What can save you, my crypto world

Author: Nancy, PANews

“I wasted 8 years of my life in the crypto industry.”

Aevo co-founder Ken Chan published a scathing article denouncing the crypto industry as a “super casino,” and this “breakdown post” quickly went viral in both domestic and international communities. Behind millions of views, the community exploded with debate. Supporters saw it as a moment of awakening that pierced the bubble, while detractors viewed it as a beneficiary smashing the pot after eating from it.

Setting aside emotional outbursts, this debate reflects the current collective anxiety and cyclical confusion in the industry amid a liquidity drought and narrative vacuum.

Reduced to a Super Casino? What’s Wrong with the Crypto Ecosystem

In this lengthy post, Ken Chan admits that the past eight years have been a journey from idealism to disillusionment.

As a libertarian and programmer deeply influenced by Ayn Rand’s works, he was once a staunch believer in cypherpunk values, viewing Bitcoin as “the private bank of the wealthy.” However, after eight years of full-time involvement in the industry, he painfully admits that even though he made money, he still feels those eight years of his youth were completely wasted.

The favorite narrative among industry participants is “completely replacing the existing financial system with blockchain,” but this is just a slogan. In reality, all they’re doing is maintaining the world’s largest, always-online casino. This misalignment stems from a fundamentally distorted incentive structure. In reality, no one cares about genuine technological iteration. Market participants are blindly throwing money into the next Layer 1 blockchain, hoping to bet on the next Solana. This speculative mentality props up hundreds of billions in inflated market caps.

In fact, zombie blockchains are no longer rare. Even newly launched high-performance chains with tens or even hundreds of millions in funding struggle to attract real users after airdrop frenzies and incentive programs. It’s like building countless highways in a desert with no cities or factories—just a group of speculators flipping empty plots of land.

Data confirms this dilemma: according to DeFiLlama, in the past 24 hours, only 15 blockchains had on-chain DEX volumes exceeding $10 million, and only 4 chains had daily active addresses in the millions.

On this overbuilt “ghost town” of infrastructure, Ken states that whether it’s spot DEXs, perpetuals, prediction markets, or meme coin platforms, they are all essentially gambling tools. For example, the once-vibrant MEME culture has been replaced by an industrialized “token launch assembly line,” becoming an extreme PvP on-chain casino; the frequent interactions in many applications are not driven by real demand but by users farming points for airdrops. As Ken puts it, while VCs can write 5,000-word essays about grand visions, the reality is these games are simply draining the existing funds of retail and institutional players.

What makes Ken Chan even more uncomfortable is the subversion of business common sense in this industry. Here, making money through token launches, market making, and extracting value is far easier than building good products. The market is flooded with “high FDV, low float” tokens; projects with no real revenue still have multi-billion-dollar valuations, and so-called governance tokens are just liquidity tools for investors to exit. This environment, where bad money drives out good, not only erodes practitioners’ ability to identify sustainable businesses but also instills a toxic “financial nihilism” in the younger generation.

With traditional assets increasingly out of reach, Gen Z is experiencing its own “financial rebellion.” According to a recent Financial Times article, America’s worsening housing affordability is profoundly changing Gen Z’s investment and consumption habits, even pushing some young people toward crypto speculation and economic nihilism. In addition to cryptocurrencies, meme stocks, collectibles, leveraged ETFs, and prediction markets are all part of the new financial trends among youth.

Ken Chan’s criticism has resonated with many. For example, Tangent founder Jason Choi lamented that we already have countless cheap/fast blockchains, loose regulatory environments, massive overfunding since 2017, and thousands of developers delivering smart contracts over the past decade. Yet, an AI company is about to IPO at a valuation surpassing the entire crypto market cap excluding Bitcoin and stablecoins.

Inversion Capital founder Santiago Roel Santos pointed out that this is a sobering reality check for the entire industry. Today, the crypto industry has about 40 million monthly active users (MAU), while Facebook had 845 million MAU at IPO and a $100 billion valuation; OpenAI now has about 800 million MAU and was last valued at $500 billion. If we want a $10 trillion asset class, we need at least a billion users.

Crypto KOL YQ cited an earlier article, noting that many crypto OGs have chosen to leave after questioning their original beliefs. In the current cycle, highly speculative projects like memes, perpetuals, and prediction markets remain resilient, while many infrastructure and social projects are finding it increasingly hard to prove their value. For startups, VCs, traders, and users, this is undoubtedly the toughest phase, with the market filled with “pump and dump” schemes manipulating small or old tokens via leveraged perpetuals. In this environment, we must accept reality. Whether VC or founder, constantly adjusting course and delivering products is the only way to survive.

Navigating Crypto’s Emotional Cycles: “The Forest Needs Deadwood Cleared”

To many industry insiders, Ken Chan’s pessimism is essentially a classic “pulling up the ladder after climbing ashore” mentality.

