The Death of Crypto and the Beginning of Onchain Finance

Weekly Rant 📣

The Death of Crypto and the Beginning of Onchain Finance

Thesis: Last weekend we saw the beginning of the end of “Crypto.” - But what comes after is onchain finance. Here’s how it will play out.

Just as memecoins like $LIBRA $TRUMP and talk of a “strategic reserve” peaks we’re on the cusp of real regulatory clarity for tokenized assets, stablecoins, and onchain finance.

The industry, the community and even Trump’s biggest supporters are driving this bifurcation

Now we have an official announcement for a Bitcoin “strategic reserve” and a digital asset stockpile. The reality is something much more sober than it first appeared.

In addition: Talk of a strategic reserve is a distraction from something much bigger.

Onchain finance has finally started delivering actual utility with stablecoins.

We’re on the cusp of having regulated onchain infrastructure that could transform global finance because regulatory clarity is here.

• The SEC says memecoins are not securities.

• The CFTC says sports betting is not a financial contract.

• The GENIUS Act will bring regulatory clarity to stablecoins (and all assets)

What follows will be the single biggest unlock in finance since the invention of double-entry bookkeeping. 

We’ll finally get regulated onchain markets. 

We’re at a fork in the road.

Where gambling and regulated onchain finance will bifurcate.

And I promise you that changes everything you thought you knew about finance.

So today, an all-out rant. 

1. Another weekend another big crypto announcement

2. What do we know about the strategic reserve?

3. Why it could create a bond market nightmare scenario (therefore won’t happen)

4. The naked grift and the casino we don’t want (and is splitting the crypto and tech community)

5. The onchain finance we do want is ready for scale

6. The GENIUS Act will be a monumental shift to onchain finance. (You’re not paying enough attention to quite how monumental)

7. As a result, sense should, hopefully, eventually, prevail.

The Strategic Reserve that shocked the world over a weekend

Last weekend President Trump announced a "strategic reserve" of five cryptocurrencies, sending markets surging. President Trump announced a "strategic reserve" that would include five cryptocurrencies: BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, and ADA. 

The grift couldn't be more obvious. Suspicious whale activity hours before the announcement. Cherry-picked coins. Zero implementation details.

This news immediately saw a lot of unlikely bedfellows uniting to condemn it:

• The Traditional Finance Media

• Ardent Trump supporters

• Ardent Crypto supporters

Here’s why its a distraction.

1. Nobody knew what it meant

2. An overly aggressive reserve could be a doomsday scenario for the dollar

3. Many fans of Crypto or Trump hate the way this got announced

What is the Strategic Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile?

The administration's messaging has been intentionally vague, bouncing between two very different concepts: 

• A stockpile would simply formalize how the government handles crypto assets seized during investigations - when the DOJ confiscates bitcoin from hackers or dark net markets, for example. This is sensible housekeeping. 

• A strategic reserve, however, implies active government purchasing of crypto assets as a national security measure - similar to how the government maintains oil reserves to ensure economic stability during supply disruptions.

Now we have an official explanation. It’s a:

1. “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” and

2. “Digital Assets Stockpile”

TL;DR on the Digital Asset Stockpile.

• All other coins seized other than Bitcoin

• Formalized management process

This is uncontroversial.

TL;DR on the Bitcoin Reserve

• It’s made of seized Bitcoin

• They won’t sell Bitcoin from the reserve (they gonna HODL)

• They will develop “develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional bitcoin”

This is walking a fine line.

What exactly is a budget-neutral strategy for acquiring Bitcoin? Mining? Seizing more? Reallocating existing capital flows? The devil is in the details.

Strategic reserves make sense for commodities that are essential to economic function. Without oil, the economy literally stops running. Without bitcoin? Life and commerce continue just fine.

By classifying speculative crypto assets as "strategic," we're taking a dramatically different position than maintaining the petrodollar system that has underpinned American economic dominance for decades.

The “strategic reserve” may yet be a glorified stockpile, and the “budget neutral” term gives you enough wriggle room for it to mean anything you want it to mean.

