I Was Right About DeFi in 2020. Here’s My Next Prediction

本站添加: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]I was early in DeFi before people knew what it was. No one was talking about it. No one was making videos about it. I just stumbled into it and figured things out by losing money and then making it back and then losing again. That's how you kind of learn in this space. So, in this video, I'm going to share five biggest things those early days taught me. I'll tell you where big money is entering right now that nobody is covering and what I think will blow up this cycle the same way DeFi blew up in 2020.

[00:00:28]Also, I'll cover all the dumb stuff I did wrong so you can save yourself the pain. And uh yeah, let's get it started.

[00:00:34]For everyone new, by the way, I'm Cryptogate, made over 5,000 x in my journey. I told everyone to buy in March 12, 2020. It's the virus dip. No one wanted to buy at the time. Check all the coins.

[00:00:46]Check how much they made. They went to the moon. And I called the top of the bull run, which is all on my YouTube.

[00:00:50]Verify what I'm saying. Don't trust what I say. So, let's get it started. The first thing that you got to realize when you're actually early on a sector and you can create a better idea if that thing is going to be big is you got to focus on sectors that actually focus on innovation plus problem-solving. So, let's get to DeFi. In DeFi, basically, what we had, it was a new technology that solved the big issue, right?

[00:01:18]Because at that time, you didn't have to go to banks. You didn't have to use products that banks used because you could do it actually online. You could do it by being your own bank. It was something new. Imagine opening a wallet and earning a yield, doing like what banks do. It was something that actually solved the problem and actually brought in innovation. So, let's get it started cuz this is so in-depth. So, I'm going to compare, let's say, two sectors. So, DeFi did great, NFTs did great, gaming also did great. But honestly, the sector that benefited the most and it is here today and still has pumps is DeFi. NFTs just moved away. No one cares anymore. Gaming is just dead today same as NFTs. So, the narratives of the last cycle that actually benefit the most was DeFi. Why?

[00:02:10]Because as I said, DeFi brought an innovation plus a problem-solving. What gaming did? Gaming just basically brought an innovation. Gaming didn't solve a problem. Why? Because you have to understand that the gaming sector was something that we already have before.

[00:02:28]Like it's not that games were created in crypto. Games were created and people uh played games for a long time. Crypto, what they did and projects here, they just utilized the the investor or the player, let's call it like that, to earn some money. They introduced some innovation with PvP. So, basically people could earn while they played. But again, the problem wasn't a big thing like DeFi because the problem it just touched gamers and it wasn't a problem-solving. It was just an innovation like bringing a feature or an innovation to what you already have shows that will not actually bring the biggest pumps.

[00:03:07]And also uh being in the space for a long time. So, the three things you need to watch when you actually go in a sector is what this offers, market size and cost of running. So, here's I'm going to go step-by-step so you can see the difference. So, DeFi. DeFi offers an innovation plus problem-solving, right?

[00:03:26]Market size is very important many people didn't calculate like what is bigger? DeFi, so let's call financial or banking industry or people that play games. Of course, it's DeFi. Like for example, global financial services is valued 38 trillion to 500 trillion.

[00:03:42]Gaming sector is 200 billion 300 billion. Don't get me wrong, it's quite a lot. But compared to what people need the most, do they need gaming or DeFi?

[00:03:51]Like the average person. If you tell them, "Look, I have this amazing game."

[00:03:55]Does a 50-year-old cares for a game or he cares for an basically yield or a platform where he can control his own money?

[00:04:06]That's how you got to think. So, here till now, DeFi was the winner and is the winner. Another thing that many people don't get and this is quite in-depth is the cost of running. So, what you have to realize is that DeFi actually to build all those projects, it costs a lot of money, right? But, from what I've noticed and from the experience, once those things are built, there's not a huge actually cost to run them. Of course, there are bills to pay like Amazon Web Services and all those all those technical stuff. But, again, the gaming was much different cuz gaming was an industry that had a lot of VCs because gaming requires a lot of money.

[00:04:49]For example, if you're going to build a game, it takes a lot to be built. Same as DeFi. Here, I think they are same.

