๐ฅ 'Crypto winter is over' ๐ฅถ
AI Summary
Milk Road's May 10, 2026 edition argues the 2026 crypto winter lasted only ~4.5 months, with Fundstrat's Mark Newton flipping bullish on Bitcoin after missing the spring rebound. Major financial institutions like Charles Schwab now recommend 2-7% Bitcoin allocations, signaling full institutional normalization. A16z's Ali Yahya predicts AI agents will dominate global financial transactions and crypto rails are the only viable infrastructure to support them.
Key Facts
Author Takes
Crypto winter duration
The 2026 crypto winter lasted only ~4.5 months and is now over; lows are probably in for the year, with a pullback to the low $70ks in May-June being a buying opportunity.
Bitcoin institutional allocation
Bitcoin has been completely normalized as a portfolio allocation; Charles Schwab's 2-7% recommendation surpassing Bitwise's own historical range is a massive, underappreciated shift.
AI agents and crypto financial rails
The majority of global financial transactions will be driven by AI agents within two years, and crypto is the only viable rail โ ACH, wires, and SWIFT simply cannot support it.
AI CapEx estimates
Morgan Stanley's $1.1T AI CapEx estimate for 2027 is probably too low; traditional PE metrics don't apply to a structural buildout this large, and AI differs from dot-com because higher stock prices generate more real revenue.
Nuclear energy as decade trade
Energy security is the trade for the next decade; Belgium nationalizing nuclear plants signals governments won't let this infrastructure be shut down, making it a safe elite-money play.
Contrarian Angle
Invest Where Public Sector Elites Park Their Money
Clem Chambers argues that tracking where government-linked elites invest (e.g., state-owned energy) is a reliable strategy because they won't blow themselves up โ making Equinor and nuclear energy his top decade trades.
Anti-conventional โ relies on political capital preservation rather than traditional fundamental or growth analysis
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