Crucible Capital founder Meltem Demirors said crypto is facing an “identity crisis” as institutional adoption through spot Bitcoin ETFs fails to improve Bitcoin’s real-world utility.
Only ETF Is Not Useful
Speaking in a Fox Business interview on May 25, Demirors argued Wall Street’s embrace of crypto has shifted the industry away from its original mission of rebuilding financial infrastructure.
“Crypto has been colonized by incumbent financial institutions,” she said as AI infrastructure spending explodes globally.
Also, crypto-native financing tools can help companies access capital faster and cheaper without relying on banks.
“The GPU race and AI buildout is the biggest infrastructure buildout in human history,” Demirors said.
She added that crypto communities spend too much time debating ideology on social media instead of building practical financial systems tied to real economic activity.
Emerging Sectors Gaining Traction
Demirors pointed to several emerging sectors gaining traction on-chain prediction market, tokenized commodities, RWAs, decentralized trading venues, compute and energy-backed financial products
According to Demirors, much of the trading volume on newer crypto platforms is now tied to commodities and infrastructure exposure rather than speculative meme trading.
She also criticized the narrative that institutional adoption alone validates crypto. “BlackRock winning and making billions of dollars off an ETF isn’t helping Bitcoin,” she said.
Despite her criticism, Demirors said she remains deeply bullish on crypto’s long-term role in global capital markets.
She described blockchain networks as a new financial layer capable of enabling faster settlement, new asset classes and more flexible market structures. “The opportunity is the same. The game has changed because of AI.”
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