How should the development of the cryptocurrency industry be divided into stages? At a recent industry forum, Balaji Srinivasan, a former chief technology officer of a leading platform, shared his perspective.

According to reports, Balaji stated at the 2025 Industry Summit held in Dubai on December 3rd that the crypto industry is entering the third stage—the privacy stage.

This assessment has prompted many to reflect. The first stage is generally considered the exploration period from the birth of Bitcoin to the emergence of Ethereum, while the second stage is characterized by the explosion of DeFi and the expansion of mainstream applications. But what does the privacy stage mean? Against the backdrop of ongoing public chain competition and regulatory pressure, user privacy protection and on-chain transaction anonymity are becoming the industry's focus.

From Monero to Zcash, and more recently, the resurgence of privacy protocols, this trend seems to be brewing. However, balancing privacy and compliance remains a challenge facing the entire industry.