Why influential Wintermute founder Evgeny Gaevoy thinks crypto has strayed from its cypherpunk roots

As crypto prices plummet, the high-profile entrepreneurs and investors with a steep financial stake in technology have tried to keep a positive attitude. The exception is Evgeny Gaevoy, the founder and CEO of the leading crypto trading firm Wintermute. In the latest episode of Fortune’s Crypto Playbook podcast—available on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube—Gaevoy explained why he believes blockchain has strayed from its cypherpunk roots.

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In a viral thread on X from earlier in February, Gaevoy argued that despite a number of tailwinds supporting crypto, from a pro-blockchain government to Wall Street adoption, the industry has been subsumed by a “number go up” philosophy. He contrasted this to Bitcoin’s founding ideals as a libertarian technology that aimed to create a decentralized currency outside of the control of governments or banks.

Even though stablecoins have proven to be a sticky use case over the past few years, for example, Gaevoy said it was ironic to celebrate their success when they’re advancing U.S. dollar supremacy. “We were supposed to build something parallel to the dollar, but now we are actually imposing the dollar on the rest of the world,” he said on the podcast.

And amid debates about whether different blockchains like Solana or Ethereum are superior, Gaevoy said that onlookers are missing the point: There isn’t real adoption of decentralized applications on either. Despite the fact that Ethereum has more than $120 billion in total value locked, according to CoinMarketCap, Gaevoy argued that most of it is “stuck money.”

“People quite overestimate those pilots by corporations to put some bonds on blockchains or some cash markets on blockchains,” he said. “It happens on Ethereum or some [layer-2 blockchains], but it’s still a tiny, tiny fraction of economy activities that happen in TradFi.”

While Gaevoy’s philosophy might seem contradictory for an executive whose prospects are tied to the industry’s advancement, he argued that Wintermute is planning for different levels of integration with traditional finance. “We are not backing one particular centralized exchange or one particular DEX, [but] we actually working with everyone,” he said.

Still, Gaevoy argued that the ideal future for crypto would be reconnecting with its cypherpunk roots, rather than further integrating with Wall Street. “Everyone is cheering for this merger with TradFi,” he said. “But nobody understands that it will basically just cancel out the cypherpunk dream altogether.”

“My bet is this pendulum will swing back again when people realize there is a benefit to this crazy blockchain stuff, and it’s not just memecoins,” he added.

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