Why Smart Money Is Loading On Ethereum & Hyperliquid Over Bitcoin

**Hassan Basiri** (0:00)
I think Saylor puts a floor on it, and he also puts a ceiling on it. He owns, you know, I think he owns like 3-ish percent.
It's under five right now. And the main thing to realize is like, yeah, when stretches at 100 and MSG volatility is super high, so he can sell a ton of it and buy Bitcoin, he's definitely putting a floor on it.

**LGD** (0:19)
What's up, everybody? It's LGD who's out here, and welcome to The Milk Road Show, the daily crypto show that needs Bitcoin to score a World Cup hat-trick, even if it's starting to feel like it should just retire instead. Today is June 17th, 2026 This is a very odd bear market, okay? We have some of the biggest and best assets like Bitcoin kind of trending downwards, especially on the backs of potential sailor implosions, while other upcoming assets absolutely outperform assets like Hyperliquid, which fit the narrative of where this entire industry is going. Our guest today is a head of trading strategy, so he spends his days quite literally exploring these narratives and their impacts on markets. Hassan Basiri from FalconX is on with us today.
Before we get into it, listen, Milk Road Pro is on absolute fire. Our analysts have made 30 trades this month. Oh my God, they're going a little off a little too much. They've been selling a lot. They've been buying a lot. If you want to see what they're up to, their portfolios or watches, all that, it's in Milk Road Pro. It's just a dollar for trial, so go check it out. The link is below. Today's episode is brought to you by BitGet, Stocks 2 with real liquidity, real dividends, Nexo, Earn Interest, Borrow and Trade Crypto, and Caoshi, where your takes finally pay out. Hassan, what's up, man?

**Hassan Basiri** (1:26)
What's up, LG? How are you doing?

**LGD** (1:28)
I'm good, man. Listen, my first question for you, what does a head of trading strategy do? Because you've got your fancy set up there with all your analysts behind you. You guys have like 100 monitors. I feel like I'm watching a movie about Wall Street.
What do you do all day?

**Hassan Basiri** (1:43)
I'm a jack of all trades. I support the spot desk in execution. I support our DeFi market making team in terms of partnerships and structuring token market making deals as well as TVL deals.
Then I help explore options and derivatives for clients to try to put them into good structures or expressing views on certain coins or certain positions, whether that's Bitcoin, the majors or alts. We're getting into more esoteric derivatives as well where you could bet or speculate on Bitcoin dominance or micro strategy of NAV. So really trying to get clients to express views and figuring out how to best express that view with asymmetric returns and sitting between spot, DeFi and derivatives.

**LGD** (2:33)
So what do people want to express most these days?

**Hassan Basiri** (2:40)
Yeah. Right now, it's short crypto, long AI. That's the main expression.
Yeah, I know.
But seriously, I think people are on the fence right now because we've been bouncing off 60 a couple of times, and the reactions off 60 have got more and more complacent. It hasn't been as strong of a reaction as people would hope for. The main thing everyone's watching right now, sadly, and it's been widely reported, is the price of stretch and how that impacts Bitcoin. Obviously, stretch is not having a great day today. It's at 92 There are things that Saylor is doing to try to smooth the volatility and get that back to peg. It's not working right now. Recently, he's been, every week he'll sell, or the past two weeks, he sold $200 million of MSTR, taken 100 of that, 50 percent, bought Bitcoin, taken the other 50 percent, added it to a cash reserve.
Honestly, I don't think the market loves that. I think Bitcoin, you're seeing the price of Bitcoin, right? No one wants to step in front of that. No one wants to step in front of what everyone thinks is inevitable, which is that Saylor has to sell Bitcoin, not even because of a liquidation or something like that, but because I think if he sells some Bitcoin and bolsters his cash reserves, I think stretch naturally pegs and he smooths the market spheres. If you look back to two weeks ago, why did Bitcoin move from 70,000 to 60,000, 72,000, 60,000? It's not because Saylor sold, it's because people are front running Saylor selling, because he didn't sell. He sold 32 Bitcoin, he was trolling online, and then he turned around, sold a couple of hundred million of MSTR and bought Bitcoin. It's not giving the market confidence that he will do what it's necessary right now to re-peg stretch. Maybe he doesn't even want to do it or doesn't think he should, but that's what's causing the problems right now.