World's Largest Crypto Conference 'Token2049' Event Report

From October 1 to 2, 2025, 'TOKEN2049 Singapore' was held around Marina Bay Sands as the main venue, drawing an unprecedented crowd of 25,000 participants, including crypto assets, fintech, AI, regulatory authorities, and global corporations.

The previous image of crypto conferences as 'festivals of speculation' has faded, and this year, the focus was clearly on 'regulation', 'real demand', and 'trust design'. The entire schedule was permeated with key terms such as stablecoins, tokenization of real-world assets (RWA), and Digital Asset Treasury (DAT), with leading experts discussing how these are concretizing the 'answers' for the future of finance.

On the first day, the opening session on the main stage featured speakers from CME, Bitwise, Circle, and Binance discussing how institutional money is permeating the digital asset market.

Tim McCourt from CME Group reported that the open interest for ETH, SOL, and XRP futures had reached all-time highs, with SOL achieving levels it took Bitcoin about three years to reach in just five months. He highlighted how the derivatives market is underpinning the ecosystem's liquidity.

Heath Tarbert from Circle redefined stablecoins as 'partners, not enemies of banks'. He noted that billions of dollars in USDC reserves are held within the banking system, and that payment stablecoins, which do not pay interest, serve as gateways to other assets. He advocated for banks to integrate with USDC and offer new tokenized financial products.

Richard Teng from Binance energized the audience by stating, 'Accepting clear regulations has changed the narrative,' and reported that institutional onboarding had more than doubled year-over-year.

This shift is part of Binance's transformation into a marketplace infrastructure beyond a mere exchange. This year, Binance officially launched 'Crypto as a Service', a white-label model that allows banks and brokerages to offer crypto trading under their own brands, while Binance supports the actual trading, futures, clearing, and liquidity, with each firm handling regulatory compliance like KYC.

Teng also dismissed the adversarial narrative between centralized exchanges (CEX) and decentralized exchanges (DEX), clarifying a hybrid path of 'CeDeFi' (Centralized + DeFi). He explained that while CEXs are suitable for compliance-heavy institutional investors, integrating the strengths of CEXs and DEXs through non-custodial products and Web3.0 wallets is the way forward. Indeed, Binance's 'Binance Web3 Wallet' has rapidly grown as a non-custodial wallet.

Additionally, on October 9, 2025, cashless payment giant PayPay invested 40% in Binance Japan and formed a capital and business alliance.

The two companies are advancing their collaboration to enable the buying, selling, and withdrawal of crypto assets through 'PayPay Money', aiming to expand Japan-originated Web3.0 financial services.

Teng concluded with the message that 'governments and financial institutions are beginning to recognize our company as a 'foundation of liquidity'. We are at the stage of building trust as a common infrastructure for our 300 million users worldwide. The co-creation of CEX and DEX is maturing the industry.'

The perspective of seeing regulatory compliance and decentralization not as a binary opposition but as a collaboration is central to Binance's global strategy.

In a subsequent session, Paolo Ardoino of Tether, Charles Cascarilla of Paxos, and Rob Hadick of Dragonfly discussed the 'Current State of Stablecoins.'

In emerging markets, USDT has taken root as a 'currency of life', permeating purchasing, savings, and cross-border remittances in countries like Turkey, Argentina, and Nigeria. In the B2B sector, there has been a surge in cross-border payments for SMEs, which are not adequately served by traditional international payment routes (correspondent banking networks), expanding its use to working capital and expense payments.

Cascarilla noted that 'legal clarity' has been a tailwind, accelerating corporate adoption through both rails (24/7, instant, low-cost, high-transparency payment infrastructure) and accounts (holding accounts).

Hadick asserted that the winners reside in the last mile (user experience, ease of adoption, on-site) and the strength of compliance implementation. He mentioned that local distribution and regulatory compliance are more decisive than abstract differentiation at the API layer.

The session emphasized that 'commoditization' hinges on the construction of distribution networks.

The standout at the venue, including a few surprises, was World Liberty Financial (WLFI).

Co-founders Donald Trump Jr. and Zach Witkoff positioned their USD-1 as a 'genius-compliant' stablecoin, backed 1:1 by U.S. Treasuries with monthly audits, and captivated the audience with their narrative of strengthening dollar hegemony through private infrastructure, devoid of political color.

Noteworthy is the 'culture-driven' design involving continuous user engagement through governance token WLFI's buyback and burn decisions.

