- Vitalik is pushing back against the idea that crypto has lost its ideological roots.
- The statement comes amid fears of over-financialization.
- It is not the first time Vitalik has tried to highlight idealistic crypto breakthroughs in recent weeks.
Crypto has come a long way from its extremely niche libertarian roots to becoming a globally recognized industry with assets offered by institutional giants like BlackRock to customers for investment.
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Amid the evolution, however, there are growing concerns that the industry has become over-financialized and lost its ideological roots, but Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has begged to differ.
“We’re Still Here!”
Buterin has resisted the idea that crypto has lost its ideological roots. In an X post on Wednesday, June 19, the Ethereum co-founder asserted, “We’re still here!”
Buterin’s statement came in response to comments from Bloomberg Odd Lots co-host Joe Weisanthal. The Bloomberg co-host argued that crypto culture had changed significantly in the past five to six years.
“Bank [back] then, you still had idealist hippies, talking about things like democracy on the blockchain, or UBIs, or open internet. Never hear about that anymore. Now 100% financial/meme coins stuff,” Weisanthal wrote, highlighting the industry’s perceived shift from lofty libertarian goals to only caring about asset prices.
According to Buterin, not only are crypto’s “idealist hippies” still around, but many espoused ideas have progressed. Backing up this view, the Ethereum co-founder pointed to decentralized social networks like Farcaster and Lens, quadratic funding, which is making crowdfunding more democratic, and zero-knowledge identity solutions like Zupass.
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It is the second time in a week that the Ethereum co-founder has had to showcase the crypto sector’s growing utility beyond financial speculation.
Puzzling Times?
In an X post on June 12, Buterin outlined seven key areas where the crypto industry had expanded functionality, including ZK credentials, improved cross-border payments, enterprise applications, and censorship-resistant voting, seemingly sharing the frustration of “0xDesigner” who questioned why memecoins were “still the dominant narrative” in the crypto space.
Trying to make sense of the recent speculative fervor in the crypto markets, Polygon advisor Ajit “chainyoda” Tripathi contended that market conditions dictated the dominant crypto culture at a given time. According to Tripathi, this phenomenon can be observed in any market.
"Crypto, similar to any fin market has had a bear market culture (Venezuela/Financial inclusion/We are in it for technology) and a bull market culture (wen moon, wen lambo, yield, degen, uponly). Both progress in parallel but one or the other sounds louder at different times," he wrote.
On the Flipside
- Despite Buterin’s views, there are arguments that fundamental crypto ethos will likely get diluted as the industry becomes more mainstream.
Why This Matters
Concerns over the over-financialization of crypto have grown in the past few months amid the buzz surrounding ETFs and memecoins. Buterin’s statements suggest that despite the noise, crypto’s core values around democracy and privacy remain.
Read this for more on Buterin’s thoughts on the recent crypto market cycle:
Vitalik Buterin “Unhappy” with Celebrity Memecoin Cycle
See what analysts are saying about MATIC’s recent bounce:
MATIC Bounce in Altcoin Rally: The Start of a 100% Surge?
