I guess the coins I like the most going into the new cycle are these: 1. $HYPE (perps, L1) 2. $TAO (AI, L1) 3. $NEAR (AI, L1, privacy) 4. $LIT (perps, the best bet on perps after HYPE) 5. $PUMP (memecoins, speculation) 6. $ZEC (L1, privacy) 7. $MON (new L1) 8. $MEGA (new L2) New coins good, old coins bad. HYPE, LIT, PUMP, MON, MEGA has never been in a bull. Well, you could argue HYPE launched at the tail of the bull, but not a full cycle. TAO and NEAR are clear tokens in the AI narrative. ZEC is the "VC-privacy coin". But tokens are not stocks, they have no value. Yes, and no. I think this is one of the hardest "dilemmas" of the new cycle. Betting on tokens in 2023 felt like a no-brainer. We all had hopes that our coins would make a comeback at some point. Now, in 2026, with an infinite number of tokens, it's harder than ever to pick something. There is a huge difference between a good product and a good token, and since most tokens are governance tokens, do we really need them? Maybe not, but it remains the main vehicle for speculation. What about BTC, SOL, ETH? BTC should always be a part of a core portfolio, maybe SOL and ETH also, but I think the ones above will outperform compared to them. Anyway, my gut feeling says that there will be something else that takes the spotlight, and that "the new thing" will outperform all of the 8 I listed. These are my thoughts today. Next week or next month I could already have changed my mind, so NFA and do your own research.

Does anyone else feel like the next decade we’re going into, everything is just so much more unclear and uncertain compared to earlier. Its like we’ve all our lives have played this video game that we got really good at, with «fixed rules», but now it feels like we have to start over again. No career feels safe, no investment method feels like an easy bet anymore. We are heading into unpaved territoriy thanks to AI. Scary, but it will also bring insane opportunities for those who have their eyes open.

Not taking a swing at pursuing the biggest opportunities in front of your eyes this bull market is a disrespect to life (if you want to make it).

AI agents can have a wallet and make payments. Knowing who’s behind them is a separate question. @Concordium is building an identity layer for that. Three months ago, two platforms were checking its Agent Registry. Today, six do. The use cases vary, from verifying creators to checking the identity behind agents in games and payment marketplaces. XDC AI has even made Concordium its exclusive identity verification provider. Agents can keep their existing wallets and chains while using Concordium to verify who’s behind them. No need to move everything to another network. The registry has grown from 1,131 agents in July to 3,828 as of October 20, with verification badges supported across 200+ chains. For me, the interesting part is how this gets used. A registry is one thing. Having more platforms check it as part of their agent workflows is another. Verification doesn’t guarantee an agent will make good decisions, but it helps establish who’s accountable for it. concordium:native thenextweb.com/news/xdc-netw…

The whole Kimchi thing says a lot about what many on CT actually reward, IMO. People see a huge PnL screenshot, a few cars, girls, and private jet videos, and suddenly someone is “GCR of this cycle” (lol). There are claims that say the wallet behind the supposed $40M TRUMP trade wasn’t even his, alongside bundling and rugging memecoins. I haven’t verified those claims, so idk really. Tbh, I’m not even sure a clearer picture would change much. From what I’ve heard, he is insanely popular outside of CT, like on TikTok and IG. It’s weird, because it's like 2 parallel worlds out there: one with native CT, and then you have clipper CT where money flashing gains extreme virality. Anyway, once you have that attention, you can turn it into an audience, token launches, and brand deals. Looking successful becomes a business in itself, whether or not the original trading story holds up. Enough of my Kimchi rant. Not many changes since last week. Still holding $USELESS and $SOXL. Added a small perp exposure to $STRK as the vote closes tomorrow, and maybe there is a follow-up announcement. NFA & DYOR. Follow my profile on @phantom to see trades in real time, and sign up to get 10% off 3 months' trading fees with my code: phantom.com/r/route2fi1

Arcium spent years building privacy for blockchains, acquired Inpher (a larger private AI company), and kept seeing hardware-based privacy (used in private AI today) get exploited. Now it’s bringing cryptographic privacy to AI with Blackthorn. The private AI race is on.

Level 4 (1M–10M) really is the no-man's-land of wealth. For example, going from $100k to $300k can change your life. You can quit a job, move somewhere else, or take a chance on something of your own. Going from $5M to $5.2M? You're richer, but you don't notice the increase anymore in the same way. This is where the diminishing returns start to show. Back in 2021, when I went from $500k to $1m, I felt like on top of the world. It was a big change for me. A little backstory: in Feb 2021, I quit my 9-5 job with $500k NW, and it felt like a huge achievement. I knew it wasn’t enough to live off forever, but it was enough to dare to bet on myself. During the years after 21’ there have been periods where my NW has increased a lot, and periods where it went a bit down or barely went up at all. So I can very much relate to what Nick says: at some point, you could “work” twice as hard and barely notice the difference in your life. Your portfolio grows. But the extra money buys you less, while the time it costs you stays the same. This is where I think a lot of people in crypto get stuck. You know how to make money. But unless you increase the risk, your NW will only go up linearly. Because you might have to risk money you no longer want to lose. So you end up in the middle, the 7-figure hell (no man's land). Imagine spending another year glued to crypto to make an extra $200k on a $5M portfolio (4% increase). Don’t misunderstand me, that’s a lot of money, but many people don’t want to risk the big gains they’ve already earned, and since they don’t, their NW will barely move, and they’re forever trapped in the 7-fig hell.

During the next few years, there's going to be a ton of runners. You will miss most of them, and that's okay. Be more worried about not sizing big enough into your highest conviction bets.

