A private survey circulated by Korean crypto KOL Joshua (MOZAIK) points to a sharp shift in focus inside the crypto commentary crowd. Out of roughly 120 KOLs approached, 55 gave detailed responses. Among them, 50 said they are actively trading U.S. equities, while the other 5 are still opening accounts or learning how to trade them.
The sample was not presented as scientific, but the pattern is hard to ignore. Topics once dominated by DeFi, Layer 2 and airdrops are being replaced by AI, defense, rare earths, semiconductors, energy and commodities. The capital is not idle. It is being redirected.
Portfolio choices center on AI, commodities, energy and defense
By number of holders, AI-related names ranked first with 11 respondents. Metals and commodities, along with energy and power, each drew 8. Storage and semiconductors came next with 7, while robotics, humanoid robots, aerospace and defense each had 6. Uranium and nuclear, rare earths and Chinese stocks appeared as smaller but notable allocations.
At the single-stock level, Intel, Alphabet, Rocket Lab, AST SpaceMobile and Amazon were each named by 4 KOLs, forming a small consensus list. Broker choice also stands out. Interactive Brokers ranked first at 24 out of 55, followed by Robinhood, suggesting these respondents are setting up for broader asset exposure rather than casual meme-stock trading.
Three narratives stood out in the responses
The first is the AI capex cycle and the idea of storage scarcity. According to the survey summary, the Magnificent 7 are expected to spend more than $680 billion on AI capital expenditures in 2026, up from $400 billion a year earlier. Respondents linked that spending to repricing across chips, memory and power infrastructure.
The second is a rotation from big tech into hard assets. The source article says Nasdaq lost $1.2 trillion in software market value in February, while Microsoft fell 13% as AI spending failed to convert into revenue. In that setup, metals, energy and commodities were described as the next destination for capital.
The third is humanoid robotics. For traders used to looking for asymmetric upside, this theme is being treated as a long-duration opportunity with traits they associate with early Bitcoin: a coming technology inflection point, limited mainstream participation and a market that may still be underpricing the category.
Bitcoin weakness and ETF outflows add to the rotation
The survey lands at a time when crypto itself is under pressure. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded net outflows for five straight weeks, with about $3.8 billion withdrawn in total, the longest such stretch since March 2025. Over the same period, Bitcoin fell from a record $126,000 to $63,000.
The source also ties the mood to rising conflict between the U.S. and Iran, a new 15% global tariff framework proposed by Trump, and technical weakness across the market. Even so, Joshua said the survey reflects only a private community snapshot, not the whole industry. Most respondents still hold crypto positions. For many of them, U.S. stocks look more like an added allocation than a full exit from digital assets.
That pattern has appeared before. After the 2018 ICO collapse, many crypto founders turned toward AI and SaaS. After the 2022 FTX failure, some traders moved into FX and commodities. This time, the attention is landing on AI infrastructure, energy, rare earths and defense-linked supply chains.