[00:04:55]Issue with gaming versus DeFi is that gaming requires a lot of funding. So, on monthly basis, you got to improve something. What if something breaks on a game? Next month, you're going to bring something new. What about graphics? What about the avatars? What about the people there? Right? For example, in the gaming industry, the developers needs to be much more than DeFi because in DeFi, once you build the right smart contract, and you have no technically no risk, and it's audited and it's safe, you're basically just leave the protocol work and you don't have much cost to run. But, gaming, every month you got to improve something. Every month, you're going to satisfy your people to actually continue use that game. Like, you have to keep people in the loop of bringing something new so they can use the game, right? But, DeFi, if you just do something right once, then it's a game changer. See for example Ave. Ave of course it takes a a lot of cost to be built, but today Ave runs on autopilot.

[00:05:56]It's a problem that they solved and it's an innovation. While game just bring an innovation had a lot of cost. And why costs are something that you got to consider. They you got to consider cost because where do you think all those uh all those money to run the game came?

[00:06:13]From selling the tokens. So the majority of coins in the gaming industry, you know what they did? They kind of got money from VCs, venture capital. And what they did, all the costs to actually run graphics, developers, and all this technical stuff, they just sold the token. They sold basically their coin and that's why today's it's a dead narrative, right? No one cares much about gaming. I'm not saying, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it can't go up.

[00:06:40]When they're going to print money, you're going to see the stupid stuff going up. But that's how you discover what is something that will be here for a long run and will have probably the majority of the pumps. Cuz even gaming pumped a lot last cycle. But the reason why it was they printed a ton of money. So even stupid stuff went up.

[00:07:01]And it was the right time and it was a bull run. But the biggest gains came from DeFi and a space that is today a narrative that is today that actually brings more more gains, is DeFi. For example, how many layer ones you got uh between those two three years? You got Monad Chain, Berachain. Like there are a lot of narratives being built, but gaming? Have you heard about any gaming protocols being big or having any pumps in the past two three years? Honestly, not. So that's why you got to see. You got to see for a platform, basically a narrative that brings an innovation plus problem solving. That is the most important thing. The next lesson I learned is that basically you can't be an expert in everything. A lot of people what they do is they get lucky because they're on the right side of money printing and they think that they're an expert on what they do. So, what happened in 2020 here basically after they printed a ton of money, every kind of stuff that you bought after this time because the printer was on especially this time here, everything that you bought at this time kind of went up, right?

[00:08:12]But, the difference between make going up is how much gains you can make and how much you can basically how you can keep that money because you have to realize something. The big the best sectors usually have the biggest pumps but also the biggest scams and a lot of people don't get that. So, all you have to do in my own opinion is get good at something and actually stick to it.

[00:08:40]Don't be like the guy that oh, I'm going to join on NFTs, I'm going to join on gaming, I'm going to join on this, I'm going to join on that. If you're going to chase hype, you have to be really careful cuz basically you're spreading your knowledge in multiple pieces that you don't even know what's going on with a certain with a certain sector. So, for example, a lot of people what they did, they joined on DeFi, they made some money.

[00:09:01]Then NFTs came. Then what they did, they bought NFTs. But, the problem with that is that you don't have a a specific expertise in one field. Meaning that you're more likely to lose money than to generate because once the party ends and once the once the uh euphoria ends, you're going to be the one that will be left with a ton of coins in NFTs, DeFi, gaming. You don't even know what to sell first, what to do. Should you hold because it's like building, let's say, 10 businesses at same time. How you can make more money? By focusing all your all your thinking in one business or 10 business simultaneously. So, that's what you have to understand. I'll tell you something.

[00:09:43]Focus on this thing first.

[00:09:46]Notice the sector that will be big and go all in on that. Don't try to be an expert in DeFi, gaming, NFTs, AI, real world assets. You can't win the game by being an expert on everything. Like, I'll tell you something so you can understand. I'm an expert on DeFi.

[00:10:01]That's my focus. Like, I don't pretend to be an expert in NFTs or gaming.

[00:10:06]I can make money on NFTs, but I can make much more here cuz here, for example, I know everyone in terms of I know the founder, I know the projects behind, I know things that occurred with those projects uh that many people don't know.

[00:10:19]For example, I might know the uh what happened with Hyperliquid 1 year ago that people don't know. I might know what happened with Ondo 2 years ago that people don't know. This is why the in-depth knowledge is so important because if you spread your knowledge on multiple things and you know just the basics, oh Ondo does this, Hyperliquid does this. Do you think like you can invest that in that thing? Like, think for a moment.

