When you first try to move funds on a large scale in the crypto world, you'll discover a brutal truth: the blockchain itself is rarely the weakest link. The real risks often hide within those seemingly neutral infrastructures.
For seasoned traders, neutrality is not a philosophy but a matter of operational safety. If a settlement layer behaves like a company that can suspend operations at any time rather than like public infrastructure, then your asset sovereignty is just a hollow statement. This is why @undefined is so irreplaceable in the infrastructure wave of 2026.
1️⃣ Broken Trust: Who is controlling your settlement?
The current crypto world is filled with uncertainties, incentivized validators are misaligned, you trust the code, but the validators controlling the code may have incentive logic you do not fully trust.
Centralized gateways, cross-chain bridges that can be paused, governance votes potentially controlled by large holders, infrastructure that seems neutral but has permissioned blacklists.
In extreme volatile markets (such as the recent surge of BTC to $90,000 causing $230 million in liquidations), these soft links are often more prone to collapse than the chain itself.
2️⃣ Plasma ($XPL): Building a true sovereign settlement layer
The significance of plasma is to detach settlements from human intervention.
Zero-cost sovereign payments, achieving 0 transaction fee transfers of stablecoins through the Paymaster system. This not only saves costs but also returns payment rights to each individual, free from the exploitation of Gas fee fluctuations.
Extreme liquidity efficiency, Plasma chain stablecoin TVL breaks $4.5B, with utilization reaching 98%. This indicates that funds on Plasma are not frozen in governance games but are running efficiently and neutrally in a high-speed clearing engine.
Real returns, the value of XPL does not come from thin air, but from the real protocol income dividends generated by network settlements.
3️⃣ 2026 Game Thinking: From 'Speculation' to 'Infrastructure'
If you are still struggling with tomorrow's ups and downs, you may lose the entire era. The real smart money is looking for projects that have the characteristics of public infrastructure.
Pitfall Guide: Stay away from protocols that can be paused at any time by the admin button.
Value capture: XPL is currently bottoming out around $0.13. As one of the top two stablecoin chains in the network, its valuation logic is transitioning from a pure Gas token to a settlement layer dividend right.
💡 Interactive Discussion:
What do you think is the core quality of an excellent settlement layer?
We'll see you in the comments section to find out how many people realize the importance of neutrality!
