Crypto is finally shaking off the “get rich quick” reputation that has defined the industry for more than a decade according to Nansen founder and CEO Alex Svanevik — and it’s not just because nobody’s getting rich right now.
“Crypto assets have kind of been like the ‘toy world’ era of blockchains. And now we’re moving into the real-world era, where you see tokenized stocks, you see people trading indices like the S&P 500 and Hyperliquid,” Svanevik tells Magazine on the Trade Secrets show.
“I think the interesting spot that blockchains are in right now is that they are basically giving a lot of room for non-crypto assets,” Svanevik says.
There are a couple of blockchains that Svanevik is particularly bullish on. While Hyperliquid has captured a lot of attention in the industry recently, Svanevik says Solana is still one of the strongest long-term blockchain ecosystems despite its reputation as the home of meme coins.
Industry has a ‘ridiculous’ misconception about Solana
“There’s been this view that Solana is just for meme coins, which I think is completely ridiculous,” Svanevik says, arguing that there is a lot more to the blockchain, given the “incredible team” behind it.
“Maybe the most effective BD team, if we think broadly, behind that chain; they really are here to win,” Svanevik says.
Solana’s price is down 9.60% over the past 30 days. Source: CoinMarketCap
However, he is not putting any bets on what that means for the SOL price in the coming twelve months:
“I think Solana overall as an ecosystem and as a chain is going to do well. I don’t know what that means for the SOL price. I mean intuitively you’d imagine that it’s gonna go up based on what I’m saying.”
Svanevik is one of the crypto industry’s best informed pundits, considering the company he leads, Nansen, is a blockchain analytics firm that tracks millions of labeled wallets and analyzes user activity across networks. Svanevik founded Nansen in 2019 alongside Lars Bakke Krogvig and Evgeny Medvedev.
A few years afterward, Svanevik expanded his involvement in the industry, joining the advisory board of penguin-themed NFT collection Pudgy Penguins in August 2022.
Svanevik is also bullish on the Ethereum layer-2 network, Robinhood chain, which launched on July 1 this year.
“Robinhood seems to kind of rise up as like a big contender to Base. It’s really interesting because Robinhood has such excellent distribution,” Svanevik says. Unfortunately for traders looking to get in early on a trade, he isn’t convinced that Robinhood will launch a token.
“They clearly don’t need to, right? A lot of projects launched tokens as a way to bootstrap excitement in a user base,” Svanevik says.
He also argues that it would be counterintuitive for Robinhood to launch a product that competes with its own stock, given the company is listed on the Nasdaq. “You should just channel all of that value into the HOOD stock. That’s kind of the first thought,” Svanevik says.
“They’ve been able to launch Robinhood chain and get tons of traction without a token.”
Bitcoin may be near a bottom
When it comes to Bitcoin’s price outlook, Svanevik says the market may be approaching a bottom, suggesting that the current level around $60,000 could mark Bitcoin’s cycle low.
Bitcoin is up 1.50% over the past 30 days. Source: CoinMarketCap
“My personal view is that I don’t think Bitcoin’s gonna go back below $60,000,” Svanevik says. “I think that’s the past... I think forever,” he says. He bases this on the belief that Bitcoin serves as a hedge against central bank money creation, and he doesn’t see the global monetary expansion cycle coming to an end anytime soon.
Bitcoin analysts have been divided over whether the cryptocurrency has already found its bottom after falling to around $60,000 in early February, before bouncing, dipping below the level again and now trading largely sideways.
Veteran crypto investor Michael Terpin recently told Cointelegraph that the asset still has further to fall before hitting rock bottom.
“We still have more pain to go,” Terpin told Cointelegraph on the Trade Secrets show. Terpin said that Bitcoin will ultimately fall “66%” from its October 2025 all-time high of $126,100. “I think that brings us down into the 40s, and I think that’s about where we’re gonna go,” Terpin said.
