Massive Selloff, Mamdani Wins, & Jonah Ditches His CryptoPunk
Speakers
Max Bronstein
— Founder, Mainframe Capital
Jonah Van Bourg
— Head of Trading, Cumberland / ex-Vitol
Summary
1000x hosts Jonah Van Bourg and guest Max Bronstein discuss a sharp crypto selloff, short-term trading signals, DAT-related risks, and long-term crypto value. Max explains his systematic buys in BTC/ETH and Plasma, while Jonah remains long-term bullish Bitcoin but cautious on ETH and altcoin DATs. They cover Hyperliquid, internet capital markets and DeFi, stablecoins, privacy coins, S&P 500 tokenization, Aptos shorts, NFTs/CryptoPunks, and political risk from the NYC mayoral election.
- Crypto sold off sharply; the speakers debate short-term rebound versus structural damage.
- Max's system bought BTC/ETH and Plasma after a high-timeframe dislocation.
- Digital asset treasury demand is treated as a key prior driver and now a major risk.
- Jonah remains long-term bullish Bitcoin but says ETH is not investable now.
- Hyperliquid is favored by both speakers on buyback/burn and onchain finance.
- Max is bullish DeFi, internet capital markets, and stablecoins as dollar-export rails.
- Privacy coins Zcash and Monero are highlighted as hedges against political/redistribution risk.
- Jonah sold his CryptoPunk for tax and liquidity reasons and sees NFT compression.
Ideas
System buy signal favors BTC, ETH bounce
Max’s systematic model flagged a high-timeframe extreme after the sharp selloff, so he bought BTC around 101k and ETH around 32 as a trend-reversal trade. He is bullish short-term while the system remains long, and would flip neutral if the system changes.
Buy hated Plasma on system reversal
Max bought Plasma around 27 cents after a system signal. He argues it is heavily hated, has high open interest relative to circulating market cap, strong volume, offside positioning, and qualifies as a trend-reversal candidate.
Hold Bitcoin; mega trends support 5x
Jonah refuses to sell Bitcoin despite OG distribution. He sees medium/long-term mega trends intact: lower rates, geopolitical de-escalation, AI productivity, crypto legalization and deregulation, institutional adoption, Bitcoin as an alternative reserve asset, and fiat debasement. He says OG sellers are wrong and sees another potential 5x before redistribution becomes a national political agenda.
Sold CryptoPunk for tax, liquidity
Jonah sold his CryptoPunk because after three years he no longer cared about it, it did not feel special, and selling converted a large loss into a tax-loss benefit plus liquidity. He also argues punks are dollar-tethered and average ones should not trade above $1M.
Short altcoin DATs after first failure
Jonah thinks the trade in altcoins is to wait for the first altcoin DAT to blow up, watch the price action, then short the next likely altcoin DATs. His view is that DATs can no longer raise cash, were a major marginal buyer, and once the first failure happens there should be opportunities to short after the news.
DAT bid is exhausted, toppy
Max is cautious on Bitcoin and ETH DATs because they were a major source of buying, but their ability to raise cash is now gone, many trade below mNAV, and demand for new raises is weak. He sees a wealth transfer from steady hands to fair-weather DAT holders and calls it toppy behavior; if MicroStrategy gets S&P inclusion or raises more capital, he would flip more positive.
ETH lacks value accrual, marginal buyer
Jonah says ETH is not investable right now because the future of ETH is Base and other L2s, while it is unclear how building on those chains accrues value back to ETH. ETH is huge and needs a large marginal buyer, but Tom Lee/Bitmine already holds close to 3% and aims for 5%, suggesting that buyer may be stepping out. He also sees ETH as an inferior store of value versus Bitcoin.
Solana institutional fit unclear; tempting short
Jonah is uncertain about Solana because institutions seem to be building on Base rather than Solana, making it unclear where Solana fits into institutional adoption. He says it is tempting to short because it may not fulfill its internet-capital-markets promise, but he does not write it off because it remains a key onboarding venue for younger users.
