Crypto projects have pursued users for years with token incentives, apps and speculation. Now some of the industry’s biggest pitches are starting to look more like enterprise software sales.
That was the message from Eric Piscini, CEO of Hashgraph, in a recent interview with TheStreet Roundtable, in which he argued that the crypto market is turning away from user acquisition and toward enterprise infrastructure.
“It’s completely fair to say that at an industry level,” Piscini said, referring to this shift.
He said Hashgraph has been focused on enterprise adoption since 2018, focusing on payment, organizational and supply chain use cases.
Instead of asking companies to embrace token culture, more and more companies are trying to sell blockchain as a practical tool for payments, compliance and coordination.
Pitching Blockchain to Google, IBM and other major companies
Piscini said credibility was one of the main reasons why major companies were willing to participate.
When companies first started exploring crypto, many didn’t know where to start. Hashgraph’s approach, he said, was to provide a place where executives could talk to colleagues already working on blockchain, rather than diving straight into the more chaotic corners of the industry.
That helped build momentum. Once recognizable companies like Google joined in, others felt more comfortable exploring the technology.
Piscini also said that companies believed blockchain had real value, but often didn’t know how to leverage it. That created an opening for companies promising not just technology, but implementation support and a more enterprise-ready platform.
Hadera’s unique node structure
This statement is in line with the public structure of Hedera.
The network says it is governed by well-known institutions through the Hedera Council, and official documentation says mainnet consensus nodes are permissioned and managed by council members.
For regulated companies, this may be easier to endorse than a system run by anonymous validators.
Why permissioned systems are still attractive
Piscini made the compliance case most directly when discussing why Hashgraph didn’t open up the node operation to everyone.
“The first thing you mentioned is credibility,” he said. “The second is compliance.”
His example was simple: on a permissionless blockchain, transaction fees can go to validators whose identities and locations may not be clear. In regulated financial markets, he argued, this could bring legal risks and sanctions.
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“That hub could be controlled by North Korea,” Piscini said. ‘So now you’re suddenly paying compensation to North Korea. That is a criminal activity.’
That argument leads to a growing gap in the crypto infrastructure. Public blockchains still dominate mindshare, but enterprise buyers often care less about ideological openness than they do about governance, accountability, and whether compliance teams can get comfortable with the system.
Hashgraph has moved further into that market. In 2025, the company introduced HashSphere, a private permissioned network built with Hedera technology for regulated enterprises seeking greater control and privacy.
If Piscini is right, the next phase of crypto adoption won’t look like another token boom. It will look more like blockchain will end up in the back-end of enterprise systems, where reliability and compliance are more important than hype.