Good morning everybody.
It’s Friday, August 28th, 2026.
Bitcoin is still fighting with $80,000.
Paul McNeal told me yesterday, “Patience, grasshopper.”
Okay, Paul. Prove it.
Bitcoin broke above $80,000 again yesterday, reaching around $80,300, but once again it couldn’t stay there. We’re back around $79,000.
At this point, touching $80K doesn’t matter anymore.
We’ve done that.
Bitcoin needs to turn $80,000 into the floor.
Bitcoin Is Going Sideways, Not Up
If Bitcoin is bouncing between $79,000 and $81,000, we’re basically trading at $80K.
That’s fine.
But it’s not a breakout.
For me, two things need to happen.
First, Bitcoin needs to start finding support around $80,000 instead of immediately falling underneath it every time sellers appear.
Second, we need to move toward $82,000 to $84,000 and establish a new ceiling.
Until that happens, we’re just flopping around near $80K.
And from here, Bitcoin can still go either direction.
The Bull Case Is Still There
There are legitimate reasons to remain bullish.
ETF inflows remain strong.
Treasury buybacks have improved liquidity.
Bitcoin continues benefiting from the dollar-debasement trade.
Nvidia’s earnings reinforced the broader risk environment.
And crypto’s regulatory environment is considerably better than it was a year ago.
Those are real catalysts.
But there are also reasons to remain cautious.
Investors keep taking profits around $80K.
Inflation remains sticky.
Treasury yields remain elevated.
And we’re waiting to see what Fed Chair Kevin Warsh signals at Jackson Hole.
I Still Think We’re in the Four-Year-Cycle Bear Market
Nothing I’ve seen yet has convinced me the traditional Bitcoin cycle is dead.
Could I be wrong?
Absolutely.
But we’re still inside the historical four-year-cycle window.
Bitcoin has rallied hard, but rallies happen inside bear markets.
Right now, I think much of the positive news has already been priced into Bitcoin.
If rates are cut, I don’t necessarily expect some enormous rally.
If rates stay where they are, I don’t expect much.
And even if rates rise, I’m not convinced Bitcoin automatically collapses.
The market knows monetary policy is uncertain.
At this point, Bitcoin has to prove something through price.
Hold $80K.
Then move higher.
Nine Straight Days of Bitcoin ETF Inflows
The ETF demand continues to be one of the strongest parts of the bull case.
Bitcoin ETFs brought in another approximately $242.3 million yesterday, marking nine consecutive days of inflows.
That’s real demand.
It also tells us investors are continuing to rotate capital into Bitcoin even while price struggles against $80K.
If that continues, eventually those buyers could absorb enough of the profit-taking around $80,000 to move the market higher.
SanDisk Went Absolutely Bonkers
Now let’s talk about something outside crypto because this caught me completely by surprise.
SanDisk.
Yes.
The flash-drive company.
The company most people probably associate with thumb drives and memory cards.
SanDisk has increasingly become an AI infrastructure play, and its stock has gone absolutely insane.
The figures discussed in today’s show illustrate just how dramatic the move has been, with the stock moving from around $50 a year ago to extraordinary highs as investors repriced the company around AI infrastructure demand.
So what the hell happened?
AI Needs More Than GPUs
Everybody talks about GPUs.
Nvidia.
Nvidia.
Nvidia.
But AI data centers need considerably more than GPUs.
They need high-bandwidth memory.
NAND flash.
Enterprise SSDs.
Extremely fast interfaces.
Massive amounts of storage.
SanDisk already operates in that world.
So as AI infrastructure spending exploded, investors began looking beyond the obvious GPU companies and further down the AI infrastructure stack.
That’s where SanDisk suddenly became much more interesting.
SanDisk’s Business Changed With AI Demand
The numbers discussed in today’s show illustrate the scale of the shift.
Revenue growth accelerated dramatically.
Data-center revenue expanded.
NAND pricing strengthened.
And stronger memory pricing translated into significantly better margins.
The basic economics aren’t complicated.
AI companies need more memory and storage.
Supply can’t immediately keep up.
Prices rise.
The companies capable of supplying that infrastructure make more money.
That’s what investors started pricing into SanDisk.
Understanding the AI Vertical Is the Bigger Lesson
This reminds me of something Chamath Palihapitiya said years ago that changed how I look at investing.
Understand the verticals.
When electric vehicles started exploding, the obvious trade was:
Buy Tesla.
Buy an EV manufacturer.
But you could go further down the stack.
EVs need batteries.
Batteries need lithium, cobalt and other materials.
If you understand the entire vertical, you can potentially find opportunities before everybody else piles into the most obvious company.
AI works the same way.
Everybody knows Nvidia.
But what about memory?
Storage?
Power?
Cooling?
Data centers?
Networking?
Electricity?
Bitcoin miners converting facilities into AI infrastructure?
I didn’t have SanDisk on my radar.
Maybe I should have.
And maybe there are other companies sitting somewhere inside the AI infrastructure vertical that the market hasn’t completely repriced yet.
Not financial advice.
But it’s something worth paying attention to.
BitGo Buys NYDIG’s Institutional Trading Business
Back in crypto, BitGo has agreed to acquire NYDIG’s institutional trading business.
The deal expands BitGo beyond custody and deeper into institutional digital-asset trading and derivatives infrastructure.
Terms weren’t disclosed.
This is another sign of consolidation among the companies fighting for institutional crypto clients.
Custody.
Trading.
Derivatives.
Prime brokerage.
The infrastructure underneath institutional crypto continues getting built out.
Charles Schwab Expands Its Crypto Offering
Charles Schwab is expanding its crypto platform to include Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink, according to the reporting discussed in today’s show.
