Another year of Token2049.
Last year’s Jewish controversy is still in our ears. This year, the wave behind the wave is catching up with the wave before it. Following the emotional excitement in Hong Kong in April, Singapore has continued its efforts and Token2049 has shined. From a data perspective, this conference was undoubtedly a success. According to the organizer, the number of attendees at this conference reached a new high, with more than 10,000 people attending the conference, more than 300 exhibitors, and more than 400 peripheral activities, making it the largest Web3 event in the world this year.
But returning to the real background, after nearly half a year of rising public opinion in the east and falling in the west, policy swings and high costs have made Web3 people more cautious about "going to Southeast Asia". Singapore, which was once bustling with people, is also facing a bustling objective Reality.
How will industries at the regulatory fork in the road evolve? Industry professionals also have very different answers to this question.
On the surface, compared to the Hong Kong conference’s explosive market sentiment caused by the epidemic and the Internet celebrity effect caused by a beautiful photo, the most obvious thing about this conference is the squeeze on people outside the industry. Regardless of visa requirements and air tickets, Singapore The hotel fees that were once as high as several thousand yuan per night also restricted some people who were looking for novelty and check-in. At the same time, it is slightly different from the previous free meals, drinks and parties all over Hong Kong. Although most PR-themed conferences have no restrictions on eating and drinking, a slightly higher-quality Singapore venue often means targeted special invitations. Rumor has it that It is said that even if it is an invitation, KOL will no longer include air tickets, and it is reported that the venue of this exhibition hall is smaller than before. Therefore, in general, 2049 screened the participants in terms of industry and cost. The more obvious phenomenon is that during the Hong Kong Convention, almost everyone on Twitter was targeting Hong Kong. However, in 2049, although it is common to post photos and addresses to increase your presence, most waist KOLs in the circle did not go there, and some even It shows that participating in meetings is not as good as hoarding coins.
This kind of implicit screening can also be seen from the guest invitations and the number of participants. The East-West effect corresponding to Hong Kong and Singapore is significant. Since previous events were held around Hong Kong’s new encryption regulations, the Hong Kong Carnival was mainly dominated by Chinese people. Familiar KOLs in the Chinese circle such as Bao Erye and Wang Feng attended the meeting, and most of the guests were all Chinese. However, Singapore’s guest invitations include more overseas groups. In addition to native experts in the encryption field such as Vitalik Buterin, many well-known overseas projects are also involved. The guest list can include companies such as Ripple, BitGo, and Uniswap, as well as the founder of the popular OpenAI. Sam also participated in the fireside chat as World Coin Alliance.
Of course, similar to other large-scale conferences, the Singapore Web3 Conference cannot escape the group carnival in the social scene. It is full of sexy news and gossip. The WeChat group is full of door-throwing beauty pageants, double chins and leek carnivals. There is only too much talk at the venue. Quite a few. But fortunately, with the support of many capital and technology tycoons, compared to Hong Kong, the conference returned to some Web3 technology themes.
Judging from the themes surrounding the agenda of the two main venues, the direction categories are generally the same. Singapore also covers AI, Metaverse, Defi, Bitcoin and other topics. Looking only at the public columns, there are many column segments that are actually business in the name of technology. Although the theme of the event has been promoted, the technology has still increased compared to the Hong Kong event, and discussions around specific issues have deepened. This has a greater relationship with the diversity of participating guests. As of September 16, there have been 20 hackathon activities announced in the surrounding area in less than 6 days. Regardless of the effectiveness, it also reflects the increase in the technical attributes of 2049. This also conveys a certain optimism that is rare in a bear market. After all, where there is technology, there is a story.
However, in the eyes of actual participants, different perspectives also have slightly different themes and conferences.
In this regard, Gyro Finance has specially integrated the views and experiences of some participants to take a look at the views and trends discussed by the big guys in Singapore.
Phyrex@Phyrex_Ni
The first word: pay.
The exhibition hall this time is not very big. There were not many platforms present, but about one-third of the projects involved payment. Not only were local companies in Singapore, but also companies with main entities in the EU or companies registered in offshore islands, all surprisingly Overcome payment channels. If asset custody and financial audit companies are included, more than half of the projects in this part are included. There was one area where all the booths were finance-related projects. Moreover, most of the projects are essentially compliant or non-fully compliant OTCs. Of course, they are mainly aimed at US dollars and euros. Most of them involve RMB, even if they are not fully compliant, they still have a certain relationship with foreign trade. What’s even more interesting is that I have talked to almost every payment company. No matter what type it is, the main focus is withdrawals. This means that the current withdrawal environment is more prosperous and there are more investors in the currency circle including all over the world. Everyone is looking for a compliant and medium-to-large amount withdrawal plan. I remember that even when BTC exceeded US$64,000 in 2021, there were not so many payment-related applications at various overseas exhibitions, and the payment category was undoubtedly centralized.
