The crypto market has undergone significant changes in recent years, with institutionalization becoming a major trend. According to Tomasz Tunguz, venture capitalist at Theory, the real innovation in the sector is not the tokens, but the underlying blockchain infrastructure.
One of the key drivers of this shift is the increasing adoption of blockchain technology by institutions. Stablecoins are experiencing unprecedented growth, with transaction volumes exceeding those of traditional networks like Visa. Major banks such as JPMorgan Chase are also using stablecoins in their internal infrastructures.
This institutionalization has led to a change in the way value is created in the crypto market. According to Tunguz, value is now concentrated in core infrastructure such as payment systems, digital identity, data infrastructure and compliance. Applications are generating less value than expected, with new ultra-fast trading infrastructures being a notable example.
Another area of growth is prediction markets, which are rapidly evolving from tools primarily linked to elections into true ecosystems where bets are placed on geopolitical events, financial markets or sports. Tunguz sees a future where companies use prediction markets to build hedges against supply chain risks, such as wars in the South China Sea.
However, one of the main limitations of prediction markets is the interpretation of contracts. Smart contracts can transform these agreements into standardized, verifiable and automatically executable contracts, but this technology has not yet been widely adopted.