Looking at all these trillion-dollar IPOs leaves me feeling conflicted. On one hand, these companies are incredible engines of growth, and it's exciting to see our society progress. On the other hand, and this point has been made many times before, it's a shame that many of the best companies of our generation were built almost entirely in private markets, leaving retail investors with little opportunity to participate in their growth. Why this happened has been widely discussed. Much of it comes down to incentives and changes in how companies raise capital. But crypto offered an interesting alternative. At its best, it allowed everyday people to get in on the ground floor of new networks and products. One of its most unique features was the ability to own a piece of something you were an early user of through airdrops. Unfortunately, many builders abused this mechanism to launch vaporware. In some cases, the token became the product. For all of crypto's flaws, that early ethos was special: the idea that ordinary people should have the opportunity to own a stake in the technologies and networks they help create value for.