195: Watch Out For These Crypto Narratives In 2025

Today we're giving you the beans, the insights, the narratives and our outlook for 2025. The tokens that are pumping now fundamentally are not as favorable to a lot of the other projects in the space.

It's like musical chairs. At some point the music will stop, you got to jump in a chair and there's no space for you and you're being caught out.

So just be cautious chasing these tokens that have gone up so much so fast. In my opinion, bitcoin is the thing and has been the thing that has led this market.

This is why bull markets are so hard. You're going to see a huge XRP run, you're going to see huge drawdowns as well. So, Ben, you're fired.

Welcome back to another episode of the Bennebergs podcast. I'm Ben, your favorite high school dropout and founder of Collective Shift alongside Ms. Bergs, your favorite MBA and CEO. Collective Shift. Join us as we bring in world class crypto research and strategies to help you dominate this crypto bull market as well as behind the scenes view of us going the leading crypto research company here in Australia. And if you like the podcast, we'd love for you to subscribe if you're on YouTube or leave us a follow on your favorite podcasting app. Because today we're giving you the beans, the insights, the narratives and our outlook for 2025. Where and what sectors do we think are going to be big as the retail investors come in? The bull market's kicking off what trends you need to look out for for 2025 and you're at Australian crypto conference the other week. This is what Matt and Nick were speaking about in their talk. It was an absolutely epic, epic session. We're going to give you a bit more of a synthesized version of what we think Bergs and I's opinion on where we think the market's going and just definitely what sectors we think are going to have some good returns and hopefully the retail investors really focus on these now. I think that the first thing to really reiterate is that in my opinion bitcoin is the thing and has been the thing that has led this market so far to date. There's been so much happening in the bitcoin space. You know, Donald Trump's obviously been elected. Gary Gensler is stepping down. You know, we've got the Bitcoin Reserve Act, a proposal that's been pushed forward. You know, and even, you know, Donald Trump wanting crypto to be the, you know, bitcoin to be the home in the US is really, really positive and ending choke point 2.0, which is that big thing around, you know, just really wanting the US to be more legitimized as a place where people can build businesses in new environments, where tech isn't restricted from a legal standpoint. So there's so much great stuff happening. All of this is based on Bitcoin continuing to do that, which we think liquidity hopefully continues to increase, rates come down, all that sort of stuff. So I'm going to talk about that too much. But Bitcoin, very, very bullish. You should own a bunch of Bitcoin in your portfolio and that doesn't change. But beyond that, you know, Ethereum, Solana, next gen layer ones, meme coins. There's a bunch of different sectors we want to talk about at the moment. It's the 2017 run though. Bergs. We've seen XRP, pump, Cardano pump, Stellar pump, HBAR, all of these 2017 coins. And I think I saw a good tweet the other day is like, you know, really well done if you've picked it. But I don't know anyone that picked that the 2017 run was going to happen. Like really those ones that are making the most returns, I think in that space are those that have been in it since 2017, because there are really a lot of 2017 runs. Then disappeared for a few years and came back and now, oh my goodness, my bags are up. That's, that's really that, that, that cohort.

It's so crazy. It's the dinosaur coins, right? And they're all pumping as of today, 2nd November, XRP has flipped Solana. It's just insane to see. And this is that kind of irrational exuberance as well, where, you know, the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent. And this is around a bunch of people getting around it.

I don't know.

I've only heard XRP people talk about this. I haven't actually seen Trump or anyone, but they're like, Trump's talking about it favorably. This is happening, that's happening. And it just entices people to buy. And XRP, the one thing XRP does well is marketing, like 100% far and away. They are some of the best marketers. Their conferences are great. They, they convinced so many people and they've created a cult, which is actually.

Really like Murad's kind of thesis for meme coins. Right. But it's in the banking space and it's amazing to see it play out. It's not something I want to own. I've looked into it and it's not for me with the issuance and where.

They'Re actually at, the token issuance is something the most like craziest fundamentals I've ever seen. That's why I don't touch it. Right. The fundamentals on it is horrific. Right. And I tweeted this the other day and I. She'll give me a shit about this tweet. Because I don't think maybe didn't make sense to you. It got some very good reactions.

No, no, no. Before we continue, it didn't make sense to everyone in our group chat.

Okay, say, say the tweet. Hopefully this is the tweet I'm thinking of.

I think we're overthinking it. Fundamentals don't matter. Tokenomics don't matter. Market cap doesn't matter. It's all off the table. Just buy the dollar and pray to a hundred. That's all that matters now. So this is that the tweet. You, you think this is the one you tweeted? This tweet means that the tokens that are pumping now fundamentally are, are not as favorable to a lot of the other projects in the space. You know, if you see something like the issuance of xrp, they literally print, you know, hundreds of millions consistently into the market. Like it just. And then it sort of just gets funneled into this weird way that it doesn't really make sense unless you're getting crazy demand. And that's why it's been in a sideways pattern for six years. Right? It's literally gone sideways for six years now all of a sudden it's absolutely just flying because it got so much demand. But from a fundamental perspective, meme coins, all this sort of stuff, my thesis was here is like, maybe we're all overthinking it. Maybe none of this shit ever matters. Maybe you just need to dumb it right down and just back something that's like, you know, low value in, in dollar terms, which we know that makes no difference. It makes no impact. But that's what retail investors look at. And now they buy low and sell high. That's what they think.

