From Bitcoin to AI: Why Maelstrom’s Akshat Vaidya Says Crypto’s Next Wave Is Already Here

If you’re still waiting for altcoin season to kick into gear, Maelstrom co-founder Akshat Vaidya has some advice: It might not be like before.

“I think it’s going to be very hard to replicate what we did before,” Vaidya told Coinage. “There was a time where if one [Layer-1] pops, the others will all pop. … I think there’s enough network effects now to where if you just launch Solana competitor 1-2-3-4-5-6, you can’t expect that to work.”

It’s a sobering assessment from someone who’s lived through every major boom and bust in crypto since buying his first bitcoin in 2013. And after weathering “about four or five crashes,” he’s still betting on crypto’s future — just not in the places most retail investors are looking.

“There’s a flight to quality happening,” he said. “And there’s a flight to familiarity, because there’s some low-quality, shitty old tokens that have been around for a while that for some reason are pumping.” Included in that mix are memecoins.

“My bet personally is that memecoins will be like NFTs of the last cycle,” Vaidya said. “I don’t think it’s coming back."

Instead, Maelstrom has focused on the real businesses quietly building under the surface: Stablecoins, DeFi infrastructure, and AI agents. One of Maelstrom’s first bets was on stablecoin protocol Ethena, well before the GENIUS Act supercharged institutional interest. “Having seen what Ethena and its other competitors were able to achieve without the GENIUS Act… now imagine a world afterwards. It’s pretty exciting.”

The demand, he said, is tangible. The rise of stablecoins has opened up a new way to access the U.S. dollar —especially in emerging markets. “It didn’t make sense to serve 80% of the population in most developing countries, and now it does," he said.

That dynamic has also kicked off an unexpected bull case: U.S. debt distribution is changing. “You’re going to have a lot of diversification in holders of U.S. debt that we’ve really never seen as a nation before.” Tether's CEO Paolo Ardoino would certainly agree. He recently told Coinage that stablecoins replacing certain sovereign nations as major holders of U.S. debt will be the lynchpin in Trump's tariff gambit.

It’s that kind of structural shift that Maelstrom is looking to capitalize on. And as crypto matures, it's also opening more traditional M&A activity in the industry as well.

“Usually [in crypto M&A] they overpay… You’re just combining two businesses. But what we haven’t seen much of yet — and what we’re trying to do — is financial sponsors who just want to buy a company, run it better for a few years, and sell it," he said.

That patient capital, paired with deep crypto experience, gives Maelstrom a unique vantage point on where the industry is headed. Right now, Vaidya said, one of the most under-appreciated opportunities is in agent-based AI.

“Not memecoins that tweet,” he said, taking a shot at the hot meta from last year. “Actual agent AI projects.”

While the hype cycle earlier last year came and went, Vaidya believes the infrastructure is quietly catching up. “There’s a lot of data we’re producing on user behavior… and it takes a while to train bots on that. That’s been happening in the background.”

The wedge, he believes, will be trading. “Probably advanced bots at first… and then those will evolve into full-blown execution venues.” The key advantage, again, will be plugging into existing systems. “Those that tie up with the Binances of the world… will be able to actually come in and alter the value chain of how trading is done today.”

Still, Vaidya’s own strategy remains surprisingly simple.

“I’ve been doing like drip style investing — automated weekly buys on Coinbase since 2013… never turned off, never changed,” he said. “Bitcoin… that’s not going to change for me.” Even as he scouts edge cases like AI agents and private equity crypto turnarounds, the long-term thesis remains familiar. And in those moments where it feels like mainstream interest surely can't exceed last cycle's highs, Vaidya says to just wait.

“Retail always comes back,” he said. “And the world of buyers keeps getting bigger.”

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