into these protocols. So I think DeFi is the obvious next step for institutions. I think they earn revenue which institutions will like. I I don't think if I had to give a negative I don't think um uh protocols that earn revenue also sort of you can

get a ceiling with that because oh what should it be valued at 10 times revenue uh 20 50 whatever it is you get a ceiling with that too but right now in crypto we'll take anything like obviously if we were just valued if a was and hyperlquid were just valued uh which are sort of global names at the same future earnings of revenue that major players in the in the traditional market we're valued at they'd be 5x higher 10x higher whatever it is for a certain protocol now in a bull market in a raging bull market that also marks a ceiling but I think maybe you know this is the we're seeing a churn in users in crypto which we tend to see every four and eight years now it's in institutions and that's what they like >> gotcha okay I got to ask you a question

about the intersection of AI and crypto this is something we've been focused on a lot at Milkro I'm curious your thoughts on this what projects you like in space. Are you a big fan of Bit Tensor or Near or something else? Where do you see these two major mega trends coming together? And is there a way you're expressing that thesis in in an investment in anything? >> Huge fan of decentralized AI. I think it's it's our one shot. Crypto and AI convergence is our one shot to not repeat the same mistakes of the past, which are giving big tech all of the power. The web two companies, Facebook, Google, whatever it is. Amazon, all the power flow to them. The little guy has they steal our information. We get

nothing um except a good product of course, but they steal um our uh data in spite of that and they can have our control. Decentralized AI is the way to uh our one shot to prevent that. I also think it's a mega trend. So, I think AI should if you're have a little crypto portfolio besides Bitcoin, besides Ethereum or smart contract platform, I think you want to bet on AI because obviously crypto will eb and flow, but AI will be relevant for the next 5 years in the traditional world, the next 10 years in the traditional world because we're competing with China. It's a national um it's a defense it's a national defense security issue. US competing for AI dominance. The United

States is incentivized even in a 10% dip, even in a 20% recession, they're incentivized to stimulate that because we're competing against China here. So decentralized AI, even it takes 1% of that, 5% uh will play a part. The protocols that I like and having said that my strategy, John, in general is bet on the blue chips and then just ride the mega trend wave. So I think the blue chips in AI are Near Protocol, Bit Tensor Tao as well as Eric Vorhees's VVV token, Venice token. I'm personally a believer in Bit Tensor Tao. The reason is they're they're a couple reasons.

They're tokconomics. uh the way they form consensus uh there's only there will only ever be 21 million TOAO and while Bitcoin uh finds uh stranded energy all around the world and monetize it, Bit Tensor does the same thing for talent and also the other things I like about Bit Tensor is you're betting on the infrastructure. So you know 90% of robotics companies and AI companies will fail. The interesting thing is a lot of the decentralized ones are building on bit tensor on their subnets. So that will churn out in the process if just one or two hit. The bad ones will get taken out of the system.

New better ones will hop in. And the other third thing is the thing that I'm beginning to hate, John, about altcoins. Not hate, but just be a little disgusted. by all the preede valuations where insiders got in first. It finally releases the public and average retail gets nothing. Price only goes down it seems for all these altcoins uh after they launched for years and years. That's because insiders are selling. They had seed rounds. They had early rounds. Bit tensor had a fair launch. Um so that's a big difference because so with that I'm not really as much to a degree making the founders rich in that sense. I'm supporting the network. So those are my thoughts.

>> Okay. So we're bullish on decentralized AI as a subset of AI overall. And just like you said, ride the the mega trends in the blue ships and and let the market come to you. I think that makes a lot of sense. Um I want to ask your thoughts on on whether or not you've started accumulating for these altcoin positions. Is this something you're still watching on a lot of these? Do you already have a lot in your bags? Do you want to talk about what's in your bags? Like cuz I think a lot of people in my community are are wondering this like is it too soon to start buying for the next cycle. Like cuz you know just because something's down 90% doesn't mean it can't drop another 50%. How are you thinking about this in your portfolio?

