Suddenly, tokens have appeared in the public eye more frequently than ever before. As the billing unit for various AI products, tokens have become widely known due to the popularity of products like OpenAI, ChatGPT, and DeepSeek.
On March 24, the National Data Bureau officially confirmed "token" as the Chinese translation for "词元," and the news quickly spread widely across social media platforms such as WeChat Moments and Douyin.
This is undoubtedly a poignant moment for professionals in the blockchain industry. Once, we struggled to explain to outsiders what a token was, spending countless hours discussing decentralization, economic models, and consensus mechanisms; now, large models have accomplished widespread public awareness of this term within just one year, using a nearly brute-force commercial logic.
Making tokens widely accepted was once the long-held dream of all blockchain professionals. Today, that vision has come true—but leaves only embarrassment. This is not only because “this token is not that token,” but also because the blockchain’s former promise of “transforming production relations” is now facing an unprecedented crisis of faith.
I. Evolution of the Term "Token": From Verification and Assets to "Computing Power Currency"
In the long history of computer science, "token" is not a new term.
In the Web2 or earlier code world, a token is a "pass" used for login authentication. It is an encrypted string you receive after logging into a server, proving that "you are you." It quietly resides in the browser’s cookies or headers, possessing only functional properties and no social attributes.
In the Web3 world, tokens have been赋予 unprecedented grand narratives. They are translated as "tokens" or "tokens." In the context of blockchain, tokens represent assets, votes, ownership, and the glue that binds communities. We seek to reconstruct the world through tokens, believing they can break the monopolies of tech giants.
In the AI era, tokens have become the currency of computing power and the unit for measuring API calls. They are essentially another way of saying electricity: the more you use, the more you pay; the smarter the model and the longer the output, the more terrifying the token consumption.
II. The Struggles and Uncertainty in the Cryptocurrency Industry
Blockchain professionals once had a grand vision: "Tokenization of Everything," aiming to transform real-world assets, credit, and labor into tokens for seamless circulation.
Ironically, AI has indeed achieved a form of "tokenization of everything," where text, audio, and video are all broken down into tokens. For the general public, there’s no need to understand cryptographic principles, manage private keys, or worry about losing mnemonic phrases—they simply input a prompt, and the model consumes tokens and outputs tokens.
Making tokens widely accepted by the general public was once the goal pursued by everyone in the blockchain industry. Today, that vision has become reality—but leaves only embarrassment. It’s not just that “this token” is not “that token”; it’s also because many industry participants no longer believe in this goal or vision themselves.
In recent years, tokens as assets, due to their permissionless and low-barrier characteristics, briefly gained widespread attention in various forms such as NFTs and memes, but ultimately, following price collapses, they were labeled by outsiders as "speculative" and "fraudulent."
Meanwhile, the blockchain industry lacks sufficient internal innovation momentum; concept projects such as DePin, DeSci, AI agents, and RWA are progressing slowly and have limited real-world applications. An increasing number of crypto entrepreneurs, uncertain and disillusioned, are pausing their projects—either waiting for new opportunities or shifting their focus to the AI sector, and investors are doing the same.
Over time, I felt I had lost my way in the cryptocurrency space. After going all-in, the initial transformative allure of cryptocurrency gradually faded. I became disillusioned with the actual audience I thought I was serving. I completely misunderstood the difference between the true users of cryptocurrency and its promoters. Cryptocurrency claims to help decentralize the financial system—a belief I fully held—but in reality, it was merely a super-system of speculation and gambling, a replica of the existing economy. This is how former crypto entrepreneur Ken Chan wrote in a widely read article during the crypto industry’s recent surge.
This entrepreneur’s sentiment is not uncommon in the crypto industry; the struggle with belief and the loss of purpose have continuously shaken the psychological resilience of crypto founders during this bear market. Although this is not the first time—each bear market has brought forth similar voices—this time, the powerful rise of AI has made this crisis of faith particularly stark.
Three: The Second Half of the Token
This may be the harsh logic of technological iteration: what truly changes the world is often not the grandest narrative, but the most practical tool. Blockchain gave tokens idealism; AI gave tokens necessity. Blockchain wanted to change the world—AI first changed everyday life.
When AI tokens become the new "digital oil," blockchain can only watch as its former dreams take root in a completely unfamiliar way. This misaligned adoption is AI’s victory—and blockchain’s deepest resignation.
But it’s not all bad news: over the past year, assets from the Web2 world—such as U.S. Treasuries and stocks—have rapidly been tokenized, becoming some of the fastest-growing token assets due to their low entry barriers and high convenience. As speculative bubbles burst one after another, and financial giants like BlackRock and Fidelity enter the space, tokenization may be returning to its fundamental role as a vehicle of value.