VC
VISTEON CORPORATION
stock NASDAQ

What smaller companies, the ones who are stunted at birth by the European business and VC environment?
Well it is not working for Europe, because they have the least business friendly environment in the west.

There’s been something cooking since 2023 but really gaining traction from September 2024. I’ve been following it for almost a year now, and I feel like I need to share what I’ve observed.
I come from the TradFi world — a few years in banking, then hedge funds, then infrastructure. **The 2008 crisis was my wake-up call, and I eventually walked away to live my own story**. Old habits die hard though: I still like running models, digging into numbers, and checking if the narratives hold up.
What I stumbled upon feels like a hybrid — part token, part movement, part something else entirely. I don’t think it’s fully understood yet. Some people compare it to the GameStop saga (I even saw a GME OG say that here on Reddit). That got me curious enough to manually pull some data, especially around social engagement, which seems to be the main driver.
If DeepFuckingValue was the “main character” of GME starting September 2019, then **Murad Mahmudov has been playing that role here since September 2024 on X**.
So, I did the boring work: I pulled every single post from DFK on Reddit (starting 09/08/2019, GME) and lined them up against every post from Murad on X (starting 09/12/2024) exactly five years apart. Then I compared Reddit upvotes vs X likes, side by side.
**What surprised me was how similar the patterns look**. On Reddit you upvote, on X you like — different buttons, same signal. **Engagement stayed steady during the entire first year, roughly \~2k per post, even while the price was swinging up and down.**
That’s the quiet phase nobody notices. The moment when you’re not just stacking numbers, you’re quietly assembling an army.
**Another coincidence I couldn’t ignore: the numbers line up almost perfectly with early Bitcoin.** Back in summer 2013, BTC’s market cap was around $1B, with roughly 250k addresses holding. **Today, this thing sits at almost the exact same market cap — about $1B — and the holder count is in the same ballpark, \~200–250k.**
**Another detail that really stood out: the distribution is unusually clean**. The largest wallet only holds \~3% of the supply, the contract is renounced, and 6.9% of the initial supply was burned. That leaves 931M tokens in circulation — fixed, no future dilution. **Bubble Maps confirmed it was a fair launch**: no team allocation, no paid KOLs, no flashy airdrops, no VC wallets waiting to dump. It looks… genuinely organic.
And the way it handled volatility is not what you usually see. **This thing already went through several drawdowns of more than -90%.** Normally that’s where projects die. But here, the number of wallets *kept growing*. People didn’t bail — they kept DCA’ing in.
The wallet stats made it even stranger. The median wallet holds about $460, while the average wallet sits north of $31k\*\*. So, it’s not just a crowd of tiny gamblers — there are serious positions across thousands of people.\*\* And it’s not confined to one chain either: there are holders on Ethereum, Solana, Base, even Sui.
What makes it even harder to classify is the culture around it. Numbers are one thing, but the energy here feels completely different. And don’t just take my word for it — you can check the subreddit or scroll through X yourself if you want to feel the vibe.
The language the community uses is unusual. Instead of “buy the dip” or “wen moon,” you hear mantras like ***stop trading and believe in something***\*\*,\*\* ***persist forever***\*\*,\*\* ***flip the stock market***. It’s not about chasing short-term pumps — it’s framed almost like a long-term mission, even a kind of protest.
**The parallels are striking. Like Bitcoin in 2013, it’s misunderstood and hard to define (people call it a “pure belief asset” or even “spiritual gold”). Like GameStop, it’s openly adversarial toward TradFi, with that same underdog vs system dynamic. And like Dogecoin, it survives on raw memetic energy — jokes, aesthetics, culture — things that normally don’t survive multiple -90% crashes… but somehow this one has.**
**The mission itself is much bigger than a short squeeze. The idea is to literally flip the stock market**. That sounds absurd on the surface but so did “a video game retailer can bring Wall Street to its knees,” or “a meme coin with a dog can reach tens of billions.” **Absurdity has a history of becoming reality in finance when belief scales.**
So, what is it?
**It’s called SPX6900.**
I’m not here to tell you to buy it. Maybe I’m too biased, maybe I’m just seeing patterns that aren’t there. But the numbers, the culture, the resilience… they remind me of something I thought I’d never see twice in my lifetime.
**Reddit knows what it feels like when belief turns into a movement**. We lived through GME. We saw how absurdity became reality when enough people refused to let go.
And honestly — **who among us wouldn’t want to be part of a fight that epic again?**
**Who wants to know what happens if this time they can’t cancel the buy button?**

Trueeee, their VC money has Banks written all over it. They are here to specifically block it from scaling.

