Crypto’s infrastructure era is over. The apps era is here.
At EthCC, @shaaa256 and I discussed insights from testing 100+ crypto apps over a year on Apps No Entrees. The conclusion? It's a great time to build apps.
Here are the 3 catalysts enabling this — and 3 app archetypes to guide you if you’ve been eager to build but unsure where to start.👇
~~ Recap by @davewardonline ~~
— Catalysts Enabling the App Renaissance
⚙️ Infrastructure Maturity — We’re not at Web2 ease yet, but close. Account abstraction, embedded wallets, and native auth make apps seamless. Solana and Base make fast, cheap transactions the default, with dev kits that reduce infra headaches.
🤡 Memes as Design Input — Memecoins, lacking traditional value drivers like utility or revenue, highlight that collective identity drives value in crypto. Memes serve as design primitives, showing that strong group narratives and shared rituals retain users.
They create a 24/7 onchain activity loop, constant swapping, posting, tracking, providing builders with an always-online user base.
📲 Mobile-First Adoption — 63% of activity now comes from mobile devices. When crypto lives in your pocket rather than your desktop, it becomes part of daily life rather than a separate activity.
— Three Winning App Archetypes
Building on these catalysts, we identified three successful archetypes for apps that retain users over months rather than minutes.
1️⃣ Apps Built Uniquely for Memes — By nature, memecoins prove quite overwhelming: high-noise environments that exhaust as much as they excite. One archetype of apps that we’ve seen not only gain, but retain users, are those that look to calm this chaos with tools that remove noise, loss, or degeneracy.
→ @AxiomExchange is a unified terminal bundling wallets, Twitter feeds, token data, and discovery — with integrated Hyperliquid perps, it’s frictionless and complete.
→ @purityfinance lets users batch-close Solana token accounts, reclaiming SOL from inactive wallets. @burstdotmeme, its new tool, curates token baskets around trends.
→ @lemondropfi adds a small Bitcoin buy to every meme swap — turning degeneracy into DCA.
2️⃣ Apps Unlocking New Speculation Formats — Crypto apps often add speculative elements unthinkingly, leading to over-financialization that tires users. Fair-launched memes, perpetuals, and tokenized social assets like @friendtech shares can quickly lose steam.
Yet, there remains a strong interest in new speculative formats. Prediction markets navigate this balance well, offering engaging rather than exhausting experiences.
→ @Polymarket makes speculation feel smart. Instead of buying “Trump” tokens, you directly bet on outcomes — like who’ll win the election. That exposure makes it engaging.
→ @PonderOnBase, a @farcaster_xyz app, asks daily questions like “What’s the best primary color?” Users bet what others will say, for small stakes. It feels more like a social game than finance.
3️⃣ Apps Making Crypto Feel Multiplayer — Crypto often feels hyper-individualistic and competitive, especially this cycle. This contradicts its initial promise of community. Enter sticky apps that make crypto truly multiplayer, not just a zero-sum game.
→ @cryptothegame_ brings Survivor onchain. Players pay 0.1 ETH to join tribes and complete daily challenges. It’s social, not just technical.
→ @pvp_dot_trade lets Telegram groups long or short via Hyperliquid. Simple commands open trades, copy friends, or counter them. Public trades increase transparency — making players more likely to share, not extract.
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Infra’s ready. Patterns are clear. Winning apps calm chaos, create new ways to speculate, or make crypto social. The models exist. The tools are ready. Your turn.
Reach out with questions (@davewardonline on Twitter or @robinson on FC) or if you'd like to be an early tester.