🔥Six Industry Opportunities After Crypto Ideals Are "Liquidated"
A panoramic record of the industry's self-reshaping.
Original Title: The Evolution of Crypto: A Look at the Future of the Industry
Original Author: Route 2 FI
Editor's Note: As the bubble bursts and faith wavers, the crypto industry is gradually exposing deep structural problems and beginning to show a more realistic trend of self-adjustment. Whether it's the shift in capital strategy after the tide of speculation recedes or the product reconstruction from community governance to user experience, this round of transformation is not only the result of technological evolution but also the collision of market choices and long-termism. This article attempts to outline the true contours of this industry self-reshaping in the midst of mixed signals.
The Future of Speculation and Stablecoins
Cryptocurrency is essentially an innovative financial infrastructure with the transformative potential to reshape the way information is disseminated, just as the internet once did. However, despite the widespread advocacy of "decentralization," the core driving force behind the industry's development in reality remains "speculation."
Whether it's spot trading, lending, or the derivatives market, speculative behavior has always been the most productive and profitable part. Although the intensity of speculation may weaken in stages, this attribute will not disappear in the short term and may even continue to strengthen in the future. This means that even if the use cases for crypto continue to expand in the future, its essence as a "financial casino" will remain the main theme of the industry for the foreseeable future.
At the same time, the stablecoin sector is entering a critical inflection point. With the Circle IPO approaching, stablecoins are seen as an important entry point for crypto adoption, but their growth potential is being suppressed by both regulatory constraints and weakening competitive advantages. If interest rates fall further, the attractiveness of stablecoins to funds will also decline.
The breakthrough in the next stage may no longer be the globally pegged USD model, but rather fintech applications that leverage crypto payment infrastructure and target localized scenarios. For entrepreneurs who lack Silicon Valley backgrounds and early massive funding, focusing on regional needs may be a more sustainable path.
Token Premium Decline and VC Changes
Tokens were once seen as high-growth assets with extremely high valuation premiums. But now, market sentiment has shifted significantly, and investors are paying more attention to actual revenue rather than narrative packaging, behind which are two major trends:
Valuation correction after the bull market recedes; after the unlocking period starts, the high valuation of tokens is difficult to maintain.
Marginal buying disappears, and funds are more inclined to flow to traditional assets with similar volatility but clearer direction.
Under this change, only those tokens that are linked to real income are expected to stand out in the new landscape.
In addition, crypto venture capital is undergoing a "liquidation moment." The traditional VC model is highly dependent on the monetization logic after tokens are listed. Nowadays, more and more founders choose not to issue tokens, but instead build small teams and pursue real revenue. This trend reflects the industry's reflection and correction of the bubble after the FTX collapse.
In the future, only investment institutions that truly understand the new generation of entrepreneurial models will be able to retain a place in this structural adjustment.
Consumer-Facing Applications and AI Convergence
The crypto space has always lacked C-end blockbuster products like Uber or Instagram. People often attribute this to poor user experience or lack of market education, but the deeper reason is that the crypto capital structure prefers "short-term monetization" rather than "long-term polishing."
True "billion-user" applications can only be born after entrepreneurs extend the time dimension and abandon the idea of rapid token issuance. This is a difficult but necessary transformation path.
At the cutting-edge intersection, the integration of crypto and artificial intelligence is still in the works. Although directions such as data traceability and distributed computing have imagination, in reality, the training costs and performance bottlenecks of AI still pose huge challenges.
An early direction worth noting is the "crowd-sourcing IP addresses" mechanism, which uses decentralized networks to mobilize idle resources, which may explore new paths for AI and on-chain collaboration.
Financial Service Gaps for the "On-Chain Middle Class"
Among current crypto users, there is a neglected high-potential group: the "on-chain middle class" with monthly incomes of $5K to $20K. They usually have a certain level of crypto awareness and asset size, but lack integrated solutions for daily financial management.
The needs of these users include: salary management, fiat and crypto asset allocation, tax support, and other services. Although the initial user base of this type of market is not large (approximately 5K to 10K people), its extremely high revenue per user (ARPU) means huge product opportunities.
DAO and GameFi's Restart
In the past two years, the participation of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) has declined sharply, and voting governance has become a formality. At the same time, on-chain games have also been silent due to the Axie bubble, but both sectors have not completely lost their potential.
Social infrastructure like Farcaster may become a catalyst for new forms of DAOs, transforming them from governance protocols to community coordination mechanisms driven by resources and culture. This shift may also give rise to "sustainable Meme coins," breaking away from pure emotional speculation.
In terms of GameFi, 2025 to 2026 may usher in an outbreak node that truly integrates "content and economic models." Teams that have been deeply involved in experience and gameplay for a long time are expected to build virtual worlds and thriving markets with millions of users.
Talent Flow and Cultural Construction
Since 2022, a large number of crypto talents have turned to AI, traditional finance, and other fields, and many people have experienced the psychological impact of "ideal disillusionment." This structural talent loss has a more profound impact on the long-term development of the industry, even exceeding the pressure brought by price corrections.
In this environment, companies with strong cultural drivers will become "talent beacons," continuously attracting builders who are willing to adhere to long-termism, and become key cores in the next cycle.
Media Integration and New Forces in Capital Structure
On the one hand, the crypto content ecosystem is de-bubbling, and research institutions and media that traditionally rely on fund subsidies are facing elimination. In the future, truly viable teams must have creativity, business understanding, and distribution capabilities.
On the other hand, as more projects choose not to issue tokens and take the real revenue path of "non-tokenization," private equity funds (PE) are expected to become the new capital force in the crypto industry. In the next 18 months, PE may dominate a batch of pragmatic projects that do not rely on token issuance.
The Possibility of On-Chain Connection in the Content Industry
The integration of creative industries such as music, art, and writing with blockchain is still in its early stages. The current industry faces not only technical problems, but also a lack of "bridge-type teams" that can deeply understand creator behavior and distribution mechanisms.
In the future, whoever can become the connector between creators and blockchain will be able to define the next generation of decentralized content ecosystem.
Summary
Crypto is still evolving rapidly. It is both idealistic and realistically complex. It is reshaping the global system and fighting its own problems. Only builders who focus on data, respect long-term strategies, and remain sober can go further in this two-sided transformation and write a new chapter for the next decade.