From hype to help: Making crypto work for real people

Prof. Ilan Alon argues that crypto's technology is advanced but fails everyday users, and he calls for builders to focus on simple, accessible financial tools. He cites more than 2.7 million Nigerians holding over $198 million in crypto who still cannot use it for basic purchases like ChatGPT subscriptions. He also points to a Dune Analytics report finding that high-quality users are concentrated in protocol-specific ecosystems such as Marinade Finance on Solana, and he proposes measuring success by metrics like Cost Per Wallet, which Polygon is tracking with Addressable.