I think the success of hype coins is strong indication that we are all actually really early into crypto

For me the current success of Doge and Shib feels like a metric indicating how early we all are in crypto. As long as hype is more important than tech and adoption, it's clear the world (and venture capitalists) haven't yet had the eureka moment in which crypto establishes itself unequivocally as being as important as, say, the radio or toilet paper. Stuff that today is pretty basic and boring but also absolutely integral to the daily lives of billions.

New things go through four basic stages: invention, innovation/improvement, novelty (interesting to many consumers, but not yet truly seen as useful/integral to daily life) and finally, widespread adoption and implementation. I think we're are at the innovation and novelty phases right now.

When this day does come where crypto goes mainstream, hype coins are going to go the way of all of the other forgotten (because useless or just pointless) inventions.

So if what's happening with Shib and Dogecoin can be seen as a metric for the maturity of the crypto market overall, we are soooo damn early.