Plasma’s $10B Launch, ASTER Trade Ideas, DAT Insider Crackdown & Jonah's META Thesis
Speakers
Avi Felman
— Principal, GoldenTree Asset Management
Jonah Van Bourg
— Head of Trading, Cumberland / ex-Vitol
Summary
Avi Felman and Jonah Van Bourg debate the Plasma launch, the Aster/Hyperliquid perp DEX trade, and DAT-related insider-trading risks. They also discuss crypto market structure, macro politics, Bitcoin's cycle, commodities, and Jonah's long Meta thesis. The tone is bullish on Plasma, HYPE, BNB, Meta and commodities, while cautious on ASTER, ETH/alts and altcoin DATs.
- Plasma launched strongly, reaching a $10B valuation, with both hosts bullish on its stablecoin-chain strategy.
- Aster topped out near $2; Jonah proposed shorting it but flagged CZ/Binance squeeze risk; Avi preferred long HYPE/short ASTER.
- Hyperliquid is viewed as the likely dominant perp DEX, while BNB is framed as the cleaner CZ exposure.
- SEC/FINRA probes into DAT trading leaks create downside risk for altcoin treasury vehicles, especially ENA.
- Avi remains long gold, silver, miners, uranium, rare earths, and turns more constructive on Bitcoin.
- Jonah laid out a long Meta thesis based on AI catch-up and smart-glasses optionality.
- Macro discussion focused on political favorability, stimulus, and crypto's regulatory window.
- The hosts also debated Nakamoto's discount to BTC holdings and an idea for a BTC-heavy treasury product.
Ideas
Plasma launch execution drives further upside.
Avi is bullish on Plasma after a highly competent launch: it is a novel stablecoin-focused platform, has about $6B on-chain due to its incentive program, the lockdrop was massively underpriced, and the token has traded up to roughly $1.25 / $10B valuation. He remains a holder and thinks Plasma could become a $20-30B protocol over the next year if execution continues.
Avoid alts versus Bitcoin.
Avi is cautious on large-cap alts like ETH and SOL and anything outside BTC. His rationale is that when BTC corrected to $108k, alts got crushed (SOL down almost 15%, ETH down 10%), showing that alts carry much higher downside in a Bitcoin-led correction.
Tether-backed stablecoin chain has huge upside.
Jonah is bullish on Plasma long-term because the team is executing on partnerships with Tether/Bitfinex, Binance, Etherfi and USDA, and has backing from Peter Thiel; he sees it as an anointed project. He argues Tether does not want to rely only on Tron, so a Tether/Binance-backed stablecoin chain like Plasma could become a major global banking system, with upside potentially comparable to Ripple's roughly $300B market cap.
ETH too slow for stablecoins.
Jonah argues ETH is too slow and too expensive for the stablecoin world, and ETH L2s are not getting the job done. This is part of why stablecoin flows are moving to Tron and why Tether-backed chains like Plasma have an opening.
Super bullish on Syrup after selloff.
Avi is super bullish on Syrup as part of the buildout of frictionless on-chain asset tokenization and borrowing. He notes Syrup has come off from its highs and sees it as one of the platforms that should benefit as more traditional assets move on-chain and borrowing becomes easier.
Short ASTER after topping out.
Jonah proposed shorting ASTER with leverage and using the position to farm points because Aster appears to have topped out near $2, attention shifted to Plasma, and the product is not as good as Hyperliquid. He still thinks it is a good trade but lacks conviction because CZ/Binance backing could paint the tape and squeeze shorts.
Long HYPE, short ASTER relative trade.
Rather than shorting ASTER outright, Avi prefers a relative trade: long HYPE and short ASTER. The edge is that Hyperliquid is a better product and Aster lacks real usage, while the long-HYPE leg helps offset the risk that CZ/Binance-backed flows squeeze an outright ASTER short.
Long HYPE, short ASTER relative trade.
Avi is bullish on HYPE because Hyperliquid has a cracked team, a rich and loyal community, and no real problem from competition; he believes the perp DEX market will resemble centralized exchanges where one dominant venue takes most of the pie, and Hyperliquid is the Binance of on-chain trading.
Long BNB for CZ exposure.
Jonah argues that if an investor wants to express a bullish view on CZ and his ecosystem, the right coin is BNB rather than Aster. BNB is the asset CZ is best for and avoids the idiosyncratic squeeze risk of trading or shorting Aster.
Buy Nakamoto at BTC-holdings discount.
Avi is long Nakamoto, a Bitcoin treasury company, at a discount to its BTC holdings. He wants a 30-40% discount and notes Nakamoto is now around that level with BTC near $113, though he bought too early at a 15-20% discount, sized down, and would be invalidated if the discount persists below 30% for a month. He still likes the trade because the discount is attractive.
Short ENA on DAT crackdown risk.
Jonah is bearish on ENA and altcoin DATs after SEC/FINRA probes into leaks and unusual trading ahead of DAT announcements. He says altcoin treasury vehicles are often newly created, no-revenue houses of cards that bought altcoins at inflated prices, and if legal pressure forces them to unwind they may be forced to sell tokens, potentially triggering a broader altcoin selloff.
Long real assets and commodities.
Avi remains very long gold, silver, miners, uranium and rare earth minerals. He notes these real-asset and commodity themes have been ripping 5-10% continuously, and he remains bullish on the group even as crypto has gone sideways.
Bitcoin leads next market rally.
Avi turns more constructive on Bitcoin: the drop from $113k to $108k followed by an immediate reversal signals strength, he sees a range of $108k-$120k, and if the market rallies he expects Bitcoin to lead. He notes BTC is outperforming ETH, SOL and XRP, which he views as a sign of strength, and plans to buy back some BTC.
META AI catch-up plus smart glasses optionality.
Jonah is long META around $500 and sees potential for a two-to-three bagger over two-to-three years. He argues Meta can catch up in AI because compute scaling is logarithmic, giving it a leading LLM plus the world's biggest distribution funnel for better ad targeting. Second pillar: a 25-30% chance its smart glasses become the next computing platform, adding trillions in market cap; the market is penalizing AI/AR R&D and Zuckerberg remains a founder-mode operator.
Up Next
This 1000x Podcast video, published September 29, 2025, features Avi Felman, Jonah Van Bourg discussing XPL, ETH, SOL, ALTCOINS, SYRUP, ASTER, HYPE, BNB, NAKA, ENA, GLD, SILVER, URA, REMX, GDX, BTC, META. 14 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers: Avi Felman, Jonah Van Bourg · Tickers: XPL, ETH, SOL, ALTCOINS, SYRUP, ASTER, HYPE, BNB, NAKA, ENA, GLD, SILVER, URA, REMX, GDX, BTC, META