A lot of ink has been spilled on the idea that crypto, as we know it, is over. This industry-wide malaise largely stems from crypto Twitter apathy. The active OGs are reticent about institutional adoption interfering with crypto’s cypherpunk roots and the CT algo amplifies those that are most active on the platform (i.e. opinionated wishy-washy traders). The latter cohort are currently negative on the industry, largely because money has been made elsewhere over the last 3–6 months. It’s become cool (i.e. a status symbol) to scoff at crypto and instead signal broader knowledge, investment access, and performance in other arenas (AI, gold/silver, robotics, private equity, etc.).

I generally understand this impulse. I find myself looking around corners at other frontier tech and considering broader diversification in my investment approach, so I don’t blame anyone for doing the same. But I also have to remind myself that every time I’ve chased a trend, I’ve been late and gotten burned. On the contrary, every time I’ve remained disciplined and doubled down when things in crypto looked rough, I’ve made money and earned credibility for staying committed rather than chasing the next shiny object.

Rather than staring into the abyss, I recommend we collectively use this moment of chop, apathy, whatever you want to call it, for self-reflection. Some questions I’m asking myself right now: • Where am I getting the highest ROI on my reading and research? • When I review my calendar from last year, which meetings were actually valuable, and how do I engineer more of those while eliminating energy-draining calls? • Who do I want to invest real time and energy into building authentic relationships with? • Which edges within my existing business do I want to sharpen further, and what new edge will I be grateful a year from now that I started carving today?

Separately, there is a growing concern that not only are the best returns behind us, but that crypto is no longer counter-culture and is instead slowly morphing into fintech. That is an uninteresting and unimaginative future that I refuse to accept. Blockchain and digital assets still have endless applications for the energetic and the creative, but the era of passive, beta-driven upside is largely behind us. Any insight or asymmetric investment that can meaningfully change your trajectory will not be spoon-fed anymore. It has to be created.

Alpha, as we all know, comes from being extremely early to a topic or trade. That doesn’t mean aping into whatever token or strategy a KOL is shilling as the next big thing. It means crafting your own unique ideas. Get off Twitter and go find the blogs, companies, and scientific papers that quietly reveal where the world and the industry are heading. Speak to those people. Form a view. Then place a bet using the cleanest expression of that conviction. That’s the kind of original thinking that actually produces results, whether through company formation or investment returns.

Another form of fundamental alpha generation is reevaluating categories that have been left for dead. Before the $ZEC run, privacy was a largely abandoned topic. Then ZK and privacy caught a rogue tailwind. @aztecnetwork raised $60m+ in December, and suddenly every thought leader had a piece on why privacy is the next bastion of hope and growth. Apply that same logic to what’s been written off simply because it hasn’t worked…yet. Gaming. NFTs. DePIN. Enormous energy and capital have gone into these areas without matching their hype-cycle TAM, but buried in that wreckage are lessons and real opportunities.

The “glory days” of crypto are ahead of us, not behind us. It’s the grifters and short-term speculators, who have the loudest voices on crypto Twitter, that are screeching in agony. The days of extraction are for the most part thankfully behind us. Long-term capital and big-picture builders are quietly laying the foundation for what could be a dynasty-defining next few years.

Posting this rant is part of a personal goal this year: to produce more and consume less. I’ve always hesitated to publish unless something felt both perfect and original (the enemy of good, as we all know, and increasingly unrealistic in a remix-driven world). So I’m getting out of my own way and letting some raw thoughts out, imperfections and all. Let’s produce. Think big. Explore new and forgotten corners. Bullish.