Crypto Use Cases Narrow, but Will Show Its Winners: NYDIG

NYDIG research lead Greg Cipolaro stated that the 'investable universe' of cryptocurrency is contracting as the industry matures, focusing primarily on applications that extend traditional finance products onto blockchain infrastructure. He specified Bitcoin, tokenized assets, stablecoins, some DeFi infrastructure, and select general-purpose blockchains like Ethereum as viable areas, noting that many hyped use cases like gaming and social networking have failed against centralized competition because centralized systems are often faster and cheaper.

Cipolaro argued that economically viable blockchain applications are fewer than initially hoped, as only use cases where blockchain benefits outweigh costs will survive. The core attributes of open blockchains—trustlessness and permissionlessness—are best suited for financial applications, which most real-world uses do not require. This consolidation is reflected in Bitcoin's growing dominance as capital concentrates in core categories rather than spreading across many altcoin narratives.

While this narrowing may improve clarity around long-term winners like Bitcoin and financial infrastructure projects, it could also reduce the speculative breadth of the market. Cipolaro concluded that a more sober market focused on monetary and financial utility, rather than broad 'web3' ambition, might strengthen core assets but implies crypto's total addressable scope could be significantly smaller than previously projected.

(Source：Cointelegraph)