Steve Bichimer

I keep seeing takes like this and I basically agree. if you want volatility go trade publicly traded quantum sh*tters. but it also conveys a deeper truth. crypto is boring because so many of the open questions have been answered. will stablecoins be allowed? yes. will we be banned? no. will we all go to jail for writing software? no. will we be incorporated into tradfi? yes. can tokens have cashflows and not be securities? apparently. these uncertainties and changing realities on the ground were what drove so much of the historical volatility. there are still some unanswered questions, particularly around cash-flowing pseudoequity tokens, but we will probably get answers to those in the coming years. today crypto has been largely derisked as a technological substrate which means it's not just the domain of startups but also large corporates which are now capturing value from using these tools. you don't have to be a "crypto native" early believer to build in crypto either. you can be an accomplished web2 guy or payments guy and build with off the shelf tools that work. all of this means that crypto natives no longer control the narrative, there's more serious businesses (which don't require tokens), there's less chaos, the whole space has matured significantly. this was inevitable if we got our way. incorporation into wall street, financialization, bitcoin as acceptable collateral for large banks, regulatory clarity, etc, these are the hallmarks of an industry that WON. but at the same time, maturation and clarity means less uncertainty and excitement, by definition. winning means the inherent volatility in the space is highly reduced! this applies to both startups and the underlying assets themselves. this doesn't mean that you can't win by building in crypto or trading, but we're just in a completely different environment now. the "crypto ecology" doesn't reward unhinged risk takers as much as it did in say 2017 because the variable that counts isn't "willingness to take risk" but rather "ability to generate consumer value". previously, your willingness to skirt regulation and build regardless of consequences was a huge source of competitive advantage. today this isn't true since regulators have codified so much. previously, betting that crypto and tradfi would converge was another source of edge. once they actually did converge, it's just a historical fact, not a useful belief. i can go on. none of this meant to be a shot at will by the way just using this sentiment as a jumping off point. so if you're sad that volatility has been dampened smile through the tears. it means we won.