Dougie DeLuca, a long-time investor and opinion leader active in the crypto industry, recently published a lengthy post on social media stating that " Crypto is dead ," sparking heated discussions in the market. However, the "death" he refers to is not a price crash, a blockchain shutdown, or the disappearance of stablecoins, but rather the fact that cryptocurrency, as a self-contained, independent industry centered on the crypto native community, is approaching its end.
For the past decade, the industry has been competing for the same group of users.
Dougie points out that over the past decade, the crypto industry has experienced the ICO boom, the DeFi Summer, the NFT craze, the points system, and the meme coin wave, but core users have remained highly concentrated in the same group of addresses familiar with on-chain operations, liquidity mining, and short-term incentives. He bluntly states, "When we talk about user growth, it's often just a repetitive competition for the same group of wallets."
He believes that this model, designed for and serving only crypto enthusiasts, makes the entire industry resemble a highly fluid but scalable online MMO world rather than a true general-purpose technology ecosystem. Interface design, product features, and marketing strategies generally presuppose users possess a high level of technical understanding and risk tolerance, creating a significant disconnect from the needs of the general public.
Encryption is dead: Crypto tags have become a burden.
Dougie emphasized that his statement that "crypto is dead" refers to the gradual disintegration of cryptocurrency as a self-aware industry category distinct from the real world. In the future, crypto startups will no longer be a meaningful label, but simply companies using blockchain technology.
As encryption technology integrates into fintech, payments, cross-border settlements, and data and market infrastructure, the Crypto or Web3 label may become a burden, no longer helping to attract users, regulators, or capital. Truly successful products will hide the complexities of blockchain, allowing users to access cheaper, faster, and more global services seamlessly. He points out that the victory of cryptocurrency is not about making the whole world crypto-native, but about enabling users to benefit from it without needing to understand it.
True mass adoption has quietly begun.
Dougie argues that encryption technology is already functioning in the real world, just not necessarily through an encryption narrative. For example:
- Using Polymarket to check election odds, but unaware that it's based on blockchain technology.
- Merchants in Africa and Latin America use USDT for cross-border settlements simply because it's fast and low-cost.
- Savers in high-inflation countries hold USDC not because they are bullish on cryptocurrencies, but because their own currencies are failing.
These users are concerned with practicality, rather than on-chain functionality, rollups, or token economics.
Furthermore, he pointed out a long-neglected group: tech-savvy users who value privacy and asset control but have no interest in cryptocurrency mining, points systems, or yield farms. What they need is better financial infrastructure, not a new form of identity.
Are you building products for crypto natives, or solving problems for the entire world?
Dougie bluntly states that liquidity mining, points airdrops, and referral mechanisms are highly competitive, merely shifting the same capital across different interfaces. These projects often show impressive initial data, but retention rates collapse rapidly after rewards are removed. Furthermore, as projects attempt to break out of the crypto bubble, they inevitably encounter KYC, compliance, and regulatory issues. He points out that compliance is not an ideological choice, but a necessary path to expansion into the real economy. Anonymity and permissionlessness still have their value, but they cannot support most economic activities.
In his view, the next phase of the crypto industry will consist of three layers:
- Infrastructure Layer: Blockchain as an Invisible Track for Settlement, Cross-border Payments, and Identity and Asset Records
- Product layer: They don't call themselves encrypted products, but compete on price, speed, experience, and trust.
- Speculative Layer: Memecoins and high-risk markets continue to exist, but they no longer define the entire industry.
The losers of the future will be teams and investors who build products solely for the crypto community (CT), excelling at incentive design but lacking insight into real needs; the winners will be those who start with real user problems, treating blockchain as a practical detail rather than a symbol of faith. He pointed out, "The internet has 'died' as a subculture, and the cloud has lost its luster, but that's precisely what proves their success."
The maturation of the crypto industry means the end of the crypto world we know. This is not failure, but the price of success. For builders and investors, it leaves a direct and pointed question: Are you building products for crypto natives, or solving problems for the entire world?
The article "Cryptocurrency is Dead" has garnered millions of views. Why won't there be any new crypto startups in a few years? It first appeared on ABMedia, a ABMedia .
