Crypto's onchain experiments are shutting down or pivoting as viable markets narrow to memecoins, perps, prediction markets, stablecoins, and RWAs

According to the author, most of crypto's onchain experiments failed without proving product-market fit, and 2026 has brought a wave of shutdowns and pivots across nearly every sector. Cited examples: restaking TVL fell from about $30B to roughly $8B; BOB's TVL dropped 96.6%; CryptoPunks slid from 125 to 32 ETH; Axie Infinity went from 6.5M monthly wallets to under 100K. The market now splits between speculative demand (memecoins, perps, prediction markets) and real-economy uses (stablecoins, RWAs), with firms like Coinbase and Robinhood converging on the same product stack. The author argues new categories can still emerge.

✨ AI summary of the linked source — not editorial content.

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• Real World Assets
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• Markets
• Memecoins