Hong Kong Web3 Conference: Main venue popularity drops sharply, RWA is the hot spot

Another year of carnival, but the conference has deteriorated.

From April 6 to April 9, the "2025 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival" co-organized by Wanxiang Blockchain Lab and HashKey Group was held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center. This is the third carnival since the announcement of the 2022 declaration. According to the conference press release, this four-day industry event brought together nearly 400 top experts, scholars and industry leaders from the fields of technology, finance, security, entertainment, etc. from around the world. The Hong Kong government stood on the platform and the specifications were quite high. The exhibition area also increased by 50% compared with last year. However, from the scene, except for a slight increase on the third day, the overall conference seemed to be unpopular.

According to many participants, the overall flow of people was almost halved compared to last year and the year before, and there were less than 100 booths, which was obviously a decrease compared to more than 150 last year. Compared with the 300 booths of Singapore Token2049 last year, it was even dwarfed. It was even suspected that elderly local Hong Kong people were invited to enter to increase the flow of people, and it was therefore jokingly called "the coldest conference". As for why it was cold? There are many reasons. First, the conference was held during the tariff war, the market performance was poor, the nature of the bear market was prominent, and the enthusiasm for participating in the conference decreased; second, the consensus conference held in February more or less took the lead. It can be seen on X that many KOLs who had been to the consensus conference did not go to Hong Kong again. The side events that were as lively as ever also further dispersed the flow of people in the main venue; third, it is a common problem in the industry. There is no hot spot, no innovation, and participants pay more attention to price rather than technology. For ordinary users, attending the conference has become a purely lively social venue.

The booth is a symbol of strength, and the popularity of the booth is a concentrated reflection of attention. In terms of this year's conference booths, OKX is undoubtedly the hottest and largest booth. The exchange is still the main sponsor of the conference, and the scene is also very popular, and it is the core contributor to the flow of people. The second is GMGN, the light of Chinese people in the MEME category. In terms of hot topics, Payfi is still the favorite of everyone. Traditional funds have made a lot of achievements in this regard. Not only did HSBC, ZAbank and other institutions talk about Web3 payment in the roundtable discussion, but the Shanghai Data Exchange and Bosera Fund also had booths on site. The former mainly focused on RWA, and the latter was closely related to the current digital currency funds, or was inspired by the "Huaxia Hong Kong Dollar Digital Currency Fund" launched by Huaxia Fund (Hong Kong).

Interestingly, except for Payfi and MEME, the previously popular concepts seem to have returned to calm at the main venue. No one is interested in the DePin track, leaving only a mechanical dog that fits the AI ​​concept flipping at the venue. Solana and Sui, which were very popular at the consensus conference, were not prominent in the exposure at the main venue. I don’t know if they were affected by the low price of the currency. Of course, both have independent self-organized activities, and perhaps they are no longer at the main venue. After experiencing a round of founder turmoil, TON no longer regards itself as "the eve of the outbreak". It has returned to the exhibition area from last year's independent sub-forum. Although it has become a street of its own, its popularity is no longer hot. This is consistent with the actual performance. It was previously rumored that multiple chain game project parties defected from TON. It seems that Web3's Web2 breakout is more difficult than imagined. The BTC ecosystem is even more unpopular, BTCFi does nothing, and the Bitcoin ecosystem seems to have truly become a "false proposition" in the market.

From the perspective of participants, KOLs have become the main participants of the conference. Some netizens jokingly call the "Hong Kong Conference a KOL talent market." In contrast, VCs have retreated to the front line. Considering the lack of VC institutions at the Hong Kong Consensus Conference and the high profile of VCs in the last round of bull market, the rapid adjustment of the industrial ecological chain also makes people feel that it is yesterday's news.

The popularity of the main venue is low, but there is no shortage of hot activities around it. In more than 100 side events, in addition to the actual technical forums and hackathons, various cruises, nightclubs, and parties made people linger. Binance, OKX, and Bitget all tried their best to promote the gathering of people. After the clinking of glasses and toasting, there were WeChat friends. I don’t know how many people walked into the good night with resource blending, dreams of getting rich, and gossip. As usual, Chinese are the core group of the Hong Kong conference, and this year there is a trend of further reduction in overseas groups.

Throughout the entire conference, the most talked-about thing is the gathering of Chinese bosses.

At the BUIDL 2025 event, CZ, Sun Yuchen, Li Lin and other ancient Chinese OGs gathered together, allowing the market to witness the rare "laughing away grudges". You know, the above-mentioned pairs around Sun Yuchen have their own contradictions. Two months ago, Sun Yuchen accused Li Lin of concealing due diligence materials on social media. The two fought a public opinion war over the "US$30 million financial hole within Huobi". Two months later, the photo of the two hugging and drinking "cup of wine" went viral, and love and hate became the adjectives of their relationship. CZ and Sun Yuchen, as the founders of Binance and Tron, respectively, also show a subtle competitive relationship. Just a few days ago, Sun Yuchen published a post accusing First Digital Trust (FDT) of being insolvent and unable to redeem customer funds. Although it has nothing to do with Binance, it also brought CZ and He Yi to the forefront again because of the rumor of protecting big investors and abandoning retail investors. In any case, the three people's laughter and friendly embrace at the wine table are still amazing. In addition to the above-mentioned OG, Shen Bo, Cai Wensheng, Bao Erye, etc. also appeared on the scene. Why did the ancient bosses make a collective comeback? It also left endless reverie in the market.

