₿ Conviction

Quarterly Altcoin Spotlight: Decentralized AI Compute Faces a Demand Problem Despite Surging Inference Costs

Bittensor aims to be a decentralized marketplace for AI services, but six years in, the network has just 129 active subnets with flat growth, subnet creation spending dropped 48 percent quarter-over-quarter, and daily transactions fell 26 percent even as the broader AI industry booms. At 11.36 percent annualized token inflation with no direct fee or burn mechanism, TAO holders face persistent dilution absent speculative demand. The concept is sound, but execution gaps and fading builder interest make this too complex to underwrite with conviction at this stage.

Crypto Absorbs Historic Yield Spike as CPI Looms

The front end of the Treasury curve repriced violently today, with the 2-year yield posting one of its largest single-session increases in nearly a decade. Markets now assign roughly 70% odds to a September hike and are pricing approximately three rate increases over the next year. Despite this, the digital asset complex absorbed the move with notable composure — ETH/BTC actually rose on the session while ETH itself declined only modestly in absolute terms. That relative resilience matters.

The ₿ Conviction model portfolio — current allocation and positioning, updated alongside each Weekly Deep Dive.

Store of value (bitcoin and ether) is 36.66 percent, with onchain perps and options (LIT, DRV) at 12.83 percent, consumer/fast-trading (PUMP) at 12.81 percent, memecoins (USELESS, SPX, PENGU, ANSEM) at 6.16 percent, stablecoins (ENA, CRCL) at 5.96 percent, AI and digital identity (WLD) at 2.36 percent, and crypto financial services (COIN) at 0.57 percent,…