Bitcoin is moving sideways around $64,000, and chiefs of major U.S. cryptocurrency companies say the market’s centre is shifting from price to fundamentals.

On Aug. 5, blockchain outlet U.Today reported that the chief executives of Bitwise and Coinbase said the expansion of real-world use of blockchain technology and the pace of improvement in the industry’s foundations have outstripped the rise in digital asset prices.

The discussion began with remarks by Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley (헌터 홀슬리). Horsley said that for the first time in his 8 years in the industry, technology integration is progressing faster than price increases. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong (브라이언 암스트롱) agreed. Armstrong said the industry’s focus has moved from short-term price cycles to modernising financial infrastructure.

That view also aligns with the backdrop to the market’s relatively calm trend recently. Industry veterans see the current stable phase as linked to the end of the four-year halving era and the unwinding of excessive leverage. They judge that actual network use and revenue structures have become more important than sharp price swings.

Several trends are unfolding in the market at the same time. The tokenisation of stocks and bonds is becoming a common approach on Solana and Ethereum networks. The process is generating direct revenue for DeFi protocols. It means business models are forming that translate into fees and sales, rather than remaining at a simple experimental stage.

The stablecoin market is also growing quickly. Total market capitalisation has exceeded $300 billion. Digital dollars are expanding their use as a means of settlement for cross-border corporate payments. Even in periods that appear directionless, stablecoin funds are taking hold as a pillar supplying liquidity based on real-world use.

Use of smart contracts is also widening. Smart contracts have begun to be used as a settlement layer for micropayments between autonomous AI agents. The prospect that crypto networks can expand beyond financial transactions into machine-to-machine transaction infrastructure is being cited as a new growth driver.

The U.S. regulatory environment is also cited as the next variable. The market is watching a final vote on the U.S. Clarity bill. If it passes, procedures for launching ETFs that include structured retail investor products and staking functions could be simplified. This is also why the industry is reacting more sensitively to regulatory alignment than to a price rebound.

For long-term investors and institutional funds, this gap is being read as a change in market structure. With on-chain activity increasing, downside risk driven by speculation is shrinking, and growing stablecoin market capitalisation and fee income from tokenised assets are reducing dependence on price volatility. The remarks by Horsley and Armstrong show the industry view that the crypto market is being reshaped around real-world use and cash flow rather than short-term prices.