Pomp Says Most Crypto Is Dead… But Here’s What He’s Missing

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:02]Hey, what's going on crypto people?

[00:00:04]Listen, Anthony Pompliano just said most of the crypto industry is dead and it's never coming back.

[00:00:12]And honestly, he's not wrong.

[00:00:15]But I think some people are going to hear that message and take the lazy conclusion.

[00:00:22]They're going to say, "See, only Bitcoin matters. Everything else dead."

[00:00:29]And I don't think that is So, for me in this video, I want to break down where I agree with Pomp, where I think he's absolutely right, where I think people are going to misunderstand the message, and why the real future of crypto is not about every token surviving.

[00:00:48]It is about the market separating real financial infrastructure from dead speculation.

[00:00:57]Because that is what I think is actually happening.

[00:01:00]The crypto market is splitting.

[00:01:03]On one side, you have those chains, zombie coins, meme tokens, vaporware projects, hype cycles, and communities holding on to 2017 and 2021 dream.

[00:01:16]On the other side, you have Bitcoin, stablecoins, tokenization, institutional rail, DeFi infrastructure, settlement network, custody, liquidity, and real-world financial plumbing.

[00:01:31]And if you're an investor on a journey to become a sophisticated investor, or if you're trying to understand where this market is going, or where this market is going, that distinction matters.

[00:01:46]Because saying most of crypto is dead is not the same thing as saying only Bitcoin wins.

[00:01:54]They're two very different statements, and I think that that nuance that is missing is important. So, let's talk about it.

[00:02:02]Pomp's basic point is actually pretty simple. He said most of the crypto industry is dead, but people do not realize it yet.

[00:02:11]Okay.

[00:02:12]And one of the reason he gives that is that crypto does not go through a normal business cycle.

[00:02:17]I think some people would disagree with that. Let's see what he thinks so or says it's a normal business cycle. In a normal business cycle, companies fail.

[00:02:25]They shut down.

[00:02:28]Isn't that going on in crypto?

[00:02:31]All right. Capital moves on. Talent moves on.

[00:02:35]The bad ideas get cleared out, but in crypto that doesn't always happen. Well, doesn't it?

[00:02:43]I don't know about you, but doesn't it feel like Bit my Bitcoin mining companies are transitioning to AI companies? So, in any case. A blockchain can keep but running as long as a few people keep the software alive. That's true.

[00:02:57]A token can keep trading as long as a few people still believe.

[00:03:02]And I don't know. But like there's a lot of ill uh liquidity, right? A lot of illiquid tokens. Any case, so anyway. So, instead of officially dying, a lot of crypto projects just become irrelevant, according to Pomp. All right. They don't go to zero. They just lose liquidity.

[00:03:21]They lose They lose developers.

[00:03:24]So, that is just just simple. My take that is going to zero, right?

[00:03:29]You lose liquidity, you're losing users, you're losing developers. Isn't that going to zero, right? You're losing mind share, you're losing uh purpose.

[00:03:40]All right. But anyway, Pomp goes on to say but because the token still has some value, because the chain still technically exists, people pretend the project is still alive.

[00:03:52]Yeah. Anyway, that is what Pomp called ghost chains and zombie coin.

[00:03:56]And I think that's a powerful way to explain it because we all know this is true. There are thousands of tokens that technically still trade, but nobody's really, you know, nobody's building on them. Nobody is talking about them unless they already are trapped in a position.

[00:04:18]There are projects that have massive hype in 2017.

[00:04:21]I want to get the information of a particular token in the ecosystem.

[00:04:27]It has this has that token written all over it. But anyway, there are projects that have massive hype in 2017, massive hype in 2021, and now they're just sitting there, still listed, still alive on paper, but dead in terms of relevance.

[00:04:43]And that is the part I agree with strongly. Most crypto will not matter. Most tokens will not survive.

[00:04:51]Most chains do not need to exist.

[00:04:55]Most projects were never really real businesses anyway, right?

