“We’re maybe at the phase where email started working on the internet” Yakovenko remarked, comparing the crypto adoption curve to earlier technologies.
Cryptocurrency prices, from Bitcoin to BNB, are rising again. The market capitalization of cryptocurrency has grown from $1.2 trillion on July 19 to $2.4 trillion today.
Solana, an Ethereum competitor chain that offers faster transaction speeds and lower prices, has been a big part of that. According to CoinGecko data, the network’s native SOL coin has tripled in price in the previous month, reaching a market valuation of $40 billion.
While those figures may make the present crypto market appear to be a bubble, Solana founder and CEO Anatoly Yakovenko believes it isn’t. At least not in the way you might expect.
On Friday’s Decrypt Daily podcast, he told presenter Matthew Diemer, “This is a really different time in the space than any other,” “So it’s not really a bubble comparison. The 2017 bubble came and went, and individuals spent three years developing things. And now we’ve completed the [infrastructure] that allows additional engineers and developers to join the team and swiftly iterate.”
In other words, the time for chatting has passed, and the moment for white papers has arrived. “People are shipping everything,” he stated, adding that “The financial aspect of these things is happening with real-life products and real-life communities.”
It doesn’t matter if the price of SOL or other cryptocurrencies remains high in this regard because the products are becoming usable.
Yakovenko is also unconcerned about the long-term viability of NFTs, whose sales have helped draw users to his network as they seek a less expensive alternative to Ethereum for buying, selling, and trading digital collectibles and art.
“The sustainable part is that you have creative people that come up with new ideas, looking at the past and remixing them and building something new,” he remarked.
CryptoPunks may come and go, but the innovation will continue as more individuals enter the space—not only speculators, but developers and creators as well. As a result, “whenever that fad passes, there’s already 100 people literally just, like, what am I building in crypto?”
So, is there a price bubble? Perhaps. In 2000, the dot-com bubble burst, with firms like Pets.com going bankrupt due to exorbitant valuations. However, if you’re reading this, you already know that the subsequent crash didn’t kill the internet; rather, it killed the speculation surrounding it.
“We’re maybe at the phase where email started working on the internet.” Yakovenko said of crypto’s adoption curve, which includes speculation giving way to functionality.
