I spoke with @jesshoulgrave, CEO of @walletconnect.
Her prediction about crypto's next cycle contradicts everything the industry believes.
It's about something far more fundamental than better technology or faster chains:
Jess runs the infrastructure connecting 20 million wallets across 500+ apps.
She sees where every dollar flows in crypto.
And from that vantage point, she’s witnessing a shift that undermines the very architecture crypto spent 15 years optimizing for:
For 15 years, crypto was speculative by design.
Exchanges had distribution.
Volatility created engagement.
Crypto was built to be traded. You weren't about to use it to buy a cup of coffee.
But finally, the infrastructure to buy things with crypto exists:
But the terrain has changed.
Stablecoins have suppressed volatility without surrendering programmability.
Settlement rails are finally behaving like the internet (instant, global, permissionless).
And regulators are beginning to acknowledge that digital dollars are, in fact, dollars.
Jess says: "I've always been very bullish on on-chain commerce, especially consumer pay-ins and pay-outs."
Commerce, not trading, will power the next cycle.
Speculation will be displaced as the system’s dominant energy source, replaced with economic activity.
But—and this is important—consumer behavior lags infrastructure by years.
Payments still carry friction. UX remains patchy and uneven.
Only recently have we started solving those buried pain points that traders tolerated, but buyers will not.
The real unlock comes when users don’t off-ramp at all.
Jess put it this way:
"If I get paid in stablecoins and can buy coffee, pay my utility bill, and my taxes all in stablecoin, why would I ever off-ramp?
Emerging markets can leapfrog traditional banking entirely.
Once you give everyone open-source financial rails for savings, payments, and lending, all denominated in dollars, you strengthen the dollar globally.
"As a policymaker outside the U.S., that would keep me up at night."
You can already see the regulatory realignment.
The Bank of England went from banning crypto firms to creating pragmatic on-ramps.
Euro-denominated stablecoins like EURC are gathering volume as Europe seeks to counterbalance dollar-based rails.
Banks and fintechs now face a choice:
Build on these rails or watch deposits flee to stablecoin wallets.
Payment processors must decide if they're infrastructure or intermediaries about to be disintermediated.
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