Time will tell. One thing we don’t want, is to panic the bond markets.

A Bond Market Nightmare Scenario

A government crypto stockpile of seized assets is one thing. But actively purchasing volatile cryptocurrencies as national investments is playing with fire.

Some of the biggest supporters of the “crypto industry” and lobby hate this idea, but support onchain finance.

As Austin Campbell explains such an approach would:

Markets would be right to question what this means for the role of the dollar in global markets as Nic Carter explains

Never f*ck with the bond markets.

They're the foundation of global finance, and signaling that America might hedge against its own currency could trigger catastrophic consequences. 

Add to this the absurdity of gambling with taxpayer funds.

The US is already running a $2 trillion deficit - imagine losing hundreds of billions more on crypto market volatility. It's fiscal malpractice on an unprecedented scale.

The Naked Grfit is Astonishing

Even many pro-crypto Trump supporters can't stomach last weekends announcement. 

Tech investor Jason Calacanis questioned why these specific five cryptocurrencies qualify as "strategic assets" rather than real estate or technology companies - actual productive assets with intrinsic value.

The timing speaks volumes. 

Market analysts have identified unusual whale activity in the selected cryptocurrencies just hours before last weekends announcement - classic market manipulation that would be illegal in regulated markets.

Anyone checked the World Liberty Financial Wallets?

Yeah that’s not what we want. 

But if you’re distracted. Don’t be.

Because this is all a distraction from something we really, really do want.

The Death of Crypto as We Know It

The strategic reserve concept represents everything holding crypto back: speculation over utility, manipulation over transparency, casino economics over infrastructure.

• Long-time “crypto” personalities, teams, and platforms are speaking out against strategic reserves

• Major financial institutions are interested in stablecoins, settlement systems, and tokenized assets.

• There’s a real bifurcation of “for finance” and “for speculation.”

The death of on-chain-as-speculation isn't a tragedy.

It's the necessary clearing of the underbrush so real financial innovation can finally take root. And it's happening right before our eyes.

Don’t get me wrong. There will still be speculation. But what’s becoming clear is that’s not the same thing.

The CFTCs recent rebuke of Robinhood doing sports betting was telling. We also saw the SEC classify memecoins as not securities, and we’ll soon get dedicated stablecoin regulation.

• Finance is finance

• Gambling is gambling

• Keep these things apart

There will always be a grey area, and the degens of internet culture will find wild new things. Some of them useful. Some of them not. But memecoins are not securities, they’re gambling. Sports betting is not a financial asset. Its gambling.

Over time we’re seeing bright lines drawn between:

1. Investments good for most

2. Investments but requiring some sophistication

3. Gambling that should be very clearly separated from financial services

This is a good thing.

There’s still a ton to do to make the lines between these more clear and rethink what disclosures, sophistication, and gambling mean in a 21st-century context. But my broader point is that the distinction is not is the asset onchain or off-chain. The distinction is investing vs speculation vs gambling.

Onchain is a good thing for financial services.

Stablecoins have demonstrated real utility for cross-border payments and 24/7 settlement. And what’s coming next is much bigger than payments.

Onchain finance is the biggest unlock imaginable.

Beneath the casino spectacle lies genuine innovation that could transform global finance.

Imagine a world where: 

• A small business in Detroit sends payment to a supplier in Singapore on Sunday evening - and it arrives instantly, with no intermediary fees or waiting until Monday for banks to open 

• A trader can move between stocks, bonds, and commodities 24/7, without settlement delays or reconciliation errors. - Smart contracts automatically handle escrow, compliance checks, and settlements without human intervention, eliminating most of the back-office costs that make finance expensive.

Widely adopted global, 24/7, instant, and programmable financial infrastructure would be the single biggest unlock in Fintech or financial services since the invention of double-entry bookkeeping.

That’s not hyperbole. 

Onchain finance has a real shot at delivering that. 

