Yang Haipo, founder of CoinEx, said that the cryptocurrency industry is moving toward an “inevitable endgame.” He believes that Bitcoin’s trillion-dollar value will eventually crash hard.
While many still see long-term growth, others are starting to question, and is there any proof behind this?
Founder Who Knows the Industry From the Inside
When a random critic attacks Bitcoin, it is often ignored. But when CoinEX and ViaBTC founder Yang Haipo shares his view, it draws attention.
According to Yang Haipo, the crypto market may be reaching a turning point where its current model can no longer sustain itself.
In a detailed analysis, Yang says the crypto system mostly runs on new capital entering the market, not on real income from outside users.
Due to this, the crypto industry spends 10’s of billions every year on mining, exchanges, and development, but real income from actual use is still very small. This creates a gap where more money is going out than coming in, which could slowly weaken the system over time.
Bitcoin Has No Real Value On Its Own
Yang’s first big point is about Bitcoin itself. Yang argues that Bitcoin does not produce value like traditional businesses. It does not generate profits, and it is not widely used for daily payments. Instead, its price depends mostly on people believing in it.
He also pointed out that Bitcoin needs constant support systems like electricity, internet, and miners. Without them, the network cannot function.
Another issue, he says, is built into Bitcoin itself. Mining rewards keep getting cut over time, so the network will one day rely mostly on transaction fees to stay secure.
But Bitcoin culture is mostly about holding, not spending. Yang says this creates a basic conflict that still has no clear solution.
Industry Spends Far More Than It Ever Earns
Running the crypto industry costs a lot of money every single year. Mining Bitcoin alone burns through $10 billion to $15 billion in electricity and hardware. Exchanges spend another $15 billion to $25 billion on staff, computer systems, legal costs, and advertising.
Now here is the painful part. How much real money does the industry bring in from the outside world? From actual services, real payments, genuine outside demand?
A few hundred million dollars a year. Less than one percent of what it spends.
The gap between what crypto earns and what it costs to run is so large that the only thing that has ever closed it is new people putting fresh money in.
ETFs and Institutions: A Temporary Boost?
The recent bull market has been supported by institutional inflows, especially through Bitcoin ETFs and treasury strategies. Between 2024 and 2025, Bitcoin climbed from around $40,000 to over $120,000. Everyone called it proof that crypto had gone mainstream
But Yang sees this as a short-term boost rather than a permanent solution.
He says that once these inflows slow down, the market could struggle to maintain its current size.
Every time crypto crashed badly in the past, a new group of buyers showed up and saved it. Yang says those recoveries were not proof of strength. They were lucky.
How Much Time Is Left?
Yang’s math on timing is not comforting.
The total pool of usable money sitting inside the crypto system right now is around $200 billion. The system burns through $60 billion to $80 billion of that every year. With no major new source of outside money on the horizon, that gives the current setup roughly two and a half to three years before something breaks badly.
And that is the best-case version. Bear markets make everything move faster. People panic. They pull money out quickly. In 2022, $65 billion drained out of crypto in less than a year.
If that kind of panic happens again from a weaker starting position, the timeline shortens dramatically.
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