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1000x · · 45 分钟

比特币ETF资金流入延续 | 1000x

Jonah Van BourgAvi Felman

YouTube
TL;DR
  • ETF上市交易的是预期,而不是对GBTC资金流出的简单表决。 Avi解释称,GBTC持有的是被锁定的、方向性做多的资金,转换完成后大概率会退出。Jonah举例说,在比特币价格为$48,000时,他最初估计资金流出约20亿美元;当流出速度意味着35亿至40亿美元时转为看空,随后意识到交易员押注的其实是50亿至70亿美元,而实际流出仍接近30亿至40亿美元。「市场根据新闻的二阶导数运行。」

  • 比特币的交易结构建立在持续的ETF需求与4月减半后矿工抛售减少的交汇之上。 Farside Investors数据显示,某个周五资金流入5.42亿美元,而前一个周四仅为4500万美元;Jonah预计这会形成稳定的顺风,而不是首日就涌入数十亿美元。对于等待更低价格再买入的人,他的警告很直接:「你其实只是在盼着它们停止。」

  • Jonah最明确的相对价值交易,是在0.05275附近逐步建立ETH/BTC仓位。 他承认,持续的现货比特币流入可能先把这一比率推向0.048,但预计Ethereum潜在的ETF转换将在2至4个月内推动比率升至0.0665。尽管Ethereum的用户体验较弱,Avi仍表示认同;Jonah则认为,安全性、去中心化以及作为结算层的网络效应更重要。

  • 两位主持人对整数关口交易方式存在分歧。 Avi认为,突破失败往往会带来10%-15%的抛售,稳妥做法通常不是买入第一次测试;交易员可以等回调,也可以等最终突破。Jonah拒绝「在雨滴之间跳舞」:IBIT股价为$284,并不存在可比的整数关口阻力;面对他认为势不可挡的资金流,他不相信自己能围绕资金流精准择时。

  • Jonah会把50%的加密资产配置提高到80%-90%,但组合构建仍会保持保守。 他会将剩余尚未部署的加密资本中的70%-80%投向比特币,其余资金留给回调机会或精选的非杠杆山寨币,并以一个10年期判断为锚:大多数加密资产可能归零,但少数资产可能吞噬科技和金融领域的大部分份额。

  • Avi认为,加密资产的基本面可能跟随资金而来,而不是引领资金。 比特币的财富效应为投机提供资金,NFT交易量上升支撑BLUR,估值上涨让TAO发展成平台、让Blast吸引开发者;Jonah承认,这可能不同于他在大宗商品领域坚持的「基本面创造资金流」逻辑。他仍然不安的是,除了已经验证的用途以及可能的Farcaster之外,他尚未看到足够多新的基本面需求,足以支撑真正的「超级周期」。

  • 新的配置者可能推高较弱资产,但这不能替代分析。 Jonah有一个尚未成形的判断:新进入的配置资金会推高部分资产;Avi也提出,到了Q2,全面上涨的潮水可能让Solana、MATIC等相对比特币落后的资产复苏。两人都指出,流动性增加后,一个艰难的投机逻辑可以更长时间地保持错误。

  • 下一轮可投资的重估,可能发生在监管此前施加最大折价的资产上。 Jonah举的例子是Ripple股权:在SEC诉讼压低估值期间,他们以约10亿至15亿美元的估值买入,而公司声称拥有250亿至300亿美元资产负债表;他如今认为,监管机构曾重点打击的资产可能存在机会。Avi则将目光投向dYdX、SNX等DeFi资产。更广泛的纪律是:深度理解一个细分领域并进行交易,再把利润投入由10年期判断支撑的被动资产。

摘要 · 为研究而整理的核心内容

1. ETF资金流彻底扭转上市日恐慌

  • Avi的分析起点是GBTC中的被困资金:2021年2月左右其折价转为负值后,持有人可以在等待转换期间持有方向性比特币敞口。若以50%的折价买入,回到平价就意味着100%的回报,因此,赎回发生后部分资金可能卖出,几乎不可避免。

  • 当交易员将GBTC早期赎回规模与IBIT及其他新基金较小的流入进行比较时,Jonah表示自己「被这场FUD震惊了」。这种一阶解读忽略了真正可交易的问题:关键不在于是否存在资金流出,而在于相较于预期,流出会加速、放缓还是反转。

  • Jonah自身的预期修正说明了这种方法。比特币价格为$48,000时,他最初预计流出约20亿美元;当速度意味着35亿至40亿美元时转为看空,随后看到市场将其外推至50亿至70亿美元,尽管现实仍接近30亿至40亿美元;价格来到约$40,000时,预期又反向超调。

  • 实操建议刻意保持简单:收藏Farside Investors的比特币ETF资金流仪表盘,每天查看。某个周五资金流入5.42亿美元,前一个周四则为4500万美元,Jonah因此表示「资金流就是故事」;4月矿工抛售减半,也进一步强化了这一判断。

2. ETH是下一个产品交易,即便界面体验更弱

  • Jonah最有把握的后续交易是0.05275的ETH/BTC:「这是一个非常好的位置。」不过,比特币ETF需求可能先将其推向0.048。他预计2至4个月内比率将升至0.0665,因为ETH很可能是下一个被转化为ETF的产品。Avi同意,认为ETH是无需多想的交易。

