Within a few weeks of early 2026, a group of senior crypto operators announced exits or domain switches.
Akshay BD, who spent five years building the Solana ecosystem, said he was “grateful to pass the torch” and posted a “life update.”
zkSync executive Anthony Rose has announced that he is “moving on” after four years at Matter Labs.
Nader Dabit left Eigen Labs to join Cognition, where he works on “end-to-end software agents that ship production code.”
Kyle Samani stepped down as managing partner of Multicoin to pursue research in AI and robotics, but remained bullish on cryptocurrencies.
The timing felt like it was arranged, even if it wasn’t.
This pattern looked like a talent exodus, as these roles were central to capital, narratives, and recruitment loops.
Ecosystem leaders don’t just build, they also orchestrate. They connect capital to projects, developers to infrastructure, and businesses to users.
External rotation weakens the connective tissue, even if the underlying builder base is intact.
Employment, capital and option value
AI is measurably empowering talent. LinkedIn’s January 2026 Labor Market Report states that 1.3 million new AI jobs will be created worldwide between 2023 and 2025.
Growth in specific roles has been exponential, with forward-deployed engineer and product manager roles increasing 42x and AI engineer roles expanding 13x.
Capital gravity strengthens the pull of labor. Crunchbase reports that global AI funding will be $211 billion in 2025, accounting for about half of all venture capital deployed worldwide.
WIPO analysis similarly found that AI will account for approximately 53% of global VC transaction value by the third quarter of 2025. Pitchbook predicts that the value of virtual currency VC transactions in 2025 will be $19.7 billion.
It makes sense, but it’s in a different league.
For advanced operators looking to optimize learning speed and benefits, AI now offers both at scale. While cryptocurrencies offer the promise of mission integrity and rebuilding financial infrastructure, AI offers instant distribution, faster product cycles, and abundant capital.
Rodrigo Coehla, CEO of Edge & Node, recognizes this wave but disputes its characterization.
he said:
“There is certainly a wave of high-profile defections, and it’s very hard to argue why it’s happening. AI is the new cool kid on the block, and as with past crypto cycles, when times get a little tough, many will move on to greener pastures.”
However, Coehla pointed out that many people pursuing AI will eventually return to cryptocurrencies. He added:
“Once you actually get into the AI space, even for a short time, you will find that AI employs crypto rails, which are ideal for transparency, observability, and financial management. AI agents need crypto rails for trust, observability, and autonomous transactions that traditional infrastructure cannot provide.”
Is this really an escape?
The clearest signal of whether a builder is exiting comes from developer activity, not anecdotes.
According to Electric Capital’s latest developer report (updated in January 2026), the total number of monthly active developers decreased by approximately 7% in 2024 compared to the previous year. This may sound bad until you differentiate between new entrants and established builders.
The number of developers with two or more years of experience increased by 27% year-on-year, a record high. Although the number of new developers decreased, the core builder group expanded.
This matches previous bear market patterns. Electric Capital’s historical analysis shows that developers grew 5% year over year in 2022, despite a 70% drop in prices.
Developer Cohort 2024 Year-over-Year Changes Mean Existing Developers (2+ years) ✅ +27% YoY Expansion of core builder base (more tenacious, long-term contributors) New Developers ❌ Slower down-onboarding / “tourist” withdrawal (cycle-sensitive influx)
Core builders stay. Tourists leave.
The current turnover is more consistent with a drop-off and leadership change than with a collapse of the builder base.
Ethan Buchman, CEO of Cycles, sees this as periodic noise.
“Just as Bitcoin has been declared obsolete multiple times, people pivoting away from cryptocurrencies has become an old cliché, another sign of the cyclical nature of this industry. The tweet, ‘If you’re in crypto, pivot to AI’ became a legendary tweet three years ago. Cryptocurrencies will undoubtedly continue to be where the future of finance will be built.”
