Chamath Palihapitiya thinks Bitcoin could eventually be hacked and go to zero. Visa is working on making crypto balances easier to spend. And Andreessen Horowitz has taken “crypto” out of the name of its investment business—while saying it will keep investing in it.

That is a strange obituary.

The tension runs through the latest debate about whether crypto is finished. Some of the people who helped sell Silicon Valley on digital assets are questioning what comes next. Meanwhile, financial companies are finding reasons to put the technology to work.

Palihapitiya, the investor and All-In co-host, delivered the sharpest version during his recent appearance on Peter Diamandis’s Moonshots. After questioning Bitcoin’s potential buyer base and future security, he offered this assessment, reported by Benzinga:

“I just think it’s capped, and then I think eventually it gets hacked, and then it goes to zero.”

— Chamath Palihapitiya, founder and CEO, Social Capital, speaking on Moonshots

It is a prediction worth confronting. But “crypto is cooked” compresses several different arguments into one memorable line. Bitcoin’s investment case, the economics of speculative tokens and the usefulness of blockchain-based payments do not rise or fall together.

An industry cannot defend itself forever by pointing to its size. It has to show what customers would miss if its products disappeared.

That is where this story gets more interesting than another argument about the next Bitcoin rally. Crypto could lose some of its appeal as an investment label while becoming more useful inside the financial system.

a16z Changed the Name. Follow the Reason.

On October 22, Chris Dixon announced that a16z Crypto would become a16z Frontier, expanding the new fund’s scope to other emerging technologies. The announcement explicitly preserved its commitment to crypto investing.

The name change still tells us something. A dedicated crypto identity once helped define a new category. Dixon’s explanation now emphasizes how the boundaries between blockchain companies, fintech and traditional finance have blurred. He also sees opportunities in networks where AI agents coordinate and transact.

For founders, that raises a much better question than whether to put “Web3” in a pitch deck: what does your company make possible that customers will pay for?

A payment that arrives faster. An investment that becomes easier to use as collateral. A service that works across borders without making the customer understand everything happening underneath.

The industry has spent years asking when crypto will go mainstream. It may discover that going mainstream looks a lot like losing the label.

The OpenAI Claim Needs More Than a Missing Paper

Then there is the more dramatic possibility: what if AI breaks the cryptography holding the whole thing together?

OpenAI’s October 6 mathematics release has fueled that discussion. As of October 26, its repository lists 719 manuscripts grouped into 372 related families, with results at different stages of verification. OpenAI warns that some unformalized results could contain issues.

That is substantial research output. It is not public evidence that Bitcoin has been cracked. The suggestion that missing cryptography research reveals a secret breakthrough requires a leap the published materials do not support.

Before declaring defeat, we need to know what was broken. A stolen password, a vulnerable wallet and a way to defeat the mathematics authorizing Bitcoin transactions are very different problems.

The serious response is to prepare for stronger attacks and systems that may need upgrading. NIST has already published post-quantum cryptography standards. Bitcoin’s BIP 360 proposal addresses a particular quantum exposure, although a proposal is not a completed upgrade. AI and quantum computing also present distinct technical threats.

And if a fundamental cryptographic weakness were discovered, rebranding a business or switching from Bitcoin to stablecoins would not automatically fix it. Any system using the affected protection would need a technical response.

The strongest answer to crypto’s critics is a product people keep using after the excitement wears off. The announcements at Money20/20 USA show where companies are placing those bets.

1. Stablecoins That Get People Paid

Nobody waiting on an overseas payment needs crypto to win a branding argument. They need their money to arrive, with reasonable fees and a straightforward way to spend it.

Thunes and Coinbase’s announced partnership targets supplier payments, international remittances and gig-worker payouts by connecting stablecoin infrastructure with domestic payment networks. The same shift is visible in JPMorgan, Visa and Polygon’s push into business payments, where digital money is being fitted into the way companies already operate.

That is the durable opportunity: solve a recurring problem well enough that customers come back. A business paying its overseas team can value that service through a bull market, a bear market or a week when everyone on a podcast has decided crypto is finished.