Second word: English
When I was in Hong Kong, I posted that almost everyone spoke ABC. Even if they knew that the other person could speak Chinese better, they would still choose to speak English. Of course, Cantonese is also very popular. This time it was quite interesting. Although most of the platforms were from so-called Singapore, Chinese communication was very smooth. Almost all Asian platforms could speak fluent Chinese. Of course, their English was better. The few booths in India, the Middle East (suspected), Europe and the United States are definitely in English, but if they find that you don’t understand, they will work hard to explain it to you, which makes me think that they have done their homework, but it is true that they came from Hong Kong In Singapore, there are still too few "white people" attending the conference, and most of the project parties speak Mandarin better than me.
The third word: It’s great to have money
There are two types of people who live the best life in Singapore. One is that they are very rich themselves, including the project team, and enjoy the admiration of many stars. The second type is friends who have enough budget (reimbursement), and they can also laugh at the situation, and most of these friends are good people, and they are basically the ones who borrow tickets. Others are just people like me who are just messing around. As long as they are thick-skinned enough, they should still be able to make money from eating and drinking.
Finally, let’s review this Token2049. In the past, institutions were all over the place and VCs were almost as numerous as dogs. The various exchanges that created a big cycle of prosperity are almost gone. Except for a few well-known large firms, the rest They are all Dex, especially there are a lot of Dex on L2, among which the third brother is the main team. In the past, you could get freebies by attending conferences, but now, in addition to the promotional page, you can get a power bank. There are fewer and fewer people discussing Bulid. In the past two days, except for a small temporary gathering to discuss RWA, everyone around me is focusing on whether there is a bull market and whether BTC will rise, even if it is a public chain. This is the case. The only industry that works hard is the exchanges, which can really win.
Easter egg: I was complaining to a girl I have known for 18 years. The project I heard the most when I came to Singapore this time was RWA. Everyone was planning RWA overnight. Everyone is a master of RWA, but unfortunately it is absolutely impossible. Most people don’t know that RWA needs to be compliant, and even STO needs a license. Can RWA be wild? But what is certain is that RWA is the next form of DeFi, and it is very likely that the driver of the next cycle will be RWA.
Summary: Drought will kill you, and waterlogging will kill you. The rich want people, and the others are short of money. Crows crow every day and carrots are everywhere.
About RW A
Yu Jianing @UwebDrYu
1.RWA refers to tangible or intangible assets that exist outside the blockchain or digital environment;
2. Reliable valuation brought by compliance/authenticity/legality is the core of RWA business;
3. In the future when the RWA field matures, we can foresee a collaborative ecosystem involving multiple stakeholders;
4. The combination of RWA and Defi will create scenarios similar to traditional financial instruments such as ABS/REITs;
5. The RWA model is proof of industry maturity.
About ETFs and Regulation
Wintermute co-creation Evgeny Gaevoy
To some extent, the passage of a spot Bitcoin ETF is inevitable and predictable. But it will take at least six months to start seeing money flow into these products, and more realistically it could be one to two years. But compared to the unpopular positioning of cryptocurrencies among institutions six years ago, traditional financial institutions, traditional family offices, and funds are now becoming our counterparties. This is a view on cryptocurrencies being regarded as legal things. obvious changes.
Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson
Although Franklin Templeton applied for a Bitcoin ETF, the Bitcoin ETF is also a traditional ETF. It cannot be traded on the trading platform throughout the day and is actually only priced twice in a day. Cryptocurrency assets are different. They can be traded 24/7, and smart contracts can also ensure accurate understanding of the underlying asset pricing during transactions. Additionally, Bitcoin can be difficult to invest in because governments will always control their currencies, and if Bitcoin threatens the currency, it will be banned by regulation.
Pradyumna Agrawal, Managing Director, Temasek
Across markets, there are similar emphases on retail investors and retail investor protection. Many regulatory actions are currently taking place in the United States, and many people are also paying attention to the United States. And in this region, institutional engagement is critical. Singapore, Hong Kong, the Middle East and other regions are already formulating corresponding regulatory policies.
Galaxy Managing Director Chris Rhine
There are differences between the East and the West in the regulatory direction of the encryption field. This is related to the strong regulatory measures currently taken by the United States. At the same time, there are spillovers in US regulation, and other regions that cooperate closely with the United States will be cautious accordingly. In this context, large-scale investments by institutions are very prudent, because the risk of trial and error by institutions is still too great. Additionally, there are still barriers to liquidity in the tokenized market.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse
The United States is currently one of the worst places in the world to start a cryptocurrency startup. The only country that encourages people not to start cryptocurrency companies is the United States. I hope the United States can learn from the practices of countries such as Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and Switzerland, and formulate policies to encourage Encryption innovates while protecting consumers. But if we want the industry to thrive and achieve its goal of fundamentally reshaping the way financial infrastructure works, we can’t pretend that government regulation doesn’t matter. The cryptocurrency community needs to agree on certain basic regulations.
Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao
The key issue in the crypto industry lies in the access to and from fiat currencies. Due to the impact of regulatory policies at the beginning of this year, many banks and traditional financial institutions withdrew from the OTC market. The Internet only has about 60% adoption globally, but people think that everyone uses the Internet and cryptocurrencies don’t need 100% adoption. The crypto industry is currently very close to 5% to 10% adoption and is on the verge of exponential growth. The encryption industry can bring tens or even hundreds of millions of users to these traditional financial institutions, and many banks and traditional financial institutions want to seize this opportunity. In order to allow more users to enter cryptocurrency, the exchange channel between fiat currency and cryptocurrency must be opened.
About AI
Alex Blania, co-founder and CEO of Worldcoin parent company Tools for Humanity
The current Worldcoin still has hardware produced by third parties, which is a key area of focus within our engineering department. In the next few years, we will achieve a truly meaningful level of decentralization, and in the next five to ten years we will achieve complete decentralization, where we will no longer have any control.
Worldcoin co-founder Sam Altman
The Worldcoin scanning device is expected to release a new version every two years with better security and better imaging. Cryptocurrencies reaching major adoption need to be easier to use, better suited to certain more important use cases, and clearer regulation. Worldcoin’s two biggest obstacles right now are operational challenges and biometric resistance.
Arthur Hayes, co-founder and former CEO of BitMEX
There are potentially trillions of dollars in value that will be created by AI, and Chat GPT has been a highlight of the past six months, the fastest-adopting technology in human history. The largest AI stock currently is NVIDIA. Since it launched products that can be consumed by the public, NVIDIA's stock price has risen by almost 200%. NVIDIA's price-to-earnings ratio has reached 100 times. This is undoubtedly a bubble. Fundamentally, artificial intelligence does not care about human laws and regulations, so it is almost impossible for a single government to unilaterally punish artificial intelligence. A bull run in fiat currencies and the tech sector will lead to the next crypto boom, with the next bull run in early 2024 set to be the largest bull run in crypto and risk assets since the end of World War II and the Great Depression.
About chain games
ImmutableX co-created by Robbie Ferguson
Web3 games have received a lot of investment and have enough capital to polish high-quality games. However, unlike DeFi, after DeFi projects receive US$100 million in funding, some products can be produced next month, but game production usually takes 2 to 4 years. , sometimes even 6 to 7 years. We believe that 40% to 50% of games will be online next year, but 90% of games will fail. But the 10% or 5% that succeed will completely redefine the entire industry and generate more transactions than all other games combined.
Axie Infinity co-created by Aleksander Leonard Larsen
Business models in the Web3 gaming space require more innovation and experimentation. Web3 requires a large number of games to be launched quickly. Games should focus more on core experience rather than investing huge marketing expenses. Cooperation with studios with similar concepts is also a current focus of Axie, which helps iterate games faster. And focusing too much on the next top game may just be to please crypto social media rather than focusing on actual users. The success of games such as "Candy Crush Saga" has inspired the importance of Web3 games for multi-type user acquisition and innovation.
About BTC
Tangent co-founder Darryl Wang
Cryptocurrency is a very responsive asset class, but the halving alone is not enough to ensure the arrival of a bull market. What is more important is the current price and objective macroeconomic conditions when the halving occurs. As cryptocurrencies continue to mature and the asset class becomes aligned with broader risk assets, the halving effect is likely to diminish over time. But 2024 promises to be a very interesting year, especially when it comes to the partisan issues that dominate the flow of money to American institutions.
Selini Capital CIO Jordi Alexande
Bitcoin and Ethereum, despite some occasional government sales, still appear to be very cheap in the long run compared to gold or other large-scale assets when viewed as global macro assets. However, due to liquidity issues, FDV and market value are important fundamentals that projects need to refer to.
About stablecoins
Castle Island Venture Partner Nic Carter
1. USD stablecoins will occupy 95% of the market share;
2. More than 30% of stablecoins within two years will be interest-bearing stablecoins;
3. Within two years, more than 25% of US dollar stablecoins will be crypto-backed stablecoins;
4. More than 70% of on-chain transactions are stablecoin transactions;
5. Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Bermuda and other regions have become the main jurisdictions for the issuance of US dollar stable currencies.
*Guest opinions come from Blockbeat, Jinse, personal Twitter and other external websites, and are subject to deletions and changes.
Gyro Finance contact information
Business Cooperation|Contribution:
Xiao Huang (WeChat ID 18925291949)
Ning (WeChat ID 13631579042)
Recommended reading
