Founders Believe the 'Magic of Crypto' Might Be Gone as It Goes Mainstream

Founders believe that the ‘magic of crypto’ may have been lost amid the ongoing push for mainstream adoption. In this process, some proposals, such as bitcoin’s ‘digital gold’ narrative, have demonstrated staying power, while others are struggling as the space matures.

Is the ‘Magic of Crypto’ Gone? Founders Ponder

Bitcoin, created as a revolutionary asset designed to allow transactions without trusted middlemen, spurred a set of ambitious changes and a wave of altcoins destined to change the world of finance. Nonetheless, given the recent irruption of digital assets into the mainstream, some believe that the “magic of crypto,” the revolutionary essence of digital assets, might have been lost.

Rune Christensen, founder of Sky, referred to this phenomenon on social media, claiming that this magic was gone as the knowledge of the possibilities of the space went mainstream, and that crypto as such would become yet another part of the technological, futuristic evolution movement.

He stated:

Wonky and deeply idiosyncratic crypto community has become more mainstream, cross-pollinating with other futurist communities. As that’s happening it will also naturally become less crypto and more general technooptimism/-pessimism.

Others have signaled the difficulties that the crypto movement is currently experiencing, affected by a slew of fraud and scams that have hurt the credibility of these projects. David Bailey, co-founder and CEO of BTC Inc., declared that cynicism and pessimism were at all-time highs, and that the only way for some projects to survive was to pledge to traditional finance rules.

“Lot of crypto companies have to be contemplating full pivot. For crypto to survive it has to embrace being a security. Generate profits. Pay dividends. There’s no other way,” Bailey assessed.

Yu Hu, founder of Kaito, a Web3 data platform, also discussed the problems that crypto projects are facing after the initial promise of tokenization.

Hu mentioned that the crypto space is becoming less attractive for builders as it faces several hurdles, including dried-up funding, increasingly aggressive listing agreements, growing airdrop expectations, and stigmatized selling of assets. If these issues are not solved, Hu noted the industry risks “being left with no users, no builders – only a bunch of intermediaries.”

Read more: ‘Mainstream Era Has Started’: Bitwise CEO Signals Bitcoin’s Institutional Breakout