See, that explanation was good, but when you put that into a tweet with no context, it's like, Ben's on the beers. He's having a huge punt on these shitty ass coins. That's the way it comes across. And I'm like, bro, this is not what we tell our customers. And what we do at Collective shift. Like, yeah, everyone understand, mate, everyone's in my head. They get it.

No, I was just, I was just, I was just taking the mickey.

None of this, I can tell the difference. When you, you got someone writing your tweets and you write your own tweets, mate.

Why is that when I write my own, they don't make sense.

Yeah, spot on, mate. Literally in the group chat, I'm like, whoever is like, either like writing these or approving these, I'm like, we need to fire them. So, Ben, you're fired.

No, but I do agree with you and you did one a couple of weeks early where we're talking about people that you just need to turn your brain off for a lot of these investments, not overthink it, don't overcook it and flow with the market. You are playing a more.

Intense game and you will need to keep your finger on the pulse with what you're doing because it is not a longer term thing. It's more extremely short term sentiment and narrative driven on news. So if you're playing that game, just be aware of the game you are playing and what it will require from you as an investor.

Yeah, and one of the things I'd be careful of is just obviously chasing the market. So right now chasing these narratives is something that I would see clear of. It's something that's one of my, you know, biggest lessons in previous cycles, that these narratives run at different times. We'll get the 2017 run now, we'll get the utility run, we'll get the meme coin run. It's all flows. That's just how crypto operates. So just be cautious chasing these tokens that have gone up so much so fast.

Now it's like musical chairs. At some point the music will stop, you've got to jump in a chair and there's no space for you and you're being caught out.

Spot on, spot on. So look where I'm positioned and where we think, obviously Ethereum. We're very bullish on Ethereum. Like it continues to have the highest TV across any layer, one chain. It has a lot of builders. In fact, out of the top 10, the builder interest by blockchain. Ethereum's at 20%, Solana's 11%, base chain 10% and down. And you're seeing these big companies build on Ethereum like Coinbase, Sony, Kraken, et cetera. They continue to go strength and strength, but it's not a very sexy narrative right now. That's okay. That will change, I think in the future. Once we see that EBTC bottom, which may have already bottomed, we'll see. Then we've got Solana right, flying, you know, performance up, decentralization up, security resilience up. It's got a lot of metrics that are pushing yearly highs on the Dex volumes in terms of transaction fees. Solana just continues to be killing it. And that next gen blockchain space is one that we've been really hot on Bergs and we've done really well in terms of returns there on Solana and SUI especially. So very bullish there.

And I think also like with the coins we've talked about, you're not really going to go wrong with any of them. They're going to run at different times, they'll disconnect from other coins and reality and valuations. This is why bull markets are so hard. You're going to see huge XRP run, you're going to see huge drawdowns as well. So don't be constantly chasing like stick to your strategy and if you're invested in decent projects, your time will come.

Yeah, bang on. Now the next one we think and we are allocated to is that definitely that crypto AI space. Like there's a lot of catalysts for AI that continue to be in and outside of crypto. The AI agent space is one that's really flying at the moment where you've got these like AI, you know, Twitter agents that are investing and talking about different projects and it's a pretty crazy space. It's a pretty deep rabbit hole. It could be one of those bubbles, you know, that we're seeing everything AI and then, you know, things will pop and it'll die down. But I think just more broadly like I will continue to be in our lives obviously. But will A agents, you know, it's yet to be seen.

Yeah. And I think like these are very short term things and everyone always says the best time to invest was like, you know, six months ago, like when things are really, you know, or even longer than six months ago. But the reality is if you sit on your hands and you have convictions, conviction in the coins that you have and you've done some decent research, you just need to add time to that. Like, don't like for me, I hold a big bag of Ethereum, I've not gone and sold off chunks of that for SUI and Solana and Chase things. I'm like, no, I'm very comfortable with where things are at, where the metrics are at. It's going in the right direction and the time will come for my eight bags.

Yeah, let the market come to you, like we always say. So, yeah, we're a little bit. I'm exposed to some AI there in my portfolio which, you know, the members that listen would know about. But yeah, I think I will continue to be a likely, you know, narrative that will happen into the, into the next year or so. Meme Coins is obviously a big one that we've been speaking about. Yeah, sorry mate, you go.

Yeah, I think AI is a much easier narrative for people to understand after we've had everything with Claude and ChatGPT. People using it in their daily lives. It's something that's kind of ubiquitous now. People just get it.

Yep, totally agree. The next one there is meme Coins. We know meme coins have had a big run up. If you're a long term investor, I would consider just sticking with the top hundred. We've seen a lot more meme coins come into the top 100 or 200 over the last year or so. You know, there's only four meme coins in the top 200 by market cap in 2023 and now there's close to probably 1015. Now I personally am just allocated the top 100. I think these have a very high potential to go and continue to grow for us. So we started investing in shared in memecoins. Maybe it was just after the election and Most of those three plays we made to members are up over 100% which is great. But yes, you can make a lot more in the lower cap stuff, but it's a crazy space, high likelihood of failure and you need to be very much active with those investments. And I know a lot of you are very busy, so for busy individuals I would just recommend on focusing with the top dogs and that way at least you get some exposure without having to be too crazy.

