Original｜Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
In April this year, Trump first initiated the "tariff trade war," triggering a flash crash in the crypto market. I systematically wrote about the subsequent market direction and coping strategies in “The Era of Crypto Chaos Begins: Here are 13 Reference Suggestions”. Most of the content has already come true, including TACO trading, the stablecoin craze, wealth management trends, timely stop-losses, and AI old coin rebounds, among others.
Fast forward to the end of 2025, the crypto market has once again fallen into a "USD 85,000 - 90,000" oscillation deadlock. As I mentioned earlier in “If This Continues, No One Will Trade Coins”, the number of active investors in the market is visibly decreasing, and "new retail investors" have not flocked in as they did in previous years.
In light of this, as a four-year "old retail investor" who has weathered both bull and bear markets, I still want to try to answer that eternal question — “What should we do now?” (Odaily Note: The following content is for learning and communication purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Please DYOR for all trading operations.)
On the Long-Term Battle in the Crypto Market: Coin-Stock Dual Repair Has Become Inevitable
Last October, before Trump won the U.S. election and before DAT became an industry phenomenon, we detailed the top 25 listed companies holding BTC in “A Quick Look at the Top 25 Listed Companies Holding BTC: Seeking the Secret to Coin-Stock Dual Repair”.
Looking back a year later, some listed companies have already experienced significant fluctuations in stock prices and market values, such as the BTC treasury leader MicroStrategy and Japan's "first BTC treasury stock" Metaplanet. Some crypto mining companies have also aggressively transformed, seeking a second business curve, like Riot, Hut8, and CleanSpark. Meanwhile, Meitu chose to liquidate its holdings in a timely manner to lock in profits from its BTC reserves.
If in the past, listed companies chose "coin-stock dual repair" as a means to diversify risks, resist inflation, and tell new stories to the capital market, then at the end of 2025, as we approach 2026, for retail investors and others, coin-stock dual repair has gradually become a "required course in investment."
The reasons for this, in my opinion, are as follows:
First, the continuous rise of the U.S. stock market and the AI bubble have attracted a large amount of liquidity. For capital, funds, and resources that emphasize efficiency, the U.S. stock market and even the global stock market are the best investment stages in terms of depth, capacity, and efficiency.
Second, the development of stock tokenization platforms, stablecoins, and the PayFi sector has further bridged the gap between TradFi and DeFi. The crypto-native community, which is proficient in on-chain investment and trading, now has more opportunities, channels, and lower barriers to access high-quality assets and investment targets globally. The entry and exit of funds have also become more convenient, further compressing the market space for altcoins.
Third, the narrative of BTC treasury, ETH treasury, SOL treasury, and other DAT has faltered. Apart from the existing leading companies, whether crypto concept stocks, including Circle and Bullish, can establish a foothold in the capital market depends significantly on whether stock exchanges applying for tokenized trading (like Nasdaq), existing individual investors in the stock market, and retail investors transitioning from the crypto market can provide corresponding buy orders. After the AI sector, there is still a certain "market dream rate" expectation for the crypto sector. Of course, this does not mean that one should buy crypto concept stocks now; rather, entering the market at the right time and taking profits from rebounds based on favorable news is a better choice.
Therefore, one can either enter the stock market through brokerage channels, leveraging their past "News Trading" experience accumulated from trading coins, as well as the cognitive advantages mentioned in our article “The Four Layers of Impact Analysis of CZ's Trump Pardon”, to harvest the stock market in reverse; or utilize the leverage advantages of stock tokenization platforms, such as MSX.com (invitation code available), xStocks, ONDO Global Market, etc., to adopt low-leverage long and short trading strategies, exploring trading routes that align with their risk preferences and tolerance, chasing their own "second spring" in the stock market.
In a bear market for crypto, one can make money in the stock market; if the stock market cools down, one can dig for gold in the crypto space.
For those navigating various market hotspots in the crypto space, knowing what is popular, what is trending, and what has meme attributes to play with is both routine operation and a required course.
Impact of Tense Medium-Long Term Macro Political Situation: Precious Metals May Continue to Rise
Since Trump took office this year, the political and economic situation around the world has become increasingly complex, with alternating local hot wars and cold wars. The global macro environment may remain tense for the next 5-10 years.
Not to mention, after the Russia-Ukraine war, events such as the Israel-Hamas conflict, the U.S.-Venezuela dispute, and the cooling of relations in East Asia have all had varying degrees of impact on the global economic situation, whether quickly or slowly, deeply or superficially. In the past, BTC was often seen as a safe-haven asset, but after the BTC spot ETF entered the U.S. stock system, mainstream coins in the crypto market have also been unable to escape, becoming "assets incorporated by U.S. stocks." Based on this broader context, we can somewhat boldly make the judgment that precious metals, including gold, silver, palladium, and platinum, may continue to rise; non-ferrous metals such as copper, lithium, and lead, as important strategic resources, may also see certain increases.
Additionally, considering that next year, giants in commercial aviation and artificial intelligence, such as SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic, are about to go public, and that the prices of chip resources from tech giants like Nvidia, Google, and Amazon will further rise, the upstream supply chain-related listed companies and raw material suppliers will become part of the "upward chain."
Recently, the rise of sectors such as semiconductors and satellite aviation in the A-share market has already shown initial signs; the development of the robotics industry and the IPOs of related leading companies will also indirectly boost the further exploration and stronger demand for mineral resources and energy industries.
In summary, although domestic gold mines are not uncommon and news of discovering large gold mines occasionally emerges, in the medium to long term, precious metals like gold and non-ferrous metals remain "hard currency" in resource circulation.
