Opinion by: Adam Silver, co-founder and CEO of Plural Energy
Last month, the new administration rolled into Washington, promising to rethink outdated cryptocurrency regulations. The “crypto czar” and new US Securities and Exchange Commission head are still settling into their roles, but aggressive deregulation has been rallying industry support long before November 2024.
Combined with Bitcoin (BTC) hitting a record price and mainstream media recording an uptick in corporate treasuries investing in cryptocurrency, it’s no wonder the sector is celebrating US President Donald Trump’s promise for a crypto-friendly regulatory era.
As an industry, key questions must guide how we take advantage of the regulatory shift: Do we want our industry to be defined by memecoins? Or do we want to build a new financial system that catalyzes change in the sectors that are the backbone of the US economy?
Let’s cut to the chase
A bull market is coming, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a BS one — especially for those hoping to welcome institutional players. When trying to onboard new users, assets and use cases, the biggest challenge has historically been illustrating blockchain’s use cases beyond what people read in headlines. Traditional media often depicts crypto as a Libertarian fantasy gone awry — a world dominated by scams, memes and fraud. Every headline about rug pulls, hacks and prosecutions adds another brick to the wall of skepticism that real-world asset founders have to climb.
When founders struggle to convince industries to build real-world asset use cases onchain, PR firms try to shift perception with simple language changes: blockchain, not crypto; digital shares, not tokens; onchain, not DeFi; and constantly, smart contracts. This isn’t just a PR or language issue. It’s a systemic problem that undermines the credibility of a world-changing and industry-shaping technology.
The use case question
The “use case” question becomes more complex as the onchain transaction volume comes more from…
..
