Unlike previous episodes that merely discussed market trends, the highlight of this episode is that several seasoned insiders openly shared their current real-time portfolios.Article author and source: Shenchao TechFlow
Guests: Qiao Wang (Founding Partner, Alliance DAO), Se Yong Park (Co-founder, FOMO)
Podcast Hosts: Jordy, Justin, Tiki, Dimma
Disclosure: All guests on this podcast have significant financial exposure to the assets discussed. Qiao Wang’s institution holds substantial stakes in early Web3 projects, and he personally holds large positions in U.S. equities, BTC, and Zcash; Tiki holds S&P 500 indices, government bonds, and a large collection of physical Pokémon cards; Justin holds Zcash and the Lit airdrop; Jordy holds BTC and Hyperliquid (HYPE); Dimma holds NEAR and Grass; the data shared by the FOMO co-founder is strongly motivated by user acquisition and product promotion. This episode faithfully presents the guests’ actual holdings and reasoning, and does not constitute independent third-party investment advice. Please take responsibility for your own portfolio.
Intro: This is the return of the Steady Lads podcast after a four-month hiatus, coinciding with Bitcoin reclaiming the $80,000 level. Unlike previous episodes that merely speculated on market trends, the standout feature of this episode is that several longtime insiders openly disclosed their actual current portfolios. The results were surprising: in an industry often associated with get-rich-quick stories, the smart money is heavily retreating into traditional financial assets or concentrating investments in just a few high-conviction targets, having largely abandoned most altcoins entirely.
Key Points Summary
· Real Portfolio Breakdown of 5 Major Players: The greatest value of this edition lies in dispelling the illusion of holdings within the community. Qiao Wang has 70% to 80% of his capital in U.S. stocks, holding only BTC and Zcash as crypto assets; Tiki employs an extreme barbell strategy, holding S&P 500 index funds, government bonds, and approximately $3 million worth of physical Pokémon cards, while explicitly expressing a bearish outlook on nearly all other tokens; Jordy maintains a core position in BTC and holds a small amount of Hyperliquid, but acknowledges that its valuation is already too high; Justin bought the spot Zcash on dip and retained his early Lit airdrop; Dimma holds AI-themed tokens such as Near and Grass.
· Zcash’s decade-long bottom consensus: Zcash has become a heavily weighted position for Qiao Wang and Justin. The core rationale is that a decade-long consolidation has completely eliminated selling pressure from early investors. On the chart, it has formed a massive base pattern spanning ten years. Compared to chasing the price of BTC, Zcash offers an exceptional risk-reward buying opportunity with the same supply but a much lower price.
· The Truth Behind the Liquidity Drain of Marginal Tokens: With the exception of a handful of top-tier assets, most tokens have been blacklisted by insiders. In stark contrast, data shared by the co-founder of FOMO reveals that approximately 40,000 non-crypto-native users are entering mobile platforms daily to trade memecoins. Retail investors' funds are being drained through this low-barrier "social game," while traditional legacy tokens are being completely ignored.
· Disagreement on macroeconomic bottom detection: Regarding Bitcoin’s recent sharp volatility, Jordy believes that, alongside the narrative of dollar depreciation, the correlation between gold and Bitcoin has reached an all-time high, with capital rapidly returning. Justin, however, strictly adheres to the four-year cycle theory, arguing that it is still too early to call a bottom; given the unfavorable risk-reward ratio, chasing Bitcoin’s price rise is less attractive than investing in U.S. AI technology stocks.
Key Insights Summary
Regarding real holdings and defense: “About 70% to 80% of my funds are in U.S. stocks; in crypto, I only hold Bitcoin and Zcash. In this high-risk industry where prices can plummet 50% in a single day for no apparent reason, you must stay rational.” (Qiao Wang) “My strategy is a classic barbell approach: on one side, S&P 500 and Treasuries; on the other, my $3 million collection of Pokémon cards. I’m extremely bearish on the vast majority of tokens.” (Tiki)
The decade-long bottom for Zcash: "Zcash's logic hasn't changed in ten years. Most early investors have already sold their holdings, and miner rewards have dropped significantly. Now, buying pressure has finally surpassed selling pressure." "Look at its long-term chart—it contains three rounded bottoms nested together, forming a massive, decade-long accumulation pattern. This is the most perfect chart structure you can find."
Regarding the essence of mobile trading: “Traditional match-3 mobile games can earn $1 billion per year. Mobile token trading is essentially a social game with lower barriers to entry and real monetary incentives.” “Users don’t care which underlying blockchain it is. Of yesterday’s 110,000 daily active users, 90,000 traded assets on the Robinhood chain, and 100,000 on Solana—the user experience was completely seamless.”
I. The Real Moves of 5 Big Names: What Are They Buying Besides Bitcoin?
In the second half of the show, everyone played a game called “Reveal Your Briefcase,” in which these seasoned veterans of the crypto market each disclosed their current actual liquidity positions. This data starkly proved one point: smart money has long stopped searching for treasures in the trash.