Modern, internet-native financial infrastructure would: 

1. Reduce settlement risk and costs: Instant settlement eliminates counterparty risk and frees up capital currently locked in clearing processes 

2. 2. Enable true 24/7 global markets: No more waiting for business hours or dealing with weekend closures 

3. 3. Create programmable money: Smart contracts could automate compliance, escrow, and complex financial arrangements 

4. 4. Maintain USD dominance in digital form: Well-regulated stablecoins would extend dollar primacy into the digital age 

The dollar has the best product-market fit for the world as a currency, but its UX needs some work. Same for its capital markets. Countries that fail to modernize their financial infrastructure risk losing influence to rivals (like BRICS nations) creating alternative systems.

Its logical that if there’s going to be a new infrastructure, the world's largest capital market (the USA) should be the home of that technology as a strategic advantage.

Financial services is a $21trn profit pool held up by paper, PDFs and mainframes.

The worst part of our existing financial system is the opacity and the inability to reconcile transactions. Every gap between ledgers, payment networks, and institutions creates cost, friction, and a drag on global GDP. 

A technology upgrade that is internet native is long over due.

The transition won't happen overnight, but the direction is clear.

Just as the Internet transformed from a military experiment to a global communications infrastructure, tokenized finance is evolving from a speculative playground to the backbone of next-generation finance.

That’s why

• Most banks (including the Bank of America CEO) are now leaning into stablecoins. 

• Payments companies are in my DMs asking what their strategy should be

• Everyone is despeate for crypto regulation and rules of the road.

Before finance can go onchain, we need regulation. The Bank of America CEO said as much in an interview with Bloomberg:

Regulatory Clarity: The GENIUS Act will be a huge unlock

While the strategic reserve creates headlines, the GENIUS Act creates a regulated framework for onchain finance.

Here’s the breakdown:

The GENIUS (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation in U.S. Stablecoins) Act aims to establish a framework for Stablecoins that will:

• Define stablecoins as a digital asset used for payments and settlement

• Must be issued by a licensed entity and cannot be “algorithmic” (e.g. Terra/Luna)

• Dual regulation by Federal and State regulators, with bank supervisors also having a role

• Stablecoin Issuers become “Payment Stablecoin Issuers” or PSIs

• Licensing follows the Durbin <$10bn asset cap for Federal / State oversight

• Banks, trust companies and non-bank financial institutions can be PSIs

• Issuers must back their stablecoin 1:1 with High-Quality Liquid Assets (e.g., Cash, US Treasuries, and custodied at FDIC-insured institutions). Remember this bit (!)

• Reporting and transparency is required, and large issuers can be “systemically important”

• Stablecoins can be used across borders but must be registered in the US if they intend to operate in the US

• Mandates KYC/AML and BSA is maintained by PSIs

Buried in its provisions is something revolutionary: it opens the door for tokenizing U.S. Treasuries, central bank reserves, and sovereign debt.

The most important assets in global finance - the collateral that underpins everything from mortgages to international trade - could move onto blockchain infrastructure.

This would be the beginning of onchain finance. 

These high quality liquid assets (HQLAs) are the backbone of our global economy. They’re the collateral that we use for every trade. And those trades, that collateral is often closed at weekends, settlement might take 24 hours or 2 days. 

That adds up to trillions of lost opportunities for capital markets, banks, and the wider economy.

If HQLAs go on chain, all finance will go onchain.

What happens when all payments and markets go on chain?

From Crypto to Onchain Finance

The contrast reveals two distinct futures:

• Crypto speculation: volatile, headline-driven, occasionally profitable

• Onchain finance: infrastructure-focused, efficiency-generating, value-creating

Crypto is the home of memecoins, grift and things to avoid. 

Onchain finance is the future of all regulated finance. 

For those outside finance, "global, 24/7, instantly reconcilable infrastructure" might sound like technical jargon.

But anyone who's reconciled trades, managed settlement risk, or explained to clients why their international wire disappeared understands. This stuff fixes countless issues at the very center of financial infrastructure.

