Crypto In 2025, Is DAT Season Over & Market Outlook With Jordi Alexander

Unknown Source October 01, 2025 18 min

artificial-intelligence startup investment meta

36 Companies

39 Key Quotes

3 Topics

🎯 Summary

Comprehensive Summary of “Crypto In 2025, Is DAT Season Over & Market Outlook With Jordi Alexander”

This podcast episode, featuring Felix from Ford Guidance interviewing Jordi Alexander, founder of Selini Capital, provides a candid assessment of the current crypto market structure, recent volatility, and emerging narratives, recorded at the Origin Summit in Seoul.

1. Focus Area

The discussion centered on the current state of the crypto markets, focusing heavily on Perpetual DEXs (Perp DEXs), the diminishing relevance of the four-year halving cycle, the decline of the DAO narrative, and the potential resurgence of AI in Web3.

2. Key Technical Insights

Perp DEX Mechanics: The conversation highlighted the complex balancing act required by new Perp DEXs (like Hyperliquid, Lighter, and Aster) between attracting users via large airdrops (emissions) and maintaining token price stability, noting that excessive airdrops can lead to significant selling pressure.
Low-Float Token Structures: The speakers observed a resurgence of low-float, high Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV) token structures, despite past complaints and promises from exchanges like Binance to curb this practice. This structure favors short-term price spikes but leads to poor long-term token performance upon unlocks.
Web2/Web3 Integration: A key technical/product focus is on applications that successfully bridge Web2 functionality with Web3 rails (e.g., tokenized video generation via Everland), suggesting these “breaching” apps could be the next major growth vectors.

3. Market/Investment Angle

Market Cycle Skepticism: Jordi Alexander explicitly stated he does not believe in the traditional four-year halving cycle anymore, attributing this to the current macro environment where the Fed can easily manage dips due to high national debt, making a true bear market unlikely.
Current Market Phase: The market is characterized by confusing dispersion: strong macro indicators (gold soaring, equities up) are not translating to broad Bitcoin strength. Liquidity is currently concentrated in short-lived, rotating narratives (like the Perp DEX war). The recent liquidation cascade suggests a necessary “flush out” or reset is underway, but the expectation is a resumption upward rather than a bear market.
DAO Narrative Over: The DAO season is largely considered “over” due to low retail appetite for non-BTC native tokens, compressing margins for market makers, and the realization that many DAOs are stuck with unsellable treasury assets, reducing the perceived value of holding their tokens.

4. Notable Companies/People

Jordi Alexander (Selini Capital): The expert guest providing market analysis and investment perspectives.
Hyperliquid: Highlighted as the dominant winner in the Perp DEX space so far, setting the benchmark for the current narrative.
Lighter: Mentioned as a strong competitor in the Perp DEX war, noted for its zero-fee structure and focus on retail user flow (Jordi is an angel investor).
Story Protocol & Pudgy Penguins: Mentioned as examples of projects successfully bridging Web3 concepts (programmable IP, digital collectibles) into broader ecosystems.
Guy at Athena: Referenced for admitting mistakes in early tokenomics structure, underscoring the difficulty in designing sustainable token models.

5. Regulatory/Policy Discussion

While no specific regulatory actions were detailed, the discussion implicitly touched on policy by noting that governments are increasingly engaging with crypto infrastructure (e.g., mining and DeFi), suggesting that a complete regulatory crackdown or sustained bear market is less likely given this institutional adoption.

6. Future Implications

The conversation suggests the industry is moving toward:

Consolidation in Derivatives: The Perp DEX war will likely see consolidation, but the category remains large enough for secondary players to capture significant volume.
AI Resurgence: An AI-themed season is anticipated, potentially in Q4 or Q1, driven by killer applications that effectively use crypto rails.
Operational Evolution of DAOs: Successful DAOs will need to evolve into cash-flow-generating operating companies or “public discretionary hedge funds” rather than just treasury management entities to maintain relevance.

7. Target Audience

Crypto/DeFi Professionals, Hedge Fund Managers, and Sophisticated Retail Investors who need high-level, nuanced views on market structure, emerging narratives (Perp DEXs, AI), and the strategic implications of token design (tokenomics, float).

🏢 Companies Mentioned

Bitget ✅ Exchange

Tom Lee ✅ DAO/Project

Strategy ✅ DAO/Project

dYdX ✅ DeFi Protocol/Exchange

Tom Lee ✅ unknown

Pudgy Penguins ✅ unknown

Season Two ✅ unknown

Even Vertex ✅ unknown

Binance Hyperliquid ✅ unknown

Like I ✅ unknown

So I ✅ unknown

Selini Capital ✅ unknown

And I ✅ unknown

Origin Summit ✅ unknown

Jordi Alexander ✅ unknown

💬 Key Insights

"Look, I really don't like the consequence of the low-float thing because eventually it sort of maps out very differently. I understand why people are doing it. They want to show traction and good price. I don't think it's going away soon. I think people are going to have to learn their lesson just through going through these downturns once eventually tokens unlock."

Impact Score: 10

"We're having a huge resurgence in the low-float, high FDV. I remember when Binance was getting all the complaints were with every single chart was down only, and they were saying they were going to do something about this, and they were going to try to force projects to have a higher float and avoid this. I think people have forgotten all about that, and now we're in like low-float, low-float season part two."

Impact Score: 10

"The most striking one is you've seen that because they ran up to 80, 80 plus cents, and then just the biggest slate of good news possible you could ever imagine... the token is just down only. Because these things just get front-run, and then there's so many people, they're just getting out."

Impact Score: 10

"I think apps that really breach the two worlds of Web2 and Web3 are going to potentially be the new exclusive thing, and maybe the next Polygon."

Impact Score: 10

"The tricky thing with these perp DEXs... you have to balance giving airdrops. This is what Hyperliquid is finding now: do they do a Season Two and then they give out another 10%, and then that's not going to do well for the token because that's just going to be like five billion worth of selling?"

Impact Score: 10

"I don't think we're going to have a real bear market. And the fact that the government is doing crypto themselves, like they're all doing the mining and the DeFi, all of this stuff. So, it's way too soon."

Impact Score: 10

📊 Topics

#artificialintelligence 34 #startup 3 #investment 1