The Macro Trend: The transition from static benchmarks to live human-in-the-loop evaluation. As models saturate fixed tests, the only remaining signal is subjective human preference at scale.
The Tactical Edge: Monitor secret model drops on Arena to spot frontier capabilities before official releases. This provides a lead time advantage for builders choosing their tech stack.
The Bottom Line: Arena is the new kingmaker. If you are building AI products, their expert-tier data is the most reliable map for navigating the frontier.
The move from small models to medium models (15B to 70B) suggests that reasoning capability is outstripping the desire for low-latency edge deployment.
Implement instruction-following re-rankers to prune your context window. This prevents the model from getting confused by irrelevant data.
Stop building toys. The next year belongs to those who can build full agentic systems that handle billions of tokens without losing the plot.
The Macro Trend: The transition from black box scaling to transparent steering. As models enter regulated industries, the ability to prove why a model made a decision becomes more valuable than the decision itself.
The Tactical Edge: Deploy sidecar models for monitoring. Instead of using expensive LLM-as-a-judge prompts, probe specific internal features to catch hallucinations at the activation level.
The Bottom Line: The next year belongs to the pragmatic researchers. If you cannot explain your model's reasoning, you will not be allowed to deploy it in high-stakes environments.
From Singular Logic to Pluralistic Systems. As we build complex AI, we must move from seeking one "correct" model to managing a multiverse of conflicting but internally consistent logical frameworks.
Audit for Incompleteness. When designing protocols, identify the "independent" variables that your system cannot prove or settle internally.
Truth is bigger than code. Over the next year, the winners will be those who stop trying to "solve" the universe and start navigating the multiverse of possible truths.
Outcome-Based Intelligence. We are moving from AI as a Service to AI as an Outcome where value is tied to results rather than usage.
Target Non-Public Data. Build applications in sectors like law or lending where the most valuable data is private and un-crawlable.
The next two years will separate companies that use AI to save pennies from those that use AI to capture entire markets through autonomous systems and proprietary data loops.
**Value is a Function of Time:** Bitcoin's greatest asset is its 15-year track record. Lasting value isn't about technology alone; it's about a powerful story that withstands the test of time, creating an insulated brand.
**Self-Custody is the Premise:** The entire value proposition of crypto hinges on eliminating counterparty risk. Compromising on self-custody and security for the sake of convenience is a recurring mistake that "always blows up."
**Adoption Will Be Abstracted:** The future of crypto for the masses is one where the complexity is hidden. Centralized user experiences will run on decentralized rails, delivering the benefits of crypto (lower fees, faster settlement) without the unforgiving user experience.
**Stop Gambling, Start Engineering.** The biggest edge isn’t in predicting price but in finding and exploiting structural market inefficiencies. Focus on trades where you can control or heavily influence the outcome, like RFV plays or creating self-fulfilling prophecies in prediction markets.
**Become the Casino.** The crypto market is filled with speculation. By providing liquidity, farming yields, and taking the other side of gamblers (e.g., selling Pendle PTs), you can generate consistent, lower-risk returns. Farmers, on average, outperform directional traders over the long term.
**Alpha Lives in the Weeds.** The most significant opportunities aren’t on the front page of Twitter. They’re buried in obscure Discord servers, complex protocol mechanics (like Aerodrome’s bribes), and emerging platforms with low capital efficiency like Polymarket.
Private Markets Are the New Public: The real unlock for tokenization isn't just 24/7 stock trading—it's bringing high-growth private companies to retail investors, with or without the company's blessing.
The Great Convergence Is Here: The line between a crypto exchange and a stock brokerage is disappearing. Robinhood and its competitors are converging on a single "financial super app" model where all assets live in one place.
Regulation Has Created a Paradox: The current system allows unlimited speculation on assets with zero fundamental value (memecoins) but blocks access to premier private equity. Robinhood is betting this logic won't hold.
Embrace the Friction: The current difficulty of investing in Bittensor subnets is a feature, not a bug. It’s the moat that has suppressed valuations, creating an opportunity akin to buying Bitcoin on Mt. Gox before Coinbase existed.
A 3-6 Month Catalyst Window: The development of bridges and institutional infrastructure is the primary catalyst. This window represents the final moments to gain exposure before capital can flow in easily, likely re-rating the entire ecosystem.
Think Startups, Not Just Tokens: Evaluate subnets like early-stage companies. Use resources like the *Revenue Search* podcast to analyze financials and projects like Shush (AI inference), Score (AI vision), and Quantum (public quantum computing) as real, venture-style bets.
**Don't Panic Sell.** The current market dip is a sign of a healthy "wall of worry," not a cycle top. Historical on-chain indicators show there is significant room to run.
**Follow the Smart Money.** Institutions are aggressively buying this dip. The real capital from pensions and sovereign wealth funds is still on the sidelines, waiting to enter.
**The Fed is Turning Bullish.** A key Federal Reserve official is now openly advocating for crypto adoption within the regulatory apparatus, signaling a major long-term shift in the US.
**The Dollar Isn't Being Debased; It's Deflationary.** The market is not pricing in inflation or debasement. Instead, key indicators like the interest rate swap market are emphatically signaling a future of much lower interest rates for much longer, which is characteristic of deflationary pressure and a strong dollar.
**Asset Booms Are a Symptom, Not a Solution.** Rising stock and crypto prices are not evidence of a healthy economy or money printing. They reflect a K-shaped recovery where capital flees into financial assets as a hedge against systemic fragility, while the real economy for labor remains stagnant.
**The Contrarian Play Is Long Bonds.** If the global system is starved for safe, liquid collateral and headed toward a deflationary recession, the best-performing assets will be long-duration U.S. Treasuries. Snyder’s advice is the polar opposite of the typical crypto portfolio: be long bonds.
