While global crypto markets plunge and investors panic-sell, Silicon Valley legend and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan posted on X with a starkly different take: “I have never been more bullish on cryptocurrency.”
Rules Order Crumbles, Code Order Ascends
Balaji’s core thesis: we are in a historic order transition — the “rules-based order” is collapsing, while the “code-based order” is rising. He wrote: “So short-term price doesn’t matter. With the unraveling of international law, we need not just on-chain money but on-chain companies. Just as the post-war order fell apart, we need a post-internet order.”
Nations Decline, Networks Take Over
As author of The Network State, Balaji has long advocated for blockchain-based global distributed communities that eventually gain diplomatic recognition as new kinds of “states.” In this post, he expands on that vision: “Nations will decline, and networks will take over.” He concluded: “We need internet capitalism, we need internet democracy, we need internet privacy. So we need crypto.”
Contrarian Signal Amid Market Panic
Balaji’s remarks came as Bitcoin’s single-day realized loss hit a record $3.2 billion, starkly contrasting with market fear. Notably, in 2023 he bet $1 million that Bitcoin would hit $1 million within 90 days — he eventually conceded, but said the bet was meant to “sound the alarm” about the dollar’s collapse. This time, his message is clearer: ignore short-term price, watch the long-term trend — code replaces rules, networks replace nations.