Is Crypto losing its identity?
Personal reflections after attending Paris Blockchain Week 2026 by Matteo Corti
Bocconi Students Blockchain Association5 min read·Just now--
Last week, representing the Bocconi Students Blockchain Association (BSBA) and the Blockchain Student Association Italy (BSAI), I had the opportunity to attend Paris Blockchain Week. The event is now in its seventh year and, as one might expect, brings together participants from a wide variety of backgrounds. This year’s theme was clear from the start: “The Bridge Between TradFi and Digital Assets,” and both the speakers and the audience perfectly embodied the topic at hand. In fact, representatives from the world’s largest financial institutions were in attendance, ranging from Société Générale to BlackRock, Bank of America, JPMorgan, and so on.
It was precisely by observing an audience so different, in composition and spirit, from the original vision of the crypto movement that I asked myself a question I believe is central to the future: are we witnessing the natural maturation of an industry, or the gradual erosion of its original identity?
To answer such a question, I believe it is necessary to retrace the history of this sector from its very beginnings.
In October 2008, in the midst of the global financial crisis, the Bitcoin white paper was published with a clear vision right from the first page: “What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party.”
The white paper did not merely describe a cryptographic protocol (which, as it turned out, would give rise to a new sector) but explicitly criticized the traditional financial model, based on the fiduciary intermediation of banks and institutions. Decentralization thus stood as a central foundational element: the architectural and ideological principle around which the entire protocol was built, and not merely a technical accessory. Decentralization was not intended to solve a problem of inefficiency, but rather to upend the power structure: the necessity of relying on third parties, subject to failure, censorship, or corruption, to validate transactions between individuals.
Moving forward quickly, with the rise of Ethereum as a platform for executing smart contracts and the explosion of ICOs, this spirit translated into a proliferation of projects that made decentralization their programmatic manifesto. Obviously, not all projects proved viable. There was no shortage of cases of speculation, fraud, and poorly constructed projects (from which the crypto world still has to defend itself); nevertheless, the ideological thread was recognizable and consistent with the original premises.
Among the most significant projects of that period, MakerDAO, launched in 2017, was perhaps the most mature example: a stablecoin (DAI, now USDS) issued and regulated entirely through smart contracts, without any central bank or private entity acting as a guarantor, but through on-chain collateralization mechanisms. At the same time, Golem sought to build a peer-to-peer distributed computing infrastructure, breaking the monopoly of large cloud providers. I also recall with enthusiasm the launch of Filecoin, with one of the largest ICOs in history, which aimed to replace the centralized servers of Amazon or Google with networks of global, incentivized nodes. At the same time, protocols like Bancor were redefining token exchange through automated market-making mechanisms, laying the groundwork for what would later become (with Uniswap, launched in 2018) the dominant model of decentralized finance. Finally, Aragon brought governance itself on-chain, enabling the creation of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) without a traditional legal structure. In short, at that time the market featured numerous active projects whose focus was not the technology itself, but rather its orientation. The goal was to restore to the individual a control that centralized systems had historically taken away.
Today, the landscape appears to have undergone a radical transformation, both in terms of quality and quantity. The number of active cryptocurrencies and tokens has grown exponentially, surpassing 10,000 in 2024. However, the dominant narrative emerging from major conferences, including PBW 2026, and capital flows has shifted profoundly.
The real-world asset (RWA) tokenization market, excluding stablecoins, has grown, according to RedStone Finance estimates published on June 25, 2025, from $5 billion in 2022 to over $24 billion, marking an 85% year-over-year expansion.
BlackRock launched its Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) on Ethereum in March 2024, while JPMorgan processed over $300 billion through tokenized collateral networks, according to statements by Tyrone Lobban, co-Head of Kinexys. Finally, according to CoinLaw estimates, the Total Value Locked in RWA projects reached approximately $65 billion in 2025, with institutional investors now accounting for 86% of participants in digital asset allocations. Beyond the scale of these projects, what deserves particular attention is their architectural nature. JPMorgan’s Kinexys is a permissioned blockchain: access is controlled and granted by the institution itself. BlackRock’s BUIDL is a tokenized fund, but it remains a fund managed by BlackRock. Institutional stablecoins, private distributed ledger payment systems, and debt tokenization programs are all projects in which blockchain technology is present, but decentralization, where it appears, is no longer the project’s founding principle.
The question I ask myself is whether this trajectory represents a natural maturation of the sector or a deviation from its original premises. Maturation would seem to be the most rational answer: Ethereum was born as a platform for decentralized applications, and that same platform simultaneously hosts Uniswap, one of the most decentralized exchange protocols in existence, and BlackRock’s tokenized funds. Regulation, such as MiCA in Europe, seeks to offer greater consumer protection by reducing the scope for fraud. Finally, the entry of institutions brings liquidity, credibility, and infrastructure that decentralized protocols alone could not have developed.
On the other hand, DeFi has not disappeared: according to TekRevol estimates published on March 31, 2026, the total value of decentralized loans has grown by 959% since 2022, reaching $19.1 billion across 20 protocols distributed across 12 blockchains. Protocols like Aave, Compound, and Uniswap continue to operate without KYC, without permission, and without intermediaries. However, their narrative prominence at major institutional conferences has become marginal. The debate has shifted toward convergence with traditional finance, risking a loss of the very core purpose for which this sector was born.
In conclusion, perhaps the crypto movement is not losing its identity, but is developing two parallel, often conflicting, strands. On one hand, the cypherpunk spirit, Bitcoin, DeFi, self-custody, permissionless protocols, which continues to exist and evolve; on the other, the institutional spirit, tokenization, compliance, and integration with TradFi.
Paris Blockchain Week 2026 was, primarily, a reflection of this second strand, and I believe it is right to pay close attention to it. After all, ignoring institutionalization would be ideologically pure but analytically naive. However, what concerns me is the gradual marginalization of the debate surrounding the first strand.
In fact, I believe that the value of this sector can be measured not only in the billions of tokens issued, but also, and above all, in the freer and more democratized access to financial systems.
References:
- RedStone Finance, Real-World Assets in Onchain Finance Report, in RedStone Blog, June 26, 2025. URL: https://blog.redstone.finance/2025/06/26/real-world-assets-in-onchain-finance-report/
- J.P. Morgan, Blockchain Asset Tokenization with Kinexys, in J.P. Morgan Insights, July 15, 2022. URL: https://www.jpmorgan.com/insights/payments/blockchain-digital-assets/blockchain-kinexys-asset-tokenization
- Barry Elad, Asset Tokenization Statistics 2026: Market Shifts Now, in CoinLaw, August 2025, last updated February 8, 2026. URL: https://coinlaw.io/asset-tokenization-statistics/
- Firzouq, Blockchain Statistics & Facts 2026, in TekRevol Blog, March 31, 2026. URL: https://www.tekrevol.com/blogs/blockchain-statistics-facts/
