Just days after Multicoin Capital co-founder Kyle Samani announced his retirement from the crypto industry, the goodwill he had built up over the years has been quickly eroded.
"Crossing the river and then destroying the bridge" is truly disgusting.
Objectively speaking, Kyle Samani has made positive contributions to the cryptocurrency industry over the years. Whether it's his continuous financial support for early-stage projects (regardless of motives, just the impact), or his guidance on narratives and evangelism at the level of awareness, he has directly or indirectly influenced the direction of the industry.
From a results-oriented perspective, Kyle Samani has indeed achieved "great results" in the crypto industry that are unimaginable to ordinary people. Based on this alone, it is quite reasonable for Hasseb Qureshi to call him the "best investor in the industry" or for Mable to call him a "top player".
• Note: Hasseb Qureshi is a partner at Dragonfly Capital. He once said, "Investing is like a sport, and Kyle Samani is the highest scorer in history, unmatched by anyone." Mable is a former partner at Multicoin Capital and co-founder of Trends. After Kyle Samani retired from the industry, he wrote a viral article titled " The game continues, it's just that Kyle's version is over ."
But that's precisely why Kyle Samani's "ugly face" has been so frequently revealed in the days since his retirement from the entertainment industry, making him even more repulsive.
On the day he withdrew from the crypto space, Kyle Samani, in a reply to Stix founder Taran, stated: "Cryptocurrency is not as interesting as many people (including myself) once imagined. I used to believe in the vision of Web3 and DApps, but now I don't. Blockchain is essentially an asset ledger; it will reshape finance, but that's about it, and it won't have much more impact."
The post was deleted by Kyle Samani almost immediately after it was published... Well, this was clearly Kyle Samani's true thought, which he had never revealed before, but the fact that he deleted the post at least means that he also knows that "crossing the river and burning the bridge" is not dignified.
Unfortunately, he didn't stop there. On February 8th, Kyle Samani once again attacked the industry that had made him successful: "Hyperliquid embodies the ills of cryptocurrency in almost every aspect. The founder fled his homeland to create it, it blatantly facilitates crime and terrorism, and the system is closed-source and still requires permission."
While outspokenness has always been a controversial label for Kyle Samani, this time his illogical and clearly factually contradictory "mindless rant" is obviously untenable. Furthermore, given his self-proclaimed status as an outsider, this statement seems even more jarring. In the past, Kyle Samani's outrageous remarks at least garnered some support from certain groups based on his stance (such as supporting Solana and his long-term criticism of Ethereum). However, this time, he stands outside the industry, offering a complete rejection of the entire crypto sector.
The course of events was predictable: Kyle Samani successfully provoked widespread outrage within the industry.
It's understandable for people who have lost money in the crypto crypto to criticize it, since people always need to vent their emotions; but it's hard not to feel that Kyle Samani, who clearly made a fortune and achieved upward mobility in the crypto, is a hypocrite who couldn't wait to kick someone while they were down right after announcing his retirement from the crypto world.
To put it bluntly, this is a classic case of "biting the hand that feeds you"—Kyle Samani wants to take away the benefits the industry provides, but is also eager to sever ties with the industry. Where in the world is there such a great deal?
A strange and incongruous feeling; is there a hidden reason behind his retirement from the entertainment industry?
Another incongruous point is that Kyle Samani chose Hyperliquid as his target this time; but on the other hand, Multicoin Capital continues to increase its bets on Hyperliquid.
In the same week that Kyle Samani announced his retirement from the crypto space, on-chain analyst MLM detected multiple large purchases of HYPE from an address suspected to be Multicoin Capital.
Crypto Banter founder Ran Neuner noticed that Hyperliquid was prominently featured as a representative project of the third theme, "financial globalization," in the five-year investment themes announced by Multicoin Capital co-founder Tushar Jain last weekend, while DePIN, which Kyle Samani has long been extremely bullish on, was not mentioned at all.
Ran Neuner offered a hypothesis that Kyle Samani did not leave voluntarily, but rather had a conflict with Tushar Jain, ultimately forcing him to leave. Furthermore, due to non-compete clauses, Kyle Samani was forced to exit the crypto industry ...
While this speculation lacks any factual evidence, it seems to better explain the inconsistencies mentioned earlier and Kyle Samani's sudden change in attitude—are you more inclined to believe that a top-tier mind who has long been involved in the crypto industry suddenly realized the industry's emptiness? Or are you more inclined to believe that Kyle Samani simply chose to turn his back on others because he harbored resentment and could no longer profit from the industry?
Whether out of faith in the future of the industry or out of lingering appreciation for Kyle Samani's past achievements, I'm more emotionally inclined towards the second possibility. As for the truth, it will probably only be revealed someday when no one cares about it anymore.
Is the crypto industry doomed?
Over the past few years, we have seen too many talent flows from the crypto world to the AI world, but the departure of iconic figures like Kyle Samani has dealt a heavy blow to confidence in the entire crypto industry.
So, does the industry really have no future? This is clearly not a question that can be answered with a personal opinion. After Kyle Samani chose to leave, several influential figures of similar stature explained, with their own logic, why they remain optimistic about the industry's future.
Tushar Jain remains steadfast in his beliefs, and his Multicoin Capital's eight investment themes continue to focus on the crypto world .
Haseeb Qureshi believes that Kyle Samani's departure is the truest sign of the industry maturing. Pioneers and settlers are often not the same people , which is a natural law of human nature. "I am still very bullish on cryptocurrency. I know it's strange to say this in a volatile market because people don't have much patience for dreams that will take ten years to realize. The era of dreamers is over, but the era of doers is coming, which is neither a good thing nor a bad thing in itself."
Chris Dixon, a partner at a16z Crypto and a pioneer of Web3 concepts, used the development of the internet as an analogy to refute Kyle Samani's view that cryptocurrencies can only reshape finance—" Infrastructure and distribution networks often precede new application categories . The internet didn't begin with social media, streaming, or online communities; it began with packet switching, TCP/IP, and basic connectivity. New cultural and economic categories only emerged after hundreds of millions of people were online. Cryptocurrencies are likely to follow a similar pattern. A reasonable assumption is that we need to get hundreds of millions of people on-chain through financial applications like payments, stablecoins, savings, and DeFi before we can see meaningful adoption in media, gaming, AI, or perhaps even further afield."
The future is created by people, and as long as more people share the same consensus, the flame of encrypted narratives can be reignited.
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