  • 质疑来自Ethereum的用户体验。Avi认为Sei及其他较新的平台流畅且面向消费者,重新使用Ethereum时却会明显感受到摩擦;但他仍认为,机构产品资金流可能压过这一弱点,就像比特币有限的应用层并没有削弱其投资逻辑。

  • Jonah的反驳是,中心化数据库和AWS的体验甚至优于Sei或Aptos,因此,界面质量本身不足以证明去中心化的价值。Ethereum的核心逻辑在于,它是「去中心化的结算层」,具备安全性、网络效应、规模经济和先发优势;否则,用户还不如继续留在中心化系统中。

  • Jonah还提到,大宗商品从业者关注ETH,是因为大宗商品的结算层「出了名地棘手且问题重重」。他不认为用户会仅仅因为更易用,就涌向NEAR、Solana或其他alt-L1;安全性和去中心化更重要。

3. 资本可能创造出它看似缺失的基本面

  • Jonah明确表达了自己的保留:资金流可以推高市场,但真正的超级周期仍需要基本面,而他对「缺乏新的基本面」感到失望。Farcaster可能成为突破口,但除了已经验证的应用之外,他还没有感受到足够多的新使用场景。

  • Avi反转了大宗商品式的因果方向。在标普500站上5,000点、Nasdaq强劲上涨、美国经济看起来依旧稳健的背景下,比特币资金流入可以制造财富效应;随后资金流向其他资产,为开发者提供资金,并在价格上涨后改善基本面。相比之下,他对中国和停滞的欧洲没那么乐观。

  • 他的例子来自不同领域:NFT投机推高交易量并支撑BLUR;Pudgy Penguins表现良好,还在持续推出产品;TAO开始吸引资金建设其上的产品,并逐渐成为一个平台,而这在6或8个月前还不是事实;Blast的新Layer 2正在吸引资金和开发者。「基本面会跟随资金流。」

  • Jonah将自己的观点称为一种「过时的大宗商品思维」——在这种思维中,基本面引领资本——并承认加密市场可能遵循不同的规律。因此,Avi眼下的任务不是要求所有资产都具备成熟基本面,而是识别比特币创造的流动性首先会流向哪里。

4. 整数关口之争,区分了交易优势与配置纪律

  • Jonah从最远期的视角出发,因为这有助于避免高买低卖。他表示,自己对任何10年期资产逻辑都「从未有过如此强的信念」:比特币看起来是无需多想的选择,大多数加密资产可能归零,少数网络则可能捕获金融和科技领域的大部分价值。

  • 对于只部署了50%资金的人,Jonah会将敞口提高到约80%-90%。他会把未使用的加密资产配置中的70%-80%投向比特币,剩余部分作为现金储备,用于等待比特币回调,或押注来自特定生态、且不使用杠杆的精选山寨币。

  • Avi的短线规则是避开重要整数关口的第一次测试,因为受心理因素驱动的卖家往往会在那里集中。当关口未能突破时,他说市场往往会下跌10%-15%,因此稳妥做法通常不是第一次就买入;可以等回调,也可以等突破。

  • Avi还认为,持续的资金流入将压过存量持有者、包括矿工的卖压,市场才刚刚开始。Jonah则质疑整数阻力对ETF买家的意义:IBIT股价为$284,并不存在可比的整数关口。他承认Avi可能因此提取额外alpha,但在资金流看起来势不可挡时,他认为自己「没有足够能力」进行这种择时。

5. Q2需求、代币化与监管退潮拓宽交易空间

  • Avi预计最大的新资金群体会在Q2出现,因为Q1的ETF获批给了机构认真研究市场、取得董事会批准的时间;减半也将在当时发生。Jonah表示,交易所正在看到「数量惊人」的新零售和机构参与者;FTX之后离场的投行和对冲基金正在回归,因为它们意识到加密资产「不会消失」。

  • 这批资金可能让杠杆化的前30大资产交易更具竞争力,促使原生交易者转向链上指标、shitcoin及其他风险更高的领域。Jonah有一个尚未成形的判断:新配置者会推高部分资产;Avi则认为,到了Q2,全面上涨的潮水可能让Solana、MATIC等相对比特币落后的资产复苏,同时承认流动性只能让一个疲弱的逻辑更长时间地保持错误。

  • Jonah从大宗商品市场看到了这种文化上的确认:2021年曾嘲笑他转向加密资产的交易员,如今第一次向他询问如何买入。比特币已经挺过低利率、冷漠和SEC的围攻;经历「第四次或第五次」猛烈上涨后,越来越多人将其视为一种数字商品,用于财富保值、价值转移,有时也可作为购买硬商品的交换媒介。

  • 功能上的趋同仍处于早期。中国和俄罗斯以人民币计价交易原油,印度也以非美元计价方式购买部分原油;Jonah称这还只是「一小步」。他认为,加密资产最终可能取代繁琐的纸面化大宗商品后台,并将西海岸航空煤油、印尼大米等原本难以进入的市场代币化。Avi补充称,代币化货币市场基金之所以有价值,是因为它们能够与加密网络互操作。

