So much of crypto is not even real—but that’s starting to change

We spend a lot of time on the road meeting with LPs, fellow investors, and founders. No matter where the conversation starts – whether it’s in Singapore, Abu Dhabi, London, or anywhere else – it often drifts to a simple, sometimes rhetorical question: Is any of this real?

It’s a fair question. Crypto has become a strange reflection of our economy and society more broadly: part financial spectacle, part social experiment, part collective delusion. For every breakthrough in cryptography or blockchain infrastructure...