[00:04:58]Most communities were just price appreciation communities.

[00:05:03]And once the price stopped, once it stopped going up, the community disappeared.

[00:05:08]That's the hard truth. And I think retail investors need to hear that because the old altcoin mindset was basically this: just hold long enough and eventually everything pumps and pop about recent, right? The mindset worked better in previous cycles because liquidity was different. Retail behavior was different. The market was less mature.

[00:05:29]There were fewer tokens.

[00:05:31]There was less institutional involvement. And there was more of a broad risk-on environment where capital flowed into more into almost every The key phrase there is definitely there was less institutional involvement it what with institutional involvement comes uh kind of a regulatory environment and kind of sucks away from everybody wins, right?

[00:05:59]You have to think about that. So, there was a broad risk-on environment where capital flowed into almost everything, especially from the VC space.

[00:06:07]But, that's not the same market we're in now. The market is more selective.

[00:06:11]It's more efficient.

[00:06:12]It is more institutional.

[00:06:15]It's more narrative-driven.

[00:06:17]It is more liquidity incentive and it's much less forgiving.

[00:06:22]So, I agree with Pomp when he says most of crypto is dead, but here's what I want to add the nuance, right? His conclusion subtly.

[00:06:32]Anyway, the conclusion is not only Bitcoin matters.

[00:06:39]The conclusion is only real utility, real liquidity, real infrastructure, real adoption, and real financial relevan- uh relevance will matter.

[00:06:51]So, that includes Bitcoin, too.

[00:06:54]But, it's not limited to Bitcoin.

[00:06:58]And this is where I think a lot of people are going to get the best part of it.

[00:07:03]Um maxis will hear Pomp say most of crypto is dead. That's what the Bitcoin maxis will hear. And they will say, "Exactly.

[00:07:13]That means Bitcoin only." We We understand it, right?

[00:07:17]But, even in Pomp's own framework, he did not say only Bitcoin.

[00:07:21]But, he did say things for me to air for value moving forward.

[00:07:27]The Bitcoin stable coins, infrastructure, tokenization. So, I just want you to think about that for a second.

[00:07:35]Stablecoin infrastructure plays and tokenization plays.

[00:07:41]That is going to include a lot of non-Bitcoin asset price. So, that is not a Bitcoin only pieces.

[00:07:49]That is a financial infrastructure pieces.

[00:07:53]Different thing.

[00:07:54]And that is a very different conversation cuz if stable coins matter, then payment rail matter.

[00:08:04]If tokenization matters, then settlement rail, hello, matter.

[00:08:08]If infrastructure matters, then custody, interoperability, liquidity, client data, and decentralized applications matter.

[00:08:21]If a financial system is being operated, then you have to ask, what assets are part of that upgrade?

[00:08:29]What networks are part of that upgrade?

[00:08:31]What protocols are part of that up What rails are actually useful, right? And so, for us, got to think about what Flare is building in infrastructure. Yeah.

[00:08:42]Without question, have to understand what the XLPL is all about, right?

[00:08:48]So, that's the real question, not just is this Bitcoin or not Bitcoin. That's too simple.

[00:08:53]The better question is, does this asset or network have a real role in the future financial system?

[00:09:00]Because there is a huge difference between a random alt with a Telegram community and a network or asset that is connected to payments, settlement. Again, payments, comma, settlement, comma, liquidity, comma, collateral, comma, tokenization, comma, DeFi, or institutional infrastructure.

[00:09:24]A lot of different lanes there for all coins to win.

[00:09:28]Right?

[00:09:29]And this is why I keep saying the market is splitting. It's not Bitcoin versus every other coin.

[00:09:34]It is real infrastructure versus dead speculation.

[00:09:39]That's the split.

[00:09:40]Right? So, now let's talk about the legacy finance because this is another big part of Pompliano's message. He talked about how tried five firms are moving into crypto.

[00:09:48]Morgan Stanley, E*TRADE, zero edge, ETF brokerage platform, institutional custody, tokenization.