He is betting that the core value propositions of cryptocurrencies, such as neutral payments, programmable money, and composability, will not disappear just because AI is actively hiring.
Bachman added:
“Everyone still thinks about cryptocurrencies too simply, as just a way to move assets faster 24/7. But cryptocurrencies unlock entirely new opportunities for capital efficiency, risk mitigation, savings and growth through multilateral clearing for ordinary people and businesses around the world.”
Why senior exits still matter
Even if the number of core developers remains stable, senior departures widen bottlenecks and slow progress.
The most difficult problems in cryptography are rarely about cryptography. These are commercialization, compliance, and distribution.
Delivering the tedious financial infrastructure deployed by banks and regulators requires operators who understand legal frameworks, institutional sales cycles, and corporate consolidation.
Losing these operators will delay the translation of technological capabilities into market traction.
Building trust in an organization requires continuity. Regulatory clarity does not automatically lead to adoption. Someone needs to explain to regulators how stablecoins work, negotiate with banks on payment rails, and build compliance tools that allow cryptocurrencies to be used within traditional finance.
Leadership changes slow that cycle.
What are the functions of virtual currency that AI cannot do?
The enduring advantages of cryptocurrencies are neutral payments and programmable money.
Stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, and on-chain financial rails are difficult to replicate with pure AI software stacks.
Open financial primitives that can be integrated without bilateral agreements create composability not naturally offered by traditional financial and AI platforms.
The strength of AI is user attraction and speed. AI products can achieve mass adoption within months. Most AI apps do not face the same financial compliance subject areas as cryptocurrencies, making distribution chokepoints weaker.
However, convergence is more than just a story. Regulations have made cryptocurrency rails more readable for institutions. The GENIUS Act created a U.S. stablecoin framework that requires backing and disclosure. This is the kind of regulatory north star that underpins the “financial rails” theory.
Stablecoins are becoming essential infrastructure for traditional financial institutions.
Coehla sees this as the moment when bottlenecks start to disappear.
“Many crypto companies were locking themselves into tokens that had nothing to do with the value they were actually creating, meaning their runways would live or die based on speculation rather than fundamentals.”
Until recently, he emphasized regulatory uncertainty, but the GENIUS Act changes that and gives cryptocurrencies a clear north star.
As a result, bad tokenomics pushed weak companies out of the competitive arena, leaving fundamentally sound companies behind.
Koelha added:
“Regulatory clarity is now available, and new AI use cases that benefit from crypto rails are creating strong tailwinds.”
He predicts the talent drain will reverse once builders realize their biggest opportunity is not just another token, but the infrastructure that will power the economic rails of the next decade.
This will be materialized by a wave of hybrid companies that will stop calling themselves crypto companies and start building actual businesses at the intersection of AI and programmable money.
2026 Reality Check
The basic case is periodic fluctuations with a stable core.
A senior operator will be responsible for AI operations. Many maintain connections to cryptocurrencies through advice and investment, and their core developer base is supported by infrastructure maturity and clarity in stablecoin regulations.
The downside scenario is a decline in coordination. More fluid leadership and less funding mean less long-term infrastructure work, and increased fragmentation at layer 2 and across the app chain slows execution.
The sustained decline has also affected existing developers.
The upside scenario is a rebound due to convergence. Once real circulation arrives, stablecoin frameworks and institutional rails will draw crypto talent back. Hybrid companies will stop branding themselves as cryptocurrencies and start selling financial infrastructure.
This indicator shows that policy and corporate adoption are accelerating stablecoin issuance and bank consolidation.
High-profile departures in early 2026 do not prove that cryptocurrencies are dying out. These prove that the attraction of AI is strong and that the adjustment costs of cryptocurrencies are real.
The question is whether the industry can shift regulatory clarity and institutional attention to distribution quickly enough to retain operators building connective tissue.
The developers are still here. Infrastructure is maturing. The bottleneck is turning the “future of finance” theme into a product that people will actually use before AI absorbs the best operators forever.
