Julian Hosp, founder of Cake DeFi, said that Bitcoin has evolved into a speculative gamble, with stronger returns emerging in artificial intelligence (AI), energy, and broader technology sectors. The statement was made on the social media platform X.
“Many are playing the wrong game,” said Hosp. “Bitcoin is no longer an investment, but pure casino. The real gains are already being made elsewhere, in AI, energy, tech. Whoever still bets on crypto hasn’t understood the game.”
According to reports from the Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund, between 2024 and 2025, crypto-assets like Bitcoin experienced a surge due to regulatory progress and institutional uptake. Simultaneously, AI equities soared on hyperscale investment while energy stocks lagged amid oversupply and shifting demand. Despite strong momentum in the AI sector, it is now being flagged as “bubble-risk.” This situation has created a contrast between high-growth tech/AI segments and more cyclical energy names, with cryptocurrency moving partially independently of either.
Market-data aggregators have cited Bitcoin’s price gain over the past 12 months at about 62%, while leading AI-related equities showed more modest returns. For instance, the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF (BOTZ) rose roughly 15.9%, and the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) remained nearly flat at around 0.6%. These figures suggest that Bitcoin outperformed both AI and energy indices during this period.
In 2025, evidence shows that Bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility increased from 33% to 37%, as reported by CoinDesk. Broader studies indicate that equity indices tied to AI and energy sectors maintain much lower volatility levels, often ranging from 18-28% for 30-day realized volatility. This suggests that despite some stabilization, Bitcoin remains significantly more volatile than typical sector-equity ETFs.
Hosp is a medical doctor turned blockchain entrepreneur who co-founded Cake DeFi in 2019 with U-Zyn Chua; he was previously a professional kitesurfer and an early crypto evangelist. As CEO of Cake Group, Hosp has authored books on crypto investing and publicly advocates for broader retail access to decentralized finance (DeFi) yield products.
Cake DeFi was launched in Singapore in 2019 by Hosp and Chua as a fintech platform offering retail users access to staking, lending, and liquidity-mining of cryptocurrencies. Under the wider Cake Group umbrella, it serves both retail and institutional clients. The company describes its mission as making DeFi simple and accessible while seeking regulatory clarity through Singapore’s fintech regime as it expands regionally.
