Markets Bounce Back, The Hyperliquid Thesis and Kraken Raises $200M
Speakers
Santiago R. Santos
— Co-Host, Empire / Founder, Inversion Capital
Jason Yanowitz
— Co-Founder, Blockworks
Summary
The hosts review the strong performance of traditional markets and crypto, focusing on Hyperliquid's rise due to weekend commodities trading. They cover key news including Tether's recovery plan for Drift, SEC guidance, Microstrategy's Bitcoin buy, and Kraken's funding round. The discussion highlights investment themes based on user behavior and the challenges facing L2 networks.
- NASDAQ and S&P 500 show strong gains with rare consecutive up days.
- Hyperliquid attracts hedge fund interest for weekend oil and commodities trading.
- Tether invests $150M in Drift's structured recovery plan.
- SEC exempts self-custodial DeFi interfaces from broker-dealer rules.
- Microstrategy purchases 13,000 Bitcoin using proceeds from STRC.
- Kraken raises $200M from Deutsche Börse, potentially eyeing an IPO.
- Layer 2 networks like Scroll underperform due to low traction and volume.
- Hosts share personal investment strategies based on consumer spending trends.
Trade Ideas
Robin Hood benefits from increasing user engagement.
Based on personal spending patterns and the idea that companies where consumption increases consistently are good investments, Robin Hood has been held and added to as user engagement grows, similar to past successes like Amazon.
DoorDash usage growth drives investment.
Following the same thesis as Robin Hood, DoorDash is bought because personal spending on the platform has increased year-over-year, indicating strong growth and investment potential.
Hyperliquid growth driven by weekend commodities trading.
Hyperliquid is capturing significant interest from traditional hedge fund managers due to its weekend markets for commodities like oil, which provide price discovery when traditional markets are closed. This could lead to commodities volume surpassing Bitcoin on Hyperliquid, making it a top-five crypto asset with a path to $100 billion valuation.
Kraken well-positioned for growth.
Kraken is a well-run exchange with growth potential similar to Coinbase, especially after raising $200 million from Deutsche Börse, and it might be considered for investment in secondary markets.
L2 tokens are risky and may decline.
Layer 2 networks like Scroll, Optimism, and Arbitrum are underperforming due to lack of user traction and volume compared to leaders like Hyperliquid, and some protocols might go to zero as the market consolidates.
