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Eshita
@eshita
Most ETHDenver takeaways have covered the market woes, AI hype, and memecoin fatigue. I’ll skip those, but wanted to share a few things that I’ll be thinking about post-Denver:
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Eshita
@eshita
No New Narratives & Rebirth: Right now, there are no sweeping new narratives in crypto. Instead, we're starting to see some leaders emerge within existing categories, and equally clear losers. As project runways dry up or shutdown/get acquired, we will see a surge of new ideas and products driven by available capital and shifting market forces. Builders will shed outdated strategies as they will be forced to become more focused and deliberate (practical).
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Eshita
@eshita
Crypto is becoming practical: There is intentionality in what people are building and working on. It could be because builders aren't expected to define whole categories to push a narrative forward, they are expected to build something that is a step function improvement that targets specific users. Builders are accepting that they are not building for everyone. Time Horizon Illusion: From a number of conversations, I’ve developed much more empathy for current founders. More often than not, a founder’s vision for a product and shipping timelines clash with investor/advisor pressure - this is worse for high-profile projects. The resulting compressed timelines lead to underdeveloped tech, which means core team has to patch in production as the tech debt rears its ugly head - this shows up in issues with external integrations, hacks, end UX.
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Eshita
@eshita
The reality is that the adoption timeline is far longer than we’re currently experiencing - and adoption is often obfuscated by hype, social farming, and a bare product beneath it all. This is why price directs sentiment/not product. Some projects (namely in infra) will need to stick around for a half decade or more to see meaningful usage. Increased Self-Selection: Crypto has become vast, with emerging subverticals that are increasingly distinct. It used to be just infrastructure, DeFi, and consumer, but now clusters of communities are forming, each with its own pace of progress. There is the memecoin community, AI, DePIN, DeFi, stablecoins, ETFs, regulation, RWAs, payments, and there’s also ecosystem-specific communities - Story, Movement, Berachain, etc. People choose what they want to belong to.
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Eshita
@eshita
This fragmentation is important to recognize. While some communities, like memecoins, are in a euphoric phase, others are experiencing the dooming more. Viewing crypto as a single “industry” no longer makes sense; viewing any one category as a % of total mindshare minimizes the work/progress that is being done in each, which inadvertently increases the ‘crypto fatigue’. M&A Activity: We have recently seen some acquisitions in crypto and there is anticipation that we will see many more. Companies with strong balance sheets are well-positioned to absorb tech and teams that were mobilized last cycle, that have yet to find PMF. This is tightly coupled with the upcoming market cleanse.
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