BlackRock, Bank of America, and other serious institutions recognize this reality. Despite the circus atmosphere, they see beyond crypto's dying first act to the more consequential second act now beginning.

For policymakers, investors, and builders:

• Focus on infrastructure, not speculation

• Demand clear rules, not market manipulation

• Build systems that extend dollar primacy, not undermine it

The future belongs to onchain finance - regulated, efficient, and transformative.

Take this transition as a when, not an if.

ST.

PS. Haters will say onchain finance is the new “blockchain not bitcoin” a phrase used by bankers in the 2010s to talk about “ledger tech” vs cryptocurrencies. But we need some helpful bifurcation of things that are in the casino, and things that are regulated. That’s not a tech thing, its a how we use it thing.

4 Fintech Companies 💸

1. Stacks - AI Accounting for EU Companies

Stacks helps finance teams make month closes by automating reconciliations, journal entries, variance analysis, and reporting. This data is then synced with the company's ERP. Journal entries can be posted directly in Excel, and users can ask natural language questions of their data.

🧠 This type of solution is sorely needed this side of the atlantic! I immediately sent this to my accountant and a few financial controllers I know. It's hard to know which of the many companies doing this will become winners over the long term and if this just becomes a feature Intuit should acquire. But with all these AI companies, owning the helpful AI gives you a wedge to gradually displace other solutions lower down the stack. A classic strangler pattern.

2. Bourn - Revenue-Based Finance for the UK

Bourn helps SMBs access finance from contracted revenue with long-dated payment terms. It uses contracts, ERP, and bank APIs to assess a precise funding need and finance only as much as an SMB needs.

🧠 The UK and Europe has a massive SMB financing gap, we need solutions like this. We also need global private credit investors willing to partner with companies like this. UK/Acc is only possible with lending. I love that they focus on financing only what a company needs rather than hooking them on a large chunk of working capital. The banks will never do this in the UK.

3. Unique - AI Agents for Finance

Unique provides agents that help banks with tasks like research and KYC document collection, as well as a diligence agent that supports analysts in asking the best questions when evaluating a new customer. In 2023, Unique went live with Swiss private national bank Pictet.

🧠 The irony of their name is substantial. Every company I see seems to be doing some version of this. What sets this team apart iits market focuss, and investment from Commerzbank one of Germany's largest. With Swiss banks live and in production, the value proposition here is getting these agents live and navigating all of those messy committees, compliance, and privacy rules that this part of the world is obsessed with.

4. Gozem - The Superapp for Francophone Africa.

Gozem provides ride-hailing, vehicle financing, and digital banking through a single-app interface. The service is live in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Mali, and many others. It focuses on helping drivers finance their first motorbike and then moves up to three-wheelers and cars over time. They're now moving into mobile money, first in Togo and expanding regionally.

🧠 I love how this uses financing to gradually unlock economic freedom for drivers. The line of finance is linked to the work you do with the vehicle. The company gets a lot of data about driver performance. The sharing economy, mobile phones, and Fintech are the unlock for much of the world that didn't have a formal financial system.

Things to know 👀

1. Ramp passes $700m ARR, $13bn valuation

Ramp just secured a $13B valuation in a $150M secondary round and told Techcrunch that they more than doubled ARR to $700m in almost six years since founding. This deal lets employees and early investors cash out while bringing on heavyweight investors Khosla, Thrive Capital, and General Catalyst.

🧠 The B2B Spend Management Category is growing fast.

• Doubling to $700m is no joke, with rumors Brex is in the $500m region; these are meaningfully sized companies still growing fast.

🧠 Still tiny compared to Amex's $65bn FY24, but it's on their radar.

• The Amex CEO was asked about the new competitors in their earnings call and said he pays attention.

• That's a good answer.

🧠 Amex grew 10% YoY, not 2x. How long can the new players keep up their growth?

• This is the killer question. Ramp's product now extends into core banking, treasury, and travel.

• They're building all the things. Can they go international? Can the new products deliver growth?

