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Crypto is a backend technology.
Robinhood launching its own chain—where they control token emission, redemption, UI, and distribution—says everything: no one cares about visible crypto apps.
In fact, most people despise crypto apps. At best, they tolerate them when they’re invisible.
Even if you’re a top-tier founder with $50M–$200M in funding, your flashy crypto consumer app won’t break 100K DAU, no matter what:
- Without speculation, no one shows up. Worse: your users will try to speculate if you don't do it yourself to find a reason to stay on your app, with tokens like DEGEN ironically capturing more value than purple app it emerged from.
- With speculation, founders are basically desperately trying to poach users from TikTok or X with free money. If that's your hook it just proves how little people care about your app and the spikes inevitably ends.
It took me years to internalize this: web2 social media is already good enough for most. Crypto can't 10x it in a separate app. At least not as a GTM strategy.
In 2020, ALEX coin was my breakout story. I raised $20K to escape socialist Paris and move to Silicon Valley to achieve my dreams of building a consumer app.
But even ALEX was just the backend. That whole story played out through Twitter, Medium and news pieces about my journey; not one crypto app was popularized in this process.
Later I raised $8M, and like @nikitabier said, I landed in a "golden jail", chasing PMF at any cost for an ambitious crypto app instead of seeing the obvious play.
Now I do. My new thesis is crypto as backend rails embedded in existing web2 platforms.
Excited to share my first product soon with this new thesis. 8 replies
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