Solana value accrual unclear despite user growth
Max sees Solana as a super low-fee chain but does not clearly see where value accrues, and he views the ecosystem as extractive. The offset is that Solana is where many younger new entrants onboard into crypto, so he remains watchful rather than fully bearish.
DeFi exports US capital markets globally
Max is very bullish on internet capital markets and DeFi because he expects the US government under Trump to use DeFi to export US capital markets globally. He argues the decades-long capital repatriation trade is reversing, foreign holders of US assets may sell, and DeFi can export US stocks, bonds, and real estate to new global bag holders. He views it as a government-supported initiative not to fade.
Stablecoins export dollar demand globally
Max argues stablecoins are Eurodollars 2.0 and a technology for the US to export the dollar to the rest of the world, which bolsters demand for dollar-based assets. He ties this to his broader bullish internet-capital-markets and DeFi thesis.
Hold S&P 500 over debasing cash
Jonah argues that with 4% rates, T+2 settlement ties up huge capital that tokenization could unlock. More broadly, he thinks fiat debasement makes the S&P 500 a better denominator and store of value than dollars, and he says people should hold their money in the S&P and convert only when spending. He also sees AI making S&P 500 companies more efficient with higher EBITDA per employee, supporting asset prices.
Average CryptoPunks should not exceed $1M
Max has his CryptoPunk offered for sale and thinks average punks should not trade above $1M. He argues punks are more tethered to dollar prices than ETH, buyers use fresh dollars, and he would sell at around half a million because he leaves the last 2x for someone else.
Buy HYPE dips on fee burn
Jonah likes buying HYPE on dips because the Hyperliquid foundation uses protocol fees to buy and burn HYPE, creating a structural non-retail buyer. He sees that fee-funded buyback as support for the token on weakness.
HYPE leads onchain finance, fees return
Max views Hyperliquid as creating an onchain financial services category that could become a trillion-dollar market, with onchain Binance as the holy grail. He likes that HYPE is one of the few investable crypto assets, had an all-airdrop launch with no VCs, and passes fees back to holders so it can win even if consensus-owned. He flags regulatory and lobbying risks from centralized exchanges as the main concern.
BitTensor leads distributed resources category
Max identifies distributed resources as one of the few crypto use cases that could become a trillion-dollar market over the next decade, and he names BitTensor as the best example of that category. He sees it as one of the rare long-term investable crypto assets.
NFTs compress toward normal art prices
Jonah argues CryptoPunks and NFTs are rapidly converging to the price of normal art, calling it an NFT compression trade. He suggests if compression is happening in NFTs, similar compression can happen in other crypto sectors that lack durable value.
Short Aptos on unlocks and quitting
Jonah says Aptos is a prime short candidate because its unlock and VC dynamics are poor, the founder got his unlock, sold, and quit, and he sees no reason to be long regardless of how good Aptos looks. He places it in the basket of altcoins that are obviously never going to happen.
Own Zcash or Monero for privacy
Max says political and redistribution risk, along with government ability to track assets, make privacy valuable. He argues Zcash and Monero offer greater obfuscation than moving Bitcoin through a centralized exchange, which is a central point of failure. He says investors should definitely want some Zcash or Monero stashed away and notes Zcash has been rising, though he does not own it.
Up Next
This 1000x Podcast video, published November 06, 2025, features Max Bronstein, Jonah Van Bourg discussing BTC, ETH, XPL, CRYPTOPUNKS, Altcoin DATs, Bitcoin/ETH DATs, SOL, DEFI, STABLECOINS, SPY, HYPE, TAO, NFTS, APT, ZEC, XMR. 19 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers: Max Bronstein, Jonah Van Bourg · Tickers: BTC, ETH, XPL, CRYPTOPUNKS, Altcoin DATs, Bitcoin/ETH DATs, SOL, DEFI, STABLECOINS, SPY, HYPE, TAO, NFTS, APT, ZEC, XMR