This is how I think about hype cycles in markets. It is basic, but that’s the point (frameworks shouldn’t be overly complex, I think).
Investors are always either discounting the promise of the future or the reality of the present. And they are never equally weighting them.
During the early part of a hype cycle, leading up to and directly following a technological advancement, investors are typically discounting the future while focusing on the present. A good example for this is Nvidia at the end of 2022: investors were solely focused on the headwinds presented by the crypto GPU glut, the anemic gaming PC market and the recent rise in rates causing fears about a near term recession.
Then, as the cycle begins, investors begin to shift to incorporate the future - they stop focusing so much on the present and see the promise. They move out in terms of valuing away from last twelve months current price / current earnings to next twelve months. Then, as price climbs and the technology becomes more exciting, their imagination takes hold. At a certain point they begin discounting the present much more heavily and the future becomes the only thing that matters. Valuation metrics over the next twelve months become useless in favor of 2, 3 or 5 years forward.
At the peak, the present is not considered at all, it is 100% driven by an imagined future (even when that imagination doesn’t necessarily align with a bullish outcome for the stocks driving the rally). Analysts aggressively raise estimates in ways that, at the time, seem fundamentally justifiable (if you take the assumptions at face value - for example, “everyone in the world will have two cell phones” was a good one from the mobile phone hype cycle). Capital is sucked in which ultimately forces performance chasing and crowds stocks with money that doesn’t really believe in the thesis. “A twilight period where people continue to play the game, but no longer believe in the rules” emerges, as Soros put it.
The valuation of SaaS stocks in mid-2021 is a great example of what happens when the future is overvalued relative to the present - nobody cared about climbing inflation, that rates had nowhere to go but up, that these companies were reliant on ZIRP or that software could become more competitive.
Then, a negative catalyst occurs - this can but doesn’t have to be related to the technology, macro, credit, underwhelming earnings. The estimates start to seem unattainable, and the present begins to matter more when the future seems more uncertain. That exact mechanism that drove future optimism to unsustainable heights mechanically reverses, everyone needs out. The future begins to be discounted until it results in a sense of disillusionment with not just the stocks but the technology itself. This overshoots to the downside, investors eventually become disillusioned and seemingly allergic to anything having to do with the technology. This happens in a very asymmetric manner to the climb (“stairs up, elevator down”).
This is the crucible in markets for truly transformative tech. If advancements persist, another opportunity to get long presents itself before capital once again begins flowing into the companies (the internet, for example). If they don’t - not necessarily “the tech goes away” but rather that it ceases to advance once the capital isn’t free or plateaus or the economics prove to be unfavorable - the cycle will still start again, just with a new technology.
Or maybe not…maybe this time is different.
The next big unlock for AI isn't "who has the biggest model," it's how protocols and agents actually work together.🧠
At @Sentism_ai, we're focused on #DeFAI
Agents that coordinate across DeFi, GameFi, and RWA, not just operate in isolation.💚
Excited to join this Space🤝and dig into what real interoperability between AI protocols can look like.
See you there, $SENTIS fam. 🚀
#aiagent #AI #BNB
Week in Binance Alpha: SentismAI Rips 199% as Fear Index Hits 21
SENTIS explodes 199% to lead gainers! Trading volume climbs 5.49% to $10.33B! Nine tokens removed from Alpha! Fear Index crashes to 21 after 18 straight days!
Let's examine this week's Binance Alpha’s developments.🧵
1/8
Trade $quq, $jellyjelly, $SENTIS, $AMZNon, $ACNon & share 35,000 $BGB! #BitgetOnchain Trading Competition 97
🗓 Dec 20, 11:00 AM – Dec 22, 10:59 AM (UTC)
✅ Register for the event: https://t.co/6rDDQ5HS0e
🔹 Top users will win a maximum of 1000 BGB!
💚SentismAI — Last Week Recap💚
➤ Establish partnerships with @hypergpt , @Anome_Official , @ULTILAND
➤ Hit Top 4 on @binance Alpha
➤ Community Airdrop: 1,451,393 $SENTIS
➤ Binance Square AMA
➤ X Space with @CoinRank_io
➤ Listed on @BitMartExchange , @Poloniex
➤ SentismAI dApp integration with @BinanceWallet
Guess what will be coming next week… 👀🔥
#SentismAI #BinanceAlpha
New integrations are now live on #BinanceWallet!
Check out the newly added dApps: The Deep, Cheesepad, Khorus, SwissCheese Finance and Sentism AI.
Discover them now! ⤵️
https://t.co/HJS649nnlj
Access financial reports while trading! 📊
Weekly to yearly data, income statements & key metrics powered by @tokenterminal.
In app: Markets → Token pair → Square → Financial
Learn more 👉 https://t.co/0vXILkwjkn
BREAKING: SEC CHAIR SAYS AGENCY IS "MOBILIZING ALL DIVISIONS" TO MAKE AMERICA THE #BITCOIN AND CRYPTO CAPITAL OF THE WORLD
TIMES ARE CHANGING IN THE US. HUGE 🚀
Now that it's cool to talk about ETH again, you can read this report that we published two months ago.
We described why ETH was extremely undervalued compared to Bitcoin and why it could outperform amid relatively higher demand and lower selling pressure.
Link in the next post. 🛜
The massive $BTC sell-off is over!
Galaxy announced that they have completed the sale of over 80,000 $BTC($9B+) for a Satoshi-era investor.
https://t.co/Qd7BeT8GDT…
https://t.co/1G4gE8TMgH…
Top 3 chains by % fee growth this week:
🥇 HyperEVM – $219.92K (+569%)
🥈 Unichain – $74.59K (+68%)
🥉 Sonic – $152.00K (+46%)
HyperEVM is on fire, Unichain is charging more for less, and Sonic’s quietly levelling up.