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Why Lily Liu Is Both Right and Dangerously Wrong

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Crypto Breaking News

Solana Foundation President Lily Liu recently declared that blockchains should abandon their consumer ambitions and return to their “original purpose: finance.” Her dismissal of gaming and Web3 consumer narratives as “intellectually lazy” sparked immediate debate across an industry already reeling from plunging token prices and fading retail enthusiasm.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: Liu is simultaneously correct about blockchain’s current reality and catastrophically narrow in her vision for its future.

The Part She Gets Right

Liu isn’t wrong that finance remains blockchain’s most defensible moat. Tokenization, 24/7 settlement, and programmable money represent genuinely superior infrastructure compared to legacy rails. Traditional finance moves slowly not because it’s stupid, but because it’s encumbered by decades of regulatory frameworks, closed systems, and geographic silos.

Blockchain cuts through that like a hot knife through butter when the use case actually requires it.

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The problem with the “blockchain for everything” narrative wasn’t the ambition. It was the execution. The industry kept treating decentralization as a feature consumers would pay a premium for, rather than infrastructure they’d never think about. We built products where the blockchain was the selling point instead of the invisible rails enabling something genuinely better.

Gaming didn’t fail because it was the wrong vertical. It failed because teams shipped half-baked experiences and expected players to tolerate wallet friction, gas fees, and convoluted tokenomics just for the privilege of “true ownership.” Players don’t care about decentralization, they care about fun, fair economies, and actual utility for their digital assets.

Finance works because traders tolerate complexity for profit. That’s not vision. That’s just knowing your audience will put up with clunky UX if there’s money on the table.

Where She’s Dangerously Wrong

But here’s where Liu’s retreat becomes myopic: financialization of everything is the vision. It’s just not the version we’ve built yet.

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Every digital asset—from in-game items to social engagement, creative work, and reputation—should be ownable, tradable, and liquid. The mistake wasn’t trying to bring blockchain to gaming or consumer applications. The mistake was building extractive tokenomics that enriched founders and VCs while creating zero genuine value for users.

When you can truly own your digital identity across platforms, trade gaming assets in open markets, and capture value from your creative output without platform rent-seeking, that is revolutionary. We just haven’t built the infrastructure properly yet.

“Read, write, own” wasn’t intellectually lazy. Implementing it via ponzinomics and calling it innovation? That was lazy.

Dismissing consumer applications entirely because the first wave failed is like abandoning e-commerce in 1999 because Pets.com crashed. The thesis wasn’t wrong, the timing, technology, and business models were premature.

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The Real Recalibration

Liu’s pivot conveniently arrives as consumer crypto collapses and institutional money flows toward tokenized securities and stablecoins. It’s easy to call this “strategic refocusing.” It’s harder to admit it’s also damage control.

This narrative shift lets the industry quietly abandon metaverse partnerships and DePIN experiments without acknowledging capital destruction. When those projects shutter, it’ll be spun as “returning to core competencies” rather than “we built products nobody wanted.”

But there’s a deeper risk here: if blockchain leaders concede that the technology only works for finance, we’re admitting we can’t compete with Web2 on user experience. We’re retreating to the one domain where regulatory arbitrage and 24/7 markets create structural advantages traditional systems can’t easily replicate.

That’s not a vision. That’s a surrender dressed up as pragmatism.

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What Actually Needs to Happen

The industry doesn’t need to choose between finance and consumer applications. It needs to stop treating blockchain as the product and start treating it as invisible infrastructure that enables genuinely superior experiences.

Finance will remain the killer app for the next few years because the ROI on improved settlement rails is measurable and institutions are finally ready to move. But the long game isn’t replacing Visa, it’s building an internet where value, ownership, and identity are native primitives, not bolt-on features controlled by platforms.

That requires financial rails robust enough to handle trillions in assets and consumer experiences good enough that users never think about the blockchain underneath.

Liu’s right that we need to build real markets, not just slap tokens on existing apps and call it innovation. But retreating entirely from consumer applications because the first attempts failed isn’t strategic, it’s a failure of imagination.

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The technology that enables programmable money can also enable programmable ownership, reputation, and creative economies. We just have to build products people actually want instead of products that make us feel ideologically pure.

Blockchain’s purpose isn’t just finance. It’s building an internet where value flows as freely as information and that future is a hell of a lot bigger than better payment rails.

Risk & affiliate notice: Crypto assets are volatile and capital is at risk. This article may contain affiliate links. Read full disclosure

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Franklin Templeton launches crypto division with 250 Digital acquisition

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Franklin Templeton launches crypto division with 250 Digital acquisition

Wall Street asset management giant Franklin Templeton is launching a dedicated cryptocurrency division as it deepens its push into digital assets, anchored by a planned acquisition of crypto investment firm 250 Digital.

The new unit, called Franklin Crypto, will bring together the 250 Digital team and its liquid crypto strategies — previously managed by CoinFund — under one structure aimed at institutional investors, the firm said Wednesday.

Former CoinFund executive Christopher Perkins will lead the division, with Seth Ginns serving as chief investment officer alongside Franklin Templeton digital assets executive Tony Pecore. The group will report to Sandy Kaul, the firm’s head of innovation.

