Please answer KBW 2023: 30 People, 30 Quotes Reflecting on the Trip to South Korea's Crypto.
Summary: Foresight News
The KBW 2023 Blockchain Week and its surrounding events in South Korea have come to a close. From KBW Festival Eye, a three-day hackathon called Ethcon 2023, to the main conference KBW 2023 and various peripheral activities, Web3 professionals, developers, KOLs, and crypto enthusiasts gathered here to discuss infrastructure, DeFi, social media, NFTs, metaverse, and blockchain games, sparking more ideas and possibilities.
Foresight News has collected and compiled a part of this journey in South Korea's crypto scene, hoping that more people can gain some insights from the attendees of KBW.
Foresight News Researcher Karen: From the 1st to the 8th, I attended around twenty events, hackathons, and after-parties, and also noticed familiar faces active across multiple events. Through interactions with Korean media personnel, developers, and KOLs, I learned that the peak number of cryptocurrency traders in Korea was around 8 million, accounting for more than 15% of the total population. Most of them were young people in their twenties and thirties. However, after the LUNA incident, many retail investors were not as active as before, and the negative impact of the Delio incident was much more severe than what was reported. Most people were more focused on socializing, and unfortunately, not many innovative and interesting new projects were discovered.
Foresight News Carrie: Hello Korea! Besides the main conference KBW IMPACT, I found the most vibrant event to be ETHcon Korea, the most innovative event to be KBW Festival Eye hosted by Ret Games, the most insightful event to be KBW Builder House, and the most unexpected was accidentally walking into the Privacy Event co-hosted by Blur and other brand project parties, heading to the next event...
Foresight News Overseas Partner Fiona Wang: The Korean market is a unique market. Impatience won't lead to success. Question the Korean blockchain market, understand the Korean blockchain market, and become a part of the Korean blockchain market.
Justin Sun: During KBW, I witnessed the enthusiasm of the Korean industry community. Although Korea is an independent region, it is still very important for developers. Countries like the United States have taken aggressive regulatory actions on the crypto industry, making decentralization of the industry even more important. Cryptocurrency technology is a global strategy, and everyone will be deeply involved. Personally, entering the 11th year of my entrepreneurial journey, exchanging ideas with industry colleagues and users in Korea still excites me about the rapidly evolving new things in the industry.
Korean KOL Kim Young-taek (Owner of the largest telegram group in Korea, Hobbyist Life Room): Compared to last year, there are fewer people attending the conference this year, but in fact, what has decreased is the noise, and there are actually more valuable projects and opportunities.
Korean KOL Subi: With Hong Kong accepting cryptocurrencies and the increasing likelihood of the Grayscale lawsuit against the SEC driving the approval of spot ETFs, Crypto is currently at a crucial turning point in history. I am very excited about the new blockchain projects and investment opportunities that have emerged at the KBW conference.
Chess, Co-founder of QuestN: The Korean market is like half water and half flame for Web3, like an elephant seated, like a barbarian at the gate, like a vulgar novel, and even like Reply 1988.
Kevin, Co-founder of ZKM: In Korea, the popularity of ZK is not as high as it is in EthDenver and Paris, but everyone's enthusiasm for learning is high, and the future looks promising.
DevRel Manager at Consensys/MetaMask: ERC-4337 enables users to seamlessly connect to the decentralized blockchain ecosystem while retaining the user-friendly experience familiar to Web2, and it provides the convenience of using smart contracts to significantly enhance the user experience.
Jinny from OKX Web3: During this trip, I found that the web3 market in Korea is independent and interesting. We hope to explore more high-quality projects to become our partners.
Lin Jie, APAC Business Manager at Deribit: Korea is one of the largest markets in the cryptocurrency industry, and the penetration rate of cryptocurrencies among retail investors is high. All overseas "shovels" want to enter the Korean market, but wealth effects and community are what customers demand. In a bear market, more builders and educators are needed to work together.
Ben Wan, Community Manager at Taiko: At Ethcon and KBW, we saw a vibrant developer community. Their enthusiasm, collaboration, and diverse skills are the driving force behind blockchain innovation.
Vince, Co-founder of zkLink: "ZK"! With the organization and participation of the local ZK development community in Korea, there has been a significant increase in developer discussions and activities related to ZK this year. Many L2 projects have participated in KBW to share their insights and progress. zkLink has also shared insights on topics such as zk-Rollup, L2, cross-chain liquidity aggregation, and L3.
Ran Yi, Co-founder of Orderly Network: The interwoven discussions and insights are like a massive puzzle, and we are witnessing builders sketching out the orderly outline of Web3's future.
BitMart Market Manager Jake Ji: Bear market? Cryptocurrency winter? Once you step into the venue, I believe you won't think so. The enthusiasm and expectations of all participants are beyond words, the market is not that bad.
