Kyle Samani Says Web3 Is Dead, Defi and DePIN Remain

Kyle Samani says Web3 is dead and only DeFi and DePIN still have real traction.

Crypto has spent more than a decade trying to sell a bigger story: owned digital identities, user-controlled apps, and internet infrastructure rebuilt on blockchains. Now Kyle Samani, co-founder of Multicoin Capital, is saying the original Web3 pitch has effectively run out of road. His argument is blunt: the parts of crypto that still matter are DeFi and DePIN.

That claim lands in a market that has already sorted winners from wishful thinking. Ethereum still anchors much of decentralized finance, while tokenized infrastructure projects keep trying to prove that blockchains can coordinate real-world networks. The rest of Web3, especially consumer apps with tokens attached, has struggled to keep users around once the speculation fades.

Why Samani’s take hits a nerve

Samani is not making a casual hot take. As a long-time crypto investor, he has watched multiple cycles of hype, token launches, and empty promises. When someone like that says Web3 is dead, the message is less about one bad market and more about a category that failed to hold together.

The term Web3 once meant a user-owned internet where blockchains replaced platform control with open protocols. In practice, it became a catch-all for everything from NFT apps to token-gated social networks. That broadness was a problem. It sounded ambitious, but it made it hard to tell what actually worked.

What survived was narrower and easier to measure. DeFi has clear metrics: total value locked, trading volume, lending activity, and fees. DePIN has a different test: does the network coordinate devices, bandwidth, storage, or energy better than a centralized operator can?

• DeFi has a direct revenue model through trading and lending fees.
• DePIN links tokens to physical services, which gives it a harder proof point.
• Most consumer Web3 apps still struggle with retention after token incentives fade.
• Speculation can raise attention fast, but it does not keep products alive.

DeFi kept the clearest product fit

Ethereum still matters because it gave DeFi a settlement layer with enough liquidity, tooling, and developer gravity to become a real market. Lending, swapping, and on-chain derivatives are messy, expensive, and sometimes risky, but they solve a problem that users already understand: access to financial tools without a bank in the middle.

That is why DeFi kept attracting builders even after the last bull market cooled off. The category has real numbers to point to, and those numbers are easy to compare with traditional finance. A protocol that earns fees and retains users is easier to defend than an app whose main growth engine is an airdrop.

“DeFi is the future of finance,” CoinDesk quoted Kyle Samani in earlier coverage of his views on crypto markets.

The exact wording matters less than the broader point. Samani has been consistent about where he sees durable value: markets that create real economic activity rather than just narrative value. That is a hard standard, but it is also the one investors eventually use when the hype cycle ends.

DePIN has a harder job, but a clearer one

DePIN is the other survivor in Samani’s framing, and it makes sense why. If a token can help coordinate wireless coverage, storage, mapping, or sensor networks, the project is tied to something physical. That gives it a cleaner story than a consumer social app that asks people to care about wallets, gas fees, and governance tokens before they get any value.

DePIN also has a built-in test that Web3 often lacked: does the network do useful work in the real world? If the answer is yes, the token has a reason to exist beyond speculation. If the answer is no, the project risks becoming another short-lived experiment with a white paper and a Discord channel.

• Helium pushed wireless coordination as a crypto-native network model.
• Render tied tokens to GPU compute demand.
• Filecoin linked incentives to storage capacity.
• Each project points to a physical task, which is easier to explain than abstract Web3 ownership claims.

What this means for the rest of crypto

If Samani is right, the next phase of crypto will look less like a broad movement and more like a filter. Projects that deliver financial utility or coordinate physical infrastructure will keep getting attention. Everything else will have to justify itself without hiding behind the Web3 label.

That does not mean consumer crypto is finished. It means the bar is higher. Teams building wallets, social apps, identity tools, or creator platforms will need to show why users should care after the token excitement fades. The days when “Web3” alone could carry a pitch deck are over.

For investors, the takeaway is simple: follow usage, fees, and repeat behavior, not category labels. For builders, the question is even sharper: are you creating a product people return to, or just a token economy that needs constant promotion?

My read is that this debate will keep narrowing until the market stops using Web3 as a catch-all phrase. The projects that survive will be the ones that can answer one question with numbers, not slogans: what do people actually do here, and why do they keep coming back?

Related reading: Ethereum’s DeFi momentum in 2025 and why investors keep circling DePIN.