As a beneficiary, he made enough money in crypto but now turns around to criticize the very ladder that made him rich. At the same time, his disdain for financial nihilism ignores the fact that for countless ordinary people worldwide, this bubble-filled market is still one of the few channels for social mobility. Moreover, AEVO’s price has dropped over 98% from its all-time high.

Regarding the current developmental challenges in crypto, Ken believes the industry is just spinning its wheels, but to most builders, this is just the inevitable growing pains of technological progress. Just because there are losers in the casino doesn’t mean the entire emerging financial city should be dismissed.

If you look at countries like Argentina, Turkey, and Nigeria, you’ll find that stablecoins like USDT and USDC have become de facto “hard currency.” Locals rely on them to protect their meager savings from hyperinflation—this financial system genuinely serves tens of millions.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin is no longer just a geek toy; it’s becoming part of sovereign wealth funds, national reserves (e.g., El Salvador, Bhutan), and top hedge fund balance sheets. Ethereum’s technology stack is becoming the global public chain standard, recognized by Wall Street capital. Further, as stocks, bonds, real estate, and other assets accelerate their transition on-chain, financial efficiency is making substantive leaps. On the tech front, countless developers are making breakthroughs in areas like zero-knowledge proofs (ZK), censorship-resistant networks, and quantum resistance. These are the real undercurrents behind the noisy crypto market.

Addressing the “casino argument,” Dragonfly partner Haseeb points out that crypto has never lacked casinos. The first hit Bitcoin app was Satoshi Dice (2012); Ethereum’s first hit smart contract was King of the Ether Throne (2015), essentially a Ponzi scheme. Once programmable money exists, the first thing people do is always betting and games—it’s human nature. The crypto world has always had red-hot casinos: ICOs, DeFi, NFTs, and now meme coins. The forms change, but the essence remains. While casinos are flashy and grab attention on social media, if you focus only on their glitz, you’ll miss the more important story. He further notes that crypto is becoming a superior financial medium, reshaping the nature of money and quietly shifting the power dynamic between individuals and governments. Bitcoin is starting to challenge national sovereignty, with governments adding it to their balance sheets. Stablecoins are influencing monetary policy, forcing central banks to respond. Uniswap, AAVE, and other permissionless financial protocols now exceed the scale and value of many fintech unicorns. The world is undergoing profound shifts centered on crypto.

“This transformation is happening more slowly than many expect, but that’s always the case with technology diffusion,” Haseeb says. Three years after ChatGPT launched, generative AI still hasn’t appeared in GDP or employment data; the Industrial Revolution took 50 years to truly impact productivity; the internet took more than 20 years to become mainstream. Expecting to replace the world’s most tightly regulated financial system in just five years was never realistic. If you’re upset because you didn’t get rich from some meme project, take a deep breath—the industry owes no one wealth. In fact, pessimism and “spiritual surrender” along the timeline aren’t necessarily bad things.

Pantera Capital partner Mason Nystrom also believes pessimism about crypto and its social value is misguided. While there’s speculation and abuse in crypto, the casinos are real and massive, and many people lose money at the tables—but there’s also a large amount of overlooked positive social value.

He explains that Bitcoin has become a global, non-sovereign asset that anyone with internet access can hold. It gives people worldwide a veto/exit mechanism, shifting economic control from the state to individuals. Stablecoins offer faster, safer, and more efficient financial services globally—quicker settlement, higher yields, lower costs. Banks pay no interest, cross-border remittances charge high fees, e-commerce charges 2.9% in transaction fees—all being disrupted by stablecoins, delivering real social value. Lending platforms like Aave and Morpho let people worldwide access overcollateralized loans. Lower-collateral lending markets will further unlock huge social benefits, reduce capital costs, and create massive positive externalities. Additionally, blockchain will allow global users access to previously restricted financial products such as stocks, bonds, insurance, and credit. Permissionless finance means any good idea can be funded on its merits. More transparent, efficient, and low-cost markets are, in themselves, a social upgrade.

Mason Nystrom also notes that crypto is building a brand-new financial system. Some will build casinos, some payment networks, some speculative tools, and some inclusive credit infrastructure. The new financial system won’t be perfect, but it will be much better than the status quo. If you only see the casino aspect, perhaps take a step back and look at all the benefits crypto has brought and will continue to bring to society from a broader perspective.

Currently, the crypto industry is in an emotional trough. Ken’s essay is less a reflection and more an emotional outpouring after entrepreneurial setbacks. Projects like Aevo are not alone in their struggles—this is the industry undergoing survival of the fittest. Over the past few years, the space has accumulated too many projects lacking real value or viable products—essentially an oversupply. The current pain is just the process of squeezing out the accumulated bubbles.

Forests need deadwood cleared regularly, or rot will spread. The crypto industry is no different.

Let those who are tired, lost, or only here to speculate exit naturally, and the air will become clearer. Either change your mindset and look to the future, or make way for those still building. This journey has only just begun—it’s far from over.