Different from the above-mentioned popular Chinese tycoons, Vitalik, who represents the Western camp, presents a completely opposite state. With Ethereum once falling below $1,500 and the price of the currency being sluggish, the founder Vitalik undoubtedly received only criticism and accusations. The magical scene also came into being. Vitalik on the stage confidently gave a speech to build Ethereum into a world computer, while the crowd below the stage collectively complained about when the price of the currency would rise. The conflict between the technical faction and the price faction was looming, and it would be triggered at any time if one was not careful. In private occasions, the discussion has not decreased. Interestingly, many industry insiders mentioned on X that CZ and Vitalik appeared at the same time, and CZ was more popular than Vitalik. The influx of people follows the ups and downs of liquidity, which also indirectly reflects the migration of beliefs. Perhaps compared with Vitalik, CZ, who is more "Internet celebrity", does have a higher influence on the crowd. After all, in the price prediction on the spot, 800 has become a common number for ETH, and BNB at least has the potential to shout orders.

Overall, from the high ambitions in 2023 to the huge crowds in 2024, and then to the current cold popularity, Hong Kong has witnessed the whole process of BTC from $17,000 to $100,000 and then back to $82,000, from the bear market to the bull market and then to the crossroads of bull and bear. The conference also perfectly reflects the current situation of the industry. The lack of hot spots and innovation, and the lack of real applications seem to have been deliberately ignored. The bear market has taken shape, exchanges are anxious to attract new members, project parties are in mourning, retail investors are holding on to altcoins, and VCs are drawing to a close. But the bear market also has its advantages, with less noise and low costs. It is the key period for polishing products, which is conducive to the emergence of good projects. On the other hand, the circulation of new assets and the flow of money are key. The traditional and the emerging are blending, and the continuous improvement of supervision is both an opportunity and a challenge. But if we go back to the conference itself, gossip is flying all over the venue, and social networking is still the current situation. The mystery of Sun Ge’s girlfriend and the crazy spread of egg literature are still the present of the current situation. The bustling crowd has different thoughts, and the mismatch seems to be reflected in the development of the industry.

The topic turns to Hong Kong. Although the development of Web3 in Hong Kong is not satisfactory due to various reasons, the ecology has taken shape, and from a policy perspective, whether it is the RWA pilot or the regulation of stablecoins, Hong Kong is firmly in the forefront of the world in the openness of Web3. At the conference, Chan Mo-po said that the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority are also formulating a regulatory system for stablecoin issuers in Hong Kong. The second policy statement on the development of virtual assets will also be announced this year. So far, the government has allocated HK$50 million to support Cyberport in promoting the construction of the Web3 ecosystem and attracting many Web3 companies to settle in Hong Kong.

According to Chan Ho-lim, deputy director of the Hong Kong Treasury Bureau, as of September last year, Hong Kong had more than 1,100 financial technology companies, with an annual growth rate of more than 15%, covering digital banks, virtual insurance, virtual asset education platforms and other diversified fields, including 8 licensed digital banks, 4 licensed virtual insurance companies and 10 licensed virtual asset education platforms.

The policy also followed. On April 7, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission officially issued a circular, clearly allowing virtual asset spot ETFs to participate in on-chain pledge activities under the prudent regulatory framework. At the same time, the relevant restrictions on virtual asset trading platforms were also relaxed, allowing licensed trading platforms to provide pledge services to customers.

Although Hong Kong's window role has limited effect at present, in the long run, if you want to break the circle of traditional institutions, Hong Kong, which integrates compliance and openness, is still the most suitable soil for development. From this point of view, spectators, perhaps you should be more patient with Hong Kong.

Here, Gyro Finance also attached a small essay of some participants on X, so that everyone can get a glimpse of the views of industry insiders in the current cycle. Due to space reasons, it has been deleted. You can go to X to view the original text.

AB Kuai.Dong@_FORAB

1. This should be the coldest Hong Kong conference I have attended. Friends who do exhibitions generally complain that it is difficult to attract investment this year, and friends in the media complain that there are fewer and fewer orders from project parties.

2. Many colleagues who left big exchanges have more or less wanted to go back to work at exchanges this year. Although the salary is fixed and it is more of a screw, it is better to have someone to pay the salary + it is face-saving to say it out on a big platform, which once again confirms the saying that in a bull market, you want to toss around, and in a bear market, you want to work.

3. Project parties that completed the coin issuance a few years ago are thinking about taking advantage of this bear market to do something so that they can issue coins again in the next bull market, while the old brothers who have issued coins recently are basically worried, as if everything they do is wrong.