[00:09:58]And he basically says crypto will be absorbed into the legacy finance system.

[00:10:02]And again, I agree with all of that.

[00:10:06]Legacy finance is absolutely coming.

[00:10:09]Banks are coming.

[00:10:10]Brokerages are coming. Asset managers are coming.

[00:10:14]Custodians are coming. Tokenized funds, yes, coming. Stablecoin infrastructure, without question, is coming.

[00:10:23]And a lot of crypto native companies are going to either get acquired, replaced, or forced to compete with much bigger players.

[00:10:29]But we've known this right from the onset, right?

[00:10:32]In this community.

[00:10:34]And so, it's real.

[00:10:37]But I do not think the end game is simply legacy finance absorbs crypto and that is the end of the story.

[00:10:48]Doesn't make sense to me to think that way. I think the better frame is this: Legacy finance will absorb the parts of crypto it can control.

[00:10:58]But crypto will preserve value in the parts legacy finance cannot easily control.

[00:11:04]>> [clears throat] >> And that distinction matters, right? I think layer ones become right. Because Bitcoin is valued because it is not just a Wall Street product.

[00:11:14]Self-custody matters.

[00:11:16]Decentralization matters. Open network matters.

[00:11:20]Permissionless access really matters and so does DeFi. DeFi matters.

[00:11:25]Programmable money matters.

[00:11:29]The ability to move value without needing permission from the old gatekeepers madness. Now, will all of that survive in its purest form? I don't know. Probably not. Some of it will get regulated. Some of it will get wrapped.

[00:11:42]Some of it will get institutionalized.

[00:11:45]Yeah, some of it will get absorbed into traditional finance as well. But the core innovation of crypto was not simply giving Wall Street another asset class to trade.

[00:11:55]The core innovation was open financial rails and to me, this is why I did not think the future is just Bitcoin sitting inside of an ETF, right?

[00:12:04]And that's not why we came here.

[00:12:06]Bitcoin is part of it, a major part of it.

[00:12:09]Probably probably the reserve collateral asset of the entire digital asset space. It has a shot at winning right now in that role of reserve collateral asset.

[00:12:20]But the game's not over by a long shot. But the broader future includes stablecoins.

[00:12:26]It includes tokenized assets.

[00:12:29]It includes uh decentralized collateral markets and it includes smart contracts.

[00:12:33]Definitely includes DeFi.

[00:12:35]And we all know it includes real-world asset tokenization. Right? Cross-chain liquidity.

[00:12:41]Custody solutions. It includes identity and compliance layers.

[00:12:45]Definitely includes infrastructure, right? That's what makes the financial system faster, cheaper, more transparent, and more programmable.

[00:12:53]That's not done.

[00:12:55]That's just getting started.

[00:12:57]But the weak stuff is done. And honestly, probably should, right? We don't need a million tokens. We don't need thousands of blockchains. We already know this. We don't need endless meme coins.

[00:13:09]Right? We don't need these vaporware launches that uh that honestly shrinks the size of the pie instead of expanding it, right? These vaporware launches.

[00:13:19]We don't need fake communities built only around price. We don't need projects that exist only to farm retail liquidity.

[00:13:25]Big thing back in 2020 2020, 2021, 2022.

[00:13:29]And that's part of the pulse message that I think is I don't think it's healthy.

[00:13:34]This crypto also had a massive credibility problem. Too many scams, too many rug right? Not protecting the asset holders.

[00:13:41]Talk about it. Say it all the time. They pumping dumps. Too many The insiders dumping on retail, right? Too many fake partnerships.

[00:13:51]Too many projects which, you know, no revenue, no users, no product, market set no reason to If we're honest, it hurts the entire made it harder for serious builders.

[00:14:02]Made it made regulators more aggressive. Agencies more cautious, right? It didn't make retail more skeptical, right?

[00:14:12]And it gave Bitcoin maximalists a very easy argument.