6. 监管折价可能成为下一轮非对称回报的来源

  • 两位主持人都认为,美国监管机构在多次败诉后已经趋于沉默,而选举年也进一步降低了再次发起攻势的意愿。Avi提出了Elizabeth Warren上台这一最坏情形;Jonah表示,如果她掌权,「基本上就结束了」,但他预计无论是Trump胜选,还是Biden维持现状,行业获得的空间都会比此前更大。Jonah还认为,美国法院体系的制衡机制正在拆解站不住脚的监管论据。

  • Jonah给出的具体先例是Ripple股权。他表示,在监管诉讼期间,该股相对公司资产负债表交易在99.5%的折价水平上。他们在XRP裁决前买入,当时估值约为10亿至15亿美元,而资产约为250亿至300亿美元,主要由Ripple代币、现金和风险投资组成;他同时承认,上诉仍有可能发生。

  • 下一步的筛选方向,是监管机构试图压制、但市场尚未完成重估的资产。Avi重点提到DeFi协议,尤其是dYdX和SNX,认为这些领域值得研究,而不是将其直接视为自动买入标的。

  • Jonah最后总结了组合管理流程:精通一个狭窄领域,加入该领域的频道,阅读专业出版物,并在其中积极交易,不要把资金分散到50或100个市场。随后将收益投入被动的长期持仓——就他而言,就是把石油和成品油交易的利润投入比特币。

Jonah Van Bourg

This is now the fourth or fifth time that Bitcoin is having this rip-roaring rally, and you just can’t fucking write it off anymore. It’s survived low interest rates, the period of apathy, the SEC onslaught—it’s survived all these things. It’s becoming obvious to the world. Looking at these ETF flows, you’re literally just hoping they stop in order to buy a dip.

Avi Felman

Okay, welcome back to the much-delayed second—third?—second episode of the year. We were supposed to record an episode, but instead we went out and got drunk.

Jonah Van Bourg

Oh yeah, we did do that. That was a hell of a night. It was awesome. We just drank whiskey at Churn for—I don’t know how long.

I wish we could have recorded that podcast. I think you guys would have really appreciated it, but I don’t think it would have gotten past our censors, unfortunately.

Avi Felman

Which is great. Next time we’re both in London, maybe we’ll invite a few people out. We’ll post a picture, and if you can find us, you can come hang out with us.

We should start having 1,000x community get-togethers where we repeat our unwaveringly bullish thesis.

Jonah Van Bourg

You didn’t miss much. The 1,000x podcast that happened at the bar was basically us talking about how we were bullish, which we talk about on Twitter and every podcast. The reality is, how could you not be bullish at this moment in time?

Avi Felman

Let’s go through what happened. Post-approval of the ETF, this is something we’ve been talking about for a long time: GBTC held a ton of stale capital, and there was very likely a lot of directional capital held within that product that wasn’t able to exit for many years.

From the time—if I’m getting my dates right—around February 2021, the discount on the product went negative. A bunch of people started buying it to replicate their Bitcoin exposure, and at some point a bunch of people ended up directionally long this thing. They were going to start redeeming because one of the biggest reasons they were directionally long was the massive discount. At a 50% discount, you’re making a 100% return once that discount goes back to flat.

Everybody knows the story, so I don’t need to rehash it. There were going to be outflows. People saw the outflows and took that to mean there wouldn’t be any inflows, which is the opposite. There have been—and there are currently—some pretty insane inflows. This ETF is breaking a lot of records right now, and we knew it would because you have people like Larry Fink getting on TV and telling everybody that it’s time to make room for digital assets in their portfolios.

Jonah Van Bourg

I was blown away by the FUD when the ETFs first launched. GBTC isn’t a hard product to understand. Before it became an ETF, it was a trust that held Bitcoin, and you couldn’t redeem the trust and take your Bitcoin out until it eventually, hopefully, became an ETF.

When that happened, trust shares—or, subsequently, ETF shares—were redeemed and Bitcoin was pulled out. In the day or three after the ETF approvals were first processed by the market, everybody looked at those outflows and panicked. They looked at the inflows in the other ETFs and panicked: “Oh my God, they said there were going to be billions and billions and billions of dollars worth of inflows, and it’s only a few hundred million going into IBIT and a few others, while even more is coming out of GBTC.”

You look at the panic merchants on crypto Twitter, and everybody takes it as if markets move based on the second derivative of the news, not what’s actually happening at the time. If you see outflows, that isn’t necessarily bearish in and of itself. You have to ask yourself whether those outflows are going to accelerate, decelerate, or reverse. That’s what moves the market.

Avi Felman

I 100% agree with that statement. The issue people make is that they do the first-order deduction: “Outflows are bearish.” But it’s already priced in.

That’s true at a point in time, obviously, if you know about the outflows. The question is, over a period of time, are those outflows larger or smaller than expected? How is that expectation shifting over time?

Jonah Van Bourg

I’ll give you an example. When Bitcoin was trading at $48,000, my initial estimate of the outflows was $2 billion. Then the pace of outflows changed at GBTC. They changed from being on track for $2 billion to actually being on track for $3.5 billion or $4 billion.

