Lao Bai: Crypto has won, but "Crypto VC" is fading; Robinhood is the endgame for exchanges.

From stablecoins and perps to RWAs, crypto is transitioning from a standalone industry into financial infrastructure.

Written by: 168X

In August 2026, Crypto is at an industry bottom: a deep bear market prevails. Exchanges like BitMEX and BitMart announce they are halting trading operations. Previous cycle star products such as Zapper and Fantasy Top shut down one after another. News of hacks continues to hit DEXs and DeFi protocols. More critically, talent and capital are flowing en masse into AI, and primary market VCs are liquidating positions. At this moment, 168X invites Lao Bai (@Wuhuoqiu) to discuss why Crypto may have technically "won," yet everyone feels like they are losing? Where are we now, and what opportunities remain for the next cycle?

Lao Bai has ten years of experience in network engineering. He entered the crypto space in 2017 to buy Bytom. He later worked in research and investment roles at Amber, ABCDE, and OKX Ventures. His current research scope spans AI, semiconductors, and the tokenization of traditional finance. He has narrowed his focus within crypto to tracks that still hold clear Product-Market Fit (PMF): stablecoins, perpetual contracts, RWAs, and prediction markets. In this nearly two-hour conversation, Lao Bai makes a series of sharp judgments: issuing tokens is essentially creating debt, not raising capital; the Crypto VC species will disappear; and the ceiling for prediction markets is far below that of Perps. He believes the era of treating blockchain as a hammer, where everything looks like a nail, has ended. The two strongest inventions in this track are not new L1s, but stablecoins and perpetual contracts. And Robinhood is the ultimate form of all future exchanges.