After holding Web3 events for half a year in Asia-Pacific, we have these 25 points of experience that we would like to share.

Blockchain Week originated from a conference format initiated by the decentralized community focusing on science popularization and resource exchange in the blockchain industry. As an old player in the Asia-Pacific market, BTS Labs held the Hong Kong Web3 Festival in April 2023, Istanbul Blockchain Week in August, and September 2023. Web3 Global Tour was held during Korea Blockchain Week and Singapore Token 2049 in September. This article will focus on sharing the interesting thoughts and opinions that emerged during this trip:

1. Hong Kong

• Judging from the HK web3 support policy, the local government has done a lot of professional learning and industry understanding, and then formulated policies that are more flexible and long-term than those in inland areas. Although it is much later than Singapore, the existing market share, traditional financial background, and the talent, market, and policy support in the inland areas still have huge potential and are worth looking forward to.

• Chinas window to embrace the Web3 industry is very friendly to new financial technology industries including blockchain and AI. Hong Kong institutions represented by InvestHK have personally participated and invested in it. One KOL compared it like this: I saw XXX participated in 4 events in one day. Although there was no cooperation, due to too many meetings, we had to become friends with each other in the end. This was not the intention (the KOL said embarrassingly). It fully reflects the attractiveness and government-oriented content of this meeting.

• This is the first grand gathering of Chinese people after the extraordinary period. Due to policy tightening, about 80% of Chinese practitioners were forced to go abroad, and a few settled overseas for a long time. In addition to the main first- and second-tier cities, this event has many participants from Hubei and Shanxi. , Xinjiang and other regions. It is a carnival for Asian practitioners and a gathering of old friends for Chinese practitioners. Most of the side events are still mainly in Chinese. Since this is the first time, they can be temporarily ignored. If this continues, it will not be friendly to non-native Chinese practitioners.

• The frequency of gatherings and topic discussions based on the second-layer Ethereum ecosystem has increased significantly, mainly focusing on overcoming code integration efficiency (such as packaging services, API integration), reducing contract interaction delays, and low-code development issues. However, there are still many expired developers. In studying pan-cross-chain solutions and decentralized matching protocols.

• The BRC ecosystem and decentralized social development framework were very popular during the event week, and decentralized social development frameworks such as BRC 20 and Nostr and Lens Protocol began to be mentioned frequently.

• This is the first time to hold such a large-scale web3 industry event. Asian faces account for the majority, while some overseas faces from VCs, project teams, and quantitative institutions are still in the minority.

PS: 10 institutions worth visiting in Hong Kong: Hashkey Group, Animoca, InvestHK, Spartan Group, Cyberport Management Co. LTD, GBV Ventures, EVG, Sandbox, Kenetic Capital, Double Peak Group

2. Istanbul

• In the high-risk trading market, not only are there more female users than men, but they also generally prefer contracts or highly leveraged derivatives. In addition to masters with many years of experience in traditional financial transactions, there are also many local communities who use contracts to lead and follow orders. The business purpose and profit are considerable; in terms of community activity, it is similar to the Asian version of the Vietnam market, but Turkey is generally more educated, so users are more romantic fomo... As for whether to build a new derivatives exchange in Turkey It will be very profitable, and our feelings and estimates are: it’s worth trying. The market characteristics of this region have complementary advantages for Asians, especially Chinese.

• The largest Cash OTC Market in Asia and Europe. As far as OTC is concerned, due to geographical location, cultural background, government policies and other reasons, the popularity of OTC in Turkey is extremely developed, and even signature remarks have been formed in the industry, such as: OTC must go to Grand Bazaar Street and so on. And dual nationality is recognized. Companies or individuals can make profits in the Web3 industry through various channels without paying additional taxes. OTC is convenient, transparent and safe, which has led financial/Web3 giants from Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, North America and other places to settle in Turkey. If you dont settle down for a long time, you will definitely allocate real estate.

• Todays money is spent today, and lira is used to exchange dollars. The Turkish lira has fallen 30% against the U.S. dollar so far this year. If you deposited 1 million in the bank at the beginning of the year, you would only have 700,000 left today, causing some local high-end restaurants to only charge euros and dollars to stabilize cash flow. Many local young people prefer that their wages be settled in US dollars or euros, and only part of them will be converted into Turkish lira for daily use, and the remaining part will be used as funds for contracts or other speculative products. This has led to the development of local currency exchange, which also directly affects the consumption habits of young people. If they have no awareness of saving, they are very different from the Chinese group.

