Compiled by: Tim, PANews
PANews Editor's Note: Solana Breakpoint 2025 will be held from December 11 to 13 in Abu Dhabi, UAE, bringing together developers, project teams, retail investors, and others to discuss the development of the Solana ecosystem and the current state of the industry. This article compiles the thoughts of three industry insiders, representing the observations of investors and entrepreneurs, with some feeling lost and others optimistic, reflecting a range of sentiments.
Investor Jason Choi: The event was well organized, but the atmosphere was very oppressive
Breakpoint 2025 had one of the most oppressive atmospheres I've felt at a crypto conference recently. It's not that I have any complaints about the event itself; it was well organized. However, in my conversations with entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and traders, there was a pervasive sense of fatigue.
The OGs are taking a laid-back approach, venture capital performance is poor, funds are facing record redemption waves, and new projects have negative net values. Many entrepreneurs are merely maintaining their positions out of inertia rather than passion, and the entire industry is permeated with a sense of widespread stagnation.
This is not just a market sentiment issue. Even during the lackluster market periods of 2019, 2022, and early 2023, such industry conferences were still filled with passion. People genuinely believed that one day, crypto technology would take center stage, much like how people currently view artificial intelligence.
This time, however, the atmosphere was quite rare. Although discussions around DePIN and DeSci gave me a sense of novelty, these areas still represent a drop in the ocean in the current market.
Overall, the remaining enthusiasm seems to revolve only around innovative stablecoins and the ever-growing number of perpetual contract exchanges.
Kamino Co-founder Marius: A trillion-dollar market is not an illusion; we just put our shirts back on
Traditional finance is still strong, and I need to change my habits, put away my shorts, and put my shirt back on.
This is the most practical conference to date; everyone I spoke with had a genuine need for blockchain technology and a pursuit of real benefits, and the scale is substantial.
In contrast, this is the least metaphysical/narrative-driven conference; it feels like people have decided to temporarily set aside this part of the crypto space, almost as if they are fed up with the rhetoric.
Compared to five years ago, what once seemed like wild fantasies have now become reality. We have achieved around-the-clock global tokenized trading of stocks, bonds, and funds, operating 24/7 on Solana. I think we need to collectively pause for a moment to reflect and digest this significant leap.
The market is much larger than I imagined. Those who predicted a multi-trillion-dollar scale were not just daydreaming.
The vibrant vitality of the ecosystem comes from the upper levels; if the leadership lacks energy and is complacent, there won't be such an active ecological scene.
At the same time, I encountered many unsung heroes dedicated to tool development, infrastructure construction, policy research, marketing, and media communication, all playing important roles in the ecosystem.
This is the fifth Breakpoint conference, and the Solana ecosystem has finally seen some OGs; it was fantastic to meet a few of them.
The organizers of Breakpoint are getting better every year. It's truly a master-level standard.
It will only get better.
Sigil Fund Chief Investment Officer daddy fiskantes: Cryptocurrency is transforming into FinTech 2.0
Cryptocurrency is in the process of maturation, and as it integrates with the broader financial system, it will evolve into a financial technology infrastructure that any business can use.
Those who came for the revolution, expecting cryptocurrency to disrupt nation-states, empower individual sovereignty, and realize the ideals of cypherpunks, as well as those seeking novel and astonishing ideas, are likely disappointed.
Many people are putting on a brave face on stage, but privately, they are slowly withdrawing, especially early-stage venture capitalists who find it difficult to locate quality projects and founders with original products at this stage, where the stage is dominated by a few mainstream narratives (RWA, stablecoins and payments, prediction markets, institutional products, etc.).
The early builders are gradually leaving, and fresh blood has not been timely replenished. The projects currently showcased have mostly been operating for several years, and emerging projects are mostly transformations from existing crypto-native projects rather than truly new forces.
The next wave of cryptocurrency products will manifest as existing businesses and institutions adopting crypto technology, or existing well-capitalized crypto companies expanding their business scope.
Those who view cryptocurrency as a superior underlying technology for consumer finance and capital markets are satisfied with this. The BP event in London next year is expected to have a more formal business feel, with a reduction in the casual hacker-style atmosphere.
The tokenization process of equity markets will not be led by grassroots teams tinkering with smart contracts in garages or awkwardly dancing on stage.
The financial world is moving towards an on-chain era, but your holdings may not experience explosive growth. As more new assets are tokenized across various chains, creating new liquidity and arbitrage opportunities, I am very optimistic about a neutral strategy in the future market.
At the level of investors and traders, the conquerors who initially came to compete for gold are being replaced by settlers who come to cultivate and settle. For example, the group that once chased the best-performing assets, popular narratives, and quick doubling is now giving way to rational investors expecting reasonable returns and arbitrageurs skilled at exploiting systemic inefficiencies.
Cryptocurrency is shifting from a narrative of getting rich quickly with hundredfold returns to a slower, more tangible efficiency improvement. The market is expected to see broader consolidation, with winners taking all, continuously swallowing up losers and expanding market share.
The last few opportunities in the crypto space that are likely to achieve hundredfold returns include DePIN and DeSCI (some opinions suggest that the privacy track is also included).
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