[00:14:18]Yes, the garbage needs to die, but here's where you You need to be careful.

[00:14:22]Do not confuse the death of garbage crypto with the death of innovation outside of it.

[00:14:29]That's the mistake. A bad meme coin dying does not mean DeFi is dead. A ghost chain dying does not mean tokenization is dead.

[00:14:37]Zombie coin dying does not mean stablecoins are dead, right?

[00:14:40]Or a failed NFT project, right? That doesn't mean digital ownership dead or bad.

[00:14:45]A bad altcoin dying does not mean every non-Bitcoin asset has no purpose. And to me, that was the subtle message. And uh the power of what I was saying, right?

[00:14:56]Careful.

[00:14:57]It's being careful, but that's sensitive shredding lighter, but that's a sensitive shredding lighter.

[00:15:02]Right? To me, that's the lazy analysis.

[00:15:04]The real analysis is which part of crypto are speculation only and which parts are becoming infrastructure.

[00:15:13]That is the line.

[00:15:14]So, when I look at the market, I think there are a few categories that matter.

[00:15:17]Number one, Bitcoin matters. Bitcoin is the reserve asset. It's winning that race right now.

[00:15:23]Right? We can't operate from where we want to be. We have to operate from where we are right now.

[00:15:28]Bitcoin is the reserve asset.

[00:15:29]It is the most institutionally accepted digital asset. It has the strongest monetary narrative.

[00:15:35]Right? It has the ETF flows. It has the brand. It has the security. It has the simplicity.

[00:15:41]Bitcoin when you buy is digital scarcity.

[00:15:45]And that is powerful.

[00:15:47]Those two words, digital scarcity scarcity understand markets and how money works.

[00:15:53]powerful Right? Number two, stablecoin. Now, stablecoins may be one of the clearest use cases in the entire crypto industry. They move dollars faster than the dollars king.

[00:16:06]Right? They settle across borders. They get people access to dollar liquidity.

[00:16:10]They are already being used paying for remittances, right? Trading, DeFi, and global commerce.

[00:16:16]Now, if you want to talk about real adoption, stablecoins are in the back of your mind.

[00:16:20]They own you.

[00:16:22]Number three, tokenization.

[00:16:24]Where I think the actual PR is going to grow.

[00:16:27]grow Tokenization is the bridge between traditional assets and digital rails.

[00:16:32]Stocks, bonds, treasury, real estate, private credit.

[00:16:35]Uh any kind of funds or collateral, right?

[00:16:40]All of that can move on chain. Pay attention to collateral. Don't sleep on that.

[00:16:44]Collateral narrative is going to be big.

[00:16:46]Right? All of that can move on chain over time. And that's why institutions care. They are not coming into the crypto because they care about uh dog coins.

[00:16:57]They're coming because they see the future of markets becoming programmable.

[00:17:01]All right. So, number four, infrastructure.

[00:17:04]This is less sexy category.

[00:17:06]But it might be one of the most important. Custody, data, oracles, compliance.

[00:17:12]Four different things. Custody, data, oracles, compliance, liquidity, interoperability, security, settlement, important important. Why don't you ask identity D5 infrastructure? These are rails and the rails matter because most users do not care what chain they are using.

[00:17:33]They care about whether the system works. They care what is safe and they care what it's simple, right?

[00:17:39]Right? They want to know can they access liquidity, right? Also, can they earn yield without getting Right? Uh they care can they move value without restriction?

[00:17:51]Right? The normal asset holders just coming into this space is important for them. And this is where infrastructure comes.

[00:17:57]Right? And then number five, I would add something that Pop didn't emphasize.

[00:18:02]Not in my view, right?

[00:18:05]D5. D5. D5. Now, I understand why some people are skeptical of D5.

[00:18:11]A lot of people A lot of D5 has been circular.

[00:18:15]A lot of it has been speculative.

[00:18:19]A lot of it has been, you know, a little overcomplicated.

[00:18:22]Right? So, it a lot of it has had that bad risk management, but the concept of D5 is not dead.

