The much anticipated shakeout of the crypto market has finally arrived thanks to the breaking of the buck of two key stablecoins, USD Terra and USD Tether, that have long provided a vital “hard currency” funding pathway to the crypto economy.

Izabella Kaminska is the former editor of FT Alphaville

It’s worth remembering too that the dot-com craze was largely financed by the capacity of entrepreneurs to print their own money in an accommodating market. Rather than issuing cryptocoins, they floated company stock on public exchanges or paid out salaries in equity options. The end effect, however, was largely the same.

The NFT craze was very likely representative of the peak of the speculative crypto mania — not least because the legal and regulatory environment was so far behind the market’s capacity to make good on the promises it was making.

Now is the time to assess the market from the perspective of utility. In the current environment, it is possible that any crypto that can help build bridges with enemies, protect privacy, better allocate resources to those in need or generate energy savings will prove successful in the long run. But expect a very rough ride in the interim.