Why 80% of crypto wealth is sheltered in the foundations and not in the decorations
The financial giant Charles Schwab has published a roadmap that changes the market narrative: cryptocurrencies should not be seen as a homogeneous "asset bag," but as a three-layer ecosystem with radically different financial behaviors.
By the end of 2025, with a market valued at $3.2 trillion, the big conclusion is clear: infrastructure is vital but not always profitable, while real value is concentrated at the extremes of the spectrum.
1. The Anatomy of the Market according to Schwab
The report divides the ecosystem into a pyramidal structure:
Base Layer (The Fundamental Networks): Bitcoin and Ethereum are the "AWS" of the crypto world. They are the backbone and capture nearly 80% of the entire market capitalization. They are the highest dominance bets and network effects.
Middle Layer (Infrastructure): Bridges, oracles, and scaling tools. They are essential for everything to work, but Schwab warns about their fragile business model: they are easily replaceable by competition, and the end user doesn't even know they are using them.
Top Layer (Products and Applications): Exchanges, lending platforms (Aave), and staking (Lido). This is where user loyalty resides. They have the greatest potential to create industrial standards and retain customers, similar to what Netflix represents in traditional software.
2. The Evaluation Framework (Venture Capital Criteria)
For Schwab, it is no longer enough to "speculate"; we must analyze the protocols with metrics of professional growth:
Network effects: How many users and developers does it attract?
Market share: Ethereum dominates smart contracts with 10 times the value of its closest competitor.
Scalability: The ability to grow without collapsing.
Tokenomics: How the currency is distributed and who controls the supply.
3. The Great Warning for the Investor
The report is blunt: infrastructure often fails to capture value. Although they are necessary for technology, product projects (apps) are twice as common as infrastructure projects among capitalizations above 100M USD.
