Trump wins, Bitcoin soars, where will the market go next?

Written by:Yogita Khatri

Translation: VernacularBlockchain

In the past few days,cryptocurrency世界风起云涌，比特币在特朗普赢得大选后迅速突破了 93000 美元。回想我在 2018 年开始写加密货币时，比特币的价格才约 3000 美元，而如今却见证着这个市场的飞速发展。

I talked to more than a dozen crypto venture capitalists, and although everyone was excited about Trump's victory and the rise of Bitcoin, most of them still adhered to their long-term investment plans. However, some investors are also adjusting their strategies and paying more attention to new trends and changes in the political and market environment.

Lasse Clausen, founding partner of 1kx, said: "The excitement across the industry is justified. It is difficult for outsiders to understand the suppression of innovation by the previous government. Now that founders are free to experiment, there will be many exciting new products born."

a16z crypto Arianna Simpson, partner at , expressed similar sentiments, noting that “the past few years have been challenging for the crypto industry,” but she expects major policy shifts to greatly benefit Web3 builders and companies.

With the Trump administration expected to bring clarity to crypto regulation, investors expect more founders to enter the Web3 space. Earlier this week, Portal Ventures, founded by former Insight Partners investor Evan Fisher, raised $75 million for its second fund focused on investing in crypto startups. Fisher believes that successful entrepreneurs who were previously hesitant to enter the crypto space due to legal and regulatory risks will now participate more actively. He said: "We will see more top founders gradually enter the crypto industry."

Jake Brukhman, founder and CEO of CoinFund, said the company is preparing for the upcoming "super cycle" of the crypto market. CoinFund is well-funded in seed rounds, venture capital and liquidity investments, and has expanded to six new members this year, five of whom joined in the past two to three months.

1. Betting on Crypto –AI, DeFi and other fields

展望未来，加密风投正在关注高潜力赛道，包括加密 -AI、DeFi、RWA（现实资产）Token 化、基础设施、稳定币和支付等。

Many investors believe that the combination of crypto and AI is the next disruptive trend. Ed Roman, co-founder and managing partner of Hack VC, called crypto-AI "the hottest category in crypto right now" and foresaw a multi-layered Web3 AI ecosystem that leverages the cost-effectiveness of decentralized computing networks. He believes: "This market can reach trillions of dollars when serving Web2 customers. AI is not a flash in the pan like NFTs, but is creating real business value and may be the most important technological innovation since mobile phones and the Internet."

However, Roman pointed out that the healthy development of crypto-AI depends largely on the performance of the Web2 AI field, especially NVIDIA. Therefore, Hack VC regards NVIDIA as a "loose indicator" for crypto-AI.

Balder Bomans, chief investment officer and managing partner of Maven 11 Capital, believes that crypto-AI startups will grow, and is particularly optimistic about the decentralized DePIN protocol that provides computing resources for AI model training. CoinFund's Brukhman added that most retail investors who want to get involved in AI will probably do so through cryptocurrencies next year. "AIToken is scarce and in high demand. The summer of 2025 will be the summer of decentralized AI (deAI)," he said.

Another investment focus is the resurgence of DeFi as institutional adoption increases. Hack VC's Roman said DeFi has taken a hit recently due to high interest rates making U.S. Treasuries more attractive. However, Trump is expected to cut interest rates, which may give DeFi an advantage in competing with traditional financial (TradFi) instruments such as Treasuries. He sees DeFi as a "once-in-a-century" opportunity that can greatly simplify financial processes.

Clausen of 1kx pointed out that traditional financial institutions may implement RWA on the chain and use DeFi infrastructure on a large scale. "Think about how complicated trading, clearing and settlement are in traditional finance, and on a decentralized exchange (DEX), these operations can be completed in an instant transaction, without counterparty risk, and the transparency of the transaction can be publicly verified," Clausen said. "It's like 'frying fish', without any effort."

