Miko Matsumura: The core crypto battle has been won, and this bear market cycle rewards different behaviors

Gumi Cryptos Capital managing partner Miko Matsumura said in an interview with BeInCrypto reporter at the NBX Warsaw conference on April 30 that the crypto industry has already achieved a structural victory. He warned that builders who repeat the same meme-coin hype pattern face the risk of being weeded out, and that this cycle will define the standard of success through different behaviors.

“Crypto has already won”: Positioning across three key areas

(Source: Youtube)

In a report on April 30, BeInCrypto said that Matsumura told the interviewer: “I think we basically already won. I think we basically got everything we wanted.”

Matsumura broke down this victory into three parts and quoted them directly as follows: “I think the problem with reserve banks has been solved, and that’s Bitcoin. I think the problem with investment banks has been solved, and that’s Ethereum. I think the problem with retail banks has also been solved.”

He said that the retail banking sector is handled by a combination of multiple chains, with Base and Solana competing in this area. Matsumura also pointed out that the arrival of regulation further confirms the industry’s maturity; the focus in the next stage is to expand the scale of crypto by one thousand times, rather than redefining it.

The nature of this bear market: Moving from the frontier to the mainstream stage

According to BeInCrypto’s report on April 30, Matsumura described himself as a net buyer of assets and welcomed the market’s decline. He said this bear market is different from past ones: “I think this bear market is unlike any other because the market has moved from the frontier stage to the mainstream stage. People won’t be able to get returns just by doing things the way they did last time.”

Matsumura directly called out the meme-coin model: “I don’t think it’s going to be that kind of thing—oh, just create another network meme coin, and then you’ll get rich. It won’t be like that.” He said that the deepest period of a bear market typically rewards the most steadfast believers, and that new entrants and stricter regulation will reshape this cycle’s definition of winning strategy.

Emerging market opportunities and application-layer building

According to BeInCrypto’s report on April 30, Matsumura said that high-growth economies such as Latin America and Nigeria are a new growth area for crypto, and that independent founders using AI tools to reduce capital burn are also worth watching.

In the interview, he said: “In a bear market, you still need to keep developing, but you really need to make changes… develop different products, develop practical solutions that truly solve problems.”

Matsumura said that courage, curiosity, and belief are the core traits that entrepreneurs in this cycle should have, and noted that building at the application layer should take priority over rebuilding infrastructure.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Miko Matsumura? Where were the above views expressed?

According to BeInCrypto’s report on April 30, Miko Matsumura is a managing partner at Gumi Cryptos Capital, and the views above were expressed during an interview with BeInCrypto reporter Jakub Dziadkowiec at the NBX Warsaw conference (NBX Warsaw 2026).

How does Matsumura define crypto “winning” across the three key areas?

According to BeInCrypto’s report on April 30, Matsumura said that Bitcoin has solved the reserve bank problem, Ethereum has solved the investment bank problem, and the retail bank problem has also been solved; Base and Solana are competing in the retail banking sector.

What is Matsumura’s main warning about this bear market?

According to BeInCrypto’s report on April 30, Matsumura said this bear market is different from past ones: the market has moved from the frontier to the mainstream stage, repeating the same meme-coin hype pattern will no longer work, and application-layer products that can solve real-world problems are the winning direction for this cycle.