At that moment in time, you have to realize that your priors are incorrect and shift your opinion: “This is actually bearish.” But then you constantly have to take in new data. You’re surveying the market and asking what people think the outflows are going to be tomorrow, the day after, and the day after that.

At some point, what ended up happening was that the outflows got priced at $5 billion, $6 billion, or $7 billion, when in reality they were still on track for $3 billion to $4 billion. People were putting them into an exponential curve instead of what should have been a more logarithmic curve. Now it’s priced the other way. Bitcoin at $40,000 is a very good level for people to come back in.

Avi Felman

This is all hindsight talk.

Jonah Van Bourg

What’s useful today is the second part of the thesis: Post this particular ETF, there’s going to be tremendous speculation on every other ETF down the line that should be coming into play.

At the moment, the ETH/BTC ratio is trading at 0.05275. That’s a very good level, in my opinion. You start scaling in because the reality is that ETH is the next product to be turned into an ETF. You might continue to see inflows into the spot Bitcoin product, and maybe the ratio goes to 0.048—another 10%—but at some point in the next 2 to 4 months, I think you’re going to see this ratio at 0.0665.

Avi Felman

I agree. It’s a really interesting time to start coming in personally, and it’s what everybody out there should be doing.

Jonah Van Bourg

Hindsight is hindsight. We can do our victory lap and talk about GBTC all we want, but what matters is the future now, not the past.

Go on Google and look up Farside Investors’ Bitcoin ETF flow dashboard at farside.co.uk. It’s one of 60 different dashboards out there that show you the inflows and outflows—the net flows—into every single ETF. Just bookmark it and look at it every day.

You can see that last Friday there were $542 million worth of inflows, and the Thursday before that there were $45 million. Keep your finger on the pulse of what’s going on in terms of these flows.

To me, this year is going to be the story of flows. You have miner selling getting cut in half pretty soon, in April. You have this Bitcoin ETF flow that everybody was panicking about because it supposedly wasn’t big enough. Everyone was expecting billions on day 1, but that’s not how ETFs work. It’s going to be a steady tailwind throughout the year.

If your ETF dashboard shows that inflows are slowing down, and you’re a little bit levered or holding more Bitcoin than you’re comfortable with, maybe you should lighten up. For the most part, though, I expect steady inflows and a reduction in outflows, mainly because of reduced miner selling.

Other ETFs, like an ETH ETF that’s now on the table, open the door for non-Bitcoin tokens to be put into ETF form across the board. Is that going to telegraph securities regulation and the intentions of the SEC? All of these things are going to become narratives over the course of the next 9 months.

Flows are the story. There’s one thing that’s bothering me about crypto right now and one reason why I would be longer if it weren’t for this particular discomfort. Flows are a great story, but you also need fundamentals to make a market really go into a supercycle. Aside from the already-proven use cases, I’m perhaps disenchanted with the lack of new ones. Maybe Farcaster is going to blow up, but I’m just not feeling the fundamentals as much.

Avi Felman

I think the reality of the situation is twofold. First, you have the S&P above 5,000 and the Nasdaq ripping. You have what seems to be a very robust economy in the United States.

The rest of the world—I’m not waiting with bated breath. I think China is under a lot of pressure right now, and Europe is stagnating a bit. But the United States is going, and the United States is what matters because that’s where all the money is flowing into the space.

As long as you have strong fundamentals from the equity side and the technology side, inflows into BTC keep going. We all know that at some point people get greedy. That’s the reality of this market.

There are a lot of people whose balance of holdings—people who own Bitcoin—used to be much less crypto-native. But because of the ETF speculation, you’ve seen a reallocation to Bitcoin, so people’s portfolios are more comprised of BTC now than they have been in the past. You’re still going to get that wealth effect, and it’s going to flow down to different assets. The fundamentals will follow.

Take NFTs, for example. Pudgy Penguins is doing very well—and what a ridiculous name. I can’t believe I have to say that out loud. But they’re not trading at $40,000 because they’ve managed to transform themselves into a TV show. They’ve managed to transform themselves into a TV show for adults. I actually don’t know the details, but they’re putting out products.

My view is that as wealth grows, you’re still going to see redistribution. That’s going to cause certain sectors to do extremely well, and then it’s going to cause fundamentals to improve in those sectors.

Take Blur, for example. If NFT volumes go up because people are respeculating on NFTs, then the value of Blur is going to go up. TAO is another example in the AI space. TAO has managed to start raising money for products being built on top of it. It’s becoming a platform. That wasn’t true 6 or 8 months ago, but it’s true today purely because there’s more money in the space and people are willing to go out and do this.

Going back to Blast, it’s the same thing. They’ve introduced a new layer 2, and people are willing to deploy capital into building products on these platforms.

Jonah Van Bourg

You’re saying that the fundamentals will follow the flows. I have this antiquated commodities mindset that fundamentals lead the flows and create them. Maybe in crypto it’s different. You might be right.

Avi Felman

I think that’s what we’re going to see happening. What I’m focused on right now is figuring out exactly where the flows are going to go in the beginning.

ETH is the no-brainer for me. How is it so far behind? I couldn’t agree with you more on ETH/BTC. That’s a crazy one.