For those in the crypto space, like BTC, one can either invest regularly or leverage tokenized assets for layout, either using low leverage or directly buying corresponding token targets.
Neutral Financial Management Solutions Remain a Market Necessity: Staking Income, Lending Income, and Regular Investment Income Combined
For the oscillating and declining crypto market, seeking a more neutral financial management solution may be a more prudent "defensive strategy" compared to high-leverage long or short "offensive strategies."
In this regard, I believe that for crypto enthusiasts other than small retail investors like myself with 10 U, a defensive strategy of "staking + lending + regular investment" can be adopted to weather the current bear market and be prepared to mobilize funds for the next explosive bull market after institutional and traditional financial market investors enter.
Staking income, aside from mainstream coin staking on exchanges, can also selectively choose staking income from the ecological applications of ETH and SOL. Of course, just like the series of DeFi explosions triggered by the "10.11 crash," which led to bad debts and chain liquidations, it is essential to do thorough research when selecting specific projects and platforms to avoid unnecessary principal losses.
Lending income, as the most stable cornerstone in the DeFi field, despite recent price fluctuations of project tokens due to disputes between DAOs and Labs, Aave remains the largest lending protocol in Ethereum and the entire crypto market. During the "10.11 crash," this platform successfully withstood the test of extreme black swan events, operating normally amid the liquidation tide and generating substantial income. Additionally, the Solana ecosystem's Kamino is relatively stable and can be considered for reference.
Regular investment income, aside from mainstream coins like BTC, ETH, SOL, and BNB, includes periodic financial activities opened by CEXs such as Binance, OKX, Bybit, and Bitget. Previous activities like Plasma's (XPL) 250 million deposit event and USDC deposit subsidy activities have yielded significant benefits. Recently, Binance's USD1 deposit activity has an annualized return of nearly 20%, which is quite impressive; OKX's recent NIGHT token financial activity has also made many people quite profitable. The colder the market, the closer the exchange's new user acquisition and subsidy activities are to the past "crypto project airdrop interactions," making them one of the few high-yield investment opportunities that must be participated in within the circle. Most importantly, many CEXs have a certain ability to backstop funds, ensuring that in the event of unexpected situations or security incidents, their funds will not disappear.
In summary, the premise of staying at the table is to ensure that one has a certain ability to make money off the market while also building more resilient and diverse income streams within the market, without relying solely on high-risk assets for all returns and profits.
Predictive Markets Are More Worth Betting On: Polymarket's Token Launch Will Be the Next Milestone Event
Based on the recent launch of various features by Kalshi, the formation of a predictive market alliance with platforms like Coinbase and Robinhood, and the plan to hold the first predictive market conference next March, predictive markets are becoming another important force that can "sit at the table" alongside cryptocurrencies, the AI sector, and internet tech giants.
With the excellent timing and favorable impacts of next year's World Cup, the U.S. midterm elections, and a series of sports events, the predictive market is expected to achieve a tenfold increase in monthly trading volume next year, potentially reaching nearly $100 billion in scale (Odaily Planet Daily Note: Recent news shows that the trading volume of the predictive market in November exceeded $13 billion, which is more than three times the peak trading volume during the 2024 election).
Similar to how the NFT craze spurred a wave of NFT shopping tools, minting websites, trading platforms, and the rise of on-chain Perp DEX like Hyperliquid, tools like Hyperbot and HyperInsight have also seen a surge in traffic. Aside from developing "predictive market copy trading tools" and "AI agent predictive market betting agents" based on the "selling shovels" approach, ordinary players should focus on two major strategies:
First, "buy early," which means betting on options with a higher probability of events occurring, selling the corresponding chips after their probabilities rise to lock in profits. Of course, this also requires a certain level of personal understanding and grasp of market sentiment, news, and other factors.
Second, "follow the big players," which involves selecting high-quality betting investors, conducting cross-validation and AB testing, and building one's own copy trading system and betting decision logic. However, this also carries certain risks, so the allocation of positions and the timing of selling still need to be carefully considered and practiced after getting involved.
Compared to the two strategies above, "sweep the tail end" seems more prudent, but ultimately it is a choice akin to "picking up coins in front of a steamroller," easily swept away by unexpected dark horse events. I personally do not recommend allocating too much capital to participate, nor do I suggest going all-in like some whales, as they can afford to delete their accounts and start over, while ordinary people do not have that many opportunities to experiment with all-in bets.
Conclusion: AI Will Become a Personal Assistant, and the x402 Protocol Has a Bright Future Ahead
Recently, Solana officially launched the @x402 account, prioritizing the development of the x402 protocol within its ecosystem. As the issuance of stablecoins continues to grow at an average monthly rate of billions or even hundreds of billions, PayFi, stablecoins, and AI payment concepts will remain one of the key themes in crypto next year.
At that time, similar to the "AI OS" jointly launched by Doubao and ZTE Mobile, which will penetrate various aspects of life, work, politics, and economics in a deeper form, its integration with cryptocurrency will see the x402 protocol at the forefront. Considering news like Trip.com's overseas version opening stablecoin payment windows in parts of Southeast Asia, the AI payment concept may give birth to another token worth billions.
In 2026, survive, and see you next year.
Recommended Reading:
“2025 Investment Survey: Nearly 60% Overall Profitability, with Over 60% of Seasoned Players”
“2025 Meme Coin 'From Solid to Pull' Ranking”
“New Theory on the Four-Year Crypto Cycle: I Asked Seven Industry Veterans What Stage We Are In Now”
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