• In terms of market potential, Turkey has too many places worth studying and exploring for the Chinese. First of all, due to the high popularity of the industry, the peoples industry education threshold is relatively low, and there is no need to spend a lot of time and energy to popularize it. , so the threshold for using most mainstream products in Turkey is not high. Whether it’s local talents, policies, market trends, or data, interested friends can discuss it together. On the other hand, there are fewer local projects and VCs, and there is a lack of industry developers. The ecosystem is still mainly based on exchanges, KOLs and communities.

PS: 10 institutions/KOL worth visiting in Turkey: 0x Wilds, Bitci, AltcoinTürk, Coin Mühendisi, Muhabbit, Crypto House, Mete baskaya, ErkanG, BTCTurk, Paribu

3. Seoul

• GameFi is also one of the most discussed topics. More than 70% of the old and new Korean friends I met offline are game-related practitioners or have experience in the pan-entertainment industry. The characteristic is that South Koreas GameFi track has a strong IP, and the game settings are also compatible with the usage habits of web2 and web3 users. It is more friendly and has stronger metal absorption. The development and aesthetic abilities are online, it has the soil for the development of phenomenal games, and there are many talents in the entertainment industry.

• The Korean authorities continue to introduce new regulatory policies for the encryption industry, which have a great impact on exchanges, project teams and VCs. The impact of the Luna incident on South Korea was greater than we expected, and the subsequent FTX thunderstorms further deepened the concerns of the Korean government authorities and the public about DeFi. The supervision of exchanges, especially the compliance reviews of leading local exchanges Bithumb and Upbit, has resulted in many projects that manipulate the secondary market or have unknown sources of funds being forcibly removed from the shelves because they cannot fully disclose the source of funds used.

• The entire Korean NFT circle is discussing the new NFT protocol 6551. Cross-border cooperation between NFT and traditional industries is accelerating. The real value, application scenarios and sustainability of NFT are more discussed. Korean NFT users are very loyal, and the users themselves are also senior art lovers.

• Content: Content creation is very important in both traditional and web3 industries in Korea. When we communicated with Hashed, we learned that the K-pop girl group TripleS they are currently incubating is an important part of content making.

• Reputation and brand: Because of the small circle (small population, concentrated in Seoul) and regulatory reasons, local teams in South Korea are very concerned about their reputation and brand, while other teams with radical adventurous ideas plan to evacuate from South Korea to develop in Southeast Asia. .

• Creativity and lag: Among the Korean projects we talked about, we found that many projects were based on industry tracks and gameplay 2 or 3 years ago; Tokenomics is still the design model of traditional industries, and its operational ideas and globalization also have some flaws. ....But in terms of marketing methods, the creativity of the brand is still remarkable.

• Korean users are still the mainstay of digital cryptocurrencies. Hot projects such as Aptos, Sui, Sei, and Cyberconnect were launched. The trading volume of mainstream Korean exchanges on that day was several times that of other exchanges (including Binance). It almost took one country to single-handedly challenge the entire world. world.

PS: 10 institutions worth visiting in South Korea: Hashed (UNOPND), Xangle, Klaytn, WEMIX, PlayDapp, DeSpread, ALTAVA, FactBlock, Onbuff, KIMPGA

4. Singapore

• It is still the Web3 hub in Asia, with the most complete and mature policies and regulations.

• Participants and speakers are most evenly distributed and international, and at token 2049 you can meet practitioners or enthusiasts from around the world.

• Exchanges, payment companies, code review agencies and quantitative institutions account for a high proportion of the exhibitors, and most of the participating project parties are well-known and mature projects.

• The early project team was looking for investors throughout the token 2049 meeting. In some side events, even going to the bathroom may encounter the project team pitching investment institutions.

• The main purpose of mature old projects or well-known new projects in token 2049 is to tell the world: we are still iterating.

• There is healthy competition between new and old L1 and L2 projects, creating a peaceful scene: discussing on the same stage and helping each other. In addition to BNB Chain, which we have cooperated with since the early days of its establishment, Ton is the public chain project we encountered the most during the event week. As our Assembly roundtable guest, we look forward to the next market performance of Taiko, Shardeum and Layer N.

• Investment institutions have joined forces to help themselves, and have established alliances or LPs one after another.

• It is a pity that there is a lack of new narrative, and topics such as ERC 4337, ERC 6551, RWA, L1 and Compliance are still being discussed.

PS: 10 institutions worth visiting in Singapore: Amber Group, Matrix, Bybit, Nansen, Avalanche, Mask Network, DeFiance Capital, Saison Capital, Dorahacks, Matrixport