After you have fully funded your retirement, you should you excess on riskier bets. Options on companies with high conviction, real estate, VC, etc.

The book seems to be focused on the VC method, which is to scatter shot and double down on the few big winners. This works if you have a lot of liquidity and some insider knowledge but for the rest of us it's tough to pull off.

Why?
At this point, to the actual stockholder value of Tesla, a single pink slip would be preferable for the company.
The reality is Elon is specifically harming the company by being linked to it.
This move seems...odd. It feels like it's attempting to funnel assets out. There's no practical reason for it. There's no value to it. Elon's "brand identity" has very low value. You could literally force him out of the company and be better off today. So...why a $1T payout? They're not exactly flush with cash. Is this a way to pull money out of Tesla to VC some other project? Are they gutting Tesla through Elon?

My guess: Infiltration by intelligence agencies or catering to VC friends and colleagues in the crypto industry

Sorry for the late response. Yes – I’m investing pre-IPO, since I work in VC.
To give you a few names: in 2025 I invested (again) in **Groq, SkildAI and LambdaAI**. Groq and Lambda are both aiming for IPO in 2026 – though based on past experience, I expect delays or changes.
The key for me is to stay consistent and keep investing regularly, especially when I feel I have an information edge. At this point, I only focus on **later-stage rounds with Tier-1 co-investors**.
The biggest challenge is always **access**. It’s gotten a bit easier for me, but not always. For example, I missed Anthropic at the $14B valuation in 2023 simply because I was too slow.
Another issue in pre-IPO investing is the **wrappers / cost layers**. Very rarely do you invest directly – usually it’s via an SPV, and often there are multiple layers, each taking a cut. That makes investors much less flexible.

And so it should have been back then, it was new, nascent and rife with all types of shenaniganry.

Yes the Dems have been harder on crypto but 1. Trump never did anything for crypto in his previous term and also slandered it. He is only backing it now because it could be used politically and the Silicon VC's were willing to turncoat just to get their aim of getting crypto pushed which of course thankfully is happening, For me it is how it has been done. I have no issue with it being the republicans having been the ones pushing it, the problem is Trump and the association with him, he should have just approved all relevant regulations and just shut up about it, now unless you're a MAGA cuck or some right wing/libertarian type/someone who was already into crypto you now see crypto as not only a scam after FTX/Luna etc but associated with the no1 grifter in the world.
Not good for crypto, crypto will be fine long term but this is a set back in public perception.

I think crypto needs a rebrand tbh but no matter what in a few years everyone will be using crypto but it will be the back end rails and they won't even know they're using it.

# Stripe enlists a who’s who, including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Paradigm, to build a new blockchain
Stripe is funding a new blockchain company called Tempo, co-founder CEO Patrick Collison announced on Thursday. Tempo is aimed at high-volume processing of stablecoins — coins that help reduce crypto’s notorious volatility because they are pegged to a stable asset like the U.S. dollar. That’s not surprising given that Stripe acquired stablecoin company Bridge.
What is surprising is the eye-popping list of companies Stripe has already enlisted: Anthropic, Coupang, Deutsche Bank, DoorDash, Lead Bank, Mercury, Nubank, OpenAI, Revolut, Shopify, Standard Chartered, and Visa. So if the blockchain works well, these design partners should be queued up to use or offer it for everything from agentic payments to remittances.
Plus, Stripe board member Matt Huang, co-founder of one of the most prestigious crypto VC firms, Paradigm, has signed on to lead Tempo. Paradigm has also invested. Collison says Tempo will be run as an independent company.
[https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/04/stripe-enlists-a-whos-who-including-anthropic-openai-and-paradigm-to-build-a-new-blockchain/?utm\_campaign=social&utm\_source=linkedin&utm\_medium=organic](https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/04/stripe-enlists-a-whos-who-including-anthropic-openai-and-paradigm-to-build-a-new-blockchain/?utm_campaign=social&utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=organic)
**What do you guys think of this? Bad for ETH?**

I think you mean when VC money dried up

Depends on the term sheet. A VC that owns 1% but manages to install 2 board members for a one-man startup, means that they get to own the vote on literally any decision.