We're talking barbells within barbells now, mate, where meme coins belong on the other side of your barbell. But then there's meme coins within Meme coins. So top 100 is very different to shitters on Pump fun, you know, where they're just like a dollar market cap and people are barreling in with live streams and doing all sorts of nonsense where it's hyper fast, hyper liquid. We're with a couple of lads on the super yacht, mate, that are. Oh, got a tip. Look into it. Yeah, it's good. Punt 10k on it like this, like that. Kind of real proper degeneracy. Where you have to know what you're doing and you will lose a bunch of money nine times out of ten to get that one winner. Yeah that's definitely a barbell within a barbell in the main points area and.

You don't want to over allocate, you know any of the risky stuff that we're playing in is very, very small allocation really you're expecting it to go to zero. You know I wouldn't be investing much at all into these sort of crazy.

Stuff and it's very important to know which game you are playing. If you've got the left side of your barbell and you've got your bitcoin, your eth, your Solana, your sui, your property, whatever, chuck it on that side. Let's. Let's just include some of those altcoins over there and they've got meme coins on the other side. Know which meme coin game you are playing. Is it the. I'm looking at the 1 second chart and as soon as this you know, pumped up fun coin goes to whatever I'm bailing out. Or is it. I'm holding the four coins in the top 100 that are meme coins. I'm going to hold them for six to 12 months. Know the game you're playing and the type of investor you are and play to your edge in the market.

Yeah, bang on bergs.

The other sectors that we think are going to have a bit of potential that we're allocated in deep in. I think that's a long term one that I think will continue to grow. Gaming is an interesting one. Sort of died off the last 12 months but I do think that'll have a bit of a bit of a growth next year. We've got a lot more games being launched into the market. Like there's been a lot of capital raised in that space so I do think that'll come back. I'm not personally allocated in this space but your bitcoin layer twos decentralized science which I know Nick's a big fan of, CK Snarks and also the NFTs which have had a bit of a pump the last couple of days. Perks.

Yeah, yeah. Apes are up mate. People are actually wanting exposure to ETH so they're buying NFTs again which is amazing to see. Might be able to offload some of my bags. D Sky. That's the first time I've heard that decentralized science. That's interesting. I'm going to have to look into that but, yeah, Bitcoin L2s. I've heard a lot of people talking about stacks and other L2s as well. That's really coming into the existing narrative and it's very interesting to me with all the attention that bitcoin has as well.

Yeah, look, again, I'm not too allocated to it, but that's basically bitcoin trying to build some defi stuff on that space. I know there's a few of our members that are interested in there, but look, there's a lot of different narratives. They're all going to run at different times. I think the main thing is just let the market come to you and don't go chasing too much. You really want to try and allocate before the wave hits, but the market will fluctuate and there'll be huge movements in different spaces. You'll feel as though you're missing out. You feel as though you're underexposed. That's just how it works. I just urge you to remain patient. You made 80% already this year. Just because you're not at 140% doesn't mean you need to start getting panicked and start chasing. You'll never have the most money. There'll always be more people making more money than you. Just be happy getting good assets. And don't. You don't get too. Too much fomo.

That's it. There will always be a bigger screenshot than yours. You don't have to chase all of that. And like we say, comparison is the thief of joy. And then also, this is. This is cracking. You'll love this, Ben. The only time you should look into your neighbor's bowl is to make sure they have enough.

That was a good tweet by yours. I did.

Like, how good is that, mate?

Yeah, yeah, great tweet. Great.

You're all making heaps more money than you would in any other market. You don't need to be the absolute best.

Yeah.

Stick to your plan and don't get shaken out. Don't finally give in and chase other things. Ben and I did this with ICOs. We did it with NFTs. We are not doing it now. And this is how we are going to win.

Yeah, spot on. Exactly right, man. And also, you know, we've got a long way to go. Like people again, there's going to be a lot of volatility. The market's going to go up a lot. You know, we're looking at the EBTC chart, like, in Contrast to the 2021 Ethereum went up against Bitcoin 200%. We're only up 20% so far. If that was the bottom we could continue to see go down. You know there is a scenario where bitcoin pumps, maybe the strategic reserve gets approved. Who knows, Bitcoin dominance flies higher again. Alts get squeezed again. Like this is not just an upwards journey. This is going to continue to be difficult but stay patient, remain the course and don't get too, too crazy.

That's absolutely mate.

My tips. Awesome. Well, we'll wrap up there hopefully. That was helpful folks. If you have any friends that you think would enjoy this, any crypto mates, please send them the podcast. As you all know, we don't do affiliates, no ads, no nonsense. We just try and give you the beans. So we'd love for you to help us share the podcast. And yeah, it just helps us continue to come back to you each and every week, two and a half years in. And we absolutely love it folks. So thank you so much for listening.

Thanks JB.