ETHDenver Conference Observations: The Market Isn't as Bad as It Seems
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ETHDenver Conference Observations: The Market Isn't as Bad as It Seems
People who once prioritized trends and narratives are now pushing projects to improve revenue and expenses.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Mason Nystrom, Partner at Pentera
Translation: Felix, PANews
ETHDenver 2025 took place from February 27 to March 2 at the National Western Complex in Denver, Colorado. After a week of conversations with builders and investors, Mason Nystrom, partner at Pentera, shared some reflections on key takeaways from the event via a post on X. Below are the details.
The market isn’t as bad as it seems
Sentiment on CT (Crypto Twitter) is bearish, but not representative. Memecoin speculators are frustrated, and the general investor consensus leans short-term bearish. This is not financial advice—investors can be wrong too.
However, everyone should recognize the current reality: regulatory sentiment is turning positive, legitimate stablecoins are growing, and more RWA and TradFi activity is moving on-chain. In the long term, people remain excited and optimistic about the market landscape.
Yet, the next catalyst remains unknown. Keep moving forward.
What are people building? What are investors seeing?
AI — Many builders remain enthusiastic about AI’s impact, particularly around Agentic AI and DeFAI. However, there's significant market "noise," making it hard to identify high-quality projects.
DePIN / Robotics — Related to AI, yet distinct enough. Numerous companies are building hardware or data collection networks for robotics, and DePIN appears to be capturing this narrative. Energy-focused DePIN continues to draw attention, with room for new canonical projects to emerge.
DeFi — A large number of DeFi applications are still being built. More diverse lending protocols, new stablecoins, Uni Hooks, and additional DeFi interfaces are emerging. PayFi and DeFAI also overlap in certain areas.
zkTLS — Offers real use cases, but what matters most is product launch and commercialization, not just technical implementation.
Stablecoins — Though less discussed on CT, every investor is watching and investing in this space, mostly through equity deals, which explains the low visibility. Many businesses will be built around stablecoin market opportunities.
Three dragons: Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana
Bitcoin: Numerous Bitcoin L2s are即将 launching and will compete for BTC deposits. Yield on Bitcoin will rise. Bitcoin lending will improve. Bitcoin is no longer a "pet rock."
Ethereum: Setting aside price sentiment, many builders continue to focus on building on Ethereum. There remains optimism around high-throughput ETH chains. Base remains foundational. FlashBlocks™ is coming soon and was heavily promoted at the conference. Unichain is overlooked by many. More chains are on the way.
Solana: Despite being ETHDenver, there were many Solana events, founders, and side meetings. Even after the memecoin market correction, many remain excited about Solana. The DePIN narrative continues to grow on Solana. More SVM chains are launching, meaning interoperability "ducks" between SVM chains will be needed.
On venture capital
For many investors, pre-seed and seed-stage investments feel slower in terms of returns. High valuation expectations for public-market projects have led some funds to stay on the sidelines. Most investments are concentrated in liquidity and Series A rounds. Additionally, the Series B funding environment seems better than it was six months ago. Note that this analysis is based solely on market sentiment and anecdotal input, not data.
Token performance for some projects has been poor during the recent market correction, leading to a recalibration of valuation mindsets. As predictable as clockwork, those who once prioritized trends and narratives are now pushing portfolio companies to focus on revenue and fee generation. Building conviction matters more than ever.
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