Author: Kydo (@0xkydo)
Original Title: Why crypto is not that fun anymore
Compiled and Arranged: BitpushNews
These days, a tweet struck a chord. It revealed a shared, yet rarely mentioned sense of helplessness—many of us no longer enjoy working here (in crypto) anymore.
Tweet:
If you are
> in the top 1% of the crypto space
> still here
> but losing passion
> because you don't want to work on: stablecoins, stablecoin infrastructure, trading, or infrastructure-level "evangelism"
> want to build products and AI
Contact me. We might have something for you.
I want to elaborate.
If you are not working on stablecoins or are not someone extremely passionate about financial markets, you are likely not happy in the cryptocurrency space right now.
Worse, you are seeing the AI field developing at a pace and with an excitement that makes your daily work feel like standing still. I understand this all too well because that's exactly how I felt. That's why I wrote that tweet.
And the fact that it resonated with so many people (I've received 60 DMs so far) tells me that many of you feel the same way but haven't said it out loud.
So, let me say the "unsaid" things.
Selling to Crypto Developers is No Longer Viable
In the previous "meta," selling things to crypto developers worked. Back then, metrics were more important than revenue. Partner logos were more important than revenue. A "vibe" was more important than revenue. You were a cost center for others, and everyone was spending money.
That "meta" died about 18 months ago. We wish we had pivoted earlier.
There is also a growing consensus today: cryptocurrency is only suitable for finance. Haseeb from Dragonfly has said it, Kyle from Multicoin has said it, Toly from Solana has said it. Most of you think so too, even if you won't say it publicly.
I understand why people reach this conclusion. Most tokens are meme coins. They don't own anything and can't owe you anything because the only thing that can truly be "owned" is on-chain state, which is extremely limited.
This is also why crypto-native applications like trading and lending are currently the only two categories that can truly make money on-chain.
But many of us are not building in DeFi. Many of us build infrastructure to enable new use cases beyond DeFi.
Here's an uncomfortable truth: according to our analysis, the total addressable market for this kind of work is only about $200-300 million per year. This pie is to be divided among hundreds of institutions. The most successful companies can only achieve tens of millions in annual revenue. After years of maturation, this is the ceiling.
If you are building a venture-scale enterprise, this gives you a very clear set of choices. If you want to serve crypto developers, the market is small. So, you either put on a suit and sell your infrastructure to traditional finance; or, like many others, choose to pack up and switch to AI.
Many are switching to AI because they understand their strengths. They understand their team's expertise. They know their competitive advantage is not in long, complex B2B sales in traditional finance. This is why so many of you feel lost right now.
The Dead End of Crypto x AI
So you look at the only area that still feels vibrant—the intersection of crypto and AI—trying to find your footing. But the options laid out there aren't great either.
Option One: Traditional business + AI + issue a token. This token has no real utility, like most other tokens. You're essentially building a regular product and slapping a layer of financialization on top. It's frustrating because you've been playing this game for five years.
Option Two: Decentralized AI infrastructure. Privacy, security, verifiability: this is the missionary route, the old "meta." But I guess this doesn't interest many of you: not many want to embark on another long-term "building a religion" style endeavor with no immediate feedback, no revenue.
Option Three: Stablecoin infrastructure for AI agents. This is interesting from a business perspective, but extremely competitive. Circle, Stripe, and all the major stablecoin players are going all in. As a startup, going to war with them without any clear beachhead to capture is frustrating.
The Choices Faced, and Why People Are Leaving
So, these are the actual choices on the table today:
You can stay in the "religious realm" of crypto, building for a resilient, decentralized future.
You can put on a suit and join the big players to evangelize the gospel of stablecoins.
You can build a "shovel-selling" company for the stablecoin ecosystem.
You can stay in DeFi: trading, lending, and the financial plumbing of the internet.
Or, you can build a niche vertical product that, while not a billion-dollar venture target, actually makes money and satisfies real users.
Beyond that, you don't have better options. This is why you are likely to switch to AI. Honestly, I understand.
This is why cryptocurrency is no longer that fun.
The above is my diagnosis. This is the conclusion I reached after six months of feeling, analyzing, and stress-testing. If you came here for an honest take on "why crypto feels stuck," you've got it. You can close this article now. Go for a walk, touch some grass.
But I'll tell you this: I have never been so excited about the work I'm doing. The last time I felt this way was probably when I first heard about cryptocurrency and its potential. And it's not just me—everyone around me feels the same. So, if you want to hear the short version of what I believe in, read on.
Just know that from here on out, I'm selling my beliefs.
What I Truly Find Interesting
The question I've been trying to answer for the past six months is: How do you find a market large enough, with a clear business model rooted in crypto, and a product-oriented, non-financial solution that can be used by people both inside and outside the crypto space?
The answer I kept coming back to is: Cryptocurrency is a superconductor for capital. Capital fuels growth. The problem in the past was that we were fueling things that weren't growing—pouring gasoline on ice and expecting it to burn brighter.
AI has dramatically reduced the difficulty of starting and growing things—from a product perspective. Now one person can build what used to require a fifty-person team. The cost of creating a real product, a real business, is plummeting. These things are growing fast, with revenue, real users, and real feedback loops. They need fuel to accelerate. And cryptocurrency is the best fuel mechanism ever invented for this purpose.
This is the only interesting problem I see now: How do you take crypto's superpower—instant, global, programmable capital formation—and point it at things that are actually growing?
We think the answer is "agentic companies." To achieve this, you first need tokens to be able to "own" things, and coincidentally, we've spent the last five years building that foundation. Now, we're going to turn it into a product and achieve that goal.
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