Screaming out in the wilderness like John the Baptist, I’ve spent years evangelizing blockchain and web3 technologies for practical, real-world applications that benefit everyday people and everyday businesses, rather than getting trapped in the echo chamber of tribalism and elitism that fosters a superiority complex among certain crypto bro circles who often dismiss the masses as idiots while obsessing over abstract ideals in their insulated bubble.
I say this as someone who’s been deep in the trenches for the last 10 years building, shipping, and growing blockchain, crypto, DeFi, and web3 technologies, not just talking about them. And heading into 2026, I’ve never been more certain of this:
Crypto isn’t dead. But the crypto-native-bro bubble certainly is.
For the past decade, the blockchain industry has largely been building for itself—the same participants, the same wallets, the same incentive structures recycled endlessly. We kept running identical playbooks and calling it progress: points programs, yield farms, airdrops, and liquidity mining schemes that did little more than shuffle value among people who were already on-chain. We were essentially playing musical chairs and celebrating it as mass adoption.
That era is over—not dramatically, but structurally.
Crypto as a self-contained subculture is contracting. Crypto as foundational infrastructure for the real economy is only now beginning its true expansion. Here’s the uncomfortable truth the industry needs to accept: the world was never going to become crypto-native. That expectation was always a fantasy. If your product exclusively serves people who already live on-chain, your total addressable market is inherently capped, and you’re building for a ceiling instead of a floor.
What’s actually happening is far more significant than any token launch or protocol upgrade.
Crypto is quietly dissolving into existing systems—payments, markets, settlement layers, and ownership rails. People are already using blockchain technology without any awareness that they are. Merchants are settling transactions in stablecoins because it’s simply faster and cheaper. Businesses are moving capital globally without banks serving as costly intermediaries. End users are interacting with on-chain systems without ever touching a wallet or signing a transaction. They don’t want crypto culture, community tokens, or governance rights. They want better infrastructure. Less ideology. More practical utility.
This is why the next wave won’t resemble the hype cycles of the past.
It won’t look like points systems designed to manufacture artificial engagement or yield games that reward mercenary capital. Instead, it will look like stablecoins powering global commerce, real-world assets unlocking previously illiquid markets, institutional-grade market infrastructure, enterprise B2B integrations, and boring but scalable partnership agreements. We’re talking equities, payment rails, treasury management, and private credit—not meme coins and speculation engines. None of this is particularly glamorous, but it represents trillions in addressable value.
The crypto-native bubble still dominates the conversation on social media, but it’s not where the future is being built.
Blockchain doesn’t achieve mainstream success by converting everyone into a degen trader who speaks in acronyms and celebrates volatility. It wins when ordinary people use blockchain-powered services without ever realizing the technology exists beneath the surface—when it becomes invisible infrastructure rather than a tribal identity. Crypto as a cultural movement and personality trait is fading into irrelevance. Crypto as real-world infrastructure is just beginning its ascent. And that’s the only narrative worth paying attention to as we move forward.