Cryptocurrency: A Shift from Asset Class to Technology

Author: Maartje Bus @ The Medici Network, Source: Messari 2026 Crypto Thesis; Translation: Jinse Finance

For years, we have regarded cryptocurrencies as a single asset class because its past market performance did indeed conform to this characteristic. But today, this label is misleading.

The Era of Great Differentiation Arrives

Cryptocurrencies are gradually shedding their "single asset class" positioning, primarily because the price movements of their various asset classes are no longer converging, and their risk-return characteristics are no longer uniform—these two points are the core elements defining an asset class.

Bitcoin's current performance is closer to a macro-level store of value:Its volatility has shown a structural decline, institutional participation continues to deepen, and the correlation between its price movements and other cryptocurrencies is weakening. In contrast, Ethereum and mainstream public chains, as well as layer-two network ecosystems, are more like high-growth technological infrastructure targets. Their value performance is directly linked to ecosystem applicability, transaction fee revenue, and application layer activity, rather than being subject to overall market sentiment. Pragmatism transcends ideology. Beyond market performance, this differentiation reflects a deeper structural transformation. The core underlying technologies of blockchain and cryptocurrencies are gradually shedding their ideological halo as "alternatives to the existing financial system" and are instead defined as infrastructure for reconstructing financial services and empowering new digital-native applications. The early concept of "decentralization" as the ultimate goal is giving way to a more pragmatic development orientation—focusing on practicality, reliability, and cross-system compatibility. Stablecoins are the most direct manifestation of this shift: they are widely used, deeply integrated into the existing financial circulation system, and have achieved a level of technological "seamlessness" for end users. More and more crypto-native functions (including lending, clearing and settlement, liquidity supply, etc.) are no longer presented to users as independent decentralized products, but are embedded as underlying modules in centralized or regulated application systems. Cryptocurrencies: New Members of the Technology Sector If we exclude Bitcoin, which has already established its own distinct category, from both an economic logic and investment perspective, other sectors of the cryptocurrency industry no longer resemble a single asset class, but rather are closer to the technology industry sector—a development path remarkably similar to that of the internet industry. The core link maintaining these sectors is no longer convergent price fluctuations, but rather shared infrastructure such as blockchain, wallets, middleware, and decentralized finance underlying protocols. Value creation and investment opportunities are distributed across multiple levels of the industry, and can be realized through various forms such as tokens, publicly listed stocks, derivatives, credit products, and structured instruments, rather than being limited to a single, homogeneous trading instrument. Future Outlook This transformation process is expected to accelerate further in 2026. Blockchain infrastructure is rapidly being embedded into real-world financial applications, rather than being limited to independent decentralized products—stablecoins are already leading the way, followed by areas such as payments, lending, and clearing and settlement. The trend of asset tokenization will continue to drive the on-chaining of traditional assets, thereby blurring the traditional boundaries of various assets. The IPO (Initial Public Offering) pipeline of crypto-native companies is becoming increasingly rich, further broadening the scope of investment targets; at the same time, financial super-applications built on digital wallets and the underlying blockchain network are gradually taking shape—these applications integrate multiple services such as asset brokerage, payment, and credit into a single interface, achieving one-stop service. As cryptocurrencies gradually grow into a fundamental infrastructure of the financial sector, the characteristics that once defined their industry attributes (such as meme-driven industry narratives, ideology-first application design logic, and synchronous boom-and-bust cycles) will no longer hold a core position. Capital and R&D resources will increasingly concentrate on products with clear economic value and that can create tangible benefits for users, rather than flowing to applications that are simply decentralized for the sake of decentralization or tokenization for the sake of tokenization. Conclusion: The core significance of this transformation lies in its complete reconstruction of the definition of "cryptocurrency applicability." The popularization of cryptocurrencies no longer depends on users actively purchasing tokens or deliberately "using crypto products," but rather on whether the blockchain infrastructure can become the core anchoring layer for value transfer—currently in the form of stablecoins, and in the future, in the form of increasingly diverse tokenized assets. Although these assets will increasingly migrate on-chain, user access and interaction will be completed through wallets and various platforms, completely shielding the underlying technological complexity of the blockchain. In this way, even as cryptocurrencies gradually fade from public view, the scale and economic influence of on-chain activity will continue to expand—this is the core hallmark of cryptocurrency's evolution from a transactional asset class to a fundamental technology sector.