Getting crypto out of the ‘AOL era’ — Sandeep Nailwal

The current state of crypto is akin to the internet's “America Online” (AOL) era during the late 1990s, when the user experience was clunky, technical, featured limited use cases, and moved at dial-up speeds, according to Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Nailwal identified several key areas of development to improve user experience, including seamless fiat on- and off-ramps, custody solutions that feature key recovery, and hardware wallets built into mobile devices.

“We are probably still in 1998, and it is going to take at least 10 to 15 years to see crypto in its full glory,” the Polygon founder added.

While considered revolutionary at the time, the AOL days of the internet featured limited functionality and a high barrier to entry. Source: PC Magazine

The internet took between 30-40 years to achieve mass adoption and began with a limited number of use cases. In the late 1990s, the AOL era of the internet was primarily focused on email and basic web browsing, but today, the internet encompasses the entire economy.

Nailwal said that the current state of crypto is similar, with financial use cases, particularly market speculation, being the core focus of crypto at this time.

However, once the financial use cases have been fully developed and achieved sufficient adoption, crypto adoption will spread to alternative use cases such as decentralized social media, gaming, and other niche sectors, he said.

Related: Security concerns slow crypto payment adoption worldwide — Survey

Nailwal pointed out that even the base use case for cryptocurrencies, which is financial, has not been fully developed.

According to a February 2025 report from Bitcoin (BTC) financial services company River, only 4% of individuals worldwide own BTC — which is the original cryptocurrency with the largest market cap and has the most mainstream appeal.

Bitcoin’s adoption path. Source: River

The report found that BTC has only achieved about 3% of its total adoption path when institutions, the total addressable market, and proper portfolio allocations are considered.

This small number of BTC holders indicates that crypto mass adoption is still years away and signals that the entire industry is still in the early adopter phase of development.

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