F2Pool Founder Shen Yu: Three Layers of Positioning
F2Pool founder Shen Yu discussed in an interview how to break down positions into three layers: first, use a fraction of a percent, capped at 2%, for observation; after logical validation, increase to single digits, not exceeding 10%; to elevate to a core position of about 20%, a "faith leap" must be completed. The third layer requires not only fundamental analysis but also a sufficiently large market space, vision, and bottlenecks, with the entire framework summarized as "monopoly plus growth."
He stated that the methodology comes from trading life, where personality determines structural preferences, and structure determines position and emotion. The first layer is about discovering anomalies and identifying unique targets, with light positions dissecting the proposition; the second layer relies on continuous validation to elevate the fractional position to a strategic position, still setting a 10% ceiling. The transition from 10% to 20% is no longer arithmetic but akin to installing belief: one must see a massive addressable market, unit economics, and structural moats driven by vision; otherwise, institutional funds cannot stand mathematically.
The core anchors filtered by this method currently are Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tesla. SpaceX is still under observation and timing, and has not yet been accounted for. Ethereum remains in the core layer, but internal discussions are ongoing about whether to downgrade it, based on whether it can continue to justify this position in the next round of infrastructure cycles. The first principle of filtering is written as: the long-term value space must be sufficiently large, and the macro vision must support long holding.
He co-founded F2Pool with Wang Chun in 2013 in Wenzhou, where Wang handled the backend and he managed operations. The mining pool does not self-mine but organizes global computing power to distribute profits based on contributions and charges fees. The pool has helped miners mine over 1.3 million Bitcoins, peaking at about one-third of the total network's computing power, accounting for over 9% of historical blocks. The pool's fees and the staking business stake.fish, founded in 2018, form a long-term cash flow, covering over 20 public chains and managing assets exceeding $3 billion at one point. He compared proof of work to medium-term bullish options and proof of stake to low-risk government bonds, pointing out that chips and energy will trend towards oligopoly.
Thus, "monopoly plus growth" is not just a slogan but a projection of the mining pool business: the entry point of computing power itself is a bottleneck, and fees represent growth. Transposing the same structure to the secondary market requires that the core position must simultaneously possess network monopoly and expandable components. Twenty percent means five core positions fill the portfolio, shifting the margin of error from research quality to belief quality.
In market mechanisms, buyers are industrial capital with mining pools and staking cash flows that can withstand core position drawdowns, while sellers are assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tesla, which have been priced as infrastructure. This is not event-driven short-term reallocation but writing the oligopoly experience of the mining era into a position constitution. Funds move from fee accounts into spot and US stocks; the beneficiaries are the three cores that have passed the faith threshold, while the pressured ones are long-tail tokens that can only remain at the 2% observation position and will never reach a leap.
ABAB AI Insight
Shen Yu's position ladder translates the mining pool fee structure into portfolio management. F2Pool does not own all computing power but gains rate monopoly by organizing it; stake.fish applies the same logic to staking. In the secondary market, he refuses to bet fully on a single narrative, using 2% as a ticket, 10% as a research conclusion, and 20% as a civil bet. This differs from early miners where "machines equal positions": machines can be turned off if they break, but a 20% core position cannot be turned off, so faith installation must be completed first.
The capital path is industry profits feeding back into assets. Years of mining pool and staking cash first solve survival, then allow him to experiment with observation positions without liquidation. Tesla entering the core layer indicates the framework has crossed into crypto: electric vehicles and energy networks are seen as another form of computing power monopoly. SpaceX has not been accounted for because the private market lacks liquidity bottlenecks that can be adjusted at any time. The discussion about downgrading Ethereum exposes the fragility of the third layer—once the vision shifts from "world computer" to "another settlement layer," the 20% loses its mathematical basis.
Analogous to Buffett's concentration on Coca-Cola, Satoshi's obsession with block limits, and early chip manufacturers' binding to lithography machines: it's not about diversifying risk, but about adding to pain once the bottleneck is identified. The industry phase is retreating from imitation to leading monopolies. By 2026, mainstream ETFs will only provide fresh capital to a few names, while the liquidity of long-tail observation positions is drying up, with the framework essentially announcing in advance: assets that cannot enter the 20% club are only fit to pay tuition.
Structural judgment belongs to capital concentration. The mechanism is: if growth lacks monopoly, no matter how large the TAM, it will be eaten away; if monopoly lacks growth, 20% will become a valuation trap. Miners first see the oligopoly of chips and electricity, thus writing the "bottleneck" into position discipline. The market will price not the density of stories but whether you dare to put one-fifth of your wealth on the same bottleneck.