Over the past three to five years in the investment world, market dynamics have been shaken by a wave of rapid and intense innovation unprecedented in scale, from the emergence of cryptocurrencies to the breakthrough development of AI.
The most critical challenge for today's investors is not merely jumping at every opportunity but developing strategies to clearly distinguish between "temporary hype" and "world-changing disruptive innovation."
At MONEY FEST 2026, the most comprehensive investment festival of the year, this topic was seriously addressed in a session. "Tech to Wealth: Technology Changes the Game, Money Changes Hands" As the world of technology advances faster than anyone expected, how can one accurately analyze the game?
The discussion featured Golf - Thanawin from the 'Long Invest' Facebook page, interviewing two gurus from the tech and crypto sectors. Sanjay - Sanchai Popli, co-founder and CEO of Cryptomind Group Holdings, . and Joe - Dr. Korn Poonsiriwong, Chief Strategy Officer and Director of Binance TH Academy, Binance TH by Gulf Binance. They delved into every perspective, examining which assets today are mere hype and which ones are worth long-term attention.
One major phenomenon that has shaken the investment world significantly is FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out, where investors follow trends out of fear of missing gains, overshadowing true intrinsic value analysis.
Both Sanjay and Dr. Korn cited important real-life lessons, noting that while technological advancements create new investment opportunities, some are not sustainable. Examples include:
Especially following the COVID-19 crisis, government stimulus efforts fueled a tech boom spanning crypto, metaverse, DeFi, and now AI and robotics. "The warning sign is when valuations start to become irrationally excessive—that's when the market becomes dangerous," Sanjay said.
From a strategic viewpoint, both see that once information reaches retail investors broadly, liquidity is about to be drained. "If one day market vendors start advising to buy Bitcoin, that’s a danger sign," Dr. Korn remarked. Investing without understanding the ecosystem is merely passing on risk to others at the final moments.
In a liquidity-driven market, it is crucial for investors to ask themselves if they have taken profits at 100-200% gains or cut losses at 10-15%. Without such discipline, profits will ultimately turn into losses.
AI has moved beyond a mere trend to a true productivity revolution. However, investment strategies are shifting from speculative buying of major players like Nvidia to a "Pick and Shovel" approach—investing in bottlenecks or infrastructure suppliers critical to the industry.
Sanjay views AI technology as still in its infancy, a baby step with explosive growth potential, yet from an investment perspective, AI stocks are already priced into the entire supply chain—from early players like Nvidia and memory chip makers (e.g., Micron, SanDisk) to energy providers.
Dr. Korn shares this view and adds that AI can continue advancing, but investment focus should shift from chasing highly valued large companies such as OpenAI or Anthropic to identifying bottlenecks within the ecosystem's infrastructure.
"It's like a gold rush era; instead of digging for gold yourself, you should sell picks and shovels to the miners," Dr. Korn explained, citing investments in data center cooling systems as an example.
They also raised concerns about cybersecurity and AI security, emphasizing that the most worrisome issue is AI agents now capable of reasoning and communicating independently, hacking the internet and performing tasks autonomously with little regard for rules, highlighting that AI security and cybersecurity will become critical themes moving forward.
With AI serving as the "brain" becoming stable and mature, the next step is connecting it to the "body," focusing on robotics, which is evolving from basic motion robots to highly sophisticated systems.
"Robotics will be the next big trend accessible to the general public after AI," Sanjay said, noting that robot hardware prices are expected to decline over time, similar to mobile phones.
Dr. Korn shared observations from China where robotic chefs are now sold for about one million baht, capable of working 24 hours continuously without quality variation.
Consequently, the forthcoming issue is labor replacement by robots in service and industrial sectors, presenting a major wave that will create wealth through cost reduction and massive productivity gains, though labor concerns remain urgent and need addressing.
The crypto market is currently entering an "Institutional Maturation" phase, growing through financial institutions, shifting from a dream-selling era to a Revenue Meta era where projects must generate real income to be valued.
They differ in views on the 4-year cycle: Dr. Korn remains confident that the 4-year cycle will continue driving gradual market uptrends, whereas Binance founder CZ believes it might shift to 5-6 years or possibly end altogether. Dr. Korn notes that if the cycle holds, crypto markets should improve next year.
Sanjay argues that the 4-year cycle no longer fits the current crypto market due to structural changes from institutional capital via Bitcoin Spot ETFs and Options markets, resulting in changed market behavior and significantly reduced volatility, with the latest drawdown at only 38-40% compared to historic highs of 77%.
Moreover, crypto has entered the Revenue Meta and Revenue Beta phases, no longer driven by speculative dreams but by coins and platforms with real revenue and use cases, with investors increasingly evaluating valuations realistically.
Regarding Bitcoin price strategy, both agree that $72,000 is a critical psychological and structural support level. Holding above this could lead to tests of $90,000-$100,000 targets, but falling below the previous all-time high of $69,000 would be a negative signal potentially leading to new lows under $59,000.
They addressed the question, "Are there any assets expected to grow 1,000%?"
Sanjay believes such 1,000% or 100X returns are harder to find due to market maturity but encourages studying companies in the robotics supply chain as a growing trend, noting these stocks will soon enter his portfolio.
Dr. Korn highlights opportunities in the East (China), where AI development competes with the West via Open Weight Models and government-supported chip development. If Chinese chips can catch up to Nvidia’s capabilities, Western chip stocks might decline, creating new opportunities for Chinese stocks.
He emphasized the golden rule of investing: use only "cold money" that can be held for up to 10 years, never invest "hot money" needed for daily expenses like housing, car payments, or tuition. He concluded, "Investors cannot always beat the market; the key is to conquer oneself," setting clear discipline on when to take profits and cut losses.
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