Returning to Cryptocurrency’s Mission: From Speculation Culture to Founder Burnout, Seeing the Industry’s Real Crisis

Aevo Co-Founder Zefram recently published a lengthy post, admitting that after 8 years of work, he had only built a 24/7 casino disguised as innovation, sparking widespread debate. Dragonfly partner Haseeb Qureshi and Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley also responded. Re-examining the true crisis of the crypto industry from vision to social impact, the speculative culture continues to erode the mission of cryptocurrency.

Ideals Exhausted: Aevo Founder Admits “Spent 8 Years Building a Casino, Not the Future of Finance”

Aevo co-founder Zefram’s post recalled how, inspired by libertarianism and Cypherpunk ideals in his youth, he firmly believed crypto could reshape financial order and return power to individuals. However, upon entering the industry, he was met not with a freedom revolution, but with a reality dominated by speculation, which dealt him a heavy blow.

He pointed out that many products claiming to bring more freedom to finance are, in fact, just another speculative product: “New L1 narratives, perpetual contracts, copy-paste trading platforms, and meme coin manias have all made crypto more like an endless zero-sum game.”

I did not build a new financial system; I built a casino—the largest 24/7 multiplayer online casino our generation could imagine.

He admitted, “I am disgusted by how I’ve contributed to the gambling-ification of the financial economy. It has completely messed up my ability to learn how to run a sustainable business.”

I do not doubt that Bitcoin will one day reach $1 million, but that has nothing to do with all the financial games in the crypto industry. It will lead to a long-term collapse in social mobility for the younger generation.

This confession is not just personal burnout; it also reflects the long-term distortion of industry values, possibly pushing crypto towards an irretrievable abyss.

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Haseeb’s Big-Picture Reflection: Casinos Are Inevitable, Regular Shakeouts Are Actually Healthy

In response to Zefram’s pessimism, Haseeb provided a broader perspective. He pointed out that casinos in the crypto industry are not an anomaly, but a natural expression of human nature since ancient times: “From Satoshi Dice, the most popular gambling app on Bitcoin in 2012, to King of the Ether Throne, a Ponzi-like protocol on Ethereum in 2015.”

He emphasized that casino culture does not destroy crypto; it is simply an inevitable byproduct of new technology’s emergence: “If you only focus on the boom of casinos, you’ll miss the bigger story.”

(Stop Using P/E Ratios on L1! Haseeb Reprices with On-chain Data: Crypto Is Heading Towards Exponential Growth)

Haseeb believes today’s crypto infrastructure is quietly rewriting global finance:

Bitcoin is becoming a nation-scale asset, stablecoins are influencing monetary policy in various countries, and Uniswap and AAVE’s scale surpasses that of fintech startups. The world is changing around crypto.

He reminds us that revolutions never happen overnight: “The Industrial Revolution took 50 years to show up in economic indicators; the internet took 20 years to change the world—let alone challenging the global financial system.”

In Haseeb’s view, industry fatigue, pessimism, and exits are also a necessary form of shakeout:

If you’re frustrated because you didn’t get rich on meme coins or some L2, remember this industry doesn’t owe you anything. Over time, these mental surrenders are actually healthy for the market.

(Reject Pessimism, Embrace Exponential Success Stories: Why Does Crypto Always Feel Apocalyptic?)

Recovering the Builder’s Mindset: Bitwise CEO Urges “Change the Life You Want Yourself”

Beyond disillusionment and rational analysis, Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley quoted Apple founder Steve Jobs (Steve Jobs), reminding us: “Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you, and you can change it.”

You have to get rid of the notion that life is just the way it is. You have to embrace it, change it, improve it. Make your mark upon it. I think it’s very important.

He called for people to strive for the change they want to see in the world. Indifference is not the solution—action is.

The True Crisis of Crypto Is Not Speculation, But Losing Its Way

The contradictions in the crypto industry have never been new. The author believes it’s not just speculation drowning out reason and goodwill, but also self-contradiction over distorted values and bad projects. In this chaos that has lasted more than a decade, finding and holding onto your original intention has never been more important.

Zefram’s burnout is real; Haseeb’s trend perspective is also real. Perhaps the true crisis of crypto is not price volatility, nor regulatory crackdowns, but losing its sense of mission and passion.

Under the PvP-dominated speculative culture, builders are more likely to become lost; and the infrastructure upgrades developers work hard for may be ignored as attention is drowned out by waves of speculation.

But if we are willing to return to the original ambition of building decentralized services, we might better see the industry’s next step.

This article, Returning to the Mission of Crypto: From Speculative Culture to Founder Burnout, Seeing the Real Crisis of the Industry, first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.