“Investments change fast; human nature and human aspirations stay constant.”

That’s how Meir Statman, behavioral finance pioneer, professor of finance at Santa Clara University and author of A Wealth of Well-Being, explains one of investing’s oldest puzzles. And it may be why every crypto cycle so far has been about chasing the next hot narrative rather than fundamentals, whether it’s DeFi, meme coins or decentralized compute.

In an industry that has spent years maturing into an ecosystem of institutional investors, revenue-generating protocols and real-world use cases, investor attention still gravitates toward the next shiny thing that can offer the promise of outsized returns.

“Crypto is still a young asset class, and price…