Hey there, Today’s piece might scream existential crisis, but hope is what it delivers. With VCs leaving the industry and founders wondering whether AI is the play to make, now is a good time to explore why we are even here. We broke down the numbers and traced where revenue flows. Today is part one of a series of articles that speak to the crux of why crypto matters, where it stands, and how it evolves from here.Decentralised.co is actively investing in the liquid markets. The research that shapes pieces like today’s informs how we allocate. If you are an investor or a founder looking to explore how fundamentals tie back to crypto assets, join us at Telegram. Or drop us an email at venture@decentralised.co.Let’s dig in.. Yes, I got this hand painted.The fear and greed index for crypto is at the lowest it’s ever been. At the same time, the industry has never been more profitable. Since 2018, DeFiLlama has tracked $74.8B in fees generated by crypto-native protocols. Nearly half - $31.4B was generated in the eighteen months between January 2024 and June 2025.How is it that an industry can have its best series of quarters in eight years and still find itself in fear? Entropy Protocol. Milkyway Protocol. Nifty Gateway. Rodeo. Forgotten Runiverse. Slingshot. Polynomial. Zerolend. Grix Finance. Parsec Finance. Angle Protocol. Step Finance. These are twelve names that shut down over the past two months. Products that have sustained for years and were built by passionate founders we respect OKX, Mantra, Polygon Labs, Gemini and Binance have each had layoffs, too.Conferences have fewer people visiting. VCs are pivoting to AI. Developers are flocking to AI. The doom and gloom are real. If you are in crypto, pivot to AI - has become the prevailing sentiment.But should you?We have been thinking about this question for the past few weeks. When a technology emerges, markets initially assign it a premium due to its novelty and the scale of its ambition. Close to 6% of the UK’s GDP