Author: Jean-Paul FarajSource: bankless Translation: Shan Ouba, Golden Finance
If you've been in the crypto world long enough, you've witnessed the rise and fall of hype cycles. But beneath the noise, some areas are quietly laying the foundation for the next decade of growth. They're still very early—sometimes painfully early—but their potential is impossible to ignore. Here are five areas I continue to focus on.
1. AVS and Restaking: New Primitives for Shared Security
The rise of restaking networks like EigenLayer and AltLayer marks the beginning of a whole new design space: Active Verification Services (AVS).
The core idea is that Ethereum's staked ETH can be rehypothecated to provide security for entirely new networks and applications. This way, instead of having to build trust from scratch, each project can leverage Ethereum's reputation and validator base.
Restaking reshapes how new protocols are launched. By outsourcing trust to the Ethereum validator set, developers can focus on application design rather than building security systems from scratch. This lowers the barrier to experimentation while maintaining a connection to Ethereum's economic gravity.
The opportunity here isn't a single "killer app," but opening the floodgates for hundreds of new applications.
Why it matters:
New paradigm: Shared security has the potential to foster entirely new industries—from decentralized computation to AI training—that will ultimately be settled on Ethereum.
AI opportunity: AI is a particularly natural fit—sovereign agents and decentralized training can tap into a restaking security layer.
Foundational: As crypto adoption accelerates, projects like EigenLayer and AltLayer will join larger institutions on the same platform as the infrastructure for scalable trust.
Challenges:
Lack of Scaled Applications: Currently, there isn't a sufficiently "Lindy" use case to demonstrate the feasibility of AVS in large-scale production environments.
Overcapital: Early investment has poured in, but actual adoption has lagged, leaving many early backers still waiting for validation.
Token Unlocking Pressure: Large-scale unlocking is imminent, and price volatility could dampen market sentiment.
If successful, re-staking could become to infrastructure what stablecoins are to payments: a Trojan horse, quietly bringing in the next wave of users. 2. DeFi × TradFi: The Lines Are Blurring Not long ago, using DeFi required MetaMask, cross-chain bridges, and fighting gas wars. Now, teams like EtherFi, Coinbase, Argent, and Morpho are packaging the same financial primitives—borrowing, lending, and yield—into consumer-oriented products. Credit cards, fiat on-ramps, and one-click lending markets are rapidly closing the gap between TradFi and DeFi. The two once distinct worlds are gradually overlapping. The opportunity lies in this: most users won't consciously "switch to crypto"; they'll simply use products because they're faster, cheaper, and more flexible. This opens up a massive distribution channel: traditional financial institutions are white-labeling DeFi primitives and applying a consumer-friendly veneer. Ultimately, this is leading to a future where decentralized finance is finance itself.
Why it matters:
Robust infrastructure: DeFi has matured—protocols like Aave have withstood years of stress testing, demonstrating the “Lindy” effect.
Policy shift: Regulators are no longer asking “if,” but “how.” This represents a massive psychological shift.
Trust shift: Globally, trust in traditional finance is eroding. Every scandal, bank run, or fee hike makes room for alternatives.
Challenges:
Consumer Trust: DeFi is still an unfamiliar term for most households. It will take time to convince them of its safety.
Geographical Restrictions: Geopolitical and regulatory constraints prevent many products from being implemented in certain jurisdictions.
Matthew Effect: The strong will always be strong, and the winner takes all, which may lead to many good products being buried.
For DeFi builders, the question isn't whether consumers will use these tools—it's whether they realize they're using DeFi. 3. RWAs: The Biggest Capital Bridge If DeFi's goal is to invent new money markets, then real-world assets (RWAs) are on-chain. Projects like Ondo, Reserve, Centrifuge, and Maple are building the infrastructure to tokenize real-world assets—US Treasuries, corporate bonds, commodities, and even real estate—making them tradable and combinable in crypto. The tokenization of RWAs breaks down the barriers between traditional financial markets. A tokenized Treasury bond can not only serve as collateral in DeFi but also back stablecoins and even enable global fractional ownership, all without the need for traditional intermediaries. The real opportunity lies in transforming once-static assets into programmable building blocks, opening up a whole new space for product and risk model design. Why it matters: Massive market size: Global capital markets are valued at hundreds of trillions of dollars. Even if only a small portion were on-chain, it would far exceed the entire locked-in value of DeFi. On-chain yields: RWAs have already driven a new wave of stablecoin yields. For example, Ondo's tokenized treasury bonds allow stablecoin holders to earn US Treasury yields directly through the crypto network. Stability layer: RWAs can serve as a ballast in the volatile crypto market, providing safer collateral and deepening liquidity pools. Institutional trust: The RWAs narrative is one that Wall Street understands. They are more like a bridge than a threat to traditional finance.
Challenges:
Regulatory Drag: Securities and custody regulations vary across jurisdictions, and compliance issues have significantly slowed development.
