As Nvidia enters the $5 trillion era, why is crypto still stuck between "cats, dogs, and frogs"?

For Crypto, there is only one road ahead — no longer remaining on the fringes of the mainstream, but becoming the mainstream world itself.

On October 29, when Nvidia became the world’s first publicly listed company to surpass a market capitalization of 5 trillions USD, crypto industry participants collectively felt “defeated.” This was not only because Nvidia, with the market cap of a single company, exceeded the total market cap of cryptocurrencies (4 trillions USD), but also because Nvidia and the AI sector it represents are striving to expand the boundaries of the world and seek new growth, while Crypto is often seen as being trapped in a zero-sum game. Many people not only failed to gain wealth, but also lost their future.

Every day, AI industry professionals discuss hot topics such as: autonomous driving, robotics, life sciences, space travel... how AI is deeply changing and reshaping the value of these industries. As one crypto KOL put it, the hot topics discussed daily by crypto industry participants are: cats, dogs, frogs, Chinese memes, who got listed on Binance Alpha, which celebrity liked or retweeted... After the excitement, all that’s left is a mess.

The repeated collapse of altcoin and meme waves may gradually help crypto practitioners recognize the right direction. Only by combining technology with the real economy can Crypto have a more sustainable and lasting future. Let Crypto become a carrier of technology, not a paradise for gamblers.

A more realistic issue is: when the market cap of USD stablecoins reaches 250 billions USD (with USD circulation at about 2.5 trillions USD), bitcoin’s market cap exceeds 2.2 trillions USD (gold’s market cap is 27 trillions USD), and Binance’s daily spot and derivatives trading volume reaches 100 billions USD (Nasdaq’s daily trading volume is about 500 billions USD), Crypto has no other path forward but to become the mainstream itself.

1: Use blockchain technology to completely replace the global financial system.

Stablecoins are gradually replacing the original operating systems of fiat currencies; cryptocurrency exchanges are taking market share from traditional securities exchanges like Nasdaq; bitcoin is becoming the new global value anchor after gold; public blockchains like Ethereum are attempting to replace Swift, building a new international value transfer network... From currency markets, securities markets, gold markets, international trade markets, to payment systems, cryptocurrencies are reshaping the entire financial world.

And in this process, the crypto industry itself is constantly evolving.

Stablecoins are evolving towards “decentralized stablecoins,” with decentralized stablecoins like Ethena emerging after USDT and USDC; cryptocurrency exchanges are developing towards “decentralized exchanges,” with decentralized exchanges like Uniswap, Phantom, and Hyperliquid emerging after the boom of centralized exchanges like Binance and Coinbase; bitcoin’s market cap is already close to one-tenth that of gold; more and more countries are viewing Ethereum as a new international trade settlement network.

Every evolution in each of these fields is a technological change and reconstruction of the real world.

The Internet once led to a complete restructuring of the global financial system. Blockchain is now driving a second, even more systematic reconstruction.

Cryptocurrencies have gradually emerged from the margins of the financial system and are integrating into, and even poised to surpass, the mainstream financial system. Their pioneering progress in multiple fields has already captured a tenth of the mainstream financial system’s share.

For example, USD stablecoins account for exactly one-tenth of the USD in circulation, with the former’s market cap at about 240 billions USD and the latter at 2.4 trillions USD; bitcoin’s market cap is exactly one-tenth that of gold, with the former at 2.2 trillions USD and the latter at 27 trillions USD; Binance’s daily trading volume is about one-tenth that of Nasdaq, with Binance’s daily spot trading volume at about 30 billions USD, and spot plus derivatives at around 100 billions USD, while Nasdaq’s daily trading volume is about 500 billions USD.

2: Gradually become the carrier for emerging tech companies, just like early Nasdaq.

Early Nasdaq, like today’s Binance and other crypto exchanges, was the platform where “junk stocks” were most prevalent.

Nasdaq was not initially a mainstream exchange like the NYSE trading blue-chip stocks. It mainly focused on small and mid-cap stocks, tech stocks, and unlisted company stocks, providing transparent quotes and electronic matching. At that time, the NYSE, as the mainstream exchange, still relied on open outcry and trading floor systems.