Jonah Van Bourg

The only issue with ETH is whether you’ve used Sei or any of these other platforms.

Avi Felman

No, I’ve written them off entirely, which is lazy. But they’re very easy to use, they’re very consumer-friendly, and the applications are smooth and easy.

When you go back to ETH, what you realize is that it’s just not a great user experience. I think that matters less because the thesis around ETH is more concentrated around institutional flows than anything else.

In the same way that you can’t really use things on Bitcoin, it doesn’t matter.

Jonah Van Bourg

Exactly. Let’s not forget that centralized databases and centralized infrastructure—Amazon Web Services and all the things that crypto stands in opposition to—have a much better user experience than even Sei or Aptos.

At the end of the day, it’s about a decentralized settlement layer that has a network effect, economies of scale, and a first-mover advantage. That’s why I’m bullish on ETH.

I don’t think anyone is going to flock to NEAR or, maybe, Solana because they’ve done something special, or to any of these other alt-L1s further out on the risk spectrum just because of user experience. What matters is security and decentralization. Otherwise, you just go centralized.

Avi Felman

I agree with that. Talking about price action for a second, where do you see this? If you’re trading this market and you’re thinking, “Let’s say you’re 50% deployed or 40% deployed and want to get more deployed,” are you buying here? Are you buying at $50,000? Is this short-term or long-term in your view?

Jonah Van Bourg

Let me preface this by saying that, with the way I form a view in my trading mindset, I start by testing the absolute extremes. I ask, “What do I want to have on right now? What do I want to have on for 10 years?” I don’t usually have much conviction in the super-short term, so I like to start at the other end of the spectrum.

In terms of what I want to have on for 10 years, I have never had more conviction in my life over any 10-year period in any asset class than I currently have in Bitcoin.

Avi Felman

You can’t give people 10-year advice.

Jonah Van Bourg

Hear me out. I’m working my way backward. If you’re trying not to chop yourself up—if you’re trying not to buy high and sell low, like selling $38,000 Bitcoin after the ETF comes out because some crypto Twitter bear says it looks bearish, and then buying it back at $45,000—it helps to have a very long-term thesis that you can cling to when you’re losing money.

My very long-term thesis is that Bitcoin is a no-brainer, most of crypto is probably going to zero, but some of crypto will probably take over large swaths of technology and finance.

Coming back to your question, if I were 50% allocated, I would probably allocate myself 80% to 90%. I would take the 50% that was unallocated for crypto but undeployed, and I would put maybe 70% or 80% of that into Bitcoin, which is the most secure crypto asset and has the lowest volatility.

Then I would save the remainder of that dry powder to either add Bitcoin on dips or selectively bet on alts with no leverage that I saw emerging in various ecosystems with some sort of potential.

Same question back to you: What would you be doing?

Avi Felman

Wow, great question. I’m glad you asked it.

My spicy view, as somebody who trades a little bit more short-term than 10 years, is that I’m in Monaco right now and feeling a little bit spicy. I’m a gambler at heart. I’ve seen this price action play out a lot.

Jonah Van Bourg

You’re wearing a black turtleneck like all the French people there. Is that what you mean?

Avi Felman

What do you mean? Do French people wear black turtlenecks? Is that a thing?

Jonah Van Bourg

Of course it is. Watch every French movie. They’re all wearing black turtlenecks.

Avi Felman

Name one French movie.

Jonah Van Bourg

Léon. That guy took a child, Natalie Portman, and turned her into a killer.

Avi Felman

Name another French movie.

Jonah Van Bourg

Amélie. There’s definitely a guy with a fixie bicycle and a black turtleneck in there.

Avi Felman

I’ll go watch Amélie and see if I can find any turtlenecks. I forgot you married a French woman.

Jonah Van Bourg

Yeah, I’m up to my turtleneck in Frenchness.

Avi Felman

We were talking about something serious before you distracted me. We were talking about what to do if you’re underallocated.

Here’s the thing: When you’re looking at this type of price action, it reminds me a lot of the $20,000 and $30,000 breaks. With any round-number break, you tend to get this type of price action, where you have to test the liquidity first.

At any moment, there are a ton of people who, for psychological reasons, will sell at round numbers. There’s no actual expected value to selling at a round number—whether you’re selling at $40,000 or $30,000. There’s no reason to do it other than that people are psychologically wired to sell at round numbers because they like to say, “I sold at $50,000.”

When that happens, the first time you hit that number, you tend to get a lot of people who come in and sell.

Jonah Van Bourg

I’m sorry to interrupt, but what makes round numbers important? Why wouldn’t you just buy here, expecting a break in the future? Maybe I’m stupid, but I don’t understand.

Avi Felman

Generally, what you tend to get are those 10% to 15% sell-offs once a round number doesn’t break. Almost always, the prudent move is not to buy the first time.

Jonah Van Bourg

You’re not saying to buy the dip. You’re saying to buy the break.

Avi Felman

You can buy the dip or buy the break. The first part of the statement is that you buy the break. The second part is that I don’t think the inflows are stopping anytime soon.

I think any amount of selling by the people who already own this asset—whether they’re miners in China or people in the United States who have been holding for a long time—isn’t going to be enough supply to take this thing lower and overwhelm the inflows. You have to remember that we’re just getting started.