[00:18:31]The concept is actually massive.

[00:18:33]Borrowing, lending, trading, dealing collateral, yield, liquidity, automated market makers, so automated markets, on chain transparency, going to matter.

[00:18:46]Right? So, programmable financial contracts, that's real. The question is not whether D5 matters. The question is which D5 protocols, networks, and assets can survive regulation, liquidity pressure, security with institutional competition.

[00:19:04]I I would say we are positioned well if you're an ETH token holder, if you're an ETH token holder.

[00:19:10]That is where the market gets selected and that brings you back to the most more important.

[00:19:15]The next phase of crypto is not going to reward everything.

[00:19:19]It's going to reward the assets in the network that are connected to real financial utility.

[00:19:25]That's why investors need to stop asking what's the cheap.

[00:19:28]What's down 90%? What has a community?

[00:19:31]What pumped last cycle?

[00:19:35]Right? This is all the question. What are people buying on X or hyping on it?

[00:19:39]And start asking like the better questions.

[00:19:44]Does this network have real use?

[00:19:46]Does this asset have a real role?

[00:19:50]Is there liquidity? Is there developer activity? Remember back in the day we used to monitor it all the time.

[00:19:56]Is there institutional relevance? The important I keep wanting to say relevant.

[00:20:03]Is there revenue?

[00:20:05]Is there a product market fit? Is there a a reason this is supposed to be actual value?

[00:20:12]Right? Is the connect Is it connected to stable coins? Organization settlement cloud?

[00:20:18]Payments or infrastructure?

[00:20:20]And this survive in a more regulated environment? So that would be absolutely genius to ask holding an asset.

[00:20:27]And that token and ecosystem survive in a more regulated environment.

[00:20:32]And to survive and reach a high price is not enough. Those are the questions because a lot of people are still investing like it's in 2021.

[00:20:40]The market did the videos on this. The market has changed.

[00:20:44]So, you know, they're waiting for the full-blown altcoin cycle where everything goes crazy.

[00:20:50]And maybe we still get pockets of speculation.

[00:20:54]Maybe we still get narrative pumps.

[00:20:57]Maybe.

[00:20:58]Maybe we still get one of those where a certain altcoins outperform, and I think that's what's mostly likely going to be.

[00:21:04]But I do not think the market is going back to the old days where every random token gets rewarded just because it exists.

[00:21:10]That era is fading. And that is why Palm's video matters, if you can read in between the lines, not because he said something completely new. Most serious people already know that most tokens are going away.

[00:21:22]But he said it clearly, he said it publicly, and he framed it as a warning.

[00:21:27]And I think retail needs that warning.

[00:21:29]Because hope is not a strategy. Holding a dead token because it used to be popular is not a strategy.

[00:21:35]Calling something undervalued because it is down 90% or 95% is not a strategy any longer.

[00:21:44]Saying it has to come back is not a strategy. Sometimes it does not have to come back. Sometimes it's dead.

[00:21:51]Sometimes the market has moved on.

[00:21:54]Sometimes the liquidity is gone, right?

[00:21:57]And sometimes the narrative is gone.

[00:21:59]Sometimes the builders they're out, right?

[00:22:04]You know?

[00:22:05]See that, right?

[00:22:06]Missing some projects with actual war, um What was another one? Builders moved on, right? Sometimes the builders are gone.

[00:22:12]Sometimes the only thing left is the bagholder.

[00:22:16]And that's hard to hear. But it's necessary because we are on a journey to becoming a sophisticated investor.

[00:22:23]Even though the truth hurts, it's important. So, now here's the balance thing. I can I agree with Palm that most of what you know is dead or dying. I agree that ghost chains and zombie coins are everywhere. I agree that the two million people in this industry are missionaries, not missionaries.

[00:22:45]I agree that the market needs more serious builders and fewer quality projects.

[00:22:49]I agree that legacy finance is entering the space in a major way. They're coming.

