Efe Bulduk exclusive interview: "Altcoins will progress this year"

Decentralized finance platform Jupiter organized an event called Catstanbul 2025 in Istanbul last weekend. The event attracted high interest from both foreign and local participants.

Economist Efe Bulduk, one of the leading figures in the Turkish crypto ecosystem, who answered Coinkolik's questions at the Catstanbul 2025 event, evaluated the current state of the Solana network and listed his predictions about the market, alongside the memecoin frenzy that is shaking the market.

What do you think about Jupiter organizing this event in Istanbul? What are your first impressions?

Crypto is actually a matter of timing. There are certain energies in certain cycles. We are in the time period when Jupiter also shines. Therefore, the timing of the event is very good. We are generally a nation in Turkey accustomed to everything coming very late to us. There is a hype about memecoins and it reaches us a year later. Generally in crypto events, it's like time travel, maybe you go ahead by a year or even two. There are very serious foreign visitors coming from abroad. There are hardly any Turkish speakers above. The interest of the Turkish people, the interest of foreigners, the correct timing, and the high budget brought about such a result.

"The Turkish crypto community has proven itself"

Do you think events like this are a stepping stone for developers in the Turkish crypto ecosystem?

Coinkolik readers may also give a good idea: The establishment of centralized exchanges develops as follows: These are all friends. It is a closed community where a group of Chinese, Singaporean, and Hong Kong friends come together. Immediately afterwards, applications such as decentralized finance developed in a similar parallel. Turkey had a lot of difficulty entering this. Until when? Until 2022 and 2023. There are also good projects in Turkey now. In addition to FirstBatch, where I am also one of the founders, there are many other applications such as Citrea, Clave, Utilify. As a result, the Turkish community has also proven itself. It encouraged developers related to the subject. When you look, yes, we do not have a crypto entrepreneurship ecosystem that achieves as much success as the ones coming out of friend groups. But we are in a much better position than three to five years ago. Projects that are in good positions globally and that come out of Turkey have started to reach a certain point. Therefore, this situation also encouraged entrepreneurs, software developers, and developers. We are still not ahead of the global trend, but what I am trying to say is this: We are not so far behind compared to the centralized exchange frenzy and the subsequent other frenzies experienced in 2016-2017, we are catching up. We need to work and chase more. We are not far behind, but we are not ahead either.

What do you think about the Solana blockchain, which has been breaking records with the increasing interest in memecoins, especially TRUMP and MELANIA recently? There are those who believe that the increasing prominence of memecoins in the industry will harm the decentralized world in the long run. What do you think?

Solana's flagship event Breakpoint was in Lisbon in November 2021. I also went there. And at that time, Solana was again a point of much talk for everyone. I saw Patek Philippe watches, Hermes bags in their arms... I saw that Solana had gone to a very bad place in terms of mentality. I left the event. I was very criticized at that time. Solana's price was $256 if I remember correctly, and it performed very well for 10 days after the event. Then it entered a downtrend, and Solana's price dropped to $3-5. During this time, the Solana team took very good steps for institutionalization. The establishment of Superteam, DEXs like Raydium improved the user experience. In short, Solana has come to a good place where it touches the user.

"No one cares about decentralization"

Yes, I understand the point you are talking about. Because this is populism. Solana is a much more populist network. What does that mean? Let's get a user in quickly, he's making memecoins on Pump.fun, and so on. Ethereum, on the other hand, is positioned at a completely different point. There are all colors in life. It's just not black or white. It's the same in politics. In Europe, populist parties are more at the forefront. No one is interested in decentralization. On an individual basis, the bottom line is: "Am I making money from memecoins? Or is it fun?" Because, as a matter of fact, the memecoin represents another will. Why do people go and buy national lottery tickets? Isn't it to get rich? That's the answer: It makes you hope and dream. Here's how it goes with memecoins: When I buy any memecoin, I can dream and feel like I'm part of this community. "That's the benefit for me, too," he says. As both an investor and a trader, I see it this way: The Solana network is very good at bringing new people in. They have also solved the organizational deficiencies of the past. They have academies like Superteam, they work very well regionally. They have apps like Jupiter that touch the end user. They're in a good spot. They have investors and are garnering great support. They say, is art for art's sake or is it for society? You can't expect a hungry man to stand in front of a Mona Lisa painting and get something out of it. These people also want to make money. You can't say to the person who wants to make money here, "This is not decentralized at all."

"TRUMP coin is hurting the industry in general"

Although the return of memecoins is high, their volatility is equally high. We also know that many of these memecoins, which have no basis in any project, have created numerous victims by following a pump-and-dump strategy. What is your approach in this regard?

I am totally against it. The last tweet I posted was a month ago. I do not approach this pragmatically. I do not think it will benefit me. I saw the TRUMP coin at 10 dollars. But I didn't buy it. I don't want such a thing in my life. It may attract hundreds of thousands of users to the ecosystem, but I think it generally does harm. The slope is steep, new people are constantly coming anyway. I don't want 200,000 or 300,000 people to come here in one day. Because then you're emptying it. But can you go against human nature? Who are we to change human nature? People need hope. For example, I explain, and most people don't believe they can make good money from Bitcoin. I was saying buy at 20,000 dollars and take a long-term approach, today I'm saying buy for the long term. People here are trying to satisfy their desire for gambling to some extent. I am also against celebrities who pretend to buy on social media but actually don't buy and also attract people here. I am also against exchanges that suddenly list and promote it. But I can't be mad at any of them. They are also in their own business and power. People should not give them credit for this.

"I expect major American banks to enter the crypto market in the new year."

**How do you see the crypto market in the new year? How do you interpret the market with Trump's crypto-friendly administration?

I am very clear about this. I think the market will be primed very seriously. I have drawn 10 reasons in my own private life about this. Coinkolik readers, I can summarize it like this: When spot Bitcoin ETFs were launched, investors expected it to rise immediately, didn't they? But it didn't rise immediately, it rose over time. There are regulations in the US that were preventing traditional financial institutions from entering here. Now they are lifting these laws like (Sab 121). I expect major American banks to enter this field in 2025. I wouldn't be surprised if giants like Citi, Bank of America, JPMorgan enter the crypto world. At least I expect one or two of them to enter. What did Trump say? Report on the strategic reserve issue within a month and deliver it within 180 days. I expect the strategic reserve move of the US to lead other central banks to make purchases. A lot of companies like Facebook will buy it upfront. Channels that can reach more people will be opened. The US economy is already doing well, and it will continue to support this. It will set an example for other central banks as well.

"After the withdrawal, it will be the turn of altcoins"

Did you watch the swearing-in ceremony? Are they the types who get along with Elon Musk, Sam Altman, or Mark Zuckerberg? No. They support the US president and will come here by force. This will bring new money and people here in the long term. What does this mean? It means prices will increase. One million tokens are released every day, so not every coin you buy will perform like before, but if you position yourself correctly, 3x, 5x, and 10x are still possible. I'm positive about Bitcoin and Ethereum as well. I expect a peak in price in September and November. It could be similar to the previous cycle: a peak, a pullback, progress of altcoins, and then a new peak in Bitcoin around September or October, followed by a distribution phase. After this cycle, there will be a price correction.

Do you expect the Bitcoin dominance, closely followed by altcoin investors, to fall during the same period?

I think it will fall before September. It will be the second phase in September and it will be the distribution phase of Bitcoin. Speculating, if we see the peak at $200,000, it will also pull back to $70,000.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendation. Every investment and trading transaction carries risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making decisions.