A mid-1990s college project concluded the Internet would not work for commerce, illustrating early underestimation of transformative tech. Parallels between crypto and the early internet emerged around 2017, revealing similar structures, incentives and a sense of inevitability. Founding Pure Crypto followed, growing into a top-performing hedge fund-of-funds from 2018 to 2025. Digital assets shifted from a fringe experiment to an institutional, Wall Street-approved asset class, yet global ownership remained low—about 6.8% at the end of 2024. Historical comparison shows less than 7% of people were online at the dot-com crash, indicating adoption windows are longer and larger than they appear.
I remember the first time I was asked to evaluate a major technological shift. I was a college student studying accounting in the mid-1990s, and one of my projects was to decide if the Internet could become a viable platform for commerce. My group and I researched, ran the numbers, made the presentations and gave the answer that felt obvious: No, the Internet would not work.
In the long run, though, my college experience would give me a deeper understanding of the forces of innovation. When I first encountered crypto in 2017, I saw parallels to the internet, including what I missed the first time. I saw a similar structure, incentives and also a sense of inevitability. That insight led me to found Pure Crypto, a digital asset investment firm which was the best-performing hedge fund-of-funds globally between 2018 and 2025.
Since launching Pure Crypto, I've watched digital assets transform from a fringe experiment into a Wall Street-approved asset class. Despite this, I believe crypto is still in its early days. It sounds counterintuitive to call something "early" when it's created trillions in value, but consider how few people own crypto - only about 6.8% of people globally at the end of 2024.
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