Market Bottom and the AI Catalyst
TREE NEWS reports: Bybit CEO Ben Zhou believes the crypto market has already bottomed and is trending toward recovery, even as retail enthusiasm cools by roughly 30%. In his view, artificial intelligence could serve as the next major catalyst for the industry — not as a passing narrative, but as a structural shift in how crypto is used.
AI Agents Will Run on Crypto Rails
Zhou’s core thesis is that AI agents will operate with money as their underlying layer, enabling automated trading and payments. In this model, crypto becomes the foundational financial infrastructure for AI — a settlement and value-transfer layer that machines can use natively, without the friction of traditional banking hours, borders, or intermediaries.
This framing matters because it reframes crypto’s addressable market. If autonomous agents transact continuously, they will need programmable, permissionless money. Stablecoins, already optimized for payments, are the natural fit, while blockchain networks provide the auditability and composability that agent-to-agent commerce requires.
RWA: TradFi’s Defensive and Offensive Play
On real-world assets, Zhou points to tokenization as a way to bring traditional financial assets on-chain and distribute them globally. Banks are moving in for two reasons: defensiveness against disintermediation, and fear of missing a structural trend. Tokenized treasuries, funds, and credit instruments let institutions reach new pools of liquidity while retaining compliance controls.
The convergence is not one-directional. DeFi protocols gain access to yield-bearing, regulated collateral; TradFi gains 24/7 settlement and fractional ownership. The friction point remains regulatory clarity, but the direction of travel is clear.
The 2030 Outlook
Looking toward 2030, Zhou expects crypto to erode geographic barriers and expand global access to assets. Bitcoin, he argues, will increasingly function as a store of value despite short-term volatility, while stablecoins dominate payments. His closing message is pragmatic: it is never too late to participate.
Key Implications
- Retail cooling, institutional warming: A 30% drop in retail enthusiasm may signal a healthier, less reflexive market.
- AI as demand driver: Agentic commerce could create persistent, machine-native demand for stablecoins and on-chain settlement.
- RWA as the bridge: Tokenization is the most credible path for TradFi-DeFi convergence, with banks now participating rather than observing.
- Bitcoin vs. stablecoins: A functional split is emerging — BTC for value storage, stablecoins for transactions.
The next phase of crypto may be less about speculation and more about becoming the quiet plumbing for both AI and global finance.
