Author: Ansem

Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow

Deep Dive: With market sentiment depressed, BTC consolidating at high levels, and ETH under continued pressure, voices predicting the "end" for crypto have resurfaced. Renowned trader Ansem offers a rebuttal in this tweet: Poor performance of major cryptocurrencies ≠ industry decline; stablecoins, perpetual contracts, and tokenization are the true structural narrative. For investors still unsure about asset allocation, this is a long-term framework worth taking seriously.

I disagree. Encryption is simply going through a maturation phase.

Stablecoins, perpetual contracts, and tokenization will continue to permeate the global economy, and many successful crypto startups will emerge.

Hyperliquid is just the first to demonstrate how powerful the combination of open blockchains and business tokenization can be—and there will be many more to come.

The current sentiment problem in the crypto market stems from the poor performance of major cryptocurrencies. BTC, rising from $0.01 to $100,000 in less than two decades, has been remarkably successful in mitigating the declining purchasing power of the dollar. The current issue facing Bitcoin is the "Ponzi scheme" tendency stemming from Saylor's tactics, which is temporary. I believe that BTC will not experience another significant upward trend until this problem is resolved. Furthermore, concerns about quantum computing are real. These two factors, coupled with institutional withdrawal from liquidity, provide ample reason for long-time BTC investors to seek out excess liquidity for risk management—we have already seen concrete examples, such as the large-scale over-the-counter transaction handled by Galaxy (which facilitated a $9 billion sale to a single entity in 2025). There are also many similar individuals whose holdings are already in a state of unlimited profitability.

But the idea that crypto is dead doesn't mean that after BTC has outperformed all assets on Earth for over a decade, it might underperform for a few more years. That's a ridiculous notion.

Ethereum is also suffering for its own unique reasons. I think I've talked about this enough, but it's true that it's been hampered by competition from new entrants and hasn't been able to establish ETH as a worthwhile long-term asset. All L1 tokens are struggling on the demand side because historically, their narrative has been about "future growth," not real revenue. But now Hyperliquid has clearly demonstrated that a business can be directly integrated into L1 tokens, leaving previous L1 tokens in a passive position—they captured too little revenue from applications using their infrastructure. Ethereum is in a worse situation because it also outsources its execution activities to Rollups.

But this doesn't mean there won't be more successful crypto startups.

There is a very clear trend towards improved crypto regulation, which will significantly lower the barrier to entry for entrepreneurs building crypto businesses. At the same time, existing tech companies are also acknowledging the advantages of blockchain, as evidenced by companies like Robinhood and Stripe/Tempo.

AI has stolen a significant amount of attention that previously belonged to crypto, and tech stocks have far outperformed crypto since their 2022 lows. As a trader, allocating time between stocks and crypto is extremely wise. In the past, overweighting crypto was reasonable if you were willing to take the risk—it was an emerging sector that experienced extraordinary returns as it went mainstream.

Going forward, with the exponential advancements in AI models over the next few years, there are three underestimated crypto tailwinds:

1) Open-source AI will become more competitive with closed-source AI.

2) It becomes easier for small teams to build successful startups with the help of software.

3) Stablecoins and blockchain are superior infrastructures for AI agents to conduct transactions.

These combined trends mean that you are likely to see more crypto experimentation and token innovation than less – especially given the continued improvement in the regulatory environment and the emergence of retail speculation as the next big trend.