The Next Bull Market is Here, and Obvious | Spencer and Aleks, Blockchain Capital

— Buy-and-burn token models remain undefeated as a value-capture mechanism, now used by modern protocols like Hyperliquid and Lighter; reflects crypto's need to signal quality in an uncertain regulatory environment.

— Institutional adoption is occurring while prices are down—a first for crypto bear markets—alongside regulatory clarity (Genius Act anticipated), prediction markets (Polymarket), and stablecoin applications reaching mainstream utility.

— Blockchains have crossed an inflection point: block space is now cheap and abundant after L2 scaling (2024) and Solana's 2020 precedent; consumer UX primitives (embedded wallets, account abstraction, social recovery) matured only in the last 2–3 years.

— Shift from infrastructure value capture to application-layer value: in 2021, 70% of fees went to infrastructure; 2025 was the first year application fees surpassed infrastructure fees, signaling a healthy ecosystem maturing.

— Stablecoins as working capital: $1 billion of new stablecoin issuance produces ~$122 billion of economic activity annually and ~$19 million in downstream protocol revenue; a path to $2 trillion in stablecoins by 2030 unlocks trillions in tokenized assets.

— Tokenization roadmap: equities and RWAs follow stablecoins; public permissionless chains and crypto-native composability (Aave V4, Uniswap) will coexist with regulated sidecars, preserving cypherpunk values while capturing institutional capital.

— Stablecoin and application-layer protocols (Aave, Uniswap, Morpho) are best positioned to capture value as on-chain financial infrastructure matures; the $19 million per $1B stablecoin issuance metric provides a quantifiable revenue proxy for protocol growth.

— Current bear-market sentiment among crypto OGs reflects a lifestyle shift rather than fundamental weakness; institutions leaning in while prices are down signals genuine thesis validation independent of narrative hype—a reversal of prior cycles.

— Tokenized equities and RWAs will unlock their potential once regulatory clarity emerges and composability infrastructure (Aave V4, permissionless spokes) matures; early exposure to compliance-layer companies (Securitize) and open finance protocols is strategically positioned for the next wave.