Insufficient Innovation Has Become a Major Problem in the Crypto Sphere

In the past few rounds of bull and bear markets, the blockchain industry has always touted concepts like 'disruption', 'revolution', and 'the next generation of the internet'. However, by 2024-2025, more and more practitioners and investors are forced to face a harsh reality: the crypto sphere has fallen into a vicious cycle of innovation exhaustion.

The most obvious manifestation is the severe product homogeneity. DeFi projects are merely skin-deep reboots, NFT platforms are repetitively rehashing old ideas, and even the new generation of 'meme coins' are just replicating the successful formula from Solana, with the addition of task systems and bots. The underlying logic hasn’t changed, the game mechanics remain the same, and the only innovation is changing token distribution to 'task completion for airdrops'.

More seriously, there is stagnation in the technical field. EVM still dominates most new chains, no new virtual machines have emerged, and smart contracts still use Solidity from a decade ago. The so-called 'L2 flourishing' is actually cost optimization rather than a paradigm breakthrough. Fewer people are willing to tackle difficult, slow-yielding foundational protocol research, and the narrative around public chains has almost fallen silent.

This 'low-level repetitive construction' has drained users’ enthusiasm, capital’s patience, and developers’ confidence. Many funds are starting to shift towards speculation, memes, and short-term arbitrage, forming a vicious cycle of 'no innovation—no expectations—speculation'.

The root cause lies in the fact that the crypto sphere relies too heavily on 'story-driven market cap expansion' rather than 'technology-driven practical implementation'. Project teams are accustomed to launching quickly and creating buzz, rather than delving deep into core technologies or exploring real application scenarios. Although the regulatory gray area offers opportunities, it has fostered an industry culture that neglects long-termism.

If this trend is not broken, the crypto world will lose its original momentum—the reconfiguration of order brought by decentralized technology. What is needed is a true 'innovation renaissance' to rewrite this narrative: not just a new concept, but entirely new chain designs, new programming paradigms, and even breakthroughs that integrate with AI and social collaboration mechanisms.

Otherwise, the crypto sphere will ultimately degenerate into a speculative playground that constantly rehashes old memes.