Kelly-optimized leverage has arrived. For those who don’t already know, this is leverage that’s made to be held for long periods of time. Developed in 1956, Kelly sizing has been used by professional investors for decades to maximize long-term compounded growth. Regular investors never had an easy way to access it. Maintaining the leverage target took work, and financing was expensive. @2FactorFinance tackles both: it manages the leverage target and sources financing from investors who want stable yield instead of from shorts. Financing costs about 75% less than conventional alternatives, with no liquidations. Built to be held, not traded. They're backed by Coinbase Ventures and Pantera, and have also received support from Brian Armstrong. Their Points Program is now live. The top 10 on the final Season 1 leaderboard split 1 BTC, and your Season 1 Marks carry over into Season 2. Sign up through my link for a points boost: points.2factor.finance/k/rou…

Let's go through this because I used to be fascinated by products like this. So $QQQI is an ETF with a dividend yield of around 14%. If you invest $1,000,000, that’s roughly $140,000 a year in distributions. I understand why people find it attractive. You get almost $12,000 a month without having to sell any shares. But not selling shares isn’t the same as preserving your capital. Let’s say you invest $1,000,000 and receive $140,000 over the next year, but your shares are now worth $700,000. This is a hypothetical example, not $QQQI’s actual performance. You now have $840,000 between the shares and the cash. You’ve lost 16%, despite receiving a 14% payout. This is why you should care more about the total return than dividend yield. QQQI holds Nasdaq-100 stocks and uses an options strategy to generate income. But you’re still exposed to stock market losses, and the options strategy can limit how much you benefit when the market goes up. Then there’s compounding. If you spend the distributions, that money is no longer invested and won’t generate future returns. That’s perfectly reasonable if you need the money to live on, but you can’t spend it and expect it to keep compounding. Since inception (2 years ago) through September 30, 2026, QQQI returned approximately 19.9% annualized, compared with 23.6% for the Nasdaq-100 index that QQQ tracks. Both figures include reinvested distributions. I don’t think $QQQI is necessarily a bad product. I can see the appeal for someone who wants monthly income and understands what they’re giving up (dividends where I live will be taxed hard, though, so I don't think this would be suitable for me). But if I’m still trying to grow my portfolio and don’t need the income, I don’t see a large payout as a reason to buy it. Personally, I’d rather have a higher total return than a higher monthly payment. With that said, @Ondo and @xStocksFi should definitely tokenize this product.

TxFlow officially started its points program last week, and it is confirmed that the airdrop will happen at the end of Q1 next year. People have started doing moon math on what points could be worth, and with Variational finalizing their points program any day now, I think it makes sense to pay attention to @TxFlow_L1 going forward. They have perps, spot, prediction market, TradFi, and pre IPO assets ++. $30m OI, and both volume and revenue are increasing. My ref link if you want 5% off fees and a points boost: app.txflow.com/r/TXROUTE2FI Referral code: TXROUTE2FI

Crazy how we all have access to the same internet. Yet most people are still 10+ years behind everything that is happening. You have access to people in here showing you exactly how they made it, while you’re instead using the same apps for cheap entertainment. Nobody is coming to pull you out of the job you hate. At some point, you have to man the fuck up and decide that getting out is a priority if you want to change your life.

I can handle missing a pump. What bothers me is spending days, or maybe even weeks researching something, getting the thesis right, and barely making anything because I didn't put on a meaningful position.

I’m partnering with Nabu on a competition: $2,000 in USDC, Oct 19–26. Top post takes $750. Code RTFI-S2VG → nabu.pro/promo/route2fi Nabu is an AI agent that turns a trading strategy you describe into rules it executes on your own Hyperliquid or Binance account (see mine in the screenshots). To enter: sign up with the code, run a live strategy, post it on X tagging @nabupro, then submit your post on the campaign page. Most AI stops at the idea. Nabu places the order, manages the position and closes it by your rules.

People are max bearish after seeing stocks nuke over the last week. But calling for Black Monday is too much IMO. So first of all, we won't have a Black Monday like 1987 again, when it went down 22% in a single day. After this event, Wall Street implemented circuit breakers where the stock market pauses for 15 minutes if it goes down 7%, then another 15 min break if it keeps falling to -13%. Then full close for the day if it nukes 20%. Like... this won't happen IMO.

Over the last month, I've been more or less away from the screen on Saturdays, and to my surprise, I didn't really miss much at all. Feels good to have some more grass time. It's been a habit to always be online, especially since I lost a lot on a Saturday when BTC and ETH dropped by about 15% (August 2023) and I was AFK. Since then, I've been better at protecting my bags and have more long-term investments than perps going on at all times. Hopefully I don't jinx it this Saturday, though (the market looks a bit weak).

The reason is simple. If it was luck, most people would instead confuse it with skill and continue in the hope of earning more —> eventually roundtrip everything If it was skill —> why would you quit something you’re good at and earning money consistently from?

Ngl, it's still a strange feeling to make more from a position while you're asleep than from a month of work. I guess I'll just never get used to this.

Renzo just added 4 new stocks that you can farm basis yield from with just 1 click. $SNDK, $GOOGL, $NVDA, and $QQQ. All with more than 10% APR. Most people still aren’t connecting the dots on $REZ. Hyperliquid-based basis strategies are already live, and now with a broader product lineup from Lighter (stock tokens). With that revenue set to feed back into the token, the eventual repricing could catch the market off guard. Try the app for yourself here: app.renzofinance.com

An update on the Phantom journey. Opened a new perp position on $SOXL which is the 3x leverage semicounctor ETF. Why? It is down 40% over the last 10 days, and I think it's time for a bounce. Simple as that. Other than that, my $USELESS position got quite hammered over the last week. Still holding, though. NFA & DYOR. Follow my profile on @phantom to see trades in real time, and sign up to get 10% off on 3 months' trading fees with my code: phantom.com/r/route2fi1