Original Author: Ansem
Original Compilation: Shenchao TechFlow
Guide: When market sentiment is low, BTC is trading sideways at high levels, and ETH remains under pressure, voices proclaiming crypto is "finished" are once again growing louder. Well-known trader Ansem's tweet provides a rebuttal: Poor performance of major coins ≠ industry decline; stablecoins, perpetual contracts, and tokenization are the true structural narratives. For investors still allocating assets in confusion, this is a long-cycle framework worth serious consideration.
Disagree, crypto is just going through a maturation phase.
Stablecoins, perpetual contracts, and tokenization as themes will continue to penetrate the global economy, and many successful crypto startups doing good work will emerge.
Hyperliquid is just the first, and it demonstrates well how powerful combining open blockchains with business tokenization can be—there will be more to come.
The current issue with crypto market sentiment stems from the poor performance of mainstream large coins. BTC rose from $0.01 per coin to $100,000 in less than two decades, and it has actually been very successful in its mission to resist the continuous decline in the purchasing power of the US dollar. The problem Bitcoin faces now is the "Ponzi-fication" tendency brought about by Saylor's operations, which is temporary. I believe that until this issue is resolved, BTC will not see a clear trend-based rally. Additionally, quantum computing concerns are real. These two points, along with institutional exit liquidity, are sufficient reasons for BTC old-timers to de-risk excess liquidity—we have already seen specific cases, such as the large over-the-counter trade handled by Galaxy (completing a $9 billion sale for a single entity in 2025). There are many similar individuals whose holdings have long been in an infinite profit state.
But after BTC outperforming every asset on Earth for over a decade, weakening for a few more years does not mean crypto is dead—that claim is absurd.
Ethereum is also suffering for its own unique reasons. I feel like I've talked about this enough, but indeed, it's being suppressed by competition from new entrants and hasn't managed to make ETH a good asset worth holding long-term. All L1s are struggling on the demand side because historically, the story of 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 the applications using their infrastructure. Ethereum is worse off because it also outsources execution activity to Rollups.
But this also doesn't mean no more successful crypto startups will emerge.
There is a very clear trend of improving crypto regulation, which will significantly lower the barrier for entrepreneurs building crypto businesses. At the same time, existing tech companies are acknowledging the advantages of blockchain, as evidenced by Robinhood, Stripe/Tempo, and others.
AI has captured much of the 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, it was reasonable to overweight crypto if you were willing to take on risk—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 undervalued crypto tailwind factors:
1) Open-source AI will become more competitive with closed-source AI.
2) It will become easier for small teams to build successful startups with software.
3) Stablecoins and blockchain are superior infrastructure for AI agents to conduct transactions.
These trends combined mean 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.
