In the turbulent world of cryptocurrency, what truly constitutes an asset that can traverse cycles? Over the past year, the market has experienced severe liquidity contraction, regulatory restructuring, and narrative shifts: from the Meme coin frenzy to the Layer 2 melee, from the aftershocks of FTX to the implementation of regulations in various countries. Short-term stories have emerged one after another, yet it is difficult to establish a sustainable trust system. Capital is once again seeking a direction of "structural safety."
After rounds of speculation and resets, the market is gradually realizing that what can survive long-term is not the fleeting concepts that become popular, but the "infrastructure" that can provide underlying support. Public chains, exchanges, and stablecoins—these three main lines have almost spanned the evolution of the industry over the past decade and will form the starting point of competition for the next decade. They are not only the three main lines for capital return but also represent the three core underlying capabilities of the crypto economy: computation, liquidity, and credit.
In other words, if the last bull market relied on "narratives to create wealth," the next cycle will be determined by "structure to create certainty."
The competition among public chains has shifted from "who has the higher TPS" to "who can build a lasting economic system." Ethereum remains the core of industry consensus—not only because its ecosystem is stable but also because it has become the settlement layer for various innovative protocols. From Lido's staking derivatives, Uniswap's liquidity aggregation, to Layer-2's modular expansion, Ethereum's economic gravity almost covers the entire on-chain financial system.
However, in the new cycle, public chains are no longer dominated solely by Ethereum. Large exchanges like BSC and X Layer have their own public chains, while emerging Layer 2 networks like GATE Layer are competing for developers and capital's attention in more flexible ways. BNB Chain, as Binance's self-built chain, focuses on "user reach + community benefits," boasting daily active users in the millions. OKX's X Layer completed its PP upgrade in August 2025, claiming an increase in throughput to 5,000 TPS. Gate Layer emphasizes an architecture logic of "native support for trading and liquidity"—this model, similar to BNB Chain's "ecosystem feeding back to exchanges" and Blast's "yield binding mechanism," attempts to address the gap between Ethereum's mainnet and user experience.
From an investment perspective, this round of public chain competition presents a pattern of "stable main chains and innovative Layer 2s." ETH remains robust as a long-term anchor asset, while Layer 2s or self-built chains like BSC Chain, X Layer, and Gate Layer resemble high-risk but potentially high-reward "growth stocks." A consensus is forming within the industry: the public chains that can truly traverse cycles must not only be technically strong but also retain capital, applications, and developers simultaneously.
If public chains are the underlying operating systems, then exchanges are the "central banks" of the entire crypto economy. After experiencing the collapse of FTX and the Bybit security incident, the market has come to recognize that liquidity is not inherently present but is created through trust and structure.
The current landscape is clear: Binance remains the king of scale, OKX is expanding through transparent reserves and a Web3 product matrix, while Gate's recent strategy represents another approach—seeking a balance between global layout and transparent operations. Its continuous release of reserve audits and zero-knowledge proof verification mechanisms has made "asset security" a long-term asset for the brand. This contrasts with Coinbase's model relying on regulatory endorsement and shifts the competition among exchanges from "speed of listing" to "trust logic."
At the same time, emerging on-chain trading models like Perp DEX are also eating into some liquidity. Decentralized derivatives platforms like Aster, Hyperliquid, and ADEN focus on algorithmic matching and on-chain settlement as their core selling points. Their existence is not to replace centralized exchanges but to build a "parallel liquidity layer." From Gate's Perp DEX to dYdX V4, the industry is forming a new hybrid pattern—centralized management of fund security, decentralized assurance of trading transparency.
If Bitcoin is the "core of value storage" in this system, then stablecoins are its "liquid blood." The penetration speed of stablecoins is far exceeding most people's expectations. Since 2025, the total circulation of USDT and USDC has surpassed $180 billion, while compliant new entrants like FDUSD and PYUSD are also rapidly expanding.
Interestingly, some platforms are attempting to have stablecoins take on more functions. For example, GUSD, positioned as a foundational stable asset for "in-ecosystem settlement and cross-chain clearing," is taking a route closer to "functional currency"—which sharply contrasts with Circle's compliance-oriented approach and Tether's market-oriented approach.
The strong continue to grow stronger. The stablecoin market is also undergoing a reshuffle: weaker projects are being eliminated due to opaque reserves or insufficient asset backing, while leading issuers are evolving from "fund pools" to "clearing networks." In other words, the competition among stablecoins is no longer about "who anchors more stably," but rather who can establish a more efficient and compliant cross-border settlement structure.
It is foreseeable that as global regulatory frameworks like MiCA, VARA, and FSA gradually take shape, the future stablecoin ecosystem will become highly centralized—what can truly traverse cycles is not a novel algorithmic model, but stable currencies that are audited, liquid, and applicable.
A fundamental logic of the crypto industry: technological innovation can create waves, but only a solid structure can traverse the tides.
Public chains represent the structure of computing power and ecosystems; exchanges represent the structure of liquidity and trust; stablecoins represent the structure of credit and settlement. The new order woven by these three is the direction of the entire crypto financial system's "de-bubbling."
In recent years, the industry has relied on narratives to drive growth—wherever new stories are told, capital flows there; in the next stage, capital is more likely to pursue "who can deliver the certainty of structure."
As Gate Layer, BSC Chain, and X Layer build the underlying infrastructure, as exchanges like Binance, OKX, and Gate redefine security and transparency, and as the stablecoin networks of USDT, GUSD, and USDC become the global clearing infrastructure, the crypto industry may be ushering in its true "infrastructure bull market."
What can truly traverse cycles is not the projects that shout slogans, but those players who prove they can stay at the table long-term through time and structure.
Related: Opinion: Stablecoins deserve better infrastructure, and they have finally arrived.
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
