Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow

Guests: Qiao Wang (founding partner of Alliance DAO), Se Yong Park (co-founder of FOMO)

Podcast Regular Hosts: Jordy, Justin, Tiki, Dimma

Podcast Source: Steady Lads Podcast

Original Title: Is The Bottom In? What The Lads Are Buying!

Release Date: August 28, 2026

Disclosure Statement: All guests of this episode have significant financial ties to the subjects discussed. The institution where Qiao Wang works holds a large amount of early Web3 projects, and he personally has a heavy investment in U.S. stocks, BTC, and Zcash; Tiki holds S&P 500, government bonds, and a large number of Pokémon physical cards; Justin holds Zcash and Lit airdrop; Jordy holds BTC and Hyperliquid (Hype); Dimma holds Near and Grass; data shared by FOMO co-founders has a strong appeal for customer acquisition and product promotion. The content of this episode faithfully presents the guests' real holdings and logic, and does not constitute independent third-party investment advice. Readers are responsible for their own wallets.

Introduction: This is the return debut of the Steady Lads podcast after four months of silence, coinciding with Bitcoin's resurgence above the $80,000 mark. Unlike previous discussions of market trends, the biggest highlight of this episode is that several veteran insiders directly revealed their current real portfolios. The results were surprising: in this world considered full of wealth myths, the real smart money is retreating heavily to traditional financial assets or pouring into a few highly concentrated, high-certainty subjects, while the vast majority of altcoins have been completely abandoned by them.

Summary of Key Points

• Real holdings of 5 big players revealed: The greatest value of this episode lies in shattering the illusion of holdings within the circle. Qiao Wang has 70% to 80% of his funds in U.S. stocks, keeping only BTC and Zcash in crypto; Tiki employs an extreme barbell strategy, holding S&P 500, government bonds, and Pokémon physical cards worth about $3 million, and clearly states he is bearish on nearly all other tokens; Jordy heavily invests in BTC, retaining some Hyperliquid, but admits its valuation has become too high; Justin bottom-fished with spot Zcash and retained an early Lit airdrop; Dimma holds Near, Grass, and other AI concept coins.
• Consensus on Zcash’s decade-long bottom: Zcash has become a common heavy investment for Qiao Wang and Justin. The core logic is its decade-long consolidation has fully eliminated the selling pressure from early investors. Graphically, it has formed a massive bottoming pattern spanning ten years. Compared to chasing high BTC prices, Zcash, which has the same supply but a significantly lower price, offers an excellent risk-reward buy opportunity.
• The truth about the liquidity depletion of fringe tokens: Aside from a few head assets, the majority of tokens have been blacklisted by the guests. In stark contrast, data shared by FOMO co-founders shows around 40,000 non-crypto native users entering the mobile end to trade meme tokens every day. Retail money is being consumed through this low-threshold "social game," while traditional classical tokens have become irrelevant.
• Disagreement on macro-bottoming judgment: In response to Bitcoin's recent massive fluctuations, Jordy believes that with the narrative of dollar depreciation, the correlation between gold and Bitcoin has reached an all-time high, and funds are rapidly returning. Justin, however, strictly adheres to the four-year cycle theory, believing it is still too early to call a bottom; in a situation where the risk-reward ratio is insufficient, chasing Bitcoin is less favorable than investing in AI tech stocks in U.S. stocks.

Highlights of Views

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 drop 50% in a day for no reason, you must stay rational." (Qiao Wang) "My strategy is a standard barbell strategy: one side is S&P 500 and government bonds, the other side is my collection of Pokémon cards valued at $3 million. I am extremely bearish on the vast majority of tokens." (Tiki)

About Zcash's decade-long bottom: "The logic of Zcash hasn't changed in ten years; most importantly, all early investors who needed to sell have already done so, and miner rewards have significantly decreased. Now, buying pressure has finally exceeded selling pressure." "You look at its long-term chart; it contains three rounded bottoms nested into a giant long-term bottoming pattern that spans ten years. This is the most perfect chart structure you can find."

On the essence of mobile trading: "Traditional elimination-type mobile games can earn billions each year. The essence of mobile token trading is essentially a social game with real monetary incentives but at a lower threshold." "Users do not care which underlying chain is used. Among yesterday's 110,000 daily active users, 90,000 traded assets on the Robinhood chain, 100,000 participated in Solana, and the user experience was completely seamless."

1. The real cards of 5 big players: What else are they buying besides Bitcoin?

In the second half of the program, they played a game called "Reveal Your Portfolio," where these veterans, who have been navigating the crypto market for years, successively revealed their current real liquidity holdings. This set of data brutally proves one point: smart money is no longer searching for treasures in the junk pile.

Qiao Wang (founding partner of Alliance DAO): His institution has extensively invested in many emerging Web3 projects, but his personal liquidity asset allocation is extremely conservative. He locks 70% to 80% of his positions in U.S. stocks. Among his remaining crypto assets, he has completely abandoned various small-cap tokens, leaving only Bitcoin and Zcash. From a risk-adjusted investment perspective, the money he has invested in Zcash is even comparable to his U.S. stock holdings.