• If so, then the picture will look very different in 10 years. (Consider how Stripe and Adyen are now snapping at JP Morgan's heels for market share as an analogy)

🧠 Ramp's marketing is so on point that it's a case study.

• Their Super Bowl ad featuring NFL player Saquon Barkley is classic Ramp. It all happened in the week before the Super Bowl.

• The CEO is on every tech podcast and their team is super active on social.

• I can name about 10 accounts who are incredibly insightful or just great sh*tposters

🧠 Is Ramp intentionally staying private longer to avoid the scrutiny Toast, Marqeta, and others faced post-IPO?

• Stripe is certainly making it look appealing to employees.

• Investors can get secondary liquidity if needed, and will stay onboard as long as the company is growing

• And Ramp is the classic "just ship and growh quickly" company.

• The public markets would likely just slow them down.

2. Klarna is looking to IPO as soon as next week

According to Bloomberg Klarna is looking to raise as much as $1bn in their IPO. The target listing is in April, aiming to fetch a valuation of $15bn on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

🧠 The Profitable Fintech Hyperscaler

• Klarna counts over 80m users globally making them a hyperscaler likely to hit over 100m users

• We know a lot about their finances because they're a regulated Swiss bank

• Their profits took a hit on US Market entry, hitting over $175m

• In October 2024 that shrank to $180k, and they're likely profitable

🧠 This price is close to their last secondary.

• Klarna's $15B target tells a recovery story without being greedy.

• After bottoming at $6.7B in 2022 (down from a frothy $45.6B peak),

• Chrysalis Investments acquired more stock at $14.6bn in October 2024

• Klarna has found what feels like the market price, but lets see.

🧠 Why NYSE not NASDAQ?

• This feels like signaling, a finance stock, not a tech stock?

• Their biggest competitor Affirm is a NASDAQ stock

• I wonder if this is true or plays out differently

• You get very different analysts and earnings expectations with NYSE

🧠 A mad dash before the IPO window closes with tariffs and bad macro?

• The market mood in Q2'25 is not as euphoric as Q3'24

• Buffet sold into cash almost entirely, stocks are near all-time high relative valuations, tariffs are coming and inflation is back

• The window could be closing; Klarna might just nail it, but folks who had a 2026 window in mind might be nervous right now

Good Reads 📚

1. A Crypto Strategic Reserve Makes no Sense.

Dave Birch nails the general argument against a Crypto strategic reserve. A strategic reserve like "oil" makes sense because the economy won't function without it. That is not true of Crypto (except for perhaps, the ransomware and state-sponsored hacking economies). The goal is to purchase 200k Bitcoin annually, plus likely Ethereum, Solana, and Cardano (ADA).

Dave says the argument is that digital gold isn't helpful. Most gold in central bank reserves isn't used; it just sits there.

🧠 Almost nobody favors this thing except for the bag holders, whose asset prices will increase.

• Bitcoiners hate it because it's selling out their ideals of censorship-resistant money.

• Pro-crypto advocates hate it because it defeats the value proposition of a global, 24/7, neutral financial system

• Anti-crypto folks hate it because its obviously grift, and its more crypto which is full of grift at the best of times

Tweets of the week 🕊

We live in the future

I tried this. It bothers me how good the output was...

Of course AI takes work.

That's all, folks. 👋

Remember, if you're enjoying this content, please do tell all your fintech friends to check it out and hit the subscribe button :)

(1) All content and views expressed here are the authors' personal opinions and do not reflect the views of any of their employers or employees.

(2) All companies or assets mentioned by the author in which the author has a personal and/or financial interest are denoted with a *. None of the above constitutes investment advice, and you should seek independent advice before making any investment decisions.

(3) Any companies mentioned are top of mind and used for illustrative purposes only.

(4) A team of researchers has not rigorously fact-checked this. Please don't take it as gospel—strong opinions weakly held

(5) Citations may be missing, and I've done my best to cite, but I will always aim to update and correct the live version where possible. If I cited you and got the referencing wrong, please reach out