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Forward Industries Chairman and Multicoin co-founder Kyle Samani declared that "Web3 is dead. All we have is DeFi and DePIN," marking one of the most pointed dismissals of the umbrella term from a marquee crypto investor.
Why it matters
The "Web3" label was the broad tent under which decentralised apps, identity, social graphs, gaming and finance all gathered marketing oxygen through the 2021 cycle. Samani's cut — keep DeFi and DePIN, drop the rest — narrows the surviving thesis to protocols that earn fees and to real-world infrastructure rollouts. That is a meaningful retreat from a narrative that, only three years ago, was pitched as the next iteration of the consumer internet.
Market impact
The comments arrive in the same week StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson, a Zcash and StarkWare co-founder, told attendees crypto is going through an identity crisis: long-time OGs are leaving while institutions and TradFi — the very forces crypto once positioned itself against — are finally showing interest. The two reads compound. Samani is pruning the narrative's scope; Ben-Sasson is flagging that the audience is rotating under it. For capital allocators, the implication is that the catch-all "Web3" trade is over and that selection inside the surviving lanes — DeFi protocols with real revenue and DePIN networks with deployed hardware — is the only thesis that still clears institutional diligence.
Frequently asked questions
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What did Kyle Samani say about Web3?
Forward Industries Chairman and Multicoin co-founder Kyle Samani declared that "Web3 is dead. All we have is DeFi and DePIN," retiring the umbrella term in favour of the two verticals he argues still carry a working thesis.
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Why is Samani's "Web3 is dead" comment significant?
It is one of the sharpest marquee-name retirements of the term from a major crypto venture firm, narrowing the surviving narrative to protocols that earn fees and to real-world infrastructure rollouts rather than the broader consumer-internet pitch of 2021.
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What did Eli Ben-Sasson say about crypto's identity?
StarkWare CEO and Zcash/StarkWare co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson said crypto is going through an identity crisis: long-time OGs are leaving while institutions and TradFi — the forces crypto once positioned itself against — are finally showing interest.
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How do the Samani and Ben-Sasson comments relate?
Samani is pruning the narrative's scope to DeFi and DePIN, while Ben-Sasson is flagging that the audience under whatever remains is rotating away from crypto's original base toward TradFi capital. The two reads compound into a single identity question.
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What is the investable read from these comments?
The catch-all Web3 trade looks over. Selection inside the surviving lanes — DeFi protocols generating real revenue and DePIN networks with deployed hardware — is the only thesis that still clears institutional diligence, per the framing in both comments.
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