For years, Crypto has positioned itself as the next great technological revolution. But as we are witnessing the explosive rise of AI, it is time for the crypto to face the truth: the true technological revolution of our time is artificial intelligence, and crypto will play a supporting role rather than being the star.
It is not a question of reducing the importance of the industry or the quality of what it is built. I have helped institutional investments in Bitcoin in Pioneer, and I have operated and invested in many companies that build in a chain. I also obtained a doctorate in AI. The simple truth is that the construction of intelligent systems that solve the problems of the real world should be the mission, whether the blockchain rails are included or not.
Regarding the pure crypto, the only segment that remains standing is Defi. Objectively a better version of Tradfi, DEFI has better engineering, programmability and composibility. This is properly captured with the same: Internet capital markets. Stablecoins and tokenization have shown an exceptional adjustment of the product market, and they remain the most true demonstration of crypto (reading: only) of real tangible value to date. As such, institutions arrive and for a good reason. Blackrock, Robinhood and even cryptocurrency pillars like Coinbase build cryptographic products awaiting an imminent regulatory clarity. The displacement of instantaneous world payments and regulations as well as more complex chain financial instruments are obvious.
Otherwise, there is. There are tradai such as large laboratories, model manufacturers and LLM suppliers. There is an AI of open weight like Deepseek and Mistral. There are open-source ai like us. AI AI AS AS CURSOR and LOVABLE. Agents as a manus. Robotics. And even an AI or a decentralized crypto X (we will get there in a minute…). In short, there is already more demand for AI products and services than for applications of pure crypto.
This is captured by another meme: if you are in crypto, pivot at AI.
It shouldn’t surprise us. While Crypto has had trouble finding traditional uses beyond speculation and game, AI already improves productivity and getting a path in transforming industries all over the world.
What could be more? A reality that gives to think about the crypto – accentuated by the recent even activity and what was colloquially called “SZN Criminal” – was the disconnection between the values of token and the real technological utility. While decentralized technology itself East Revolutionary, the value captured by tokens has always been motivated by the memetical attraction than by a real creation of technological value (there have been calls to be founded in the “fundamentals” lately, but we will see if he has legs …). It is not necessarily a criticism – the value of the same is a real value in many respects – but it highlights a fundamental weakness of the crypto as an autonomous industry.
This does not mean that Rekt de Crypto. In fact, blockchain and crypto protocols can become essential components of a future stack of AI technologies. But they will serve as an infrastructure underlying the AI-STIF products and services, rather than as autonomous products.
Consider means of Make a good market: Distributed calculation power for training and inference, verifiable calculation and the source of data, access to Tokenized to calculation resources, decentralized storage of training data and transparent reward mechanisms for the contribution. IT distributed and depin architectures as well as transparent verification systems have proven their usefulness. But – and it is crucial – they will do so at the products and services of AI that solve real problems for consumer users who do not know or care about the underlying technical infrastructure.
We could consider protocols constructed using blockchains generating income per license or use and being paid in other token value forms such as stablecoins – a model in contrast striking with the token model as a product fashionable.
For the founders and teams currently focused on cryptocurrency applications, this represents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is to extend beyond the comfortable but limited cryptographic ecosystem, represented mainly by Crypto twitter And [Insert Your Favorite Conference Here]. The opportunity contributes to the true technological revolution that represents AI.
What does this mean in practice? First of all, the teams must start thinking bigger. The founders should wonder how AI can transform their target market, then consider how cryptographic technology could help allow this transformation. This means a fundamentally change in the way we approach the construction and marketing of cryptographic products.
Instead of starting with tokenization, tokenomic or even blockchains in general, start with real problems that AI could solve. It is only then that the teams should identify where decentralized systems could improve AI and implement these pieces of the battery where they really add value.
Take advantage of the crypto where it makes sense, in particular where it can reduce costs or improve efficiency, but keep the focus to provide value by intelligence and automation.
For example, companies could use blockchains to create decentralized markets for critical processes, which makes AI more accessible and more profitable (Vast.ai, a Nazaré portfolio company, does this for GPUs, and Orchid has reflected Internet and confidentiality with decentralized markets for years).
Agents can also use cryptographic verification or confidentiality systems to act safely and safely online using our connection information, our identities and our credit cards, or even the private chain keys and wallets.
In both cases, Crypto serves the wider objective of making AI systems more effective and trustworthy.
The companies that will prosper in this new landscape are those that understand this dynamic. They will create either Ai-First Products that integrate the crypto where it adds an authentic value, or they will create crypto services explicitly designed to improve AI products or services. The market will not support the teams that run to brandish the hammer which is blockchains that treat just like a nail.
In the end, it is a question of correctly understanding the relationship between crypto and AI. The future belongs to AI as a main framework while carefully incorporating the crypto, if applicable.
For a large part of the cryptography industry, it is a moment of truth and a deep recalibration. We can either hang on to the story of the crypto as an autonomous revolution and speculative tokens as retail products, or we can adopt the role of support for crypto as excellent technology in AI service.
The latter can be less glamorous (and perhaps less precious for investment portfolios), but it is ultimately more likely to create a real value and impact.
The sooner we will accept this reality, the better we will be positioned to contribute significantly to the technological transformation which is already underway. It is time for the cryptography industry to think greater than itself.
If you are in crypto, rotate in AI.