Everyone thinks WSB is full of degens because of 0DTEs, but VC operates on the same principle. Throw tons of money at a plethora of garbage in small denominations, and the one bet that hits can be like a 100x play. The only difference is liquidity, prove me wrong.

So in the broader AI market, you have startups like OpenAI, Anthropic, X.AI, etc that are deeply unprofitable and burning cash. These generally rely on cloud providers for inference. You also got a lot of much smaller startups. Over half of VC funding this year is to AI startups.
Broadcom sells more to larger tech companies, such as cloud providers, seeking custom chips to avoid depending on Nvidia and cut costs.
The issue here is fierce competition. Even if AI keeps growing, you have Nvidia, Broadcom, AMD, Huawei, and others entering the market. If Broadcom grows, it comes at the expense of Nvidia, for example.
That's the issue with 50-100x P/E valuations. It assumes that they will face no competition, that there will not be pressures on margins.

Because there are companies like D-Wave that already have commercialized techniques. AMD has been continuing the Xilinx contributions to this space for error mitigation. The sure sign that we are actually on the cusp for more significant commercialization that moves beyond R&D are MOU like these between significant big players. This isn't just AMD doing a VC in something that may or may not pan put. This is IBM and AMD commited to bring a solution to market by 2029. I'm real not interested in what some YouTube nay sayer want people to think. Pay attention to what the major players are doing and committing themselves and capital towards.

OpenAI is burning through a shit ton of capital and needs new VC money to sustain it. They initiated a small private IPO where they are valuing OpenAI at 500billion because insiders are getting restless and want to unload some heavy bags to SoftBank etc.. Same entity that thought WeWork was an amazing investment.
Eventually SoftBank etc.. will probably try to initiate an IPO in mid 2026 the problem is Will they be able to keep the charade long enough where they can exit with a profit before the music stops and they are left without the chair. That is to be determined.
Look at Figma. A bunch of folks loaded up in the 80-120 range and now that IPO has cratered to the 55's range. Figma actually makes a profit Vs OpenAI.

Its the rate of dilution which is important, not that there is any.
We can look at another speculative deep tech research stock which has far less proven tech & far more expenses, QuantumScape, and see how it compares.
QS also has necessary dilution of ~20%, half of what Aduro's is, and that is over the past 5 years, not 6 months. While dealing with stuff on a far bigger scale.
Aduro's product is their stock, not what they are building. What they have isn't groundbreaking nor that scalable. They have absolutely no buy in from any institutions or VC funds, all they truly have is one shell executive saying "validate it over 3 years and we can work together" and they call it a partnership.
Audro went public too early via to fleece retail, you can try and blind yourself as much as you want.
as far as milestones:
> NGP build + commissioning (extruder, reactor, recovery system) with Zeton & Siemens.
This isn't "with zeton & Simens", thats just their vendors. If you give them money, they will build whatever you want. It isn't an endorsement of their tech.
>Cold-to-wet integrated campaigns beginning Sept/Oct 2025.
This is just them using whatever they built.
>Shell GameChanger Graduation
you graduate regardless, its a 3 year program. it doesnt derisk anything.
>Alignment remains strong: Insiders still hold ~36%, which is very high for a microcap. Institutions are just beginning increase, leaving a broad retail base—but that retail base also positions Aduro for an outsized rerate when institutions step in.
ADUR insiders had a lock up period until May 6th I believe. So they could not sell until recently. Doesn't really show much of anything.. except when you look at the stock price over that time and see that it was basically flat. After May 6th, there started being a lot more media and retail attention. They started generating hype & marketing around ADUR, and its only growth coincidentally has only been since that lockout period ended. Just a fun tidbit.
>Early-stage lens: In venture-style investing, dilution is the currency of progress. What matters is how the company exicutes with it—here, Aduro has bought a funded path to proof-of-scale, validation by a global major, and visibility at the right industry tables.
If they were that focused on execution, why are they distracting themselves so much with an IPO, jumping through all the filing hoops you have to as a public company, etc. If anything it shows poor management, and an inability to raise from traditional pre-ipo sources.