Jonah Van Bourg

That’s why I’m not trying to buy a dip. The price of IBIT, the ETF that most normies are buying, is $284 a share. There’s no round number there, and those inflows are unstoppable.

To me, the idea of trying to get cute with it and dance between the raindrops might be a great way to extract extra alpha from this market, but I’m not good enough to do that. I don’t even look at it that way.

Avi Felman

We’re traders at the end of the day. You can talk long-term and I’ll talk short-term, but when I see situations like this, I see opportunity. My job is to exploit that opportunity.

That being said, I think Q1 is an interesting one. The only people buying now are the people who already decided to do so. A lot of the bigger players who are willing to get into this market either decided in Q4 of last year or expedited some processes to buy.

I think the largest number of people are going to come into this market in Q2. The ETF was approved in Q1, and that galvanized a lot of people to take this more seriously. Starting in Q2, you’re finally going to get those people to get their boards to sign off on it.

The halving happens then, too.

Jonah Van Bourg

I’ve been talking to a lot of exchanges. I think the best way to evaluate this market is to see who new is coming into it.

As far as I can tell, a tremendous number of new people are coming in from both the retail and institutional sides. I’m seeing the same thing. A lot of the investment banks and hedge funds that stepped away after FTX are coming back in full force because they’ve realized that this isn’t going away.

Avi Felman

That’s going to make life a little bit harder to trade, especially the large caps. I think you’re seeing this in the market, whether it’s conscious or not.

A lot of the natives have moved away from levered trading in large caps—anything in the top 30. The amount and preponderance of people trading those large caps on leverage, at least as far as I see on Twitter, is declining. They’re moving toward on-chain metrics, shitcoins, and all this other stuff.

That area has become, and will continue to become, more competitive as these new people come in. But it will provide a boost in liquidity, a boost in inflows, and a boost in value to a lot of the top 10 and top 20 assets.

There are a lot of midcaps and large caps that have underperformed. If you look at Solana relative to BTC, or MATIC in a huge way versus BTC, maybe around Q2 you’ll see some of these assets get pumped.

Jonah Van Bourg

I have a half-formed thesis that the new allocators coming in are going to pump some of these assets. Even if they don’t, the rising tide you describe will lift all ships. That’s no excuse for bad investing, but it does allow you to be wrong for a little bit longer when you’re trying to time a difficult speculative thesis on alts.

Interestingly enough, it’s funny you mention that you’re talking to new people getting into the space. I am too. I spend most of my days now dancing between the raindrops, actively and systematically trading things like gasoline, naphtha, and other random parts of crude oil that most people don’t like—the altcoins of crude oil.

In my world of commodities traders, pretty much everybody has now asked me, “Is this a good time to buy crypto?”

Avi Felman

So in your commodities world, people are coming back? They’re coming to you to talk about crypto for the first time ever?

Jonah Van Bourg

For the first time. This didn’t even happen in 2021. In 2021, I was laughed out of the room for pursuing a career in crypto.

Avi Felman

What do you think changed in these people’s minds?

Jonah Van Bourg

They’re obviously very commodity-focused, oil-focused traders. It’s not like I’m some visionary. The light bulb went off for me toward the highs, but similarly, this is now the fourth or fifth time that Bitcoin has had this rip-roaring rally, and you just can’t write it off anymore.

It survived low interest rates, the period of apathy, the SEC onslaught—it survived all these things. I think the light bulb going off for the commodities community is the same light bulb that went off for me.

This is a digital commodity. It’s something that governments, citizens, non-state actors, and all sorts of other entities will need and want to hold on their balance sheets in order to facilitate important functions: wealth preservation, value transfer, and occasionally a medium of exchange for hard goods.

It’s just becoming obvious to the world. ETH as a settlement layer is also a topic that a lot of people in commodities are focused on because settlement layers in commodities are notoriously tricky and problematic.

They’re asking, “Is now a good time?” If you’re 0% allocated to crypto—which is still true of a lot of people—now is as good a time as ever. The 10-year thesis is so bullish that you should allocate something.

If you’re 50% allocated or more and looking to add, even if I were still actively trading Bitcoin, I don’t know if I would wait. I just don’t like looking at these ETF flows and hoping they stop so that I can buy a dip.

Avi Felman

I want to go back to the commodities point for a second. You’re trading oil all day, every day. A year ago, you talked to me a little bit about the overlap between the two industries—not just that Bitcoin is a digital commodity, but also that there might be some overlap. You’ve seen some exploration in actually settling deals using Tether, Bitcoin, or whatever it is.

Has that progressed in any meaningful way?

Jonah Van Bourg

Functionally, no. Other than the redenomination of hydrocarbon trade in certain trade lanes, you could say that some things have started moving in that direction.

China and Russia trade crude oil denominated in renminbi. India buys some crude oil denominated in non-U.S.-dollar terms. Aside from that little baby step toward a world where there’s a new global reserve currency that everyone—even if they hate each other—can understand, not much has happened.

But I think there are a few different strands of the rope where crypto and commodities will eventually merge.

