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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.