2026 STATE OF CRYPTO

Summary from the TLDR Crypto newsletter

Total crypto market cap sits at $3.1T (down 14% YoY) with easy money stopping in 2025 as VC pump-and-dumps, memecoins, and DATs all fell flat. For the first time, products not relying on token speculation outperformed – Polymarket and stablecoins saw usage surge while market cap declined. Though token prices are down since snakeoil salesmen oversell narratives, the macro trend of declining institutional trust makes credibly neutral money a $100T+ opportunity with only BTC and ETH qualifying.