4. This year, VC colleagues generally show a polarized state. For example, the valuations of the projects they invested in before were too high, and this wave of market clearance was a bit severe, but many new projects encountered later were very cheaply valued.

5. CZ and Vitalik appeared at the same event. Unexpectedly, CZ was more popular than V God. When everyone rushed to take photos with CZ, CZ complained that you should also look for Vitalik.

6. Last year, when everyone was still arguing about whether Ethereum had problems, this year there seemed to be a complete consensus. Whether it was the scene where Vitalik appeared or in private, there were questions and discussions everywhere.

7. I asked several market makers and institutions. Most of them saw ETH below 800 this time, mainly betting on the panic exit of the revolving loan and ICO wave. However, everyone also saw it this way in June 22, and it finally touched 880.

8. This year, there are obviously fewer white European and American foreigners attending the conference. Even in the technical field, the proportion of foreigners is less. Two years ago, everyone was very Fomo about the Hong Kong story and was willing to come from afar. This year, there seems to be no such craze as at that time.

9. This time, I met many brothers who were doing money-making. To some extent, some brothers did change the economic situation of their families because of money-making. From the end of last year to the beginning of this year, the witch buried some studios, but also made a group of people rich.

10. Although it is still difficult for everyone to evaluate the promotion of compliance in Hong Kong, Hong Kong has become an interesting encryption exchange center with undercurrents. Many project parties who can't go back generally come from Singapore, and the currency speculators generally come from the mainland, which has produced a lot of interesting friction and collisions between each other. 11. Some Chinese top bloggers have not only covered the cryptocurrency circle, but also fashion brands, medical beauty, Hong Kong-listed companies, etc., and have gradually formed a large-scale industry network, which is more and more like brokerage investment companies in Europe and the United States. VC coins that only tell stories will not be able to support high valuations; Meme coins exist for a long time, but the dividends are disappearing; projects return to fundamentals and PMF (product market fit); RWA is slowly rising; AI X Crypto is looking for PMF, or it will explode one day; future projects will have two exit methods: IPO and TGE.

VC: I can’t invest anymore, I don’t invest much, I mainly focus on exit and secondary, and I barely look at AI;

Project side: The original path is blocked, crazy pivot, the most concerned word is runway;

Investment research KOL: The market doesn’t want to see the content, and I don’t know what else I can do.

ZTZZ ฿@ZTZZBTC 

KOL: The quality of this KOL is far inferior to that of 2017-2018. Now think about it, the output of 1718 KOLs is top-notch in the Internet, the motivation to make things happen, and even the long-term vision.

Project Party: As expected, true gold is revealed in the fierce fire. Interesting projects and teams have begun to emerge in the bear market. But it is still not clear where the next round of hot spots will be. In addition, many VCs have lost their pants, so now everyone is in a state of cautious investment. If you are a new startup project party, don't give up thinking, and don't stop working hard. Most of the people who entered the circle to do projects in this round are people with excellent academic qualifications, and their commonalities are obvious. There are indeed fewer grassroots heroes in the currency circle. Some projects are still alive, but they are dead. Too many project party bosses are eagerly seeking exit paths.

The track of on-chain exchanges does have the opportunity to overtake on the curve. It should not be a BOT robot. We don't know what the final form of this product will be, but the moment this thing really appears, it will be like a supernova explosion, bringing shocks and challenges to the hegemony of CEX exchanges.

cryptoHowe.hl | 0xU@0xcryptoHowe

The quality and atmosphere of the conference are less than one-fifth of last year I remember that there were quite a lot of new project parties at last year's venue, and even the Meme project party bought a booth. This year, I took a look and basically saw some big Infra and technical service providers. It is obvious that everyone has little money. There are quite a lot of new people this time, and not many old people came. At the same time, the KOL content this time is very high. There are fewer project parties and VCs.

The dog-beating tool track is still very hot. Recently, I talked about several new dog-beating tools, but the overall functions and UI are actually similar. Even some large institutions have started to make such tools themselves with the mentality of rather betting wrong than letting go. This indirectly shows that there are still many people who believe that Meme will continue to explode in the future. But now the timing of making tool products is not good, and it is difficult to make differentiation. Basically, they rely on occupying ecological niches in the early stage, various marketing promotions in the middle and late stages, and the team’s own network resources. The most cost-effective Meme track is still Casino > Tools and Facilities > Plate.

RWA and AI are the two most discussed topics. RWA is actually something I didn’t expect. I thought everyone would talk about Alpha such as Meme AI. In general, the RWA track is basically difficult to disprove, but its essence has little to do with Crypto. It can be simply understood as a new direction that traditional old money is looking for to meet compliance requirements and raise money faster and more easily. The business is mainly toB toG, and retail investors basically have no way to participate.

I asked everyone about their expectations for the market, and basically everyone looked at it after June, but I personally think that June is indeed a bit fast, and the certainty in the second half of the year may be greater, so be patient.