First, commodities traders need to get their heads around digital assets. That’s belatedly starting to happen in a big way. Then crypto will replace the commodities back office, which is a much bigger mess than the traditional finance back office.

Settling an oil transaction between Nigeria and China involves more nodes, pieces of paper, faxes, and other complications than you would believe. That needs a decentralized database. It also needs a decentralized denominator, at least for some transactions. The dollar is great, but it isn’t perfect for everybody.

Avi Felman

It definitely isn’t now. You saw it 2 years ago when the United States first froze Russia’s asset reserves and locked up $800 billion.

It’s getting worse now. There’s agitation to take those reserves and give them to Ukraine because of the slowdown in aid. That would be a death blow.

Jonah Van Bourg

It wouldn’t be instantaneous, obviously, but in my opinion it would be the crossing of the Danube—the point of no return.

Avi Felman

I thought the crossing of the Rubicon was the point of no return.

Jonah Van Bourg

The Danube is a nice river too. I like it. I was just in Serbia, so it was stuck in my head.

Avi Felman

You’re a Bohemian guy. What can I say?

Jonah Van Bourg

I thought crossing the Rubicon was the point of no return when they took the assets in the first place. But if they just fucking fork them over to Ukraine to buy weapons, oh my God.

The final thing I think crypto could be useful for in the world of commodities—and we’re getting there fast—is that most commodities relevant to most of the world are not just opaque; they’re impossible to trade.

The types of oil, corn, wheat, and other commodities that you can see on a screen as an institution constitute only a couple of basis points of global consumption. Imagine there’s a market for West Coast jet fuel or Indonesian rice, but the exchanges don’t have time to create markets for institutional counterparties.

One thing FTX actually did a good job of was tokenizing new markets and throwing them out there. Sure, half of it was probably illegal, but at some point in the future, the nature of tokenized assets will make it possible for most commodities trading to be tokenized and take place either on-chain or off-chain in tokenized form.

I think that’s a real innovation for value transfer, hedging, speculation, and all the things that make commodities markets tick.

Avi Felman

Somebody needs to take that step. It’s been prognosticated for a long time across all markets, and it is slowly happening in traditional markets.

You’re seeing tokenized money-market funds pop up left and right. Franklin Templeton was leading the way. I don’t know why they picked such a strange name, but they did attempt to tokenize their money-market fund.

This is coming at a certain point. Once it’s tokenized, a lot of people make the argument that it isn’t good for crypto. No, it’s amazing because it becomes interoperable with all the networks.

Whether that specific asset or product delivers a bottom line to any particular network doesn’t really matter. It’s now part and parcel of being able to interact with that world. When you’re able to interact with a whole new world, that’s going to bring value to that world and drag it away from traditional architecture.

I can see that happening with commodities in the long run.

Jonah Van Bourg

Even dogwifhat is good for crypto. Any use is good for crypto. Even the casino stuff is good.

Use cases are good, even if they aren’t necessarily the most blue-chip use cases.

Avi Felman

Something interesting is cooking in crypto aside from the broader resurgence of interest, the ETFs bringing in flows, and all that good stuff: The regulators have gone quiet, haven’t they?

This is an election year, and I expected them to start banging the drum, but they’re kind of hoping people will forget the war they just lost against crypto using taxpayer money.

Jonah Van Bourg

It’s a political issue at the end of the day. It’s such a bad look for them. They spent so many resources and so much time coming after this space, and they have absolutely nothing to show for it. In fact, they’ve taken massive losses.

One of the best trades we’ve done was buying Ripple equity because it was trading at a 99.5% discount to the company’s actual balance sheet. Why was it trading at such a massive discount? Because the company was embroiled in a battle with the regulators, and it was entirely possible that it would lose.

But after we saw the SEC lose and lose and lose, it started to make us pretty bullish. Before that arrangement or the decision the SEC came to with Ripple regarding XRP, which absolved them of a lot of the different issues—obviously there’s an appeal or whatnot—we started buying a lot because you could buy the equity for $1 billion to $1.5 billion, while the company had roughly $25 billion to $30 billion worth of assets on its balance sheet.

Most of that was in Ripple tokens, but it also had cash, venture investments, and a lot of other things.

I’m telling you this anecdote because there are a lot of other opportunities like that today. The regulators are taking their foot off the pedal, in my opinion.

If you look at what has historically been priced poorly in this industry because regulators have been so aggressive with certain assets and products, you now know that regulators aren’t going to be as aggressive—especially in an election year. It’s not going to happen.

You start identifying those pockets of opportunity and bidding them up. If Trump gets elected, you’re going to make a lot of money. Even if Biden gets elected again and the status quo remains, they’ve lost the political will to come after this industry in a big way.

Avi Felman

What’s the worst-case political scenario for crypto? Is it that Biden steps down because he’s too old or infirm, and Elizabeth Warren takes over?

Jonah Van Bourg

Are you kidding? If Biden stepped down, it would probably be a good thing for crypto.

Avi Felman

Obviously.

Jonah Van Bourg

If Elizabeth Warren comes up, then that’s basically it. She’s the only one I’d underwrite. Nobody else cares about this industry.

