Empire · Blockworks

How To Fix Crypto's Token Problem | Weekly Roundup

March 13, 2026·1 hr 8 min·5 clips

One host argues the best crypto protocols succeed because they operate as dictatorships, not DAOs, citing Hyperliquid as proof.

Token design is treated like a real structural problem, not a vibes problem. The cold open compares fast-moving protocol leadership to person-at-the-top control, with Hyperliquid as the clean example. Then the room gets loose for a minute. Rob's haircut becomes the joke, but the conversation lands back on the same uncomfortable question: what kind of token is this, and why should anyone hold it? The hosts do a useful thing here. They stop treating crypto as one blob. An L1, an L2, infrastructure, and an application all make different claims on value, so the token question changes depending on what is underneath it. Disclosure is where the pressure starts. On-chain transparency should make the mechanism easier to read, but for application tokens it can still look performative if holders cannot see how value comes back to them. That is where Aave becomes the test case. One path says some DeFi apps may eventually look better as private or equity-like businesses. The other says Aave could become a money-market layer for the world precisely because it stays permissionless. That comparison matters. Aave is being weighed against a neobank, but also against the weird advantage of code that can operate across jurisdictions. If fees can reach holders through code, the protocol may have a kind of market reach that a private company would struggle to keep. The hosts are not blindly bullish, though. They expect infrastructure tokens and DeFi application tokens to split over time, with L1s unlikely to go private and apps facing a harder token-to-equity question. Even the prediction market joke loops back to the same trade: which tokens become equity, which stay protocols, and which never solved value return in the first place.

As heard by us

A clear look at when a crypto token is structure, and when it is just packaging.

The discussion keeps circling a clean question: when does a crypto token do real work, and when is it mostly packaging. It is at its best when it separates the L1, L2, and infrastructure layer from the application layer, then asks what the token is for, how it should serve that…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If token design matters to you, this one gets into the part most shows skate past.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Empire