Bankless

The Next Bull Market is Here, and Obvious | Spencer and Aleks, Blockchain Capital

1h 12min

Blockchain Capital's Spencer and Aleks argue that the next bull market is already underway, driven by institutional adoption during a bear market, the explosive growth of stablecoins, and the maturation of crypto infrastructure. They highlight the shift from 'fat protocol' to 'fat app' thesis, where application-layer fees now exceed infrastructure fees, signaling value creation is moving up the stack. The episode provides a bullish, data-backed outlook on tokenization, stablecoin economics, and why OGs should stop being pessimistic.

Summarized by Podsumo

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✨ Key Takeaways

1

Institutions are adopting crypto during a bear market, a first in history, driven by fundamental belief rather than hype.
2

Stablecoin issuance of $1B generates approximately $19M in downstream protocol revenue annually, with predictions of $2T market cap by 2030.
3

For the first time in 2025, application-layer fees surpassed infrastructure fees, marking a shift from the 'fat protocol' to 'fat app' thesis.
4

Blockchain Capital's tokenized fund (BCAP) serves as a compliant proof-of-concept, enabling global access and composability for tokenized assets.
5

The hosts argue crypto is in a '2003-2004' internet phase, with abundant block space and maturing infrastructure poised for an inflection point.

💬 Notable Quotes

"If we had gone from ... a nice, steady, linear path to where we are today, sentiment would be completely different. But there is some path dependency there because we were once higher than we are today. — Spencer"
"I think we've crossed the threshold in crypto where this is inevitable. There's a network effect that has taken hold, it's growing, but people don't appreciate how early it still is. — Aleks"
"A billion dollars of net new stablecoin issuance produces about $19 million of downstream protocol revenue. That's why I cannot believe that people are talking about a bear market. — Spencer"