Not crypto. Bitcoin had a very short GPU phase that spanned for a few months, before moving to FPGAs and finally to ASICs. Ethereum made a concerted effort to

Not crypto. Bitcoin had a very short GPU phase that spanned for a few months, before moving to FPGAs and finally to ASICs. Ethereum made a concerted effort to sabotage ASIC mining, and remain GPU minable. Such is the case for all other GPU minable coins. So no, I don't think crypto needed GPUs. Related to that, I feel like AI should start moving to FGPAs/ASICs soon.