Unlike in the past, there's a good chance the biggest outcomes the next few years will not be crypto-native but rather crypto-adjacent companies that use crypto as a feature rather than a product.

Examples:

- Fintech company that uses stablecoins for intermediate leg of payments

- AI company that uses DePIN incentives for data collection

- Consumer company that uses zkTLS to unlock new data sources about their users

What does this mean for crypto investors?

- Trad VC metrics matter now such as ARR, CAC/LTV, TAM. You can't rely on speculative bids on a token to mask fundamentals.

- Success of these projects has very little to do with crypto but more with deeply understanding the industry and market they're in. Crypto VCs need to quickly get up to speed learning a new industry. Areas I've spent a lot of time lately are robotics and emerging market fintechs.

- It's important not to be adversely selected to founders that domain expert VCs all passed on but crypto VCs picked up because they don't understand the industry well.