Friday Charts: Riding the Crazy Train of Crypto Investing in 2025

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2025-07-26 06:06:16

Buckle up—this week's charts show crypto markets moving like a runaway train. Whether you're surfing altcoin waves or watching Bitcoin retest its ATH, one thing's clear: rationality left the station months ago.

Altcoins Pump—Then Dump

BNB leads this week's rally with a 22% surge before the inevitable correction hit. Classic crypto whiplash—where 'fundamentals' just mean 'which influencer shilled it last.'

Institutional Players Circle

BlackRock's new crypto ETP filings suggest Wall Street finally wants a seat on this rollercoaster. Too bad they're three years late to the party.

The Bottom Line

Volatility isn't a bug—it's the main attraction. Just remember: when the music stops, the SEC always has extra chairs for its enforcement division.

Pick your level of AI automation (the X-axis) and this chart from Epoch AI will tell you what level of GDP growth to expect. The TL;DR is that “the fraction of labor tasks automated by AI doesn’t need to be very high to yield very large growth impacts.” Per the chart, if only 20% of tasks are automated, they expect GDP to grow at an unfathomable 10% per year.

Revenge of the dorks:

The Reddit gang is back and this time they’re betting on Dunkin Donuts, Opendoor, Rocket Companies and Kohl’s. Why those four? I doubt even an all-knowing AI could make sense of it. But if you think AI is about to take all the jobs, rolling the dice one last time in memestocks may be less irrational than it seems.

There’s a lot of dice rolling right now:

Data from Goldman Sachs shows that, as a percentage of overall activity, trading volumes in the most speculative stocks have rarely been higher than now. As an indicator, that is generally bullish before it’s bearish.

Tariffs have not slowed China’s export boom:

The more obvious reason for equities being at all-time highs is that the Liberation Day tariffs were not nearly as disruptive to the global economy as generally feared. China’s exports, for example, continue to boom. That show of strength may be why President Trump is reportedly more willing to make concessions to get a deal done.

China is flooding the world with cars:

I’m glad we still have an auto industry in the US, but if I could buy a high quality EV for $8,000, I would.

Humans remain in demand:

The Atlanta Fed’s wage tracker shows US wages growing at 4.2% — still well in excess of inflation (however measured).

Robots are not taking the jobs yet:

Against the popular narrative, the FT’s data analysts find that “US jobs at high risk from generative AI have not been more likely to shed young workers since ChatGPT launched.” (So far.)

False alarm: