Towards the B2B2C era: The competitive axis of crypto applications has changed

In 2025, the crypto industry is quietly reaching a turning point. The focus is no longer on the applications themselves as the center of competition; instead, the ability to reach users has become the decisive factor.

The Ceiling of Technological Evolution Has Been Seen

Over the past decade, the crypto ecosystem has poured enormous resources into technological optimization. Developing more efficient automated market maker (AMM) algorithms, designing innovative settlement mechanisms, building customized consensus protocols—these efforts have certainly advanced the industry.

However, clear limitations are now surfacing. Cost reductions in oracle data, slight increases in lending interest rates, improvements in exchange price accuracy—these technical enhancements are completely imperceptible to the average user. What users truly want is a simple and reliable interface.

Why Applications Are Becoming Infrastructure

Industry-focused projects like Polymarket, Hyperliquid, and Fluid have recently quietly shifted their strategies. Moving away from efforts to adapt new users to complex on-chain processes, they are now prioritizing B2B collaborations.

The reasons are clear:

• It’s unrealistic to expect 25 million new users to adapt to wallet plugin downloads, private key management, gas fee preparations, and cross-chain asset transfers.

• On the other hand, adding “yield features” to platforms like Robinhood and Coinbase, and channeling existing user assets into their protocols—this is feasible.

The era of integration and cooperation winning out, distribution channels prevailing, and frontends dominating has arrived. Applications are gradually becoming mere “traffic pipes.”

The Future Shown by Coinbase

A representative example is Coinbase. Users can borrow USDC against cbBTC on the platform, and this transaction automatically flows into the Morpho lending market on the Base chain.

Interestingly, despite Aave and Fluid offering better interest rates for stablecoin loans collateralized by cbBTC than Morpho, Morpho still dominates the market. The reason is simple: Coinbase users are willing to pay extra costs for “visible convenience.”

Market makers play a crucial role here. Within integrated platforms, efficient market-making functions ensure a seamless liquidity experience for users, creating a competitive advantage.

Reorganization of Industry Structure

However, not all applications will fall into invisible infrastructure. Some projects aim to protect their B2C businesses.

But they will need a thorough transformation:

• Redefine core priorities
• Rebuild revenue logic
• Establish new competitive barriers
• Rethink user acquisition strategies fundamentally

In other words, it’s essential to thoroughly question “what is the core path for users to enter the crypto world.”

The Reversal of Value Distribution

This does not mean infrastructure-based applications will lose value. Instead, front-end platforms that directly control user traffic will hold a larger share of value.

The future competitive barrier will be built on distribution capability, not liquidity or crypto-native UX. The industry’s shift from technological to distribution structures marks the official arrival of a turning point.