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It’s been two years since I last wrote about the Diamond Hands series, and today marks the third—and likely final—installment. This cycle, the crypto market has rewarded BTC diamond hands handsomely, while most others have been ruthlessly crushed. Previous editions of this series leaned toward hunting Alpha, but this one focuses more on Beta, given how some past Alpha plays left investors utterly wrecked—a past too painful to revisit.
The biggest Beta plays remain the "one superstar and three giants": BTC + ETH, SOL, and BNB. As for altcoin Beta, I’m currently bullish on the following four and plan to hold them with diamond hands.
1. AAVE
AAVE is one of the few assets outside the "big four" that you can hold long-term and still sleep soundly. Its TVL has smashed previous highs, surpassing $30 billion, and—remarkably—it has never suffered a major security breach in all these years. Even traditional financial institutions like JPMorgan, when dabbling in blockchain, prioritize testing on AAVE.
This wave of RWA + stablecoins—where blockchain meets traditional finance to boost efficiency—is undeniably the top trend in crypto’s future. Among the projects poised to ride this wave, AAVE stands out as a surefire leader, far more certain than Uniswap or Curve. The upcoming V4 launch in the coming months is another reason to stay bullish. A definite diamond hand pick.
2. Pendle
With a TVL of $6 billion (nearing its all-time high) and rock-solid stability, Pendle is gearing up for its third wave.
First wave: Backed by Sushiswap and some DeFi protocols, it pioneered yield tokenization—but lacked hype because the yields were mostly fluff.
Second wave: Took off with LST/LRT based on Lido and Eigenlayer, offering tangible returns.
Third wave: Will be driven by RWA and stablecoins. In TradFi, yield tiering and risk-splitting is a massive ($10T+) market. As more RWAs and stablecoins move on-chain, Pendle—with no real competitors in sight—is poised to dominate.
The only gripe? Its price is too stable, with minimal volatility. Still, worth holding for a few months to see how it plays out.
3. Hyperliquid
The strongest token launch of this cycle—bar none.
Its Perp DEX boasts a user experience and trading depth so superior that it’s crushing competitors in volume and market cap. But Hyperliquid isn’t just a Perp platform; it’s a liquidity layer. Phantom’s recent integration is proof, and more frontends will tap into its backend liquidity soon.
Beyond its aggressive buybacks, Hyperliquid has HyperEVM, HIP-3’s RWA Perps, and more in the pipeline.
The catch? I haven’t built a position yet—having sold my airdrops (batches 4–10) too early. At a $50B market cap, I’m hesitant to FOMO in now. But I’ll find an entry point eventually, even if I have to wait for the next bear market.
4. Bittensor
I used to be a Bittensor skeptic—until recently, when I flipped bullish and decided to hold for 6–12 months.
My doubts stemmed from its PMF (or lack thereof). Much like Filecoin (which filled storage with junk data), Bittensor seemed to invent demand where none existed, with miners competing to produce useless inference results. Past dramas—like validators colluding with miners—didn’t help.
So why the change of heart?
This cycle, crypto has disproven many narratives but validated two: finance (DeFi, RWA, stablecoins) and gambling (memes, PolyMarket, on-chain casinos).
Crypto+AI remains the largest unproven—but also hard to disprove—narrative. And among all AI+Crypto projects, Bittensor is the toughest to dismiss because:
It’s the market cap and mindshare leader in the space.
Few truly understand what it does (try explaining it to a friend in 10 minutes—good luck).
Its subnet count is nearing 100 (likely 200–300 next year), with some subnets actually generating revenue (albeit mostly from Web3 projects and negligible relative to its valuation).
Its upcoming halving in Jan/Feb 2026—mirroring BTC’s 21M cap and 4-year halvings—will be a major catalyst.
Bittensor resembles BTC in emission/mindshare but ETH in subnet design. A breakout subnet (like Uniswap or AAVE on ETH) could emerge, given its coverage of decentralized training, data, compute, inference, and more.
The downside? Its high market cap and daily emissions (>$1M) make digestion tough at this stage. If it feels too pricey now, watch for a better entry early next year.
