According to Avishal Garg, co-founder of venture capital firm Electric Capital, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase may not need to mention the word “crypto” in the future.
Garg predicts that “maybe in the next five years,” Coinbase will not be able to “really mention crypto” in their advertising, people will just “know that they can buy things on Coinbase,” similar to how people see the trading platform Robinhood. He thinks it is just another financial instrument that investors can buy and profit from.
“The reason I thought about that is because there's this saying that people overestimate what's possible in two years and underestimate what's possible in 10,” Garg told the magazine.
Over the years, Garg has made early investments in several crypto companies, including NFT platform OpenSea, Lightning Network developer Lightning Labs, and crypto bank Anchorage Digital.
Garg thinks the introduction of dot crypto ETFs this year helped repair the damage FTX did to the cryptocurrency industry's reputation.
“What ETFs do in my mind is compensate for the damage that FTX did. I think SBF really destroyed the crypto brand and burned a lot of people,” he explains.
“BlackRock came in and Bitwise pushed the SEC and won all these things from Grayscale in court — all these little things that have now made the ETF tick. What's happened now is that you've got approval from big parts of DC and big pieces of Wall Street.”
Meanwhile, Garg believes that even crypto enthusiasts are underestimating how mainstream crypto will become in the next few years.
“Crypto is starting to become this kind of substrate that touches a lot of things, and I think a lot of people still think about crypto as a side thing,” he explains.
“I don't think that's the right way to look at these things anymore. I think maybe five years ago [when] We were doing our own thing in our own little corner, and that's not true anymore,” he says.
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ToggleWhat is the reason for Avishal Garg's Twitter popularity?
Garg says he had no magic formula to build his 52,800 X followers over the years. It was just a slow and steady effort.
“It was completely organic. It's just about putting out interesting content and podcasts,” he says, admitting to being ahead of the pack when it comes to producing quality crypto content on social media.
Garg explains that his follower count “took off in 2018” because there weren't many credible people talking about crypto at the time.
He credits his growing following with “being in a group of good investments,” but admitted that if he put a little more effort into his social media presence, he would probably have more followers.
“I think I might have a couple hundred thousand, but not that,” he says, laughing. Garg explains that he is happy with his current number of followers because he doesn't have to deal with any trolls.
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“I actually think I like this 50k to 100k follower zone. I don't have any hate on Twitter, so it's a sweet spot. My DMs aren't blowing up every time people chase me,” he says.
“A lot of founders who need to know me can find me, so it's really a nice sweet spot. “I think it would be overwhelming if I had a million followers,” he added.
What kind of content does Avishal Garg create?
While Garg is sharp in his comments, rather than shilling his favorite shitcoins or making price predictions, he is more likely to focus on industry predictions and visions to avoid missing the mark.
“I never talk about prices, I never talk about market movements,” Garg said.
“That's not what I'm talking about,” he said, preferring to focus on blockchain technology and Web3's “exciting and societal negative effects” of the technology.
Garg says he'd rather tell you why you think “about or near Solana” and “what you can do with it” than make a million-dollar price prediction for bitcoin.
What kind of content does Avishal Garg like?
Much like his own content style, Garg isn't into altcoin hype or bullish Bitcoin fans who see every dip as a last chance before it hits six figures.
Instead, it selects venture capitalists and industry leaders who share their vision for the future of crypto.
Billionaire tech entrepreneur and founder of venture capital firm a16z Marc Andreessen, former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel and influential startup accelerator Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham are among Garg's admirers.
“These are all interesting contrarian thinkers,” says Garg.
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Olaf Carlson-Way, CEO of Polychain Capital, is a “legit genius,” according to Garg.
He is a very interesting person. “Every time I hear him speak, I learn something,” he says.
Avishal Garg predictions?
Although he made it clear at the beginning of the interview that he is not a fan of price predictions, Garg was confronted with a standard Flame Hall question about what Bitcoin will be worth in the next decade.
“The price will take care of itself,” he says, avoiding giving any specific number. Drawing on his business experience, Garg explains that Web3 is not just a quick cash grab.
“If I've learned anything in the last 15 years of running companies and investing in companies and selling them and selling them, there are many ways to make money,” he says.
“There aren't many ways in the world to create something that's sustainable, something that can last 50 years or 100 years, that's more fun,” he added.
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Ciaran Lyon
Ciaran Lyons is an Australian crypto journalist. He is also a freelance comedian and has been a radio and TV presenter on Triple J, SBS and The Project.
