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Author: Konstantin Lomashuk, co-founder of Lido; Source: X, @Lomashuk
If you took five minutes to look at Platform X, you would be convinced that we are in a bear market.Prices have dropped significantly, your favorite altcoin of 2021 is collapsing, and retail interest seems to be gone.It is widely believed that the “super cycle” proposed by Su Zhu, in which cryptocurrencies will see continued growth, is nothing more than a fantasy.
ButThe supercycle isn’t dead, it’s just misunderstood.
The original definition of a supercycle was “numbers rising forever.”it refers toStructural adoption of cryptocurrencies by the traditional financial system, eliminating the four-year boom/bust cycle.While some people completely ignore this point of view, we believeA super cycle is happening, and at the same time, 90% of the market’s assets are being revalued to zero.
huge differentiation
The hardest fact to accept in this cycle is that the era of “a rising tide lifts all boats” is over.In past cycles, you could make money just by picking any coin on CoinMarketCap.Now, we are witnessing a huge divide.
Most crypto assets are actually heading towards zero.Your beloved “meme coins,” the thousands of governance tokens, the “Ethereum killers,” and the “concept coin” projects from the last cycle will never return to their all-time highs.They are like zombies.The market has matured and investors have become savvier.Capital no longer chases white papers, but instead turns to projects with real cash flow and benefits.
The only assets that can grow are those that have established themselves as critical infrastructure, such as Ethereum and Solana, or those that generate undisputed fees and returns.Everything else is just noise.
Steady adoption
While price speculators get bored, the back-end of the global financial system is being reshaped.The pace of change never stops.
Regulation has been an industry nightmare for years.Now, it’s finally been broken.The regulatory policies introduced in 2024 and 2025 have given the green light to industry giants who were once regarded as enemies.The stablecoin supply is hitting new all-time highs every day, which is unstoppable.
Neobanks are transforming into crypto-native banking layers.Visa, Mastercard are integrating stablecoin settlement into their payment systems:
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Visa is processing billions of stablecoin transaction volumes to power the next generation of neobanks;
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Mastercard acquires ZeroHash;
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Stripe is fully investing in stablecoin payments;
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CashApp has integrated USDC payments into its front-end;
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Revolut integrates a zero-fee stablecoin exchange function.
They all realize that if they want to survive, they must embrace this technology rather than fight it.This convergence creates a floor of extremely sticky, unstoppable demand—demand that doesn’t show up in speculative order books but in underlying trading volumes.
income rotation
The macroeconomic situation is ultimately in our favour.As the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates and ends quantitative tightening, the “easy” risk-free yield of 4% on U.S. Treasuries is disappearing.And these funds cannot sit idle.
We are about to see a massive flow of funds back onto the chain.But this time, the money won’t flow into a Ponzi scheme;Will flow into decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols that generate real income through transaction fees and lending.As traditional interest rates decline, DeFi earnings will become the only option for productive funding.As a result, we have seen AAVE’s total value locked (TVL) hit an all-time high.
The next generation of DeFi and the artificial intelligence economy
Cryptocurrency infrastructure is being leveraged by emerging financial instruments that are finally finding product-market fit.Derivatives and perpetual contracts initially found product-market fit among speculators, but are now serving institutional investors as liquid, on-chain hedging tools.Prediction markets have evolved from niche experiments to reliable global sources of truth: Google integrated Polymarket, Kalshi formed a partnership with the NBA.
ButThe real catalyst—the factor that makes this supercycle truly unstoppable—is artificial intelligence (AI).
We are building a world composed of artificial intelligence agents (AI Agents).Instead of walking into a JPMorgan Chase bank to open a checking account, these AI agents will create a wallet.They use cryptocurrencies to trade, exchange and pay for computing resources.They instantly create new auction markets based on user intent.
Blockchain will become the native foundation of the network economy, and AI Agents will coordinate and trade on top of it.
Conclusion: Back to basics
We are in the midst of a super cycle.It’s just that it’s completely different from the frenetic scene of 2021.It’s calm, structured and brutal.Prices of useless assets will continue to fall, but the integration of cryptocurrencies into the global economy is unstoppable.
We have exceeded escape velocity.You just have to look at the right chart to understand.
