Author: Ansem
Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow
Deep Tide Guide: When market sentiment is low, BTC consolidates at highs, and ETH remains under pressure, voices proclaiming crypto is 'finished' are once again growing louder. In this thread, renowned trader Ansem offers a rebuttal: poor performance of major coins ≠ industry decline. Stablecoins, perpetual contracts, and tokenization are the real structural narratives. For investors still hesitating on how to allocate assets, this is a long-term framework worth serious consideration.
Disagree. Crypto is simply going through a maturation phase.
Themes like stablecoins, perpetual contracts, and tokenization will continue to penetrate the global economy, and many successful crypto startups will emerge.
Hyperliquid is just the first, a great example of how powerful the combination of open blockchains and business tokenization can be—there will be many more.
The core of the current crypto market sentiment issue lies in the poor performance of mainstream large-cap coins. BTC went from $0.01 to $100,000 per coin in less than twenty years; in resisting the sustained decline of the US dollar's purchasing power, it has actually accomplished its mission quite successfully. The problem Bitcoin faces now is the 'Ponzi-esque' tendency brought about by Saylor's strategy, which is temporary. I believe BTC will not see significant trending gains again until this issue is resolved. Furthermore, quantum computing concerns are real. These two points, plus the exit liquidity from institutions, are sufficient reasons for BTC OGs to derisk their excessive liquidity—we have already seen specific cases, like the large OTC trade handled by Galaxy (completing a $9 billion sale for a single entity in 2025). There are many similar individuals whose holdings are already in a state of infinite profit.
But after outperforming every asset on Earth for over a decade, BTC underperforming for a few more years does not mean crypto is dead—that's an absurd notion.
Ethereum is also suffering for its own unique reasons. I feel I've talked enough about this, but indeed, it's being competitively suppressed by new entrants and has also failed to turn ETH into a good long-term holding asset. All L1s are struggling on the demand side because historically, the story for these tokens was 'future growth,' not real revenue. But now Hyperliquid has tangibly proven that a business can be directly linked to an L1 token, which puts previous L1s in a passive position—they capture too little revenue from applications built on their infrastructure. Ethereum's situation is worse because it also outsources execution activity to Rollups.
But this, likewise, does not mean there won't be more successful crypto startups.
There is a very clear trend of improving crypto regulation, which will significantly lower the barrier for entrepreneurs to build crypto businesses. At the same time, existing tech companies are also acknowledging the advantages of blockchain, as evidenced by Robinhood and Stripe/Tempo.
AI has captured a massive amount of attention that originally belonged to crypto, and since the late 2022 bottom, tech stocks have performed far better than crypto. As a trader, allocating time between stocks and crypto is extremely wise. In the past, if you were willing to take risks, it was reasonable to overweight crypto—it was an emerging industry experiencing supernormal returns as it went mainstream.
Looking ahead, as AI models progress exponentially in the coming years, there are three underestimated crypto tailwinds:
1) Open-source AI will become more competitive with closed-source AI.
2) Small teams will find it easier to build successful startups using software.
3) Stablecoins and blockchain are superior infrastructure for AI agents to transact.
The convergence of these trends means you might see more, not fewer, crypto experiments and token innovations—especially against the backdrop of continuously improving regulation and retail speculation becoming the next major trend.
