The Final Bell Curve: What Does Crypto Look Like in 1 and 5 Years?

**Mike** (0:00)
Looking at the one-year vs. five-year framing, all roads to me point back to Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, you know, Robinhood at the moment, because they're distribution. But at the same time as on a short-term time horizon, I see all roads pointing towards the brokerages.
On the flip side, you're sort of starting to see the brokerage unbundled. Basically, I think my overall framework is that crypto as an industry gets smaller before it gets bigger. Hey, everyone, quick disclaimer before we get into today's episode. Nothing said on Bell Curve is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and the views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Our guests and I may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.
Hello, everyone. Welcome, welcome. Welcome back to another episode of Bell Curve. We got me, Myles, and Xavier. Gentlemen, how are we doing?

**Myles** (0:56)
Fantastic.

**Xavier** (0:57)
Good to see you both again.

**Myles** (0:59)
Yeah. It's been a little while. Are you in a wooden cabin up there, Nipah?
Where's your flannel and hat?

**Mike** (1:10)
It's too hot for a flannel and hat. It is still summer.

**Myles** (1:13)
It's nice.

**Mike** (1:15)
I could put it on for the aesthetic, but I don't think it would be very comfortable. But yeah, I'm up at this... You know what I feel... Are you guys familiar with Muskoka as an area?
You know, around...

**Xavier** (1:26)
Not Sam.

**Mike** (1:26)
Toronto.

**Myles** (1:27)
Heard of it. Sounds big.

**Mike** (1:29)
People would call it the Hamptons of the North.

**Myles** (1:33)
Slightly more down to earth.

**Mike** (1:35)
Actually, it's funny, because when I started coming up here, people do call this the Hamptons of the North, and I was always like, oh, Hamptons of the North. And then I recently went out to... I did a leadership off-site in New Buffalo, which is... You want to take a guess at how that got named, and it's because some guy from Buffalo, the old Buffalo, went out there and found it and named it. They're like, oh, yeah, it's the Hamptons of the Midwest. And I was like, oh, shit.
Maybe this is more common.

**Myles** (2:05)
Well, I mean, Michael, we did go to the Harvard of the South. Emory University, one of like seven Harvard of the South.

**Mike** (2:15)
That's not even the best dad joke in that lore. Emory was one of these schools, you went in and you go to the gift shop, and you could buy sweatshirt that said Emory football undefeated since 1905 because there's no football team.

**Xavier** (2:34)
Good stuff, good stuff.

**Mike** (2:36)
Guys, so for those listening, this is a little bit of a bittersweet episode. So it's sweet in the sense that we're gonna have a lot of fun, we're gonna be unpacking what's happening in crypto over the next one to five years, but it's better in the sense that this is unfortunately the last episode of Bell Curve. It's been an amazing run, no one that I would rather do it with than you guys and also the Framework guys for the first half of the show.
But it is a bear market, which means we're all doubling down. Everyone's got a day job. And also just from a Blockworks kind of sweet podcast standpoint, we have, I think enough shows to cover the space. But so guys, bittersweet, because it's been a ton of fun and I feel really proud of the episodes that we've produced in the past. It's been a ton of fun.

**Xavier** (3:26)
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks to you Mike for having us on. Of course, it was already a great show with the Framework guys before we even joined. So yeah, it's been a really nice podcast. I know I was a regular listener before I joined the show. I'm sure many others are also regular listeners. And you know, Bell Curve for so long was known as a great crypto native podcast. And I think maybe even right now, one of the very few last ones remaining. So yeah, unfortunately, it will be another one that yeah, potentially won't be around much longer in its current form. But yeah, I think it's been a terrific podcast throughout. So hats off to you, Mike, for building it.

**Mike** (4:02)
You know what they say, if you love something, you set it free.

**Myles** (4:07)
Yeah, I got that. It's been a lot of fun. Me and Mike, we started doing this in like the App Chain season, I think. Was it like two or three years ago?
I think a lot of those episodes have held up really well. And sure, like the App Chain thesis is not a bunch of Cosmos chains winning, but it's a bunch of Corp chains that obviously like this idea of control resonated with them.