Again, crypto keeps getting integrated into mainstream financial platforms.
The question increasingly isn’t whether traditional finance adopts crypto.
It’s how much of crypto eventually gets absorbed into traditional financial services.
Dunamu and Visa Deepen Their Stablecoin Partnership
Dunamu and Visa announced an expanded partnership involving stablecoins, AI and open standards, with OUSD among the assets reportedly being considered.
Stablecoins continue moving deeper into payments infrastructure.
And we’re seeing the same names repeatedly.
Visa.
Mastercard.
Banks.
Brokerages.
Crypto exchanges.
This isn’t a niche experiment anymore.
SEC Crypto Custody Changes Move Through the White House
Proposed SEC changes governing how investment advisers custody digital assets have been sent to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review.
Custody sounds boring.
It isn’t.
If you’re a financial adviser managing somebody’s Bitcoin, where are the private keys?
Who controls them?
What happens if somebody leaves the company?
What happens if the custodian dies?
What happens if someone literally has millions of dollars worth of client seed phrases sitting in a notebook inside a desk drawer?
Crypto has already given us enough examples of what happens when custody is handled badly.
This is why regulation exists.
If financial professionals are going to custody digital assets for clients, there need to be clear standards governing exactly how those assets are protected.
CLARITY Still Carries a Regulatory Premium
Markets are still pricing optimism around the administration’s push for the CLARITY Act.
And I still think some version of it gets done.
The political pressure is simply too large.
Crypto political organizations spent enormous amounts of money supporting candidates.
If lawmakers take that money and then fail to deliver legislation, I don’t think the industry simply keeps writing checks forever.
At some point, Fairshake and other crypto-backed political organizations can say:
You want the money?
Pass the legislation.
Moonwell Investigates a Potential Exploit
Moonwell is investigating an issue affecting its lending market on Base after blockchain-security firms identified what appears to be a multimillion-dollar exploit.
It follows several other major DeFi security incidents this month.
And once again, lending protocols remain particularly complicated.
Smart contracts.
Oracles.
Governance.
Collateral.
Integrations.
Every additional moving part creates another potential failure point.
Nvidia Just Reported $96.2 Billion in Quarterly Revenue
Nvidia reported approximately $96.2 billion in quarterly revenue, roughly $4 billion above Wall Street expectations, according to the figures discussed in today’s show.
The company also forecast approximately $108 billion for the current quarter and continued strong growth into 2028.
That matters beyond Nvidia.
If the largest company at the center of the AI infrastructure boom is still showing enormous demand, it reinforces the broader thesis around memory, storage, data centers and other AI infrastructure.
That’s why the SanDisk story caught my attention.
The AI trade is considerably larger than GPUs.
Bitcoin Treasury Companies Have Lost Around $80 Billion
Here’s another story we’ve been talking about for months.
The Financial Times reported that approximately $80 billion in market capitalization has disappeared from Bitcoin treasury companies since mid-2025.
The combined value of the 50 largest Bitcoin-holding companies reportedly fell from approximately $150 billion to $67 billion.
The problem is straightforward.
Putting Bitcoin on a corporate balance sheet no longer automatically creates some enormous valuation premium.
Some companies are now raising capital or selling Bitcoin simply to service debt and preferred-share obligations.
Which brings us back to Strategy.
When Bitcoin goes up, everything looks brilliant.
When Bitcoin goes down, suddenly you’re selling common stock, maintaining cash reserves, servicing preferred shares and potentially selling Bitcoin.
I’ve said it before.
I don’t understand why this structure makes sense for most companies.
Strategy was first.
But even Strategy’s average Bitcoin acquisition price is now around the $70,000 range.
That’s not early.
Now Everybody Is Calling for $150K Bitcoin
Bernstein now reportedly sees Bitcoin reaching approximately $150,000 by mid-2027, with a longer-term base case around $300,000 by 2029 and an aggressive scenario reaching $500,000.
Of course.
Bitcoin goes up a little and suddenly everybody discovers the $500,000 price target again.
Maybe they’re right.
I hope they’re right.
But I’m remaining cautious.
Bitcoin still hasn’t proven it can hold $80,000.
Let’s accomplish that before we start planning what we’re doing with our half-million-dollar Bitcoin.
Crypto Prices
Bitcoin: $79,380, essentially flat
Ethereum: $2,500, essentially flat
Tether: #3
BNB: $705
XRP: $1.42
USDC: #6
Solana: $105, up approximately 0.5%
TRON: $0.341, up approximately 1%
Hyperliquid: $83.33, up approximately 1%
Dogecoin: $0.087, down approximately 0.9%
Total Crypto Market Cap: $2.67 trillion
Fear & Greed Index: 81, Extreme Greed
My Take
Bitcoin still hasn’t answered the only question I care about.
Can $80,000 become the floor?
Nine straight days of ETF inflows are bullish.
Treasury liquidity is supportive.
The regulatory environment is improving.
And the broader risk market remains healthy enough that investors aren’t running away from speculative assets.
But Bitcoin is still sideways.
Meanwhile, the SanDisk story is a good reminder that some of the most interesting opportunities in a technological shift aren’t necessarily the companies everybody is talking about.
AI needs GPUs.
But it also needs memory.
Storage.
Power.
Cooling.
Networking.
Data centers.
The same logic could eventually apply to Bitcoin miners that successfully convert their infrastructure toward AI.
Understand the vertical.
Don’t just chase whatever company is already on CNBC every day.
And as for Bitcoin?
Forget $150K.
Forget $300K.
Forget $500K.
Hold $80K first.
Happy HODLing, Everyone.