Traditionally, stablecoins aimed at price stability have struggled to generate cultural momentum, but USD-1 has connected community engagement with practical legacy finance, elevating product adoption through 'culture'—a unique case in point.

Vlad Tenev of Robinhood outlined a near-future vision of capital markets that are accessible globally 24/7, centered around the tokenization of stocks and private shares currently operational in Europe.

The tokenized distribution of entities like SpaceX and OpenAI is emblematic, and if stablecoins represent the 'tokenization of the dollar', then stocks and real estate can be reorganized under the same principle, a logic that is exceedingly clear.

Moreover, the company's rapidly growing prediction markets make social events such as politics, sports, and AI visible through pricing, likely dissolving the boundaries between investment, media, and entertainment.

Robinhood aims to be a 'financial super app' that spans from long-term assets to discretionary trading, and payments and cards, with a front line of 'tokenized assets' indicating the shape of things to come.

Tom Lee from Fundstrat/BitMine, Arthur Hayes from Maelstrom, and representatives from Dragonfly exposed the market's 'sanitization' from an investor's perspective.

DATs, which boost ETH, serve as a 'corporate treasury + PR device', yet only a few will survive amidst the proliferation of brands, a sober assessment suggests.

Stablecoin-specific chains like Tether-funded Plasma are beyond their initial high-yield dependency, focusing on whether they can capture real demand, with the on-chain transition of B2B payment flows being crucial.

Perp DEX (Perpetual Decentralized Exchange) resembles a proxy war of CEXs, with its fee-free services and large-scale unlocks creating much noise, yet its UX and mobile-local strategies are emerging as differentiators.

Prediction markets, with Polymarket and Kalshi leading, are evolving beyond mere betting to become 'information platforms'. It was discussed how prices generate news, and news changes behaviors, forming a new social circuit.

As a surprise guest between sessions, F1 driver Fernando Alonso took the stage. Reflecting on his unique Grand Slam at the Singapore GP, he described the harshness of the street circuit: 'The walls are close, and there is no room for error.'

This may well serve as a metaphor for the current market environment. Regulation, AI, liquidity, security—all operate under conditions where there is no escape, and focus and preparation are what determine success or failure.

At the Ethereum panel, marking a decade milestone, notable speakers included Joseph Lubin of Consensys, Tomasz Stanczak of the Ethereum Foundation, and Sreeram Kannan from EigenLayer.

They shared a roadmap that includes raising the gas limit, enhancing finality, and clarifying guarantees between L1 and L2, reaffirming the principle of 'rigorous decentralization'.

Mr. Kannan introduced a 'new infrastructure of trust' through EigenDA (Data Availability) and EigenCompute/EigenAI, enabling deterministic execution and revalidation of AI computations.

Mr. Lubin presented a burn design and allocation policy consistent with ETH in the ZK-EVM compatible Linea, advocating for the sustainability of L2.

Despite the technical depth of the discussions, it was clearly demonstrated that Ethereum is evolving from a 'world computer' to a 'world ledger', and further into a foundational support for 'trust' across AI, gaming, and finance.

The venue of Token2049 was bustling with energy, filled with Web3.0 and cryptocurrency professionals from around the world. The exhibition hall hosted hundreds of booths from L1 and L2 chains, exchanges, and stablecoin issuers, sparking lively discussions on the intersection of practical needs, regulation, AI, and finance.

Attendees ranged from young entrepreneurs to institutional investors, with investor meetups and networking happening continuously outside the hall. The entire city transformed into a massive forum discussing the future of Web3.0.

A subtle message gleaned from this year's TOKEN2049 was about the era of transparency and how much opacity it can tolerate.

Stablecoins are expanding from being a daily currency in emerging countries to corporate finance and cross-border B2B transactions, while RWA tokenization has set the capital markets on a 24-hour trajectory.

DAT is entering a phase of organization and integration, and instruments like Perp and prediction markets are reshaping the societal information infrastructure beyond mere speculation.

Ethereum is positioning itself as the 'trust aggregate layer' for the AI era, looking ahead to the next decade, while Coinbase is building bridges to the masses leveraging culture.

It's crucial not to antagonize regulations but to design environments where implementations can be confidently executed with regulations in mind.

When the system (rules), practical needs (use cases), and culture (motivation to participate) align, a new social contract in finance truly takes root.

What the streets of Singapore showed was a vision of 'orderly innovation' beyond the fervor. The discussions and trials exchanged here will shape the infrastructure and norms for the next decade.

Image: Iolite

Official Website: Token2049

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