>> Always down to talk about my bags. Disclose to the audience. In fact, you can go over to altcoin daily. Go into any YouTube video and go down in the description. You can see everything we own. I would say have I started buying altcoins let's say in the last 12 months the bare market. The answer is no. But have I started accumulating and adding to my bags in the last 12 months? Absolutely. Because I've been staking. Obviously, cut the losers in the bare market, especially with proof of stake coins. You can earn more coins just by helping validate the network, supporting the network. So, I've been accumulating Solana staking that, Ethereum, and Bit Tensor. I think I'll start to buy

altcoins after we see I listen in a bare market you want to bet on Bitcoin and the high caps maybe ETH in in the bare market in a bull market you can get more speculative I believe we are in the bottoming process I don't think it's a bad time right now to buy coins with product market fit and hold for four years my general advice to anybody that asks me about this don't invest anything in Bitcoin they are not willing to hold for at least four years don't invest anything in altcoins you're not willing to watch go to zero. So, as long as you understand that, then I think crypto is a new uh a 12th vector of the market. I think it'll be there with precious

metals, with equities, with real estate, with crypto, and the space is getting bigger. Not a bad time to be cutting the losers and adding to the coins you truly see still maintaining. A >> lot of wisdom in that. As always, uh I always end every episode with stay safe, stay educated, stay bullish. The stay educated piece is really important to me, especially in a bare market. You have one of the best uh sites, one best channels in the world for crypto news, for analysis. I'm curious where you go to get your crypto news and analysis when you're trying to put together your videos, when you're trying to learn about the market. What are some of the news sources for crypto that you trust the most that you like to go back to?

Where do you go for that? The cool thing is that crypto has changed as you know in the last 5 10 years where now mainstream media is starting to cover crypto but even that is still just the blue chips now which is a lot better than where we were 6 years ago. Um but I think the best place to get information is X direct from the source. It usually goes there first and in their search column you can sort of cultivate and aggregate exactly what you want. X is great. I love the crypto media like CoinDesk Cointelegraph Bitcoinist um, Decrypt, and then obviously Yahoo and Bloomberg and CNBC. That's that's level one of where I get all my information. X being the main source.

And I think number two is I just like to follow as many podcasts I can. I'm following Milk Road. I'm following what Bitcoin did. I'm following all these Tradfi uh podcasts and trying to learn and listen as much every day. So, one of the easiest thing to do actually if you if you go on X and just like look at the people I follow, it's because I find value in their content. If you go on YouTube, our subscriptions are public. It's because I find value in their content. And I think those are some of the best places to get information as the space evolves. >> Well, I think your videos are about 10 or 11 minutes. They're come out every day. And if you only have 10 minutes to keep up with crypto, you can't do better than an altcoin daily video. So, if anybody in our audience isn't following

Altcoin Daily, make sure you do that. Uh, Austin, thank you so much for being on the show. I really hope we can keep checking in as we go through this market because you're somebody who I would really like to have coming to share with our community and just like picking your brain. Like I said when I started this, I watched a ton of your videos, but I don't get a lot of like insight directly from you because you're mostly commenting on the markets. Um, but I think you are one of the best sources of wisdom and knowledge in the space. Um, so if anybody hasn't gotten the message yet, where can we send people to find more of you and your work online, >> man? Find me on Altcoin Daily, on X, on YouTube, on Instagram, on Tik Tok.

Special promotion just for or special uh gift for just for the Milk Road audience. Anybody, you go in the video description to find our merch store. Anybody that wants five people that want a free hat, put in promo code milk. And if you watch to the end of the video, if you want a hat, it's just there. if you want milk road for a free altcoin daily hat for the first five people and John let's absolutely check in this space is only getting bigger I think we're going to look back in 5 years and be like of course that was the bare market of course I should have bought more of course things have totally changed and grown 5 years 10 years from now and I know we'll both be here on the journey >> yes sir and hopefully we'll have a free hat to go along with it thank you so

much Austin I really appreciate that a kind gesture for our audience uh so yeah thank you for being on the Milkro show and I hope we'll catch up again soon. >> Appreciate you. >> Appreciate you. And thank you all for joining us. I hope you all learned something today. I thought this was a fun episode. We got to cover a lot of different altcoins in this one and learn from one of the best. So until next time, stay safe, stay educated, stay bullish, and we will see you all in the next episode of the Milkroach Show. Thanks for being here, everyone. Bye. The European Blockchain Convention returns to Barcelona on September 16th through 17th, bringing Europe's digital asset marketplace to life, where the continent's fragmented markets converge into one room. 5,000 plus attendees, 300 plus speakers, 90 plus countries, 2 days, one deal floor. The institutions,

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