[00:10:43]When you build a business, you build a business plan, you spend hours, months to do the research, then you pull the trigger, right? While most people know just the basic, oh what Hyperliquid does, what Chainlink does, what Ondo does, and they don't know they don't know anything. Like, I talk to people I know I talk to them, "Did you know that Ondo did this, for example, 2 years ago?" They'd be like, "Oh yeah, I haven't heard that." That's what you don't want because if you are spread your knowledge in multiple pieces, you'll miss the information that may be you're good at. So, always keep this thing in mind. The next thing, as I said earlier, is that the biggest sector will provide the most money, most scams. And this is something that you need to calculate. Now, last cycle, a lot of rally and a lot of money could have been made also in NFTs.

[00:11:29]NFTs had like crazy crazy pumps. But, what most people don't understand is that NFTs also had the biggest rugs and NFTs had the biggest scams. So, you could have made a ton of money, but you could have you could have also lost a ton of money. And this is something that you need to realize when you join on something new. So, for example, what is the new narrative of this cycle? It's AI, right? AI is amazing, but the problem with AI today is that the majority of projects just pump from the hype when Nvidia or stocks are doing great, right? They don't have like a product or or something that is valuable. I'm not saying all, I'm saying the majority. So, the majority of projects, what they do is they change their website and put like powered by AI or AI website. They do these things because they catch the hype, they catch the narrative. Like, I think it was a coin that just changed the website from being a random DeFi coin, changed powered by AI and then they pumped 30%.

[00:12:30]So, my point is that the biggest sectors will provide the most money plus most scams and you need to realize where you uh where your focus needs to be. Like, there's nothing wrong if you actually are in old the narrative, but you have the the best knowledge there. Like, I truly believe, for example, if one guy today joins in AI and I'm in DeFi for 5 years, I'm still going to make more money.

[00:12:58]You might call this, "Oh, it's not realistic." But, you have to realize that I have 90% of knowledge in this thing. I know it's old, but I know that this is still here to stay because, as I said, this brings innovation plus problem-solving plus they have pumps, meaning that we have seen how many demand is still today.

[00:13:19]Because if there was no demand like gaming, I'll be like, "Yeah, I'll pivot to AI." Like, if I was in gaming, I would understand. But, today there's demand and there's pumps. So, it's here to stay. Now, of course on AI you can make much more, but you have to understand also the second part that many people don't get that you'll have the most scams and you have to be careful. So, I'm not saying don't jump on AI. I'm saying understand the pros and cons when you join on something new. That's such an important thing. So, let's jump to the next thing. The next thing is how to notice what will be big. Now, you have to realize this because this is such an important Everything I'm sharing in this video is what I'm covering every day in my free Telegram community. If you like this video, I'm sure you'll love my free community. I also review what coins you're holding. I've even given my honest opinion on them. If you got any question, you can ask one-on-one with me there. And you can join by clicking the link in my bio or check the pinned comment. It's all free and let's get back to the video.

[00:14:12]So, let's get what is what is a sector that is the most talked today? It's AI, right? It's real world assets and tokenization. So, let's call it tokenization and AI. Now, how you can notice if AI will be big?

[00:14:27]You got let's go back to this thing.

[00:14:29]What this offers? Like what AI offers?

[00:14:32]AI can change the life of businesses and the average person. The average person can learn information so easy. They can build a website so easy.

[00:14:41]They can do stuff that before they couldn't. Businesses, they can do stuff that they don't need employees.

[00:14:48]Like you improve the business. So, it's an innovation plus a problem solving. Same as DeFi because it's something new that never happened before and it's a big problem solver.

[00:15:00]Market size is crazy. It's growing and it's just going to be big because >> [snorts] >> AI is used on not just crypto. AI is used on real life, in technology, in all all our everyday lives. So, market size is crazy. Cost of running, it's huge. This is a negative part. But, what you have to realize is that this covers the most important part, innovation, problem-solving, and the market size. Cost of running, I do believe it's going to be an issue, but I do believe the next big print will come from AI because AI in uh 2025 is like 40% of GDP growth.

[00:15:40]It's not a sector like gaming or DeFi that you can allow to fail. You can't because all the US economy relies on that. It's 40% of GDP growth. And on the top right, I'll leave a video where I tell exactly how this will lead to the next money printing and how this will be the the last cycle to make it in crypto. I'll highly recommend to watch it. I go all in-depth and show you for the AI what they're going to do, when the pumps going to come, what sectors, and everything. Top right. So, now how you can notice uh for the AI it has innovation, problem-solving, and you have the capital entering. Meaning that, for example, you might have innovation, problem-solving, but if money is not entering, meaning that if AI coins actually here didn't had any pump before, I would be a bit skeptical, right? But, they had a lot of pumps.

