Analysis of the Top 9 Crypto Sectors

Most crypto experts are chasing the legendary 1000x, yet only a few truly understand where to look. Early Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin were the cryptocurrencies that gave birth to entire sectors. This article presents a structural analysis of the key segments of the crypto industry to identify the next global trend.

Bitcoin

Total Market Cap: $1.8T

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency built on blockchain technology, enabling users to transact directly without intermediaries such as banks or governments. It was originally designed as a payment method but eventually gained recognition as a store of value.

An interesting fact: at its ATH, Bitcoin surpassed a $2.5 trillion market capitalization despite having no internal economy, no built-in deflation, no utility, and no environmentally sustainable mining. It's hard to imagine how much further Bitcoin could have gone if these fundamental limitations had been removed.

What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust. — Satoshi Nakamoto

Layer 1

ETH, SOL, TRX, ADA, ZEC

Total Market Cap: $600B

L1 is the foundational blockchain layer — an independent network that provides its own consensus, security, and transaction finality. An L1 has its own validators or miners, its own native token, and its own set of rules.

An interesting fact: in 2024, Ethereum generated $2.4 billion in fees with a market capitalization of around $340 billion. The Market Cap / annual fees ratio is approximately 135–140×. For comparison, the major online gambling holding Flutter Entertainment earned $14.05 billion in 2024 with a market cap of about $34 billion, giving it a P/S (Price-to-Sales) multiple of roughly 2.4×. Even with significantly lower "income," Ethereum trades at a disproportionately higher multiple — making it clear that Ethereum appears substantially overvalued under current market conditions.

The goal of Ethereum is to be a platform for building decentralized applications. — Vitalik Buterin

Layer 2

ARB, OP, STRK, ZC

Total Market Cap: $15B

L2 is a layer built on top of an L1 that scales it while inheriting its security.

An interesting fact: if L1s had been properly designed from the start, L2s wouldn't be necessary at all.

Zero-Knowledge proofs are a quantum leap in cryptography. They change the very structure of trust on the internet. — Alex Gluchowski, co-founder of Matter Labs

Stablecoin

USDT, USDC, DAI, USDE

Total Market Cap: $300B

A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to a stable asset, such as a fiat currency (for example, the US dollar or the euro).

An interesting fact: The crypto industry was born as a protest against the fiat-credit system with its main flaws — rising inflation and growing government debt. Yet most stablecoins are backed by government bonds tied to that same high government debt.

Blockchain is the 'Internet of Value' and the 'Internet of Trust,' because everything becomes trustless. It's a large distributed ledger. — Brock Pierce, co-founder of Tether

Exchange CeFi and DeFi Tokens

BNB, OKB, BGB, UNI, CAKE, JUP

Total Market Cap: $250B

Exchange tokens are the native assets of crypto exchanges, used for trading fee discounts, access to bonuses, and participation in ecosystem products.

An interesting fact: Exchanges are the most profitable businesses in the crypto industry, and their tokens typically include "buyback and burn" mechanisms, which directly support price appreciation.

Investing in cryptocurrencies is risky. Not investing in cryptocurrencies is also risky. — CZ, founder Binance

Meme Coins

DOGE, SHIB, PEPE, FLOKI

Total Market Cap: $50B

Meme coins are cryptocurrencies created not for technology, but for culture, humor, and mass hype. Their value is driven not by fundamentals but by memes, the community, and the speed at which the idea spreads.

An interesting fact: At its peak, Dogecoin's market capitalization reached $80 billion — and at that moment, the meme dog was worth more than Ubisoft, EA, and Nintendo combined. The meme dog outperformed the entire gaming industry.

Memes rule the world. — Elon Musk

Blockchain Service and Infrastructure

Total Market Cap: $35B

Blockchain Infrastructure (LINK, FIL, FET, GRT) — the foundational technological layer of blockchain: data protocols, storage, cross-chain communication, computation, and security. This layer powers blockchain networks and forms the technical "skeleton" of Web3.

Blockchain Service (TWT, SAFE, ENS, BAT) — the application layer that turns infrastructure into user-facing products: wallets, payments, domain names, analytics, content, and fintech services. It is the interface between Web2 and Web3 — the layer that makes blockchain accessible to the mass user.

The purpose of innovation is to improve people's lives, not to showcase engineering tricks. — Steve Jobs

User Application Layer: GameFi, NFT, Social

Total Market Cap: $10B

The very sector that is supposed to be the heart of the entire industry — products for the mass user — remains the smallest. Just $10B in total market capitalization for the whole segment. In essence, crypto has built enormous financial markets, yet has failed to create an economy that real people actually use. What's the point of trillion-dollar assets if the user layer is nearly empty?

Our mission is to empower people. Technology is secondary — people come first. Most companies think about what they are building. We think about what people will be able to do because of us. — Mark Zuckerberg

Layer ∞ — A New Sector by DefCoin Team

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can see that the number one cryptocurrency — Bitcoin — earned its status as a hedge against the fiat-credit system, demonstrating abnormal growth primarily for macroeconomic reasons, despite its many flaws and imperfections.

It also becomes clear that Layer 1s — despite receiving enormous attention within the crypto industry — cannot compete even with online casinos when measured by the core metric of P/E (Price to Earnings), whether people like it or not. The numbers speak for themselves.

Meanwhile, the User Application Layer — the segment directly aimed at the mass user — has the smallest market capitalization of all major industry sectors, standing at just $10B.

Exchanges are the highest-yielding sector — which is naturally explained by the fact that crypto, much like casinos, monetizes human susceptibility to speculative and risk-seeking behavior, a fundamental element of behavioral economics.

History does not tell us what the future will be; it merely gives us invaluable data for forecasting and analysis. DeflationCoin and its ecosystem are built on a deep understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of everything that has been created in the crypto industry so far.

The goal is not to build just another tech company — but to push humanity forward.

Deflation Coin is a new paradigm in the crypto industry and a new chapter in macroeconomics.

— the Father of Satoshi Nakamoto