#我在Gate广场过新年 From "Token Fantasy" to "Revenue Reality," the logic of crypto investing is undergoing a brutal shift

BlockBea reports that on February 9th, Bloomberg stated that the sharp decline in crypto asset prices and the emergence of market consolidation waves reveal issues within the crypto industry. It once thrived during speculative booms but struggled to build sustainable businesses that generate actual revenue. Now, crypto venture capital is being pushed toward more traditional startup logic: product-market fit, profitability, and long-term user retention. Despite facing a pro-crypto stance from the White House and a relaxed regulatory environment, the once-flying token-driven VC logic—driven by retail demand—has already dried up. Native crypto funds are shifting toward sectors with better market performance, including stablecoin infrastructure and on-chain prediction markets, while some funds are also expanding into adjacent fields like fintech and artificial intelligence. However, as traditional institutions continue to enter the space, having only native crypto expertise is no longer enough.
"The market is consolidating around truly effective things," said Santiago Roel Santos, founder and CEO of crypto private equity. "As a category, Web3 currently lacks significant investment value. People have moved away from NFTs, gaming, and those next-generation DeFi platforms that exist merely for existence and lack innovation. Even crypto-native venture funds with capital are shifting heavily toward fintech, stablecoins, and prediction markets. Everything else is struggling to gain attention." Native crypto funds like Mechanism Capital and Tangent have begun shifting focus toward deep tech sectors, including investments in robotics startups like Apptronik and Figure, marking a shift in investment priorities away from core crypto areas. Funds are pulling back from high-risk bets on NFTs, Web3 social platforms, and blockchain gaming—speculative narratives that defined early cycles. Today, key metrics such as revenue, user retention, and willingness to pay are often overlooked in early cycles, where narrative hype, token liquidity, and market share served as substitutes for measuring project appeal. Catrina Wang, general partner at Portal Ventures, said this has led some native crypto VC funds to expand into fintech or AI. "If we see more funds quietly shutting down or scaling back in the future, I wouldn't be surprised at all," said Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital. "They also face fierce competition from traditional VCs for the hottest deals in the Web 2.5 space."