Asia Blockchain Gaming Alliance (ABGA) Secretary-General Yoka Zhou: KBW is the top Web3 event in Korea, with many local elite teams actively participating. Through our interaction and communication with them, we have discovered more about the characteristics and charm of this world's fourth-largest independent market. Looking forward to more cooperation and exchanges in the future!
Chiliz CEO Alexandre Dreyfus: After participating in this Korean Blockchain Week, you can understand why Korea and Asia are leading in the Web3 and cryptocurrency fields. We have encountered many passionate and open-minded people in this industry. After launching the Chiliz Layer 1 public chain, we have received many cooperation invitations from Korean companies who want to collaborate with us and our 80 sports teams. Although we are aware of the existence of bear market, it is important to see the motivation and opportunities ahead of us. That's why we invited Alexandre Dreyfus and why we continue to cultivate the Asian market five years after the launch of Chiliz.
Xangle Co-founder Lihan Lee: Despite the current cryptocurrency winter, we can see the high enthusiasm of everyone and enterprises towards blockchain. Although many assets in the Web3 ecosystem are highly volatile, with traditional companies continuously entering the Web3 space, the path to mass adoption of Web3 will not be too far away.
Coin 98 Co-founder Thanh Le: This is a memorable conference experience, discussing and exchanging ideas with like-minded developers. I believe that Web3 will soon be widely adopted.
Web3 Event Founder Dawns Xu (Shang Ueno): We have counted more than 200 peripheral events. It is expected that four to five thousand people from all over the world will attend this conference. No industry has the vitality and globalization of the Web3 industry. Technology is iterating, capital is accumulating, the massive adoption of Web3 is unstoppable.
AltLayer Growth Lead Dorothy: Klaytn is holding back its dominance, while Wemade is competing fiercely, and Neo is still exerting its influence. Upbit is elusive like a dragon, and Hashed is elusive as well. By the way, Tieshun is usually calm.
Ontology Growth Manager Clare: At KBW, I saw speakers discussing the development of Web3 infrastructure, scale-level adoption supported by account abstraction, as well as the innovation of DeFi and NFT. It exceeded my expectations. Also, there are more Korean developers than we imagined.
Opside Co-founder and CMO Dong Wen: It's great to see some old friends who left the industry years ago return. The atmosphere in South Korea is fantastic. Everyone is more focused on infrastructure, with ZK/OP-Rollups still being the main narrative, and the shared sequencer has also sparked a lot of discussion.
NFTScan Director of Business Rose:
Country A 9 PM: "The event is over, let's go home."
South Korea 9 PM: "Come on, the event is just beginning!"
On KBW, we've seen teams from around the world working hard on building. The future looks bright. Looking forward to the widespread adoption of NFTs and their unique value.
Yao, Head of Chinese Growth at Solana Foundation: Better communication happens in a relatively relaxed environment. The bear market topics may be boring, but everyone's enthusiasm and confidence are still high. I've met many great partners and was pleasantly surprised to meet many builders who are passionate about Solana. Many people say "I love Solana" when they see me, and many ask me why Solana has been so active lately: "What's next? What's next?" Keep building! From South Korea to Singapore to Amsterdam, WAGMI!
Songping, Neo Market Manager: Starting from the Neo Asia-Pacific Hackathon in July this year, we have traveled to various Asia-Pacific markets, including Japan, Vietnam, India, and South Korea. Comparing horizontally, during KBW, we encountered the most international teams and the hottest SocialFi projects. We felt the most positive and enthusiastic community. The Neo team is very much looking forward to the journey at Token 2049!
Alvin Lu, Business Manager at Beosin: Apart from the usual vibrancy and enthusiasm for cryptocurrency trading, South Korea has also demonstrated a strong momentum for Web3 to achieve mass adoption through numerous localized projects.
Stan, APAC BD Manager at GoPlus: Web3 user security may not be the most focused topic, but as part of the Web3 infrastructure, GoPlus is glad to keep BUIDLing.
Kim Park, CoinMarketCap: In short, it's great!
Martha Zhang, Founder of StarryNift: The cold winter is a gentle night suitable for moving forward, carrying sixpence, traversing the Paraverse, and seeking the bright moon.
852 Web3 Founder Winchman: The bustling scene at KBW clearly indicates that Web3 is gradually entering the mainstream society's sight in South Korea. However, Hong Kong has a better foundation in comparison. Looking forward to the progress of Web3 development in various Asian countries.
Mirror World CPO Jialin: After understanding the entire economic development history of South Korea, one will realize that both the frenzy behind various financial investments and the development of various Web3 sub-tracks demonstrate strong consistency and rationality. In addition, the elements of compliance constraints and localized approaches have turned South Korea's Web3 into a very interesting market.
BG Trade CMO Hakan: The KBW event has attracted enthusiastic participation from blockchain experts, cryptocurrency enthusiasts, and investors, and has featured more diverse and colorful ancillary activities than in previous years. BG Trade's activities related to the tokenization of real-world assets have also facilitated cooperation with the RWA project. The increasing number of these activities reflects the bright prospects of Web3 and its innovative potential.