Qiao Wang (Founding Partner, Alliance DAO): His institution has made broad investments in numerous emerging Web3 projects, but his personal liquidity allocation is extremely conservative. He has allocated 70% to 80% of his portfolio to U.S. stocks. Among his remaining crypto assets, he has completely abandoned the wide array of low-market-cap tokens, retaining only Bitcoin and Zcash. In terms of risk-adjusted investment amount, his allocation to Zcash is comparable to his U.S. stock holdings.
Tiki implemented the most extreme version of the "barbell strategy" (one end extremely conservative, the other extremely high-risk). His conservative side consisted of S&P 500 ETFs and U.S. Treasury bonds; his high-risk side comprised approximately $3 million worth of physical Pokémon trading cards. When pressed by other guests, he candidly stated: "Unless I invested in the early rounds of a project, I am extremely bearish on every token available on the market today."
Jordy: His core position is Bitcoin, and he holds a substantial amount. Regarding altcoins, he maintains a partial position in Hyperliquid (HYPE), but he clearly points out that HYPE’s current P/E valuation is excessively inflated, with current price support relying largely on retail investor sentiment-driven buying—something unsustainable in the long term. As a result, he has been consistently taking profits on rallies.
Justin: He performed tax-loss harvesting at the market bottom (around $1), then purchased a large amount of Zcash spot. Additionally, he still holds 80% of his initial allocation of the Lit airdrop.
Dimma: He is relatively inclined toward popular narratives. He holds a portion of AI-related tokens with fundamental support, such as Near and Grass, along with a growing portfolio of early-stage AI token investments.
II. Why Zcash? A Decade-Long Massive Bottom and AI Currency Expectations
Among the holdings of several prominent figures, Zcash has emerged as the most frequently mentioned asset and one that has been heavily weighted with real capital. Qiao Wang has laid out a comprehensive buying rationale.
Fundamentally, Zcash’s core features of privacy and quantum resistance have withstood nearly a decade of market testing. On the supply side, eight to nine years of consolidation have enabled early institutional investors and the development team to fully distribute their holdings; as the halving cycle progresses, mining sell pressure has significantly diminished. Today, new buying pressure is finally overcoming historical sell pressure. Just a few days ago, even when a whale executed a cross-chain sale of $50 million in ZEC, the market absorbed it smoothly without any significant price collapse.
From a technical trading perspective, Qiao noted that Zcash has formed an extremely rare long-term structure: several smaller rounded bottoms nesting within each other, ultimately converging into a massive base formation spanning a decade.
More imaginatively, consider the valuation comparison: Bitcoin has become difficult to offer 100x returns to new ordinary entrants, yet Zcash has the exact same total supply as Bitcoin but currently trades at only about one percent of Bitcoin’s price. The podcast guests speculate that after Bitcoin secures its position as “digital gold,” the market desperately needs a native “privacy-focused AI currency” to absorb new capital inflows—and Zcash is quietly occupying this niche.
III. The Real Flow of Off-Chain Funds: 40,000 New Users Daily Enter Mobile Games
While insiders are still eagerly anticipating various niche legacy tokens, Se, co-founder of the FOMO trading app, presented a set of data that redefines the game: they currently acquire around 40,000 genuine new users daily from app stores, the vast majority of whom are complete outsiders with no prior crypto experience.
Their core customer acquisition strategy is UGC (user-generated content) marketing, spending $100,000 to $150,000 per month to sponsor social media creators who showcase real trading records and material lifestyles, successfully breaking through information barriers faced by average users.
In its product design, FOMO completely eliminates the complexity of “public blockchains.” Of yesterday’s 110,000 daily active users, 90,000 traded assets on the Robinhood chain, 100,000 engaged with Solana, and 60,000 participated in Base. Users don’t need to switch wallets or bridge chains—all assets are traded seamlessly within a single interface. Additionally, FOMO charges only a 0.5% fee, significantly lower than Coinbase’s retail trading fee of up to 2.5%.
Se’s conclusion is spot-on: these token trades on mobile are essentially social games with real-money incentives. Traditional match-three games generate billions annually; the crypto world has packaged financial speculation as mobile gaming, creating a far larger and more addictive business loop.
Four: Macro Debate—Under Interest Rate Cut Expectations, Should You Chase Bitcoin or Embrace U.S. Stocks?
In response to Bitcoin's recent dramatic weekly fluctuation of $20,000, the guests offered markedly different outlooks.
Jordy believes that, with the Fed’s shift in expectations and clear macro signals pointing to a weaker U.S. dollar, the market has found no better safe-haven assets than gold and bitcoin. According to Bloomberg data, the correlation between gold and bitcoin has now reached an all-time high, as traditional institutions are buying both simultaneously.
Justin, on the other hand, is relatively cautious. He strictly adheres to the four-year cycle theory and believes it is still too early to confirm a bottom at this stage. He did the math: if Bitcoin bottoms at $60,000, buying at the current price offers less than a doubling of upside potential compared to the previous cycle’s peak of $125,000. Given the unfavorable risk-reward ratio, he prefers to allocate this capital to U.S. tech stocks in the AI sector.
Regardless of whether the market moves up or down, this group of seasoned investors ultimately reached a unanimous consensus: keep funds in the most liquid leading traditional assets or concentrate them in only a few assets with solid fundamentals, and completely abandon marginal assets lacking real earning potential.