The Frontier

Austin Barack shifted Relayer Capital's portfolio allocation to 95% liquid tokens. Barack targets the intersection of growth and value, taking advantage of extreme cyclical pricing in public markets where fast-growing projects are temporarily mispriced.

Austin Barack models Venice's VVV token at a fair value of $43.89 by 2027. This valuation relies on Venice scaling from $107 million in annualized revenue to $336 million, paired with programmatic token buybacks and burns hitting $70 million.

Austin Barack's bullish Venice model assumes 40% of its 2027 token burns will stem from 'Minds,' an upcoming AI application store. While unreleased, Barack justifies this assumption using the rapid growth of Venice's API credit purchases.

Stripe's acquisition of OpenRouter for $7 billion validates the multi-model AI routing sector. Austin Barack argues this high-profile deal supports an expanded valuation multiple for Venice, which maintains a direct relationship with consumer end-users.

Austin Barack observes that crypto tokens suffered from structural negative capital drift for 18 months as funds exited for equities and AI. However, Barack notes that fundamental revenue-generating tokens are reversing this trend and decoupling from Bitcoin.

Austin Barack claims the Pump token is undervalued at a 5x buyback multiple compared to Hyperliquid's 30x multiple. Barack argues that Pump operates as a highly durable speculative casino business deserving of a 10x earnings multiple.

Hyperliquid continues to capture massive trading volume by expanding into real-world asset markets and pre-IPO price discovery. Austin Barack highlights the platform's cycle reflexivity, noting daily trading fees spiked from $1 million to $5 million.

EtherFi successfully pivoted from liquid restaking to a neobrokerage model, with 65% of revenue now driven by credit cards and borrowing. Only 35% of EtherFi's business remains tied to traditional staking yields.

EtherFi runs programmatic token buybacks funded by credit card interchange fees. Austin Barack projects these buybacks will reach up to $30 million over the next year, driving the token price over $1 at a standard financial multiple.

To scale its borrowing services efficiently, EtherFi deployed a custom instance of Aave V4. This setup uses an 80/20 revenue share split in EtherFi's favor, allowing the team to remain lean while managing millions in user debt.

The balance of crypto sector revenue has shifted from infrastructure to applications. Austin Barack points out that applications now generate two-thirds of total industry revenue, a major reversal from the era when execution layers captured 95%.