I’ve been in crypto personally since 2010 & professionally since 2016. Before that, I spent almost a decade in traditional finance. Crypto was supposed to be different. And in many ways, it is. But there’s one truth we need to start saying out loud: Crypto needs to grow up.🧵

This space has always been emotionally charged. For a generation priced out of housing, burdened by debt, and shut out of opportunity, crypto felt like a lifeline. A place where you didn’t need credentials. Just conviction. That energy built something powerful. But also fragile.

We created a culture where getting rich fast became the norm. Where rotating into the next airdrop meta replaced building for the long haul. Where ecosystems feel like 24/7 casinos and the real product is volatility itself.

We tell ourselves it’s fine. We're still early. But after 15 years, some of this isn’t early-stage experimentation. It’s immaturity we’ve learned to normalize. And it’s holding us back.

Too many projects still orbit around personalities. Too many communities punish dissent, and reward "alignment" over integrity. We haven’t replaced the old systems. We’ve rebranded them.

This isn’t about going full TradFi or dulling the edge that makes crypto interesting. Maturing doesn’t mean selling out. It means asking harder questions. Choosing slower paths. Building systems that can survive without us.

What maturity does look like: – Principles over personalities – Long-term design over short-term dopamine – Open critique over blind loyalty to a "team" Not glamorous. But necessary.

I’ve stuck around this long because I still believe. In the builders. In the tools. In the potential. But belief isn’t enough. It’s time for crypto to stop mimicking the world it set out to replace and start building something that can actually last.

Fewer shortcuts. More standards. Fewer showmen. More stewards. Fewer "narratives". More proof of work. It’s time to grow up.