There are a bunch of different archetypes of users within crypto. In 2020 we had the notion of advanced traders, institutions and retail, but in 2025 the groups are much more diverse, often generational, and have very different motivations for using platforms. One problems with blockchains is that it’s quite hard to know who your users are because solid segments of them like to stay anonymous.
One of the things that isn’t being talked about is that the cross-chain culture differences aren’t just about ideology, they’re generational both across age and also class of adoption in crypto.
The way crypto cycles largely depends on the early adopters for a new meta. In 2014 it was bitcoin, 2017 it was ICOs, in 2021 it was NFTs, and in 2025 it’s memes. The thing that’s less transparent is that the early adopters for these metas are different. The people who were around in 2014 were weird by normal society standards. The first time I really spent time around bitcoin people was at Defcon in 2014, these were Gen X computer security people - really niche early adopters in tech - that were using bitcoin for speculation.
The 2017 and 2021 waves were more mainstream, mostly built on Ethereum, and driven by a younger generation (millennials) who were idealists about equalizing monopolistic power structures in companies. They thought new financial rails would allow them to do this and since they’ve been mission-driven to get it done. Largely this mission has failed, and the burn out has been spectacular (both in the price of ETH and projects).
The generation adopting crypto in 2025 is different. They’re onchain native, live on twitter and socials, and aren’t sold on any promise. They’re in it for fun and profit. The goal was never to build the next big social app or uber for blockchain instead they just want to have fun with their friends. They think memes are funny (irony of WIF being worth 1b) and love to trade and speculate. You’ll almost never meet these people in real life because right now they’re either in college or lower income. They’re extremely internet native, stay low profile on the internet while still having fun, and likely have no reason to go through KYC of the larger platforms.
The thing about early adopters is they’re the tip of the iceberg. They’re bringing in older crypto traders who are open to their ideas, and creating an ecosystem that’s a lot of fun. We recently did an analysis of traders on solana, and while the average trader loses money, the average active trader makes money. These zoomers are the new day traders of gen z, and I’m excited to see where this wave of adoption goes
