Crypto may look quieter on the surface, but beneath the headlines, the market is still healing and positioning itself for what comes next.
That was the message from Christopher Perkins, president and managing partner at digital asset investment firm Coinfund, during a recent conversation with The Wolf of All Streets and TheStreet Roundtable host Scott Melker .
While regulatory progress in the U.S. has been encouraging, both agreed that something has been missing lately: excitement about what crypto can become.
"I really miss talking about the future of gaming and DeFi," Melker said and admitted he is tired of talking about Donald Trump and Greenland.
NFTs will come back, Perkins says
Perkins acknowledged that many once-hot crypto sectors have been "hammered."
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized gaming haven't found strong product-market fit yet, and sentiment around them has cooled sharply.
"I think NFTs are going to come back in a new form,"but Perkins is hopeful. "The technology was proven, but then they've gotten hammered."
He revealed that recent industry conferences feel increasingly institutional, like traditional business gatherings focused on deal-making, rather than the crypto-native, libertarian roots that once defined the space.
The libertarians have left the crypto space, probably to hunt for precious metals, he added.
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Perkins says Oct. 10 hurt crypto
One major reason retail hasn't returned, Perkins argued, is that the market hasn't fully recovered from the crypto market crash on Oct. 10, 2025, which he described as even more damaging than the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange in 2025—at least, in terms of real financial losses.
Retail traders and market makers were hit hard, leaving balance sheets damaged and risk appetite severely reduced.
"They ended up with holes in their balance sheet. They're still repairing those holes,"Perkins said.
Melker added that much of the focus at the time was on major players like Binance, while issues at smaller, unregulated exchanges went largely unnoticed, including instances of unexplained negative balances.
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Good news comes soon
The good news, according to Perkins, is that the repair phase may be nearing its end.
As balance sheets heal, he expects risk-taking to slowly return—and with it, retail participation.
He also sees a shift toward more regulated, onshore crypto markets in the U.S., including the possibility of derivatives activity moving closer to home.
"I want to be in a world where you can take as much market risk as you want and you live by the sword and you die by the sword," Perkins said. "But it has to be fair."
That means fewer forced liquidations, fewer surprise interventions, and a more transparent market structure, he hoped.
Retail will come back, but not yet
Melker emphasized that not all retail investors are the same.
Crypto-native traders, many of whom were wiped out despite being "right" on trades, aren't the group that drives explosive bull markets.
The next major rally, he said, depends on a different retail group entirely.
That retail group isn't here yet, Melker said. The kind who bought NFTs and Dogecoin, waited months to open an exchange account, and sent Bitcoin to $200,000-$300,000—they are not back yet, he added.
What brings them back? Higher prices, Melker said.
For now, the market may be quieter, but both Melker and Perkins agreed that the worst may finally be in the rearview mirror.
Related: What Is an NFT, and How do You Put a Dollar Value on It?
This story was originally published by TheStreet on Jan 22, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