Early Nasdaq was not as “high-end” as it is today. In the 1970s–1980s, the Nasdaq market was full of scams, almost like the “pink sheet stock market” depicted in The Wolf of Wall Street, filled with “junk stocks” and manipulated penny stocks.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Jordan Belfort, was a fund sales manager during that chaotic period, adept at selling junk stocks. He would pick an unheard-of stock from the pink sheet market, such as the one mentioned in the movie: “Aerotyne International” — which was actually a non-existent airline. Jordan Belfort’s original pitch:

“Sir, I have a company here developing revolutionary aerospace technology,

there are people from Boeing on the investor list, even NASA is paying attention.

You don’t want to miss this opportunity, do you?”

Many Nasdaq investors bought these pink sheet stocks, just like today’s crypto market media and KOLs:

“Sir, this is a revolutionary x402 protocol token,

companies following this protocol include Google, Visa, and even Coinbase is getting involved.

You don’t want to miss this opportunity, do you?”

However, behind many tokens, there is actually no such company at all.

It wasn’t until the late 1980s and the tech stock boom of the 1990s, with the listing of large tech companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Intel, that Nasdaq gradually became one of the mainstream exchanges and gained its current mainstream status.

In 2004, Nasdaq’s average daily stock trading volume equaled that of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) for the first time. From its founding in 1971, Apple’s listing on Nasdaq in 1980, to 2004, it took Nasdaq 33 years to surpass the NYSE for the first time.

During this long process, Nasdaq also lost its way, but it ultimately waited for the growth of internet and high-tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, Intel, and Nvidia, and finally became today’s most mainstream stock capital market.

Nasdaq’s growth journey may offer some inspiration to crypto practitioners: focus on the unique advantages of the Crypto trading market itself (fair launches, global circulation, early user airdrops), just as Nasdaq’s initial advantages were transparent quotes and electronic matching. Don’t fear the chaos of the early market, just as junk stocks were rampant in early Nasdaq, and as junk altcoins and memes are prevalent in the early crypto market.

The future of Crypto will always lie with companies that can have a major impact on humanity. Just as Nasdaq relies on Apple, Microsoft, Intel, and Nvidia, the crypto market will rely on companies and organizations like Tether, Ethereum, Polymarket, Hyperliquid, Farcaster, and Chainlink. The vast majority of altcoins and memes will disappear into the river of history.

Nasdaq’s daily trading volume is hundreds of billions of dollars, while the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, also has a daily trading volume of tens of billions of dollars. In terms of trading volume, for crypto exchanges to surpass Nasdaq and become the world’s largest capital market is not a fantasy.

A trading market becomes legendary because it gathers the vast majority of the world’s technological innovation companies. Here, there is not only the flow of capital, but also the pulse of technological progress; it carries the world’s latest productivity and the greatest global investment enthusiasm.

3: Crypto will eventually move beyond the “meme era” and enter the “iPhone moment”

Binance’s daily trading volume has already reached one-tenth of Nasdaq’s, USD stablecoins have reached one-tenth of the USD in circulation, and bitcoin’s market cap is close to one-tenth that of gold... The next step for Crypto is only one: to become the mainstream world itself.

Fortunately, early Nasdaq was also just a second-rate trading market, and Apple computers were products for fringe enthusiasts and hobbyists for their first twenty years. At that time, no one thought they would become today’s mainstream.

Apple was founded in 1980, but it wasn’t until 20 years later that the wave of the Internet revolution truly began. Nasdaq also only surpassed the NYSE for the first time in 2004, becoming the world’s most important capital trading market and truly integrating into the mainstream world.

If companies providing foundational infrastructure like Apple and Microsoft had not been established and improved, internet and AI companies could never have risen en masse. Similarly, current companies like Ethereum, Tether, Solana, Binance, and Hyperliquid still need time to grow and perfect their foundational designs. Only when they are fully mature will the Web3 revolution truly arrive, and mass adoption products like Amazon, Facebook, and TikTok will emerge explosively.

The Internet is a vast concept, covering not only internet companies and internet finance companies, but also foundational infrastructure companies like computers and mobile phones, as well as capital markets like Nasdaq that apply the latest technologies, ultimately impacting all real-world enterprises. Likewise, Crypto is also a vast concept, involving not only cryptocurrency companies but also underlying technology protocols and companies, capital markets like Hyperliquid and Binance that apply the latest technologies, and will eventually give rise to new application-oriented companies on a large scale, even impacting a wide range of real-world enterprises.

Technology is the ultimate tool for continuously improving the quality of human life. The future of Crypto is destined to be deeply integrated with technology, and may even become the carrier and synonym of the next generation of technology.