[00:16:32]Like, remember beginning uh end of 2023 and whole 2024, we had really huge pumps on AI sector, really really huge pumps. So, 2025, not much because it was kind of like almost felt like a bear market due to tariffs and what Trump did. But, again, they have innovation, problem-solving, capital entering, community plus pumps. Now, community is something that is kind of interesting to have, but it's a new narrative. So, community is like, for example, when you go to Chainlink, when you go to Uniswap, Aave, you have like real people that love those projects. I call them fans.

[00:17:11]Those are so important because those people are the one that are constantly promoting your project. They love that.

[00:17:18]They use that. For example, the ones that you use Ave, they love the Ave platform cuz for example, they don't need to go to banks. Like uh let's say a few years ago, uh you made I don't know, $1 million on Ethereum, but you don't didn't want it to sell. So, what you do is you go to Ave and you take a loan out on on your Ethereum.

[00:17:36]Let's say you take 100K in USDT. Can you do that on banks? Maybe in the future you'll do and even today in some banks.

[00:17:43]But before you couldn't. So, people love that thing. Like if I used Ave, I love that thing. So, I supported it. I told my friends, right? AI is kind of new.

[00:17:52]Like I tell this for DeFi, but on the early days people had no idea what it was. So, in the early days, don't expect to have the community that DeFi has today cuz DeFi is 5 years in the space.

[00:18:02]AI just started. So, my point is that in the future, when AI actually helps to solve problems of people that problems that people have in everyday life, they're going to build a community. For example, Render might might actually bring a community. They might have also something that uh uh I don't know. Uh something that they bring people in the platform. Like uh pay them to do something. Tau might do something. Maybe uh other projects they do something like FET. Like these are stuff that will come into the future.

[00:18:35]But uh as I said, the most important thing is innovation, problem, capital entering, and basically pumps. Like we already have that. So, in my eyes, I second confirm AI is is the next big thing, right? That's that's where the real money will and will be made in this uh in this cycle. Now, tokenization is kind of new, right? Tokenization I would say is is a sector that it has an innovation. It has problem-solving cuz it puts actually everything on blockchain.

[00:19:09]But the reason why I'm not a big fan of tokenization, not that it will not be big, it will be so big and it will have the majority of the pumps cuz BlackRock, assets managers are all on it, is that the problem-solving of tokenization is more for the institutions, not the average person. Like, yes, they might tell you like, "Yeah, you can buy a piece of real estate and you don't need to buy it all." But, I think institutions benefit the most. So, I'm not saying it will not have pumps, don't get me wrong, but I think AI will be much bigger. And the reason why is because it's 50%, 40% of GDP growth.

[00:19:42]Like, tokenization it's it's for for the long run, for institutions mostly. So, you see how I judge and how I analyze stuff? That's how you got to think. And the last important part is hype pumping versus real pumping. You got to understand the difference. So, what happened again in 2020, you have to realize something, after they printed a ton of money here, at this thing, we had a lot of sectors. We had assets like DeFi, we had gaming, uh we had NFTs, uh we have also sectors of like IDOs, when basically people could buy It was like ICOs, but kind of exchanges offered that. So, my point is that when they print money and when everything is going up, you got to understand how you can make money from hype versus real real things, like real pumps. So, in my own opinion, DeFi pumped a lot from hype plus the demand because it brought an innovation plus problem-solving. While NFTs, gaming, they just pumped from hype because there was so much money printed, the DeFi guys made so much money, so so they became like, "Oh, I'm going to put some in gaming cuz I think this will be big, too." They put it on NFTs, too, so they rotated. But, DeFi brought the the majority of the gains and actually had the more pumps were more sustainable. Like if the chart for example of of NFTs was like this for gaming was was like this too. For DeFi was more sustainable. Was steady growth with short dips and steady growth again.

[00:21:21]So, that's what problem solving and innovation brings. Now, what happened with what happened with gaming is that gaming actually you have to realize where the hype starts. So, usually not everything goes up. Like if you remember last cycle when DeFi run, let's say run for two three months, it was DeFi time. Like in DeFi you could have made a lot of money.

