How to View the Era of Neobanks After the Decline of Crypto?
The article explores the emergence of "crypto neobanks" as the next evolution in digital finance, moving beyond the interface-level improvements of fintech neobanks to rebuild the very backend of banking using blockchain technology. It frames banking around four core functions—Store, Spend, Grow, and Borrow—and analyzes how crypto is creating permissionless, global, and programmable alternatives for each.
The piece maps the competitive landscape, from self-custody wallets (like MetaMask and Ledger) and stablecoin cards to on-chain trading (e.g., Hyperliquid) and lending protocols (e.g., Aave, Morpho). It argues that the path to success lies in capturing high-velocity money flows—starting with high-frequency activities like trading and borrowing before expanding to spending and storage.
Key challenges include achieving privacy-compliance parity, enabling real-world composability with legacy systems, leveraging permissionlessness for global scale, and solving undercollateralized consumer lending—the "holy grail" for mass adoption. Ultimately, crypto neobanks aim not just to be new apps but to establish a new foundational轨道 (轨道) for how money moves.
marsbit02/22 06:13