Efficient Finance vs Alternative Finance, Next Crypto Cycle Will Be Divided into Two Camps

Mert, CEO of Helius, revealed that the current crypto market is divided into two main categories: Efficient Finance, which focuses on digitizing traditional systems, and Alternative Finance, which creates new economic systems. The dominance of Efficient Finance, such as ETFs and asset tokenization, is seen as making the industry more formal and regulation-compliant, thus beginning to lose the "resistance" culture that has been its main attraction.
Mert believes this transition marks the end of the pure speculation era, such as ICOs or NFTs, where builders' attention is now also divided into the AI sector. This causes the market to feel more rigid because existing financial instruments prioritize formal structures over radical innovation. External factors like AI oversight are also thought to absorb creativity that was previously fully focused on blockchain experimentation.
Nevertheless, developers are predicted to rise through privacy issues as a key catalyst in the future. With increasingly scalable smart contract platforms, builders are expected to refocus on Alternative Finance to build a more free economic infrastructure. This focus aims to create an independent financial system that is not constrained by traditional financial institution limitations.