[00:21:45]Then when DeFi slowed down, it was NFTs time. Then when NFTs time slowed down, it was gaming time. So, they usually moved in in different in different sectors. It wasn't one size at all. Now, the issue with with playing the the hype is that you got to be so quick to notice what would be big. So, for example, you remember how in 2024 AI was so big. Why?

[00:22:13]Because we saw OpenAI getting a lot of money from the government. We saw Anthropic being basically launched and a lot of people actually entered the space. We saw the ChatGPT becoming so popular. People learned a lot of people started to use ChatGPT.

[00:22:29]So, the hype started in stocks, then it came to crypto. So, if you notice that something changed in that spectrum, meaning that people are using ChatGPT and the hype is starting, you could have joined on AI, right?

[00:22:44]Now, you saw how in 2025 a lot of AI kind of it's not that it moved away, but it was slow, right? It wasn't so so euphoric like like it was in the in the 2023 and 2024. Then what happened in 2025? We didn't have much of AI sector pumping, right?

[00:23:02]So, what you have to keep in mind is to always have to look for things uh in real world changing that would affect a certain uh sector in crypto. For example, today, if something comes for OpenAI, Nvidia, Anthropic, and it's big, you know that AI coins will benefit the most, right?

[00:23:26]If something comes with tokenization and BlackRock does something, you know that real world assets will do great.

[00:23:32]So, you got to look for external factors first to realize when the hype is coming.

[00:23:38]The real pumps are usually on sectors that actually uh just go with the flow with the market, right? So, for example, DeFi, I believe DeFi will not have the biggest pumps, but I believe coins that will do great in DeFi uh will be the ones that will go and flow with the cycle. So, they'll have like similar pumps to the majority of the altcoins. It's not that you can't make money, just you have to realize where the hype uh where the hype is and where the hype is going to end. The issue with hype is that you might recognize when it starts, but it's hard to recognize when it's going to end.

[00:24:12]That's kind of the the thing that that if you're a trader at that time, you got to be careful. That's why I'm saying that the always guys, the most money you'll make is if you focus in one thing and just hold the right coins, not trade it. Like the guys that, for example, jumped on NFTs and bought crypto pumps, then sold crypto pumps for Bored Ape, then did this, then did that. Those were the guys that they made money in short term, right? Cuz they they catch the hype. They made a lot of money cuz they traded and they made a lot of money.

[00:24:42]Then, you know what happened with those guys? When the top came in 2021, those guys slowly lost everything cuz they had no knowledge, no edge. While the guys that actually was in one sector, like me, for example, I made slowly gains, but I made quite well to recognize the top and actually protect here. I stopped here. Maybe I lost here.

[00:25:06]I stopped here. Those guys lost, let's say, 90% of what they made. So, the advice that I'm telling you is that don't look what you make in the moment, in the hype phase. When they're going to print money, everyone is is genius.

[00:25:21]After 2020, everyone was a genius at this time. Here, everyone made uh made fun of their friends not joining crypto cuz it was so easy. But, the ones who won are the one that knew how to get out and to protect what you make cuz you need to go on a roller coaster? No. So, that's why I'm saying that if you're on a established sector, and if you're on a sector that you know quite well, even AI, if you know quite well AI, uh join on the major things, major projects that you believe are going to be great, and don't try to be like AI hype just started. buy Chainlink, then I'm going to see Render pumping, going to buy that thing. Or, if this coin is going to pump, I'm going to buy the thing and sell Render. Like, the more you click the trade button, the more you buy and sell, buy and sell, you feel like you're doing something great cuz it gives you a dopamine boost, and it and it gives you money in short term, but long term is not a sustainable thing. And I tell this from experience cuz as I said, you got to learn, guys, that advice you got to hear should always come from a person that is a successful at least two full cycles. Why is it two full cycles? Because a lot of people hear to the advice that they hear when everything is going up.

[00:26:33]But, you don't know if those guys are going to be in the future in the next 2 or 3 years. And even, let's say, one cycle, someone gets luck lucky, but two cycles, you eliminate the luck. Even for myself, like I tell everyone, go and verify what I've done last cycle. I'm not telling I'm the best. I'm not telling I'm the only one. But, at least what I talk is something that I did it.

[00:26:54]So, keep this thing in mind how to notice what pumps from hype versus versus real pump because it's such an important thing. And don't forget to subscribe and watch the video that I showed earlier cuz it's such an important thing.