Ideas
Meme coins too fast to trade.
He warns that trading meme coins is like trying to catch a single pellet from birdshot because everything moves too fast to plan reliably. He does not recommend launchpad/meme-coin speculation and says it is not an easy way to deploy capital with a reasonable return expectation.
Slow DeFi beats fast DeFi.
Slow/regular DeFi is a much more attractive layer than fast DeFi/launchpads because it is a call option on the broader infrastructure beyond the memecoin casino. It has deeper distribution, bigger markets, more transparency and liquidity, larger market caps, more trust, and stronger network effects, so he prefers these larger, more stable DeFi layers for capital.
Aerodrome growth in tokenized stocks.
Aerodrome is a big player with tokenized stocks with Coinbase, is growing and expanding rapidly, and is an interesting slow-DeFi venue because a lot of volume is going through it.
Uniswap buybacks meet record volume.
Uniswap fixed its tokenomics/alignment after regulatory constraints prevented direct revenue buybacks. It now skims a portion of liquidity-provider fees to buy back and burn UNI, creating buyback pressure. Record swap volume from Robinhood-chain memecoins/RWAs and L2 activity is flowing into Uniswap v4 pools; the chart has little technical resistance until around $7, and he bought/added, up about 30%.
ETH settles all crypto activity.
All of this DeFi, tokenization, memecoin, and RWA activity ultimately settles to Ethereum. ETH is money and the root of global finance, and this is proof of concept for the next century of finance; he bought a lot of ETH during weakness and remains solidly up.
L1s benefit from tokenization flywheel.
The layer-one networks that all this activity settles on are also very bullish long term because Robinhood-like experiments will bring more competitors, more capital, and more legacy asset issuers tokenizing products to access the capital flywheel.
Altcoin bottom likely already in.
Dispersion is increasing: even while Bitcoin chops, broad crypto gains are occurring, with DeFi/lending protocols among the biggest beneficiaries due to adoption, demand, and growth. Many altcoin projects have already bottomed and are unlikely to make new lows, so he has started deploying capital and accumulating alts.
Accumulated Bitcoin during fear.
Bitcoin historically leads the crypto market, and he accumulated BTC on red/fear days, saying buying fear is a good deal at any price. He still wants confirmation of an actual technical Bitcoin bull market before fully calling the market back, but he is solidly up on his BTC accumulation.
Aave capital inflows returning.
Aave has seen a huge amount of capital coming back in, part of strengthening fundamentals across DeFi/lending protocols as crypto adoption and demand improve.
Maple Finance severely undervalued.
Maple Finance (Syrup) is severely undervalued by the market, and he thinks it is going to see performance again.
Lighter momentum likely continues.
Lighter has been on an absolute tear and is probably going to keep going, with positive news potentially on the horizon for perps platforms like Hyperliquid and Lighter.
Hyperliquid positive catalysts ahead.
There is reason to think positive news is on the horizon for perps platforms like Hyperliquid, supporting the platform/token.
This Milk Road Macro video, published September 13, 2026,
features John Gillen
discussing Meme coins, Slow DeFi, AERODROME, UNI, ETH, Layer 1 blockchains, ALTCOINS, BTC, AAVE, MPL, LIT, HYPERLIQUID.
12 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers:
John Gillen
· Tickers:
Meme coins,
Slow DeFi,
AERODROME,
UNI,
ETH,
Layer 1 blockchains,
ALTCOINS,
BTC,
AAVE,
MPL,
LIT,
HYPERLIQUID