Biden—or Biden’s lackeys—probably cared more than anybody about trying to kill crypto, and they just got ironed out. They’re done. They can’t do it anymore.

They completely nuked the industry. They hollowed out the American trading industry, made it harder for some American firms to trade crypto, spent a ton of money slowing down progress in the space, sent a lot of talent offshore, bankrupted a lot of startups that ran out of runway, and prolonged the winter.

But it’s over now. Everybody ended up moving to London or Dubai because of this.

Avi Felman

It would be amazing if, politics aside, a reasonable person got elected on this issue—or somebody on the right got elected. It would be wonderful to see all those people come back.

The American invention, historically, has been the ability to pursue success. That’s always been the case. We’ve done such a poor job with it in this particular industry, and it would be amazing to get that back. I think we have the opportunity to do it.

Jonah Van Bourg

I will say, Avi, that I’m so proud of the American court system. When you have government overreach, the checks and balances worked. They genuinely worked.

You had bad arguments by bad people, those arguments got dismantled, and the industry won. That’s what we need more of.

Avi Felman

I think I’ve outlined how to make money on it. One thing I’d love to hear from anybody listening is what you think the most targeted sectors have been.

My mind goes to things like dYdX, SNX, and a lot of DeFi products. I think there are opportunities to pick up things that regulators tried to stomp on but that haven’t necessarily been repriced yet.

Jonah Van Bourg

I think that’s really good advice. One thing I’d like to add for the listeners is what I’m doing in my career right now.

I’m drilling deeply into a sector I know really well, which is petroleum and refined products, building trading strategies, and day trading my way around that market. Then I’m taking the gains and investing them into Bitcoin on a more passive basis.

You’re trading crypto a little bit—or maybe a lot—more actively than I am. But I think the broader lesson from what the two of us are doing is to pick your niche, dive into it, and learn it really well.

Get in the Telegram channels. Read the publications that matter. Get on Twitter and follow the accounts that tweet important information and philosophy about your narrow niche. Trade that niche, but don’t spread yourself too thin trying to day trade 100 things or 50 things.

Day trade your niche, get good at it, and then take your profits and feed them back into broader, more passive long positions that you have a 10-year thesis on and don’t need to trade actively. I think that could turn into a really lucrative process for people.

Avi Felman

I think that’s great advice, Jonah. As always, it’s good talking to you.

I apologize because I’ve been in Monaco trying to learn roulette for the last week.

Jonah Van Bourg

Trying to learn roulette?

Avi Felman

Yes.

Jonah Van Bourg

Do you say black or red?

Avi Felman

No, no, no. Listen. There are many things to learn, apparently. I’m probably going to stick to blackjack and poker, though.

Jonah Van Bourg

I stayed up all night watching the 49ers lose. That’s what I did with my life. I’d rather be in Monaco gambling with you.

Avi Felman

You really think they were going to let the 49ers win? You realize it was scripted, right? They have to do it for the greater good.

My favorite argument, by the way—and this has nothing to do with crypto—is that it was scripted specifically because they’re trying to encourage pronatalism.

Jonah Van Bourg

What’s that?

Avi Felman

The lizard people.

Jonah Van Bourg

Exactly. The lizard people—or the powers that be—are trying to promote pronatalism. They’re trying to showcase a powerful couple together and encourage people to get together and have babies.

People write pages about this. How do they have the time?

Avi Felman

I had a different thesis. My working hypothesis is that Joe Biden died in 2021 and that the Deep State reanimated his corpse with alien technology from Area 51.

I figured that whoever reanimated him would probably want to promote the city that will reelect him with a 90% margin. It’s called San Francisco.

Jonah Van Bourg

I grew up there. They fucking love him—or love whatever.

Avi Felman

How did you grow up in San Francisco and end up a well-adjusted human?

Jonah Van Bourg

Back then, it was a really interesting place. It had artists, musicians, counterculture, good writing, and all kinds of things. It was a multifaceted place with the whole spectrum of professions.

My parents, on government salaries, could afford a house and a nice life there. It was the American dream. Now it’s turned into something pretty ridiculous and sinister. I wouldn’t go back. It’s not my kind of place.

It used to be freaking awesome—absolutely incredible. Physically, aside from the problems it has with urban blight right now, it’s the most beautiful city in America, with the hills and the skyline rolling around Coit Tower and the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s awesome.

Avi Felman

When BTC hits $100,000, I’m expecting you to try to take over San Francisco and make San Francisco great again.

Jonah Van Bourg

That’s the problem. When BTC hits $100,000, that’ll get me into the lower-middle class in San Francisco. You need to be a fucking plutocrat to own a single-family home there. It’s crazy.

Avi Felman

That’s nuts. Maybe one of our listeners will get there eventually. They’ll invest in it.

Maybe somebody put some money in TAO at $1, and now it’s $586.

Jonah Van Bourg

If you know any good French movies, let me know, because Avi didn’t know a single one despite being married to a French woman.

Avi Felman

Rabbi Jacob, watch that one. Okay, thank you. All right, guys, we’ll see you soon. Great talking to you, Avi. Not investment advice. Love you all. Do your research, and if you lose your money, it’s not my fault—it’s J’s fault. No, please. Good talking to you, Avi. See you next time.

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