Opinion piece argues crypto's next step is pricing new markets, not new assets
A CoinDesk opinion piece says crypto is moving from new assets to new markets
CoinDesk published an opinion article on Oct. 6, 2026, arguing that the crypto industry is shifting away from inventing new kinds of digital assets and toward building markets for things that never had a real-time price before.
The piece was written by Annabelle Huang, co-founder and chief executive of Altius Labs, described in the article as an infrastructure company that designs high-performance blockchains. It was edited by Cheyenne Ligon. Opinion articles reflect the views of the author rather than confirmed news.
Huang's main argument is that blockchain technology is well suited to widening the range of things that can be priced, and that this may matter more to the future of finance than the ability to create new digital assets.
What the author says the industry is doing differently
- Early crypto focused on inventing new asset types: Bitcoin and its derivatives, then Ether and rival coins, followed by governance tokens, NFTs and memecoins.
- Huang says the focus has now moved to creating new markets around existing things, such as news, commodities and private companies.
- She points to prediction markets, oil and gold perpetuals on Hyperliquid, and pre-IPO perpetuals as three major examples.
- She writes that these markets operate around the clock, while traditional markets do not.
Perpetual futures are contracts the article describes as continuously tradable and tied to the value of an existing asset or company. Prediction markets let people trade on the outcome of events.
The three examples Huang uses
She says prediction markets let people trade on what they expect to happen. Oil and gold perpetuals on Hyperliquid give traders a live market tied to commodities. Pre-IPO perpetuals offer a market tied to private companies before an initial public offering.
In her account, all three created real-time, continuously tradable markets around things that previously lacked them.
The article also argues that the industry is now treating attention itself as having economic value, on the idea that if people care about a development, there is probably demand for a market that reflects what they expect about it.
Price discovery as the product, not a side effect
Huang writes that traditional finance treats price discovery as a byproduct of trading: investors trade, and prices emerge as a result. In her view, crypto increasingly treats price discovery as the product itself.
She uses pre-IPO perpetual futures as her example. Traders may never own shares in a private company, but she says they still value a real-time signal about what the market thinks the company is worth. That makes the market an information engine, where the price is the main output rather than a consequence of activity.
Why she says blockchain markets behave differently
The article describes traditional markets as sporadic. Even for publicly traded companies, price discovery happens only during business hours. Private firms are repriced only during funding rounds or periodic valuation exercises. Huang notes that important information can appear at any time, while conventional markets often cannot react right away.
Blockchain-based markets, she says, run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so they can absorb information as it appears instead of waiting for the next session or valuation event. She calls this a more responsive way to assess value.
She also says blockchain-based markets are more accessible than conventional ones. Trading private equity usually requires accreditation, special relationships and significant capital, which she says limits who can take part.
What is stated in the article and what is opinion
The publication of the piece, the identity of its author and her role at Altius Labs come from the article itself. Her claims about what blockchain markets can do, and her argument that crypto's future depends on pricing new markets rather than creating new assets, are her analysis and opinion, not confirmed facts.
The examples she gives — prediction markets, oil and gold perpetuals on Hyperliquid, and pre-IPO perpetuals — are described in the article as existing products. Newisty has not independently verified them from the supplied material.
What the supplied material does not include
The available text ends mid-sentence while describing who can access private equity markets, so the remainder of Huang's argument is not covered here.
Sources
Newisty Editorial Team covers technology, cryptocurrency, digital products, online platforms, developer tools and the wider digital economy. Our content is researched from official sources, company announcements, public documentation, market data and other primary or reputable sources. Articles are reviewed and edited before publication for clarity, accuracy and useful context.