u/Independent_Plum_489

Was out at dinner with a friend last week and he tells me he sold all his ETH. Went all in on meme coins. Said it's not moving and holding is just a pure waste of time.

I didn't push back. Look at the chart, he's not wrong.

But that night it kept bugging me. Couldn't sleep, ended up doomscrolling through a bunch of crypto stuff.

TH ETFs pulled in over 12 billion this year alone. BlackRock is out here pushing staking products. And that's pretty much all institutional money, retail doesn't really buy through ETFs.

On chain doesn't look dead either. Exchange balances keep dropping, people are withdrawing and obviously not planning to dump. Checked Arkham and a few tagged institutional wallets have been adding.

Supply side might be the wildest part. More than half of all ETH is staked right now. Not a whole lot actually floating around. Supply locked up, demand trickling in, and the price just sits there.

Pulled up my contract data on bydfi and open interest has been creeping up while funding rate stays negative. Shorts are paying to hold their positions but price won't break down. Somebody is absorbing all of it on the other side.

Zoom out and it starts to look less random than people think. Retail sees the chart, says ETH is dead, and bounces. Institutions see the numbers, think it's cheap, and keep buying. Fear and greed is bottomed out but money keeps coming in.

Every time retail panics while institutions quietly stack, seems like we already know how that ends. I'd rather be wrong holding ETH than be right holding a meme coin that rugs next week.

I quit my video editing job two years ago because my wife was having health problems and there was a lot of family stuff happening. I only quit after I checked that we had enough savings to hold us over for a while, I wanted to take care of her first before thinking about anything else. She finally started getting better this year, but looking at whats left in our savings I knew I couldnt keep waiting around, so I started looking for work. Sent out hundreds of resumes, went to interviews at over a dozen places, and either they just dont reply or they tell me oh the position is filled already. I dont even know if thats real or just a nice way of saying no.

Last week I got an interview at this place doing short form video stuff. Started out normal, what tools do you use, how do you use them, the usual. I told him I edit in DaVinci Resolve and CapCut and I try out newer tools when they come along. Then he asked about AI video tools and I said I dont really rely on them but if theres a scene that needs extending or some motion that would cost too much to reshoot I'll use dreamina seedance 2.0 to fill in the gaps and blend it into the final cut. After that it was just AI AI AI. Would you be ok doing everything with AI, how much time does it save,how proficient are you blah blah blah. I told him look I like doing things myself. Though I use AI sometimes but its not whole and not my good at. Then he said they want a more versatile employee and I kinda already knew where that was going so we ended the conversation. No call back, it is what it is.

This probably sounds dramatic but I really do feel like ive fallen out of touch with everything. Sometimes I think I shouldnt have quit. But if I got to choose again id still do it, theres nothing more important than my wife being healthy. Im not here asking for money or anything like that, just wanted to get this out there and maybe hear some advice if anyone has any...Should I go all in on learning AI tools or keep looking for places that value traditional editing skills?