My CapitalOne savings account pays 0.4%; you can open an account with ZeFi today and get 7% - 20 times more - with the same ACH in/out you're used to.[0] If you go full crypto and stay on-chain, you can find the USDC coin - a 1:1 stable coin - paying interest above 12% at many DEXes[1]. The USDC coin is like a mutual fund, it has extremely liquid high quality holdings, is audited, and is exchangeable 1:1 for actual US Dollars at any time [2].
Even better, some of these options let you keep control of your assets (non-custodial).
Because of this, it's inherently obvious to me that the US banks will be completely disrupted by crypto; in a good way for us consumers.
[0] 7% return with ACH https://www.zefi.io/invite/abzqg (Note, this is a referral link) [1] 12% return on USDC https://solend.fi/dashboard [2] about USDC https://www.circle.com/en/usdc
As compared to equities. Remember, equities took decades before the academic frameworks were established. _Gentlemen own bonds_ was the wisdom, all the Wall Street traders were the Brooklyn street kids, not he Ivy bankers. Present value sums up all future cash flows and gives it a price today - this is very misunderstood, you find reporters saying 'and they're not even making any money!' but we're valuing the total funds made in the total lifetime, discounted to today (I sometimes think if they'd called it financial relativity or finance-time it would have been cooler). I find it useful to try to think about where the comparison object was at this point in its development.
Early stage investments are not available to most. You must be an accredited investor - i.e. already have a certain amount of wealth, you must be connected - this favors certain schools or ethnographic groups. With tokens, you now have access. You can actually participate early along with everyone else. You can join the Discord, participate, and see it through all its stages. This is tremendously powerful, scary, and transformational.
Cryptocurrencies have the dollar figure, but the real value I'm seeing is in the organization and management structures. You are seeing transparency and participation that just isn't how business is usually done, or maybe ever was. If you join the KLIMA Discord, pop into their #policy channel, they are literally having open C-level board strategy discussions you can participate in.[0]
Tokens now are being used for governance and ownership. This is the DAO concept again, which functions something like stockholders getting a vote on certain things, but in crypto it is being pushed further to have 'only' that group run everything. The other strange thing is, to get these tokens, often you have to be a member or customer. There is employee ownership, and customer ownership. Which is unusual and valuable.