I think crypto is still very much in its infancy. We had the early days of the really imaginative, and then we had the mass hysteria phase, and now we're entering the more serious phase. This phase is where the industry is naturally weeding out the poor performers. As money stopped being cheap to borrow, the world instantly started to cut out whatever wasn't 'serious'. That meant 99% of crypto got the boot.

But what we see now is the industry looking at what does make money. They're treating crypto like a company listed on the NYSE: how much capital is flowing through these chains? If ETH has value, where is the value coming from? Transaction fees are a good sign (ironic that now they're good as they're a sign of life). Another is the amount of capital flowing through contracts. The DeFi side of things which actually show life on the chain beyond just transaction fees.

This is also why older networks have seen revived interest as of late. They have features and transaction fees. ZEC going up so much was because of that: an actual usecase that works and has displayed success in that field.

I actually think we're seeing AI do the same now: it has promise but what they're showing us is absolute shit. It's the dust of a promise compared to what they're holding behind the scenes. That's why everyone hates it, we only hear of the jobs it's taking, the large data centres being built to make shitty images and videos of Will Smith. Not seeing the power behind it in breakthroughs that nations are desperate to get to first. And now as the capital exits those markets, it's the same as crypto: we had the hysteria phase, now it's the quiet building phase.