Consumer applications become the new focus of the crypto market

As infrastructure matures, the focus of the crypto market is shifting from technology to application. In the past few years, the industry has been highly concerned with new public chains, scaling solutions, and development tools, but these technological innovations have not brought user growth as expected. In contrast, some application projects aimed at ordinary users have made substantial progress.

The current market environment presents the following characteristics:

1. Liquidity growth has stagnated. The total market capitalization of stablecoins is only about 25% higher than the peak in 2021, with new funds mainly coming from institutional purchases of BTC/ETH, rather than speculative capital actively participating in the ecosystem.

2. A friendly regulatory attitude will unlock a new round of development. The clarification of U.S. policies is expected to expand the market and attract Web2 users who focus on practicality rather than underlying technology.

3. Real use of market rewards. Projects like Hyperliquid and Pump.fun, which have considerable income and product-market fit, perform far better than overvalued infrastructure projects that lack users.

4. Attention becomes key. As Web3 merges with Web2, user-facing applications will be crucial in expanding the overall market.

The current consumer tracks that match the product market mainly include:

• Trading/Perpetual Contracts ( like Hyperliquid, Axiom )
• Token issuance platform ( such as Pump.fun, BelieveApp )
• Information finance and prediction markets ( such as Polymarket, Kaito )

Promising tracks that are expected to rise in the future include:

• A one-stop encryption financial super application, integrating wallet, banking, earnings, and trading functions.
• A blockchain-based entertainment/social platform that optimizes user experience and creator earnings.

The AI and gaming sectors are still in their early stages and have not yet formed a clear product-market fit.

When investing in consumer applications, attention should be paid to:

• Distribution and execution capabilities exceed pure technology
• User experience, speed, liquidity, and narrative alignment are key.
• Evaluate from the perspective of enterprises rather than protocols: actual revenue, scalable models, and clear industry-leading paths.

Overall, in the next five years, consumer applications that can transform underlying technologies into everyday experiences for ordinary users are expected to bring excess returns.