Author|Golem(@web 3_golem)
On February 27, when a user on platform X asked Peter Steinberger, the founder of OpenClaw, for "the best advice for 20-year-olds," Peter Steinberger bluntly stated, "Don't waste your time on cryptocurrency." As the founder of one of the hottest AI products currently, Peter Steinberger has not hidden his disdain for cryptocurrency. He has warned cryptocurrency practitioners not to harass him, and even mentioning Bitcoin in OpenClaw's Discord could result in a ban.
This sharp remark sparked collective memes and self-mockery within the crypto community. However, unlike the market downturn where crypto practitioners chant "crypto is dead," when "don't waste your time on cryptocurrency" was given as advice to young people by a top AI entrepreneur, it stung the crypto industry.
It laid the anxiety right before our eyes—crypto is no longer the optimal choice for the younger generation in the current era.
Looking back to 2011, the advice from crypto OG and founder of 8btc, Chang Jia, suggesting that a college student invest all 6,000 yuan in Bitcoin, was once considered one of the most powerful examples of the crypto industry's long-termism and suitability for young people to join. However, Chang Jia himself did not remain in the crypto industry indefinitely. In 2023, 8btc stopped publishing cryptocurrency-related content, shifting to cover AI, the metaverse, and other fields. In 2024, after turning to entrepreneurship in AI, Chang Jia completely disappeared from the crypto circle.
Chang Jia, who was ahead of the curve, once attracted much criticism, but now the siphoning of the crypto circle by AI has become an indisputable fact. Talent is migrating, capital is being reallocated, and attention is shifting.
Talent Migration: OGs Become AI Bloggers
Another crypto OG, Shen Yu, co-founder and CEO of Cobo, is also a representative figure in the early Bitcoin mining circle. As a survivor of multiple cycles, Shen Yu often shares his understanding of market phases and investment insights on social media, which is quite popular in the crypto community.
However, recently, Shen Yu has transformed from a crypto OG into an AI blogger. In the past month, over 80% of his social media content has been about OpenClaw, with very little related to crypto. Shen Yu himself even joked about his successful transformation.
Shen Yu's exploration and interest in AI remain at a personal level; his company's business and personal career are still primarily focused on crypto. Therefore, we can temporarily interpret his obsession with AI as a good habit of actively improving himself and keeping up with the cutting edge during "market garbage time." However, the talent shift from crypto to AI is indeed happening.
Anthony Rose, an executive at zkSync, announced on February 4 that after working at Matter Labs for four years, he would leave and most likely turn to AI; Nader Dabit, Developer Advocacy Director at EigenLayer, also announced on February 5 that he was leaving EigenLayer to become Head of Growth at an AI company, stating that "he joined the future."
The most notable recent example of leaving the circle is Multicoin Capital co-founder Kyle Samani announcing his departure from crypto to focus on AI, robotics, and other fields. Kyle Samani is famous for his early bet on Solana, so his exit dealt a blow to the confidence of the crypto community. Even more离谱的是, on the day he left, Kyle Samani disparaged the crypto industry, saying, "Crypto just isn't as interesting as many people (including myself) once thought."
Recommended reading: "Is there another reason behind Kyle Samani's departure?"
Capital Migration: Native Crypto VCs Start Allocating to AI
Native crypto VCs are also unwilling to waste more time on the crypto industry.
On February 28, according to the Wall Street Journal, crypto venture capital firm Paradigm is planning to raise a new fund focused on AI and robotics, with a target size of up to approximately $1.5 billion. Paradigm is one of the purest crypto-native capitals. It made its name in 2019 by investing in and incubating Uniswap. Subsequent early investments in other crypto projects (such as Lido, Optimism, dYdX, Blur) were also successful, making this "research-driven" VC an institution on par with a16z crypto.
Precisely because of this, Paradigm's shift is of symbolic significance.
If crypto were still in a period of rapid innovation, continuously generating projects capable of carrying billion-dollar-level investments, Paradigm would not need to establish a heavily weighted fund specifically for AI. But the reality is that the infrastructure narrative of the crypto industry (such as L1, L2, DEX, etc.) is highly saturated, and the number of truly "paradigm-shifting" quality early-stage projects is few and far between.
The entire crypto VC industry has few good projects to invest in. The data is more直观: over the past four years, the number of venture capital deals in the crypto industry has declined year by year. In 2022, there were 1,639 financing deals in the crypto primary market, which dropped to 829 deals in 2025, with the proportion of early-stage financing also falling from 50% to below 35%.
Source: What will the crypto market be able to trade a year later?
