Robbie Klages: crypto is dead, but stablecoins and tokenization are not

Robbie Klages, co-founder of the media company The Rollup, argued on Bitcoin.com News Interviews, published 24 October 2026, that "crypto" as a meme-coin speculation culture is dying, while the underlying technology, stablecoins, blockchains and tokenized assets, survives by being absorbed into ordinary finance. The host introduced Klages as the Rollup's co-founder. The episode description says it was filmed at TOKEN2049 Singapore.

The argument

Klages drew the line between culture and technology early in the interview: "I kind of think crypto's dead and I kind of think that the exports of the industry will persist and survive, meaning stablecoins." (from 1:34)

He said what he meant by crypto: "I think crypto is like the meme coin grift culture. Like that's how people think of crypto. And I think that is dying if not dead already, and a lot of people want it dead" (from 1:48). And he named what he thinks survives: "Blockchains are not going away. Tokenized assets are not going away. This is a technology. It's a better way to do finance, and I think this is ultimately going to get absorbed into finance." (from 1:48)

Later, discussing what he said his partner at the Rollup calls the "revenue meta," Klages pointed to on-chain businesses behaving like ordinary companies as evidence the useful side is already merging with finance: "The revenue meta is the fact that there are real on-chain businesses with real product market fit, real users, real user activity, and generating real revenue." (from 18:56)

What it rests on

The meme-coin half of the claim holds up against the numbers. Bitcoin.com News reported that the meme-coin sector's combined market capitalization fell from near $130 billion early in 2025 to roughly $42 billion by the end of December 2025, a drop of about 67% from its peak, while Google search interest in the term "memecoin" fell 96% over roughly the same twelve months. CoinGecko's meme category page put the segment at about $30 billion on 28 October 2026, below where 2025 ended.

Stablecoins have not followed meme coins down. Total supply rose from about $203.2 billion on 1 January 2025 to about $303.7 billion on 1 January 2026, according to DefiLlama's stablecoin data, and has held near $300 billion since, at $302.8 billion on 24 October 2026.

Tokenized real-world assets are still growing, from a smaller base. RWA.xyz counted $39.75 billion of distributed tokenized assets on 28 October 2026, up 3.18% from 30 days earlier, and $374.46 billion under its broader represented measure, with 5,411,134 asset holders, up 10.48% over the same 30 days.

Where it was discussed

• Bitcoin.com News Interviews: Klages, The Rollup Co-Founder: Crypto's Dead, Long Live Finance, 24 October 2026, from 1:34