Closing Notes
This marks the end of the Diamond Hands series. Let’s revisit these picks in a year or two to see if they outperformed BTC. For the record, today’s prices:
BTC: $118,275
AAVE: $312.7
Pendle: $4.43
Hyper: $44
TAO: $433
It’s been two years since I last wrote about the Diamond Hands series, and today marks the third—and likely final—installment. This cycle, the crypto market has rewarded BTC diamond hands handsomely, while most others have been ruthlessly crushed. Previous editions of this series leaned toward hunting Alpha, but this one focuses more on Beta, given how some past Alpha plays left investors utterly wrecked—a past too painful to revisit.
The biggest Beta plays remain the "one superstar and three giants": BTC + ETH, SOL, and BNB. As for altcoin Beta, I’m currently bullish on the following four and plan to hold them with diamond hands.
1. AAVE
AAVE is one of the few assets outside the "big four" that you can hold long-term and still sleep soundly. Its TVL has smashed previous highs, surpassing $30 billion, and—remarkably—it has never suffered a major security breach in all these years. Even traditional financial institutions like JPMorgan, when dabbling in blockchain, prioritize testing on AAVE.
This wave of RWA + stablecoins—where blockchain meets traditional finance to boost efficiency—is undeniably the top trend in crypto’s future. Among the projects poised to ride this wave, AAVE stands out as a surefire leader, far more certain than Uniswap or Curve. The upcoming V4 launch in the coming months is another reason to stay bullish. A definite diamond hand pick.
2. Pendle
With a TVL of $6 billion (nearing its all-time high) and rock-solid stability, Pendle is gearing up for its third wave.
First wave: Backed by Sushiswap and some DeFi protocols, it pioneered yield tokenization—but lacked hype because the yields were mostly fluff.
Second wave: Took off with LST/LRT based on Lido and Eigenlayer, offering tangible returns.
Third wave: Will be driven by RWA and stablecoins. In TradFi, yield tiering and risk-splitting is a massive ($10T+) market. As more RWAs and stablecoins move on-chain, Pendle—with no real competitors in sight—is poised to dominate.
The only gripe? Its price is too stable, with minimal volatility. Still, worth holding for a few months to see how it plays out.
3. Hyperliquid
The strongest token launch of this cycle—bar none.
Its Perp DEX boasts a user experience and trading depth so superior that it’s crushing competitors in volume and market cap. But Hyperliquid isn’t just a Perp platform; it’s a liquidity layer. Phantom’s recent integration is proof, and more frontends will tap into its backend liquidity soon.
Beyond its aggressive buybacks, Hyperliquid has HyperEVM, HIP-3’s RWA Perps, and more in the pipeline.
The catch? I haven’t built a position yet—having sold my airdrops (batches 4–10) too early. At a $50B market cap, I’m hesitant to FOMO in now. But I’ll find an entry point eventually, even if I have to wait for the next bear market.
4. Bittensor
I used to be a Bittensor skeptic—until recently, when I flipped bullish and decided to hold for 6–12 months.
My doubts stemmed from its PMF (or lack thereof). Much like Filecoin (which filled storage with junk data), Bittensor seemed to invent demand where none existed, with miners competing to produce useless inference results. Past dramas—like validators colluding with miners—didn’t help.
So why the change of heart?
This cycle, crypto has disproven many narratives but validated two: finance (DeFi, RWA, stablecoins) and gambling (memes, PolyMarket, on-chain casinos).
Crypto+AI remains the largest unproven—but also hard to disprove—narrative. And among all AI+Crypto projects, Bittensor is the toughest to dismiss because:
It’s the market cap and mindshare leader in the space.
Few truly understand what it does (try explaining it to a friend in 10 minutes—good luck).
Its subnet count is nearing 100 (likely 200–300 next year), with some subnets actually generating revenue (albeit mostly from Web3 projects and negligible relative to its valuation).
Its upcoming halving in Jan/Feb 2026—mirroring BTC’s 21M cap and 4-year halvings—will be a major catalyst.
Bittensor resembles BTC in emission/mindshare but ETH in subnet design. A breakout subnet (like Uniswap or AAVE on ETH) could emerge, given its coverage of decentralized training, data, compute, inference, and more.
The downside? Its high market cap and daily emissions (>$1M) make digestion tough at this stage. If it feels too pricey now, watch for a better entry early next year.
Closing Notes
This marks the end of the Diamond Hands series. Let’s revisit these picks in a year or two to see if they outperformed BTC. For the record, today’s prices:
BTC: $118,275
AAVE: $312.7
Pendle: $4.43
Hyper: $44
TAO: $433
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Richard.M.Lu
Richard.M.Lu
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