Name: Crypto’s Next Big Rotation Is Already Underway
Uploaded: 2026-09-07T18:45:28+00:00
Duration: 2462 s

Speakers

Katie Talati — Head of Research at Arca

John Gillen — Co-Host, Milk Road Macro

Summary

John Gillen interviews Katie Talati, Head of Research at Arca, about the biggest crypto rotations underway. They cover the Robinhood Chain meme and tokenized stock boom, the Uniswap vs Aerodrome DEX rivalry, Zcash's privacy-driven rally, and the new wave of DeFi token buybacks. Katie flags specific beneficiaries and setups, including Robinhood equity, Aerodrome, Hyperliquid, and several buyback catalysts.

Robinhood Chain onchain activity has spiked, especially from meme trading and apps like Pawns and FOMO.
Robinhood equity is seen as an underappreciated exposure to the new chain-based business line.
The Uniswap vs Aerodrome DEX war is heating up, with Aerodrome's token model favored by Arca.
Uniswap's new fee switch and Robinhood-driven burn are promising but need months of durability.
Zcash's massive privacy rally may trigger rotation into other privacy tokens and privacy-focused chains.
Hyperliquid's aggressive buyback-and-burn is the model driving a broader DeFi buyback mania.
LayerZero, Kinetic, and Ethena have buyback or fee-switch catalysts, though some are contingent.

Ideas

Katie Talati Head of Research at Arca 0:00

Long other privacy tokens after Zcash.

Zcash's huge rally is a sector signal. When one token in a sector moves, capital rotates to the next assets in the same theme, so Katie says investors probably should long the other privacy tokens because they are the next ones to move.

Katie Talati Head of Research at Arca 2:08

Robinhood Chain activity boosts HOOD stock.

Robinhood Chain onchain activity has exploded in recent weeks, with DEX trading, transactions, and revenue spiking. The obvious equity exposure is Robinhood because Wall Street has not properly valued this new business line, and the stock is ripping ahead of a potential earnings surprise.

Katie Talati Head of Research at Arca 3:54

Pawns revenue mirrors Pump.fun, smaller cap.

Pawns is a Robinhood Chain launchpad generating Pump.fun-like revenue, with recent days run-rating $70-80 million annualized. It is on a similar growth track but trades at a much smaller market cap, making the activity visible and attractive.

Katie Talati Head of Research at Arca 21:25

Aerodrome token model aligns LPs.

Aerodrome's vote-escrow token model aligns liquidity providers as equity holders and creates a feedback loop between emissions, liquidity, and fees. Arca likes AERO because the token has real usage, unlike Uniswap's historically governance-only token.

Katie Talati Head of Research at Arca 22:03

Watch UNI fee-switch sustainability.

Uniswap recently turned on its fee switch and the Robinhood Chain volume surge is burning UNI, but Katie needs to see the activity persist. If UNI is still dominating Robinhood Chain in six months and the burn continues, she would become more favorable on Uniswap.

Katie Talati Head of Research at Arca 31:08

Watch chains with institutional privacy tech.

Rather than single-purpose privacy coins, the bigger institutional privacy narrative favors chains with actual privacy technology now. Katie says to focus on Ethereum, LayerZero's upcoming Zero chain, ZKsync, Aztec Network, and Starknet, which can shield transactions and attest to data.

Katie Talati Head of Research at Arca 34:17

Hyperliquid buyback burn supports HYPE.

Hyperliquid is the runaway success behind the buyback mania because it uses about 97% of revenues to buy back and burn HYPE. Its token has stayed strong in a bear market while volumes hit all-time highs, supported by business lines beyond crypto trading.

Katie Talati Head of Research at Arca 36:46

Kinetic programmatic buyback currently active.

Kinetic's buyback is more programmatic and closer to Hyperliquid, buying back around 90% of revenue, and Katie says it is currently doing that.

Katie Talati Head of Research at Arca 37:30

ENA buyback contingent on USDe growth.

Ethena just passed a fee switch for ENA buyback and burn, but activation is contingent on USDe supply reaching $7.5 billion versus current supply just above $4 billion. Bull-market stablecoin supply expansion could trigger the buyback.

Crypto’s Next Big Rotation Is Already Underway

Summary

Ideas

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