Wintermute EthCC Observations: DeFi Rushes to Vaults, Founders No Longer in a Hurry to Launch Tokens
- Core View: The EthCC conference reflects that the current crypto industry is shifting towards a more pragmatic, product and institutional application-focused construction phase. Market noise has decreased, VC investments have become more rational, and DeFi innovation is highly concentrated in areas like Vaults that can generate actual yields.
- Key Elements:
- VC investments have turned cautious, favoring later-stage seed round projects with product-market fit and traction, while pure conceptual investments have decreased.
- Early-stage founders generally prioritize building economically viable products over rushing to issue tokens.
- DeFi builders are highly focused on the Vault track, covering infrastructure, yield products, restaking, and strategy discoverers.
- New banking features (on/off-ramps, debit cards) are becoming standard services for DeFi projects, making them difficult to serve as a differentiator.
- On-chain forex, privacy DeFi, and prediction markets are a few emerging trends currently receiving substantial attention and progress.
- AI application exploration in the crypto space has cooled off, with most use cases falling back to trading bots, lacking breakthrough innovation.
Original Author: Wintermute Ventures
Original Compilation: Shenchao TechFlow
Introduction: Wintermute Ventures Investment Manager Joscha Kupferberg attended the EthCC conference in Cannes and brought back firsthand observations: VCs are more cautious but still investing, founders are generally not rushing to issue tokens but focusing on building products first, DeFi builders are collectively flocking to the Vault track, neobanking features are becoming standard rather than a differentiator, and the application of AI Agents in the crypto space has almost entirely retreated to trading bots.
@wmt_ventures tweeted:
What are crypto builders actually working on right now?
"Vaults are the new Perps." This was a phrase heard repeatedly at the EthCC conference in Cannes. The conference reflected a broader industry shift: less noise, more institutional faces, and founders quietly building rather than chasing release schedules. Our Investment Manager @joschakup spent an entire week immersed in these conversations. Here are his observations.
EthCC Vibe
Contrary to some pessimistic narratives, the overall atmosphere on-site was positive. A healthy mix of early-stage builders, VCs, and actively deploying family offices was present. The only noticeable shadow was layoffs—still a real and widespread occurrence across the industry.
How Crypto VCs Are Investing Now
VCs are more cautious but remain active. The focus has shifted towards later seed rounds and beyond, as there is traction and product-market fit to evaluate. The era of betting on moonshots purely based on vibes seems to be over.
Founders Are No Longer Chasing Token Launches
The vast majority of early-stage founders Joscha spoke with did not prioritize token issuance. The focus is on building an economically viable product first. The optionality of a token is a conversation for later—if at all.
Themes Worth Tracking
A few trends gaining momentum:
- On-chain foreign exchange is quietly becoming a serious topic.
- Privacy-focused DeFi is emerging as a legitimate track, with more projects exploring institutional-grade use cases.
- Prediction markets are gaining substantial traction, with increasing competition in liquidity infrastructure and incentive design.
Vaults Are the New Perps
DeFi builders are heads-down, increasingly focused on institutional use cases and RWA. If there was one unavoidable theme, it was Vaults. From Vault infrastructure and yield products to rehypothecation, strategy discoverers, and ratings, the entire track has highly converged on this category, closely followed by stablecoins and neobanks.
Neobanking Is No Longer a Differentiator
Many DeFi projects with significant TVL are integrating third-party service providers to offer neobanking features: on/off-ramps, cards, yield vaults. This is a logical move for user retention, but the logical corollary is that neobanking alone no longer constitutes differentiation.
AI Agents Have Almost Entirely Reverted to Trading Bots
Most AI Agent use cases in crypto seem to have done a 180-degree turn, reverting to trading bots. Joscha had hoped to bring back some new ideas, but there were none. This is currently the only area that hasn't surprised him.