[00:22:55]And I agree that Bitcoin, stablecoin infrastructure, and tokenization are probably among the biggest value accruing categories.

[00:23:03]But I disagree with anyone who hears that and says only Bitcoin matters.

[00:23:09]Because this that skips the actual transformation happening underneath the surface.

[00:23:14]The financial system is being by the way this is what I think Ripple and the people at Overstock Ripple understand more so than anyone, right? Our financial system is being rebuilt slowly, right? It's messy, imperfectly, get it?

[00:23:28]With regulation, with institutions, with custody, with tokenization, with stablecoins, with DeFi, with programmable assets, with new rails, and yes, with Bitcoin at the center as a reserve asset, but not Bitcoin alone.

[00:23:44]The winners will be fewer, the winners will be stronger, the winners will probably be more be more boring than people expect.

[00:23:53]And the winners will be has to be connected to your financial use case.

[00:23:57]Has to. So the message is not crypto is that the message is which or weak crypto use case.

[00:24:06]Speculative crypto is dying.

[00:24:10]And I pay attention to that. Fake utility is dying.

[00:24:13]But real physical asset infrastructure is moving closer to the center of finance.

[00:24:17]It has to. The legacy finance is just just that, legacy, right? So that's the opportunity, and that is also the risk.

[00:24:26]Cuz if you're holding assets that are not connected to that future, you have to be honest with Are you investing in the future of finance or are you emotionally attached to a token in the last cycle? That's the question.

[00:24:40]And I think every crypto investor should sit with that.

[00:24:44]Because the next phase is not going to be kind to people who refuse to adjust.

[00:24:53]The market is telling us something.

[00:24:55]Bitcoin has matured, stablecoins have proven demand.

[00:24:59]Tokenization is attracting institutions in a big-time way.

[00:25:02]Infrastructure is becoming more important. DeFi is evolving. Which is what I love.

[00:25:08]What I believe in find out where everyone else is going and get there first, right?

[00:25:13]So, for me DeFi is still evolving and it's important. But the long tail of random tokens is getting exposed. And that is why I think Pomp is directionally directionally right.

[00:25:24]The deeper take away is not Bitcoin versus crypto.

[00:25:27]The deeper take away is real rails versus dead speculation. That is the split.

[00:25:33]And if you understand that split early enough, you can make better decisions.

[00:25:37]We talked about the 90/10 and how we changed our portfolio. How long ago did we talk about that? Almost 2 years ago, right?

[00:25:43]You can stop chasing every shiny object.

[00:25:46]You can stop holding every dead bag.

[00:25:49]You can stop pretending every project deserves another cycle. And you can start asking, "Where is the real value going?

[00:25:59]Who's attracting capital? Where is the real liquidity going, right? Find out where everyone else is going and get there first, right? Where is the real adoption going? Where is the real infrastructure being built?

[00:26:13]Because that is where the future is. So, my final thoughts is this.

[00:26:17]Pomp's warning is useful.

[00:26:20]Most crypto is probably dead.

[00:26:24]But digital assets are not dead.

[00:26:28]The infrastructure layer is not dead.

[00:26:31]Tokenization is not dead. Stable coins, not dead. DeFi is definitely not dead.

[00:26:36]Settlement rails Mhm. are not dead. The idea of a more open, programmable financial system is not dead. That is the future.

[00:26:47]What is dying is the illusion that every token deserves to survive.

[00:26:53]And honestly, that's probably a good thing.

[00:26:55]Because the sooner the market clears out the noise, the seeming serious builders, serious assets, and serious infrastructure, the actual stand out.

[00:27:04]And that is where I think the real opportunity is.

[00:27:07]Not in pretending everything will make it.

[00:27:11]But wag me, right? That wag me.

[00:27:14]I don't know.

[00:27:17]All right, but in identifying what actually deserves That's the key point.

[00:27:23]All right, fam.

[00:27:25]I appreciate you guys hanging out, and I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.

[00:27:29]Bye.