Pompliano says most crypto projects won’t survive and are dead.
Wall Street is absorbing crypto infrastructure, he said.
Many see Bitcoin, stablecoins, and tokenization as long-term winners.
Anthony Pompliano warned that “most of the crypto industry is dead and it’s never coming back,” arguing that speculative tokens, memecoins, and thousands of blockchain projects are unlikely to survive as Wall Street firms accelerate their push into the industry.
In a video posted to X on Thursday following the Consensus 2026 conference in Miami, the longtime Bitcoin advocate said the crypto market was entering a painful consolidation phase in which only a handful of sectors would emerge as long-term winners.
The remarks come as traditional financial institutions, including Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, and JPMorgan, expand their crypto offerings.
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Pompliano said the crypto industry had failed to undergo the normal “business cycle” that clears out weak companies and reallocates capital toward stronger ideas.
“In the crypto industry, there are millions of coins and thousands of blockchains,” he said in the video.
“Does anyone actually believe that millions of crypto coins are going to thrive in the future? I doubt it.”
He described many projects as “zombie coins and ghost chains,” arguing that a large portion of the market persists despite low user adoption and limited long-term utility.
Pompliano also said the industry’s culture had shifted dramatically from its early years, when Bitcoin supporters were driven by ideology rather than speculation.
“The industry used to be defined by hardcore missionaries,” he said. “Now the industry is littered with mercenaries.”
According to Pompliano, many participants are now focused primarily on short-term financial gains rather than advancing the original goals of decentralized finance.
The crypto industry is dying.
That is a good thing.
The resilient and valuable aspects of the industry need to compete on the biggest stage, not stay pigeon-holed in a boutique industry with declining capital and talent. pic.twitter.com/TlVJAG6zFz
Still, Pompliano argued that the industry shakeout was ultimately healthy because it would redirect capital and talent toward projects with real-world use cases.
“The clearing out of bad companies is almost as important as the thriving ones,” he said.
He also warned that crypto-native companies face growing pressure from legacy financial firms entering the sector with lower fees and larger customer bases.
Referencing Morgan Stanley’s plans to offer Bitcoin trading through E*Trade, Pompliano said traditional brokerages were rapidly absorbing crypto services into mainstream finance.
“At the end of the day, crypto is just going to become finance,” he said. “The things that try to stay crypto-only are going to be the things that end up dying.”
Wall Street and Institutional Finance Taking Over Crypto
Pompliano pushed back against criticism of venture capital firms and institutional investors, arguing they were instrumental in building the infrastructure that enabled Bitcoin adoption over the last decade.
“We would not have the Bitcoin infrastructure without venture capitalists,” he said.
He added that institutional firms were increasingly dominating key areas of the market, including Bitcoin ETFs, trading infrastructure and custody services.
Pompliano pointed to firms such as infrastructure provider Zero Hash as examples of how traditional finance is consolidating influence over crypto markets.
“What percentage of crypto trading volume do you think is going to end up in traditional brokerage venues or ETFs compared with crypto-native firms?” he said. “Probably a lot.”
At the same time, he noted that crypto-native firms such as Coinbase and Robinhood are increasingly expanding into equities, options and commodities trading, blurring the distinction between crypto platforms and traditional brokerages.
Bitcoin, Stablecoins and Tokenization Seen as Survivors
Despite his bearish outlook on much of the industry, Pompliano said several sectors were likely to survive and continue attracting capital.
“I personally believe there are four major areas that will accrue value moving forward: Bitcoin, stablecoins, infrastructure, tokenization,” he said.
Pompliano argued that Bitcoin remains the dominant institutional crypto asset because of its liquidity and growing acceptance among large financial firms.
He also identified stablecoins as one of the clearest real-world use cases for blockchain technology.
Infrastructure providers — including custody firms, trading rails and financial middleware companies — are also positioned to benefit as traditional banks integrate crypto services into existing financial systems, he said.
Meanwhile, tokenization refers to the process of representing traditional financial assets such as stocks or real estate.
Industry executives increasingly view tokenization as one of the largest long-term opportunities for digital assets because it could modernize settlement systems and reduce transaction costs.
Pompliano said projects focused on solving real financial problems were more likely to survive than speculative meme coin ecosystems.
“We need more people focused on building real things for real problems,” he said.
Kevin O’Leary Echoes Dead Crypto Theory
Pompliano’s comments echoed similar remarks from investor Kevin O’Leary at Consensus 2026, where the “Shark Tank” personality said most crypto tokens were unlikely to recover.
O’Leary said institutional investors had largely narrowed their focus to Bitcoin and Ethereum, abandoning much of the broader altcoin market.
“Along comes October, and all the poo-poo gets scraped off the table,” O’Leary said in a streamed interview at the conference.
Kevin O’Leary didn’t hold back at Consensus 2026 | Source: Coindesk.
“They got slaughtered, and they never came back, because institutions figured out they only need to own Bitcoin and Ethereum,” he added.
O’Leary said he had reduced his crypto portfolio from 27 positions to three primary holdings: Bitcoin, Ethereum and infrastructure-related investments.
He argued that the next phase of growth for blockchain technology would come through enterprise adoption rather than speculative token launches.
“Adoption into enterprise is the next big thing for blockchain,” O’Leary said.
Kurt Robson is a London-based reporter at CCN, specialising in the fast-moving worlds of crypto and emerging technology. He began his career covering local news in Cornwall after graduating from Falmouth University with First Class Honours in Journalism. There, he cut his teeth on everything from council meetings to missing swans.
He quickly rose through the ranks to become a frontline journalist at several of the UK’s leading national newspapers. Over the years, he has interviewed musicians and celebrities, reported from courtrooms and crime scenes, and secured multiple front-page exclusives.
Following the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kurt shifted his focus to technology journalism—just ahead of the AI boom. With a natural curiosity and a trained eye for emerging trends, he has found a new rhythm in reporting on innovation.
At CCN, Kurt's work focuses on the cutting edge of crypto, blockchain, AI, and the evolving digital world. Drawing on his background in people-first reporting and his deep interest in disruptive tech, Kurt delivers stories that are insightful, entertaining, and human-centric.