Managing Partner of Nomad Capital and formerBinanceExecutive Erick Zhang also believes that DeFi is expected to grow, especially against the backdrop of increased altcoin activity and challenges faced by centralized trading platforms. Galaxy Ventures General Partner Will Nuelle and BlockTower Capital's Thomas Klocanas are also optimistic about the expansion of DeFi, RWA tokenization, stablecoins and payments.

“One of the biggest barriers to stablecoin adoption in payments — banking relationships with the fiat system — has become much smoother since Trump took office,” Nuelle said. “We hope and expect that banks that legally serve cryptocurrencies will no longer worry about retaliation from the FDIC or other agencies, which will help banks better integrate with the growing number of use cases.”

2. Consumer-facing applications and infrastructure categories are also gaining traction

a16z crypto “I am particularly excited about consumer adoption in crypto, as this category was significantly impacted by the policies of the previous administration,” said Simpson of Crypto. “We remain very focused on the continued development of DePIN and infrastructure projects.”

Alvaro Gracia, partner at Borderless Capital, also pointed out that as Bitcoin dominance shifts to altcoins, the DeFi and DePIN sectors are expected to grow. Of the $100 million DePIN fund he manages, there is currently about $70 million available for investment in the next two to three years, and Gracia is particularly optimistic about such projects.

Clausen of 1kx added that the companyXiaobai NavigationThe company's focus is on infrastructure, middleware and consumer applications, particularly those requiring bank integration, which have been hampered by regulatory restrictions.

Adam Winnick, general managing partner of Finality Capital Partners, expressed optimism about the infrastructure vertical, with a particular emphasis on restaking and zero-knowledge technology startups. Miko Matsumura, managing partner of Gumi Cryptos Capital, focused on underlying and scalability infrastructure projects, aiming to solve “normal problems for ordinary people” rather than just “problems within the crypto industry.”

At the same time, some investors’ enthusiasm for infrastructure has waned. Maven 11’s Bomans mentioned that with the rise of powerful monolithic chains and the continuous improvement of modular technology stacks, the company’s investment focus has shifted to application layer projects over the past year.

Portal Ventures’ Fisher said the team invests less in infrastructure projects, preferring commercial startups with clear distribution advantages and user demand.

Zhang of Nomad Capital also mentioned that they are more cautious in investing in infrastructure projects, especially Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks. He believes: "Most infrastructure projects are essentially 'infrastructure memes', and their success often depends on the founding team's ability to effectively manage narratives and brands, but the number of teams with this unique dynamic is limited."

3. Potential risks of the Trump administration

Although Trump’s election as president has brought new optimism to the crypto space, several venture capitalists have warned of potential risks that could affect the industry’s development.

1kx’s Clausen expressed concerns about Trump’s immigration policies, arguing that a reduction in the labor supply could lead to continued wage inflation, which could be a bearish factor for risky assets such as cryptocurrencies.

Nuelle of Galaxy Ventures pointed out that if Trump is "too laissez-faire" about the crypto industry, it may repeat the mistakes of FTX. He believes that balanced bipartisan legislation and a clear status of digital assets can create the most stable long-term value for the market.

Zhang of Nomad Capital mentioned that if bold proposals such as Bitcoin becoming a strategic reserve asset of the United States fail to be implemented quickly, it may lead to a weakening of market enthusiasm and the "Trump effect" losing momentum.

Roman of Hack VC believes that the key question is whether the United States will actively hoard new Bitcoins or just hold existing confiscated Bitcoins. In either case, it is good for the crypto market. However, if the United States actively hoards Bitcoin, it may lead other countries to follow suit, which in turn affects global policies, which will have a more far-reaching impact on the entire crypto market.

The article comes from the Internet:Trump wins, Bitcoin soars, where will the market go next?

Related recommendations: This article reviews the timeline and key highlights of the US election and looks forward to its subsequent impact

Inflation will be in a general trend of gradually accelerating. Author: @Web3Mario Abstract: In the next week, there is no doubt that the world's attention will be focused on the US election, so I spent some time to carefully sort out the next time nodes and key points, and look forward to the subsequent impact. In general, starting from Tuesday, November 5, in the next week, the election results...