Bankless · Monday, September 7, 2026
Looking ahead, Austin Barack predicts the next crypto cycle will be defined by applications and money, with execution layer revenue diminishing in importance. He highlights Ethereum's potential as 'money' and emphasizes the growth of applications like Solana, which enables platforms like Pump, as key drivers of future crypto adoption and value.
“I think they're going to find the most enduring tokens be applications and money. And so that doesn't mean that Bitcoin is going anywhere. It also makes me incredibly excited about something like Zcash, which is serving like a different, a different type of user in many respects is the original ethos of what crypto was 10 plus years ago.”
“I think ETH is actually in a very interesting place to potentially be money depending on what happens with Bitcoin with quantum the amount of like concentrated ownership and risk related to Bitcoin ownership from strategy and other elements so it actually makes me more curious about like Ethereum from a money perspective than I've been in a very long time.”
“Solana is what's enabling POMP. It has the most spot activity on chain. They're right now going through this transition where it's incredibly... utilized, but they're not generating a ton of revenue because there's not like the MEV that it had back in the day. But I think it's one of the most compelling bets for crypto adoption.”