As crypto momentum fades, hot money rotates into chip stocks and memory equities
Speculative capital that drove bitcoin’s 650% surge from November 2022 to October 2025 is now flowing into semiconductor and memory-related equities, marking a decisive shift away from cryptocurrency and toward AI infrastructure plays, according to analysis by James Van Straten.
Bitcoin climbed from approximately $15,000 in November 2022 to nearly $126,000 by October 2025, doubling from roughly $55,000 in September 2024 to $110,000 by January 2025. The rally coincided with Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory. Since that peak, bitcoin has entered a prolonged bear market, with investor attention pivoting elsewhere.
Gold followed a similar pattern, breaking out near $2,000 per ounce in early 2024 before climbing above $5,200 per ounce by February 2026. The precious metals rally was driven by what traders call the “debasement trade,” a bet on fiscal deficits and monetary expansion. Gold has since corrected nearly 20% and is currently trading around $4,400 per ounce.
“The crypto sector remains deeply out of favor, not only from a price perspective, but also in terms of investor sentiment,” Van Straten said. “Capital flows and market attention have increasingly shifted toward other high-growth sectors, lately semiconductors and memory-related equities, which have effectively replaced crypto as the market’s dominant momentum trade.”
Micron Technology exemplifies the shift. The memory chip manufacturer’s market capitalization surged from $70 billion one year ago to $1 trillion currently. NVIDIA, the AI-driven semiconductor giant, reached a peak near $225 per share in May 2026 before easing back to $212, signaling that even AI names are losing momentum to memory and semiconductor exposure.
The rotation extends beyond current public equities. Van Straten’s analysis suggests future hot money could flow toward upcoming initial public offerings, including SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic, though no specific timelines for those listings have been announced.
The sequential nature of these rotations reflects how speculative capital chases momentum across uncorrelated asset classes. Bitcoin’s bear market has not driven investors to safer holdings but rather redirected them toward the next perceived high-growth opportunity. Memory and semiconductor stocks now occupy the position cryptocurrency held during its 2023-2025 bull run.
Whether this rotation proves durable or represents another cycle in a pattern of speculative excess remains unclear. The historical precedent suggests capital will eventually move again, potentially toward the space and AI companies Van Straten identifies as candidates for future inflows.
