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Our VP of Product Gagan recently highlighted an essay by Jesse Walden (Founder & GP at Variant) that reframes a core question in crypto:

Is this industry about finance — or something bigger?

The answer: it’s about finance.
 But finance itself is expanding into infrastructure.

Great read for the community that was spotlighted by our VP of Product @gaganmac "There has been a lot of debate about whether crypto is for finance, or more than that. My view is that, yes, crypto is for finance. But also, finance is becoming much more expansive..." https://t.co/Mc9UhtomXp— Sam | Circle and Arc Community (@samconnerone) February 14, 2026




Sam | Circle and Arc Community on Twitter / X

Crypto isn’t becoming “more than finance.”


 Finance itself is becoming infrastructure.

What scaled over the past few years wasn’t universal ownership.
 It was participation.

You can increasingly “invest in what you know.” Memes, games, trends, communities — all priced, all participatory.

Now layer in AI. Markets don’t just serve humans. They become machine-readable signals. Agents can consume them. Act on them. Create new ones.

Finance stops being a vertical.
It becomes a horizontal substrate embedded into software.

If markets are becoming APIs…
 What are you building on top of them?

Curious how you’re thinking about this shift.

Towards a Billion Traders

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