When there's nothing left to invest in within the crypto industry, AI, as a booming sector, naturally becomes the best destination for crypto capital. From foundational large models to AI Agents, from computing power chips to the robotics industry, AI can not only accommodate capital规模 but also continuously create growth stories, making it the largest reservoir for global capital today.
For a VC managing over $12.7 billion in assets, the core proposition is never "whether the belief is shaken," but "whether the return function still holds." When the number of projects the crypto industry can support decreases, a single bet on crypto means increased portfolio risk and decreased return elasticity. In this case, insisting on being "crypto-native" becomes irrational.
Therefore, Paradigm's active expansion into AI is also forced by the trends of the times. This is not a strategic issue for individual institutions but a signal of the industry's stage.
Attention Migration: When Crypto Players Become Obsessed with AI
In terms of market attention, Crypto is an industry that is best at蹭热点 (riding trends). Whether it's political hotspots, technological frontiers, or social headlines, anything火爆总能 finds related hyped projects or Memes in the crypto circle. In the past, every time the AI industry experienced a technological upgrade or product innovation, the crypto circle would see related "Crypto+AI" projects or Meme coin speculation, attracting market attention.
When OpenClaw became popular, although the crypto circle also immediately found angles to蹭, such as speculating on同名 Meme coins, commanding OpenClaw to trade tokens automatically, and betting on prediction markets to make money, later crypto players began to become more pure, shifting from "how to crypto-fy OpenClaw" to "how to actually use OpenClaw."
Many crypto researchers began continuously outputting installation and usage tutorials for OpenClaw, publicly sharing their AI workflows, even detailing how to train personal AI Agents to help write code, conduct research, generate content, etc. Some crypto KOLs even started side businesses charging novices for installing OpenClaw.
Offline AI exchange events organized by the crypto circle are also "packed." Recently, the most popular offline event was the "Web4 China Tour" promoted by crypto OG Kong Jianping. The event ran from February 25 to March 8, held offline in five Chinese cities, with main topics being OpenClaw and Agent,几乎没有加密相关 (almost nothing related to crypto).
This is no longer蹭热点 (riding the trend); it's a real migration of attention. Crypto players who pride themselves on progressive thinking are starting to fear falling behind in the AI era.
Crypto circle AI offline event现场座无虚席 (fully seated)
Why are crypto practitioners so obsessed with AI?
The crypto circle inherently has the highest concentration of "super individuals"—independent developers, traders, and content creators. These people naturally pursue improvements in tool efficiency to compensate for limitations in personal efficiency. Therefore, when AI can significantly amplify individual productivity, crypto players are among the first to embrace it.
Furthermore, the core of crypto culture has a strong geek spirit and technology worship. Although the "technology narrative" has been diluted in recent years, most crypto players still believe that "underlying technology can change the world." And now, more than blockchain, AI possesses the气质 (qualities) of a technological revolution, naturally attracting the疯狂追捧 (crazy pursuit) of crypto players.
Of course, the more realistic reason is the crypto market's idle period. AI is continuously creating "new things," while Crypto has been reorganizing old narratives. Without native crypto innovation, without significant wealth effects, the entire crypto circle is barely sustained by the slight externality brought by prediction markets and RWA. At this time, the new discussion topics and cognitive stimulation provided by the AI industry, rather than seizing crypto attention, are filling the spiritual void of crypto players after the market节奏放缓 (pace slowed down).
Time to Talk About Things Beyond Crypto and AI
Finally, returning to the beginning of this article, the reason the OpenClaw founder's words attracted attention in the crypto circle is not because they were dismissive, but because they vocalized what many crypto people are quietly验证 (validating) with their actions—the smartest people are重新分配 (reallocating) their time.
We are now facing a period of declining wealth generation rates and exploding technological productivity.
On one hand, as the crypto cycle slows, Alpha contracts, and wealth growth curves flatten, the marginal returns of the past year's behavior of crypto players单纯依靠 (solely relying on) "scanning information—chasing hotspots—gambling for returns" through枯坐 (sitting idle) are diminishing. On the other hand, AI is compressing the "time required to solve problems." A large amount of work that previously required significant time investment, such as writing code and creating content, can now be completed by models in minutes, with problem-solving efficiency far exceeding that of individual humans.
When the "process volume of seeking results" is highly concentrated by AI, then perhaps we反而拥有 (instead have) more free time to do things not aimed at efficiency and making money—to seek "carbon-based meaning," to experience the world, to build cognitive systems independent of market fluctuations, and to construct our own value coordinates.
In the AI future, what truly creates a gap between people might be aesthetics, independent judgment, and the construction of personal meaning.
