Bitcoin Stalls, Stocks Soar: The Disconnect That Defines This Cycle

Unchained

Laura Shin

News, Business News, Tech News

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Steve Sosnick on the ratchet effect in equities, the AI bandwidth parallel, Kevin Warsh’s impossible first week, and why crypto is the unsexy trade right now. --- Thank you to our sponsor! Coinbase: Get 20% off the first year of your Coinbase One annual plan at coinbase.com/unchained. Heads up! If you haven’t yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips, since the show will migrate there in a few weeks. Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Unchained⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and wherever you get your podcasts. ---- Equities are near all-time highs, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge just hit a multi-year peak, Iran ceasefire talks are producing a familiar ratchet effect in markets, and Bitcoin is quietly underperforming tech stocks on a nine-month volatility low. Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, joins Steve Ehrlich to map what’s actually driving these unique market dynamics. They cover the two vulnerabilities that could change things, the uncomfortable parallel between today’s AI capex and the 1999 bandwidth buildout, what $120 billion in money market inflows says about where retail cash is actually sitting, the challenge Kevin Warsh faces walking into an already-skeptical FOMC, and why crypto is currently losing the competition for momentum-chasing money to AI stocks, upcoming IPOs, and even a memory chip ETF. Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Steve Ehrlich, Head of Research at SharpLink and Host of Bits + Bips: The Interview - https://x.com/Steven_Ehrlich Guest: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Steve Sosnick — Chief Strategist at Interactive Brokers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The good thing at the time was that led to huge inflows and obviously price increases.
0:06.4	Bad news now is to a certain extent they're crypto tourists.
0:10.6	They can then say, you know what?
0:12.8	I bought insert name of crypto ETF or ETP here.
0:16.9	I bought this.
0:18.1	It did well for a while and now it's not, or I bought it at the highs, and I
0:23.2	mistimed it completely. Let me move to something else that if it was bought by performance
0:30.3	chasers in the first place, it's going to be sold by performance chasers as something else
0:35.6	outperforms it. That's not me taking a view one
0:39.2	way or the other on crypto as a long-term investment, but I do think that is a very important
0:45.7	consideration. You can't dismiss the importance of money flow. And for better or worse, you know, the huge success of crypto
0:58.5	ETFs was such a boon on the way up. But now this is the, you know, the flip side of that trade.
1:05.0	I'm not attributing it specifically to that, but it, to many investors now, it's one more sector among their speculative
1:14.7	momentum-based investments. Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Bits and Dips,
1:21.0	The Interview. My name is Steve Ehrlich. I am the head of research at Sharpling and also your host
1:26.3	for today. We've got another terrific episode, but before we begin, just a quick disclaimer,
1:32.0	nothing that you hear on the show should be construed as investment or financial advice
1:36.8	for full disclosures.
1:38.1	We see unchained crypto.com backslash bits and bibs.
1:42.6	And then finally, before we get started started let's take a brief moment to hear
1:45.7	from some of the sponsors who make the show possible if you've been loving bits and bibs don't
1:50.0	forget that the show is transitioning to its own feeds on x youtube and your favorite podcast
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 23 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Laura Shin, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Laura Shin and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.