TL;DR

📈 Asia Market & Trading Trends

• BTC & ETH holding strong; Asia market active, risk-on sentiment rising.

• Retail focus shifting to fast, leveraged trades; big swings dominate attention.

🏦 Merlin Institutional & Liquidity Push

• Expanding BTC yield farming + tokenized stock strategies.

• Building joint liquidity for Web2 & Web3, with DAT support in HK/US.

🌐 TradFi Consulting & Revenue

• Helping TradFi tokenize assets + navigate regulation.

• Expanding AI + RWA + BTCFi revenue streams across multiple chains.

🪄 Wizard B2B & Events

• Wizard could monetize cross-chain transactions for enterprises.

• Jeff attending KBW + Token2049 to share updates & gauge sentiment.

Summary

Asia Market Activity & Trading Trends

Jeff: Bitcoin and Ethereum are holding strong, and if they stay above current levels for a few days, the market should recover. Recent activity in Asia is robust and many new projects are performing well, e.g., $PUMP rose from $0.0020 to $0.0080, and even tokens with selling pressure are being held. This is different from the past 12 months, and it feels like a good time to be risk-on.

The key difference from the West is mindset: retail traders now focus on quick, leveraged trades, not holding tokens. The market incentivizes fast moves, and dramatic swings capture attention. Overall, Asia’s market feels active and bullish, even if it’s not mirrored in Western spot trading.

Spot vs High-Risk Trading

Jeff: Spot holding still works for blue-chip assets like Ethereum, Solana, BNB, SUI, and others—they’ve provided steady profits over years, especially tokens with $5B+ FDV listed on major exchanges. Newer mid, small, or micro-cap opportunities require more selectivity and patience. While extreme alpha is rare now (e.g., 100×–200× gains like past cycles), being strategic and selective can still yield strong returns. Some examples: BNB rose from $1.50 in 2022 to ~600× today, Ethereum is ~3× higher, Bitcoin ~5× higher. Catching outsized gains now relies more on luck than research, especially for highly valued projects like Story.

Research & Emerging Innovations

Jeff: This cycle feels like the early dot-com era, where research focuses on identifying future core products. Projects like Courtyard and Polymarket show that early builders gain traction over time. Research matters, but there’s a lot of noise—the key is using products over months to evaluate quality; out of dozens, maybe one or two succeed.

Looking ahead, not all innovations create profitable opportunities—infrastructure projects like PayFi or stablecoins matter, but may not yield token gains. The biggest trend this cycle is ETF and stock-plus-token integration, with companies building long-term treasuries in BTC, ETH, and other assets, offering sustained growth similar to holding Amazon or Google for decades.

Pump.fun & Crypto Streaming

Jeff: Pump.fun is mainly for token launches and catching alpha, not long-term creator growth. Streamers earn quickly and often move on, unlike Twitch or YouTube where creators build followings over years. The buyback mechanism is a positive signal, generating revenue and supporting token prices—Pump went from $0.002~nearly 4× higher. On-chain activity, like 100M token withdrawals from OKX, suggests strong performance potential. While the market feels like high-leverage gambling, projects doing buybacks stand out as a healthy signal in this cycle.

Merlin Institutional Adoption & Liquidity

Jeff: Merlin is gaining attention by bridging traditional markets with crypto. We’re expanding partnerships with companies providing Bitcoin for yield farming, and exploring tokenized stock strategies to let Web3 traders access equities. The goal is joint liquidity—allowing traditional traders to buy tokens and Web3 traders to access stocks. We’re also supporting DAT solutions for institutions in Hong Kong and the U.S., making MERL part of their portfolios. Upcoming events at KBW will showcase these initiatives, emphasizing liquidity and bridging Web2 and Web3. Many blue-chip tokens like Ethena, Babylon, Story, BNB, Solana, and Tron are already participating in this trend.

Consulting & Revenue Opportunities in TradFi

Jeff: Yes, blockchain companies like Merlin can create consulting arms to help TradFi players navigate tokenization and regulations. We recently partnered with a company to issue new stocks, ensuring Web3 traders access them on platforms like Nasdaq, Kraken, Bybit, Babylon and more.

At the same time, we’re pushing AI, deploying our AI products across different chains, including X Layer, and supporting Upbit’s upcoming Giwa Chain launch. We aim to be more than a token project, generating healthy revenue across BTCFi, AI, RWA, and TradFi tokenization and more. Opportunities abound, and capturing them now is key—I believe the next bull market is coming.

Wizard B2B Potential & Upcoming Events

Jeff: Wizard can become a B2B product, handling transactions across chains and generating revenue via user fees or customer payments. Major chains, like Ethereum and BNB, already have volume and infrastructure, while emerging chains, Base, Sui, Solana, and soon X Layer or Giwa—could make Wizard increasingly important.

I’ll also be attending major events like KBW and Token in Singapore, sharing updates and gauging how the market reacts to interest rate news and bullish developments.