Liquidity Mismatch: While tokenization makes asset trading more convenient, the underlying markets (such as real estate or corporate bonds) are not inherently liquid.
Adoption Bottlenecks: Convincing institutions to trust on-chain packaging is still a work in progress, and most capital is currently on the sidelines.
If DeFi is a "testing ground," then RWAs are the "highway" connecting the crypto world and traditional finance. This area may become the most important gateway, allowing crypto assets to move beyond mere experimentation and become truly embedded in the global financial system.
4. ZK Technology: Achieving Simultaneous Scalability and Privacy
If there's a widely-accepted bet on the future of blockchain infrastructure, it's zero-knowledge proofs (ZK). Projects like Starknet, Succinct, Linea, and zkSync are vying to prove that ZK systems are no longer theoretical but a reality for large-scale production. The core of ZK lies in "trust compression": the ability to verify large computations in a cost-effective, fast, and secure manner.
Zero-knowledge-powered blockchains open the door to applications that were previously impossible, or at least impractical. By compressing computation and minimizing data requirements, ZK enables systems that were once too heavy, expensive, or insecure to operate in a blockchain environment. Its design space is vast, ranging from more efficient on-chain proofs to privacy-first consumer applications to entirely new secure, data-rich protocols. ZK will change how we interact with the on-chain world.
Why it matters:
Mainstream acceptance: Ethereum has clearly stated that ZK is its path to scaling, which lends legitimacy to the entire direction.
Falling costs: Proof costs are falling exponentially, making ZK viable at consumer scale.
Use cases are emerging: Consumer applications with privacy at their core are emerging—whether it's payments, identity, or messaging.
Challenges:
Fragmented Standards: Different technology stacks are competing fiercely, and it's unclear which one will emerge victorious.
Unfulfilled Hype: There hasn't been a true "ZK moment" that would make developers and consumers feel like a breakthrough.
Complexity: Layering a proof system on top of the blockchain makes the already complex technology stack even more difficult to master.
ZK is a game of both infrastructure and consumer applications. It promises to deliver both increased throughput and privacy—something Web2 struggles to deliver simultaneously. 5. Decentralized Social: Beyond Money The crypto world has always been centered around "finance first, social second." But this balance is shifting. Applications like Zora, Lens, Mirror, Farcaster, Base App, and the emerging Thousands Network are laying the groundwork for a decentralized social layer. The goal is to create an experience similar to Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok, but with creators truly owning their content, reputation, and revenue. Decentralized social isn't just about giving creators more commissions; it also presents an opportunity to rebuild the social graph as a public good. Instead of each platform locking data in silos, user-owned networks will enable reputation, followers, and content to migrate across applications. This will disrupt the existing landscape: platforms will no longer be captive users, but will instead compete to serve them. The opportunity lies in: even modest user growth can become a formidable force, as creators and communities have a strong incentive to migrate to platforms where they can retain more revenue.
Why It Matters:
Cycle Independence: Consumer applications aren't completely dependent on market cycles. A good game or social network can still grow in a bear market.
Mainstream Support: Coinbase's recent integration with Zora is a major breakthrough—distribution at this scale will bring millions of users into crypto social.
Ripe Opportunity: The creator economy of Web2 platforms is collapsing, making room for decentralized alternatives.
Lowering Barriers: User experience has improved significantly over the past 18 months, removing friction that initially hindered mass adoption.
Challenges:
User Inertia: Convincing users to leave Instagram and switch to new apps is costly.
Reliance on Speculation: Many decentralized social networks launched through tokenization, making them susceptible to "price-boosting" cycles.
Barriers to Entry: Wallets, cross-chain transactions, and seed phrases still deter mainstream users.
Decentralized social networks may not replace Instagram immediately. However, as creator platforms continue to reduce their revenue share, the pull of user-owned networks is growing stronger.
Summary
The crypto world is often criticized for chasing the next hot thing, but behind the hype, there are five cutting-edge areas that are both early-stage and long-term:
Restaking / AVS: May redefine network security and open the door to new industries such as decentralized AI.
DeFi x TradFi: Steadily bridging the gap between crypto rails and everyday financial products.
RWAs: Bringing the largest global capital markets to the blockchain, unlocking new returns and institutional trust. ZK technology: Scales blockchains while preserving privacy, unlocking a whole new space for application design. Decentralized social: Providing ownership-based alternatives to traditional platforms that no longer satisfy users and creators. Each of these areas presents significant challenges—technical barriers, regulatory complexity, and saturated competition. But they also hold asymmetric upside potential, a common trait of crypto's biggest winners. If the theme of the last cycle was "blockchains can support stablecoins and DeFi protocols," the next one will be "crypto embedded in every corner of finance, infrastructure, and culture." Developers building in these five sectors aren't simply chasing narratives; they're laying the groundwork for the next generation of applications, users, and capital to follow.
For investors and builders, these are areas worthy of long-term attention.
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