At some point during the course of a typical cycle, those that were always right suddenly appear to be absolutely right – but at this point, it's far too late to actually do anything about it.
We've reached this point.
I've experienced the entire cycle from 2019 through 2022 and into 2023, including the DeFi boom of 2020, the NFT madness of 2021, the crash of 2022 that wiped out half of crypto believers, and the build up in institutions that quietly took place in 2023.
And today, in May 2026, we are experiencing something that feels much more like the beginning of 2020 than anything else that I have witnessed before.
Here is how I see things playing out over the next 90 days.

The Signal Nobody Wants To Hear

And the best signal in every market is the signal that is boring.
It isn't the headline-grabbing signal. It isn't the tweet by the crypto thought leader. The dull, slow, structural signal that won't get clicks.
And right now the signal is that: institutions are not looking at crypto as a hedge. They're looking at crypto as infrastructure.
This is completely different.
Hedges get bought; hedges get sold when conditions change. Infrastructure doesn't get sold; infrastructure gets built. Nobody sells off their internet connection just because the market is down.
This idea of "crypto as a hedge" versus "crypto as infrastructure" is not particularly interesting news-wise. But it will completely redefine your approach to the next year or two.

What AI Agents Actually Mean For Your Portfolio

Even a few weeks ago when I wrote a piece on AI agents coming into crypto, it was clear from the discussion that the average person still sees AI in crypto as a bit of a gimmick – chatbot-style nonsense.
They're way off base on this one. The way AI agents work in crypto and the view of many retail investors on that are misaligned but one of the best opportunities out there right now.
The Essentials: Crypto AI Will Be More Than Just Chatbots. These systems function as completely independent economic agents. They can possess wallets, have the ability to make payments for various goods or services, and even earn money, all without human interference, and 24 hours a day.
It’s not fiction. This technology is already up and running on various blockchains.
The focus isn't about whether AI agents will affect the crypto sphere, which is a foregone conclusion. In other words, it's a discussion about what you want to have long-duration exposure to before it becomes mainstream realization.
Forget the ticker play here – I’m definitely not giving you that. The industries I am closely monitoring? The success of regular use cases does not play a role. Despite this, infrastructure focuses on limits for AI agents.

The Quiet Shift Happening In How Crypto Gets Valued

In the early days of crypto, there was only one approach: speculating on future adoption.
You invested in Bitcoin because you thought even more people would invest in Bitcoin in the future. You invested in ETH because you thought even more people would require ETH to use Ethereum in the future. The whole idea was an investment in future demand.
That remains true today. But something else has emerged along the way, and it will prove more resilient.
Crypto that actually earns money.
Protocols that actually make money. Validators that actually create yields. Businesses on the blockchain that have real revenues. Real assets that can be valued using discounted cash flows, just like any other dividend stock.
It is a small niche within the space at the moment. But it is growing. And once the rest of the market moves from speculation to fundamental valuations (which it always will), that gap is going to become very wide.
Where do you want to be in all of that?

Why Most Retail Investors Will Miss This

The unpleasant truth here is that this kind of scenario does not excite anyone.
There is no shiny new chain in town. The viral tweet is still waiting to happen. The person writing viral content about "the boring structural change" doesn't exist yet. And nobody is becoming instantly richer.
Those that have a chance of benefiting from the events that are taking place right now will be those who can endure their boring thesis until it becomes clear enough for everyone else.
This has always been the case. Bitcoin surviving to eventually achieve institutional status was not a sexy idea in 2019. Everyone who believed in it, stuck around until 2020-2021 and endured the crypto crash, became a millionaire by doing so, simply because that thesis turned out to be true.
I am definitely not predicting that we are back in 2019. Each cycle is unique. But the pattern of "quiet structural change → nobody gets it at first → then it becomes obvious → too late to act on it" has occurred enough times for me to recognize it.

What I'm Actually Doing

I'll go ahead and be honest, because I find that more helpful than cryptic guidance.
I am not taking major positions. I am not overleveraging myself. I am not exiting the majority of my BTC/ETH position.
What I am doing:

Increasing my exposure to cash flow producing protocols, at the expense of pure story tokens
Carefully considering which artificial intelligence project is actually gaining momentum on chain (not just in their white paper)
Holding more dry powder than seems necessary, because the opportunities are those times when everyone else wants to sell

That's the one I get wrong more than anything else. Being prepared for those moments is worth more than being right about the coin itself.
Opportunity does not come from calling coins. It shows up when the market is down and sentiment is poor and keeping any crypto at all feels foolish.

The One Question Worth Asking

Take this at least away from all this:
When the next cycle starts and it certainly will, will you be ready to act or will you be playing catch-up?
The difference between the two is not whether one side has more intelligence than the other, but whether they have done the dirty work that needs to be done when the going gets quiet.
The quiet changes always come before the big noise.
This is the quiet period.

I have been writing about cryptocurrency since 2019 for Publish0x. If you found this helpful, please tip me to continue writing and know that your tip means the world to me. Post your thoughts in the comments below, are you getting the same signals, or am I just crazy?ShareContent