S-Tier – The Gods of Crypto
These are the “if crypto survives, these thrive” assets. Institutions love them. Real-world adoption is happening or inevitable.
- BTC – Digital gold. ETF-approved. Global brand. Narrative always survives.
- ETH – Still the best L1 for devs + infra. L2 boom continues. Strong burn + staking dynamics.
- LINK – If crypto is the new financial layer, LINK is the middleware glue. Now finally catching up in price. Golden egg.
A-Tier – Smart, Strong, Undervalued
Legit tech, dev traction, real use-cases, but either slept on or waiting for a catalyst.
- AVAX – Subnets narrative is building again. Underrated scaling solution. Massive gov/enterprise push.
- ADA – Slow but steady. Still has a cult, and Charles is playing 4D chess on integration deals.
- SUI – Top-tier tech. Narrative building as Solana-style L1 with better throughput. Tokenomics improving.
- INJ – Ecosystem quietly exploding. DeFi + AI crossover narratives. Token burns insane.
- NEAR – L2-style scaling narrative, strong VC backing. New chain abstraction tools gaining steam.
- TAO (Bittensor) – Frontier AI play. Hard to value, but has massive upside if decentralized AI hits.
B-Tier – The Rotational Rockets
Will moon hard when the rotation hits, but often lack staying power or long-term stickiness.
- SOL – High TPS, cheap gas, and finally some respect. Still VC-heavy. Trading like it wants $200+.
- FET / AGIX / OCEAN – AI narrative bucket. FET is the cleanest play, but merger risk looms.
- RNDR – GPU rendering is niche, but Metaverse/AI gives it legs.
- PYTH – Oracle + data infrastructure, similar to LINK. Less tested. Risk/reward sharp.
C-Tier – Narrative Only / Exit Liquidity Zone
Might pump. Probably will. But you’re playing hot potato with VCs and insiders.
- APT / OP / ARB – L2s are strong narratives, but inflation and VC unlocks are real headwinds.
- DOGE / SHIB / PEPE – Memes will meme, but retail has PTSD. Still, never underestimate the power of stupidity in numbers.
- ICP – Big tech idea. Small retail trust. Might surprise, but also might vanish into nerd hell.
D-Tier – Zombie Chains / Washed Tech
These had their moment. It passed. Low conviction, but could catch a bounce.
- XRP – Lawsuit won, hype done, no product-market fit. Still moves on boomer news cycles.
- BCH / LTC / ETC – Legacy alts. Ghosts of bull runs past.
F-Tier – Scams, Vapor, & Terminally Ill Tokens
If you’re holding these, it’s probably for the memes or the copium.
- HEX / PULSE – Cults and ponzinomics. Exit already.
- CRO – Burned their goodwill. Exchange narrative fading.
- TRX – Justin Sun’s plaything. Somehow still alive.
Bonus: Rotational Strategy for Degens
- Sept = Accumulation phase – Red month historically. Final discount window.
- Oct–Nov = ETH + L1 run
- Nov–Jan = Altseason rotation (AI, DeFi, NFTs, etc.)
- Dec–Feb = Massive distribution phase… scale out 75%, hold moon bags

Public vehicles for private investments are deeply flawed. There’s a massive liquidity mismatch, which can create very disjointed pricing.
If you really want private tech exposure I would just go overweight the Mag7 names. Each of these companies is essentially its own mini VC firm.

Yeah - I think a dip tomorrow of maybe 2% on markets broadly speaking and then rebound.
Seems to be popular opinion there will be rate cuts 17th so Im expecting a dip in my stocks (asia & tech) just before with a rebound after, so looking to buy that dip.
Of course, not advice. Lots of risk - huge PE for use tech, VC funding at 10 year low in China but there is a stimulus drive. I'm bullish but also skittish - could rapidly fall so I have to watch with more frequency that i normally would