The move builds on Franklin Templeton’s existing digital asset business, which manages about $1.8 billion, and signals a shift toward offering more active crypto investment strategies alongside its current products.

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“This is an exciting addition for Franklin Templeton,” CEO Jenny Johnson said, adding that the deal strengthens the firm’s ability to deliver dedicated crypto expertise to clients globally.

The launch of Franklin Crypto reflects a broader trend among large asset managers that are moving beyond passive exposure, such as exchange-traded funds, toward building in-house capabilities.

Perkins said the effort is aimed at meeting that demand. “Crypto’s institutional moment has arrived,” he said, pointing to growing interest from large investors seeking structured exposure to digital assets.

The transaction also includes an experimental element: part of the consideration will be paid using BENJI tokens, linked to Franklin Templeton’s on-chain U.S. Government Money Fund. The fund uses blockchain infrastructure to process transactions and record ownership.

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That approach suggests early steps toward conducting mergers and acquisitions using tokenized assets, with settlement occurring more directly on blockchain rails.

The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, subject to approvals and other conditions. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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Avalanche (AVAX) gains 4% as index moves higher

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9am CoinDesk 20 Update for 2026-04-01: vertical

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.

The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 1968.28, up 1.0% (+20.29) since yesterday’s close.

Eighteen of 20 assets is trading higher.

9am CoinDesk 20 Update for 2026-04-01: vertical

Leaders: AVAX (+4.0%) and HBAR (+3.6%).

Laggards: BCH (-2.1%) and BNB (+0.0%).

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The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.

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Bitcoin Breaks 5-Month Losing Streak With $68K March Close: What’s Next?

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Cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin Price, Markets, BTC Markets, Price Analysis, Market Analysis

Bitcoin (BTC) closed March in green, ending the longest monthly losing streak since 2018. Data suggests that the coming months may prove to be profitable for BTC.

Key takeaways:

  • Bitcoin ended March 2% higher, marking the first green monthly close in six months.

  • A similar streak in 2018/2019 led to an over 316% BTC price rebound over five months.

  • Bitcoin price faces stiff resistance at $70,000-$72,000, where key trend lines converge.

Past multi-month downtrends were followed by 300% price gains

Historical price data from CoinGlass confirms Bitcoin printed its first green monthly candle in six months, closing March 2% higher after five straight months of losses.

“This is a massive dose of hopium,” analyst Ash Crypto said in an X post on Wednesday.

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The analyst was referring to a possible shift in momentum, which might lead to a sustained recovery, as seen in previous cycles.

Related: Crypto Fear & Greed Index stuck on ‘extreme fear,’ but is there a silver lining?

The last time this happened was in 2018/2019 when BTC closed February 2019 in green, after six consecutive red months, as shown in the figure below.

This led to a reversal with over 300% returns the following five months, as Bitcoin recovered from the 2018 bear market.

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“Last time BTC dumped 6 months in a row, it pumped the following 5 months in a row that came after!” trader Satoshi Flipper said in a Wednesday post on X.

Cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin Price, Markets, BTC Markets, Price Analysis, Market Analysis
Bitcoin monthly percentage returns. Source: CoinGlass

If history repeats itself, the reversal may continue in April, suggesting that BTC price may have bottomed at $60,000.

Bitcoin’s bullish monthly close is a ”catalyst for fresh inflows into early April,” Trader Caleb said, adding:

“April starts with momentum.”

Bitcoin has a well-established tendency for significant price swings in April.

Since 2013, April has been a green month for eight of the past 13 years, with average returns of about 12.2%

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However, Bitcoin also tends to move in the opposite direction to March in April, and this is true for nine out of the past 13 years. 

In recent years, Bitcoin dropped in April after closing March in green, three out of four times between 2021 and 2024. 

Therefore, while the end of past multi-month drawdowns suggests a rebound is due, data demonstrates that BTC price could also slide in April.

Watch these Bitcoin price levels next

Data from TradingView shows BTC price up 2.5% on the day to trade at $68,470 as the $69,000-$70,000 resistance remains in place.

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Analysts expect Bitcoin’s range-bound price action to continue for longer, with important price levels to look for in case of a breakout. 

These include the $70,000-$72,000 supply zone, coinciding with the 50-day simple moving average (SMA), the 50-day exponential moving average (EMA) and the 1w–1m cohort cost basis

This is also where investors acquired approximately 650,000 BTC, marking a potential point of sell pressure, according to the cost-basis distribution data from Glassnode.

Breaking above this level could see BTC/USD revisit the $76,000 range high and eventually the $80,000 psychological level.

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BTC/USD daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Zooming out, trader Sheldon Diedericks said Bitcoin could “push into resistance” at $83,000 on the monthly time frame, a key support level from April 2025. The 200-day EMA is also close to this area.

BTC/USD monthly chart. Source: X/Sheldon Diedericks

On the downside, the 200-week EMA at $68,300 and the 200-week SMA at $59,400 remain key levels to watch. Below that, the next major level is Bitcoin’s realized price around $54,000.

As Cointelegraph reported, Bitcoin’s bear market bottom could be formed once BTC price drops toward or below its realized price.