Chris Dixon, a general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), has articulated a foundational thesis for the cryptocurrency industry's development path. In a detailed statement on X, Dixon countered criticism that non-financial blockchain use cases are "dead" and that the "read-write-own" vision of the internet has failed. He argued that the industry is correctly in its "financial era," a necessary precursor to broader adoption.
Dixon explained that blockchains introduce a new capability for global coordination of people, capital, and AI agents. Since money and capital are the most basic forms of coordination, finance is the most natural and necessary starting point for the technology. He drew a parallel to the internet's evolution, which required decades of building foundational "plumbing" like TCP/IP before the emergence of social media and streaming.
For crypto to see massive adoption in areas like gaming, social media, or decentralized AI, a stable layer of "on-ramps" is required first. This includes reliable digital wallets, identity systems, and high liquidity. Financial applications—specifically stablecoins, payments, and decentralized finance (DeFi)—are the tools that bring hundreds of millions of users into the ecosystem. Only once this critical mass is "on-chain" for financial reasons will it become easier to attract users to other types of applications.
Dixon noted that a16z's investment strategy has long reflected this view, with many of its investments being explicitly financial, including Coinbase, Maker (MKR), Compound (COMP), Uniswap (UNI), and Morpho.
The lack of clear government policy has been a major development hurdle for the past five years, stifling innovation and allowing bad actors to thrive. However, Dixon pointed to positive regulatory developments, such as the reaction to the GENIUS Act and the passing of the CLARITY Act, which are helping to legitimize stablecoins as a critical part of fintech. He also highlighted a shift under the Trump administration, including a focus on a "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" and more crypto-friendly leadership at the SEC, as providing the "risk-based guardrails" needed to protect consumers and encourage institutional investment.
Comparing the industry's trajectory to that of AI and the commercial internet, Dixon described crypto as being in its "messy years" of groundwork and policy-making, which will eventually lead to its "obvious years" of mainstream success.