2. Tokenized Stocks and Real Estate

The bigger opportunity reaches into assets people already understand: company shares, rental homes and commercial buildings. You do not need to believe in the next meme coin to want exposure to a business or a property collecting rent.

Tokenized stocks can bring equity exposure into digital-asset apps, with smaller purchases and extended trading hours. Kraken’s xStocks, for example, advertises entry from $1 and 24/5 trading for eligible customers. xStocks do not confer ownership of the underlying company. Rights vary across products—a question explored in our coverage of Broadcom, Verizon and CoreWeave’s objections to tokenized shares.

Real estate makes the opportunity tangible. As our Tokenized Real Estate and Bitcoin-Backed Mortgages: A U.S. Guide explains, platforms such as Lofty let investors buy shares in a property-owning LLC and receive rental income without purchasing an entire building.

Lofty reports more than $100 million invested and $5.2 million in rent paid, with shares often priced around $50 or less. Smaller entry points can widen participation, although reselling still depends on available buyers and pricing.

For institutions, the opportunity includes putting investments to work as collateral, as our JPMorgan and BNY coverage shows. Across stocks, property and securities, the lasting proposition is easier access and more useful ownership—with rights and exit routes that hold up beyond the sales pitch.

3. Crypto You Don’t Have to Think About

Mainstream adoption could look surprisingly ordinary: a banking app, a familiar checkout, money moving in the background.

SoFi has launched SOFIE, a tokenized bank deposit that customers can convert into its separate SoFiUSD stablecoin. Mesh’s Visa partnership aims to make crypto and stablecoin balances spendable across Visa’s acceptance network.

These are different products with different protections, and announced access still has to become actual usage. But the direction is compelling: fewer technical chores for the customer. HSBC offers another example: its RedCoin rollout through PayMe starts with a payments app customers already know.

The next wave of users may care very little about which blockchain sits underneath their payment. That could be a sign the product is working.

4. Security Becomes the Business

Every new way to move money creates demand for someone to protect it.

Mastercard’s Stablecoin Security announcement focuses on assessing transaction risk before funds move. Custody, fraud detection, compliance and recovery services address needs that remain long after a token launch stops trending. There is a human side, too: World’s move into banking targets AI impersonation and helps connect agents to verified people.

The AI debate makes this work more consequential. An October 9 a16z discussion with Stanford cryptographer Dan Boneh and a16z researchers examines the risks and systems that can change cryptographic methods.

The opportunity is to build financial products that can withstand new threats and adapt when necessary. Monitoring suspicious payments helps; it cannot repair broken cryptography by itself.

5. AI Agents That Need Spending Money

An AI agent that finds a flight still needs a way to pay for it. Software buying data, computing power or other services faces the same practical question.

Programmable money could have a role here. But crypto will have to earn the business. Evervault’s Browser Tokens already let agents make card purchases without seeing the underlying card number. Giving an agent money also means setting limits: AEREDIUM’s new controls let owners define permitted actions and send exceptions for human review.

Agent payments are still taking shape. AI creates potential new customers for payments; it does not decide which payment system wins. Acceptance, cost, spending permissions and reliability will matter more than the label.

The Industry Can Survive Without Every Token Winning

There is an uncomfortable possibility for investors inside this otherwise promising story: blockchain adoption can succeed while many crypto investments fail.

A payment company can win customers. A custodian can earn fees. A bank can improve how it moves money. None of those outcomes automatically gives an unrelated token holder a claim on the value created.

That is why a16z’s wording matters. Its announcement leaves room for an evolving industry:

“This is an expansion: we will continue to invest in crypto and related ventures and advocate for sensible crypto regulation.”

— Chris Dixon, managing partner, a16z Frontier

For founders, the pivot is toward a clearer customer, a useful product and a reason to keep paying. For investors, the work is tracing where revenue lands and what their investment actually entitles them to.

None of this settles Bitcoin’s future. It does make an obituary for the entire industry look premature.

Crypto’s next phase may be less interested in convincing everyone to become a crypto person. It may be about building something they use without needing to become one.

Opinion by Eric Spivak, managing editor of Blockster. The views are the author’s own.

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