So total cryptocoin market cap just hit $1.5T today. But have we earned it?

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So total cryptocoin market cap just hit $1.5T today. But have we *earned* it?

1.4B people globally are unbanked. Even in the US, it's 4.5%. Study by the Fed itself found that high-income individuals treat crypto as investment, but poorer use for transactions. 60% of those using it for txs earn less than $50,000, and 13% don't have a bank account! twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/940744820406013954

Venezuela ranks 40th in the Chainalysis Crypto Adoption Index. Stablecoins are a lifeline against crippling inflation. Similar to Argentina, stablecoin purchases soar as their national currency plummets - a sign of widespread adoption of crypto. twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/940745762736132096

It's not just inflation, but crypto is also used to resist the oppressive regimes. During Covid, crypto was used to direct aid to doctors and nurses in Venezuela without interference from the corrupt regime. And Ukraine raised $225M in crypto donations this year. twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/940744893428674560

TVL in DeFi stands at $47B! DEXes are now challenging CEXes, Maker, Avalanche & others are bringing RWAs onchain. And censorship-resistant stablecoins like LUSD has $713M USD locked in its smart contracts. A big win for crypto! twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/940745607047548928

Uniswap v3 alone has 35k weekly users (@DappRadar data). And non-speculative decentralized social apps are also growing in adoption. @farcaster_xyz and @LensProtocol have thousands of daily users and numbers are growing. We now have real dApps to use. twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/940745220706017280

The story of crypto for micropayments has faded since 2017, but it still matters. With L2 solutions and low-gas fee blockchains like Solana gaining popularity, micropayments could soon gain more traction. Perhaps they'll see more adoption with AI for machine-to-machine txs. twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/940746178781528064

Five years have passed since Vitalik posted those key questions. The total crypto market cap has grown by 300% from $0.5T to $1.5T today. So, are those innovations enough to say that we *earned* it? I really think we do. twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/940746391256678400