Tiki: He has adopted the most extreme "barbell strategy" (one side extremely stable, the other side extremely high risk). His stable side is an S&P 500 ETF and U.S. government bonds; the high-risk side consists of Pokémon cards valued at about $3 million. When pressed by other guests, he bluntly stated: "Unless I am involved in investing in early-stage projects, I am extremely bearish on all tokens currently available on the market."

Jordy: His absolute core position is Bitcoin, and he holds a significant quantity. In terms of altcoins, he has retained some position in Hyperliquid (Hype) but has clearly pointed out that Hype's current price-to-earnings ratio has become excessively inflated, and current price support relies heavily on retail sentiment buying, which is not sustainable in the long run; therefore, he has been taking profits during price rallies.

Justin: He executed tax-loss harvesting at the market's absolute bottom (around $1), then purchased a large amount of spot Zcash. Additionally, he still retains the early Lit airdrop, currently holding about 80% of the initial distribution.

Dimma: He tends to prefer popular narratives. He holds some Near and Grass, which have fundamental support related to AI, and has also allocated a growing early AI token venture capital portfolio.

2. Why Zcash? A decade-long giant bottom and "AI currency" expectations

Among the holdings of several big players, Zcash has become the most frequently mentioned and substantially invested item. Qiao Wang provided a complete buying logic.

Fundamentally, Zcash's privacy and quantum-resistant core features have undergone nearly ten years of market testing. In terms of chip structure, nearly nine years of consolidation have allowed early institutional investors and teams to distribute chips completely, and as the halving cycle advances, the downward pressure from miners has significantly diminished. Now, the newly added buying power in the market finally begins to outpace the historical selling pressure. Just a few days ago, even when a whale cross-chained and sold $50 million worth of ZEC, the market remained stable, and the price did not experience significant collapse.

From a technical trading perspective, Qiao pointed out that Zcash has formed an extremely rare long-term structure: several smaller rounded bottoms continuously nested to ultimately converge into a massive bottoming strength pattern spanning ten years.

More imaginatively, is the valuation comparison. Bitcoin has been difficult to provide hundredfold returns for new entrants, yet Zcash has the same total supply as Bitcoin and is currently priced at only about one percent of Bitcoin's price. Podcast guests deduced that after Bitcoin occupies the "digital gold" ecological niche, the market severely needs a native "privacy AI currency" to absorb new capital overflow, and Zcash is quietly occupying this ecological niche.

3. The real flow of funds from outside the circle: 40,000 newcomers pouring into mobile gaming daily

While those in the circle are still staring at various classical fringe tokens, Se, co-founder of the FOMO trading app, brought a set of demystifying data: they currently acquire about 40,000 real new users daily from app stores, the majority of whom are non-crypto native, pure outsiders.

Their core customer acquisition strategy is UGC (user-generated content) marketing, spending $100,000 to $150,000 monthly to sponsor social media creators, successfully breaking through the information barriers for ordinary people through the display of real trading records and material lives.

In terms of product design, FOMO completely eliminates the complex concept of "public chain." Among yesterday's 110,000 daily active users, 90,000 traded assets on the Robinhood chain, 100,000 participated in Solana, and 60,000 participated in Base. Users do not need to switch wallets or cross chains; all assets trade seamlessly on the same interface. Moreover, FOMO charges only a 0.5% fee, far lower than the 2.5% rates charged to retail by Coinbase.

Se's conclusion is incisive: these token trades on mobile are essentially a social game with real monetary incentives. Traditional clearing games can earn billions annually; the crypto circle packages financial speculation as mobile games, creating a business loop that is far larger and more addictive than traditional games.

4. Macro Debate: Under interest rate cut expectations, is it better to chase Bitcoin or embrace U.S. stocks?

In response to Bitcoin's huge weekly fluctuation of $20,000, the guests offered starkly different expectations.

Jordy believes that with the expectation shift at the Federal Reserve and clear macro signals of dollar depreciation, the market cannot find better safe-haven assets than gold and Bitcoin. Bloomberg data shows that the correlation between gold and Bitcoin has now hit an all-time high, with traditional institutions buying both simultaneously.

Justin, on the other hand, is relatively cautious. He strictly follows the four-year cycle theory, believing that it is still too early to confirm a bottom. He calculated: if Bitcoin bottoms at $60,000 and is bought at the current price, in reference to the previous cycle's projected top of $125,000, the upside potential remains under one times. In a situation where the risk-reward ratio is insufficient, he prefers to invest this portion of funds into AI tech stocks in U.S. stocks.

No matter which direction the market moves, the consensus reached by this group of veterans is very consistent: put money in the most liquid head traditional assets or concentrate on a very few subjects with solid logic, completely abandoning those fringe assets without real earning power.