Written by: Tom
Recently, the US election results and the general environment expectations have pushed Bitcoin to break through quickly, and the crypto market has also experienced a strong overall recovery. The crypto industry has been "changing all the way", and now "the boat has passed thousands of mountains".
The certainty and global acceptance of crypto assets are increasing, and the friendly regulatory environment will accelerate the world into the golden age of Web3. Chinese projects and founders will also usher in a new stage of development. The market has voted with its feet. Recently, both the old public chain TRON and Binance have performed well, and the market value of TRX has hit a record high.
01 Regulation removes the "tight ring" of encryption
When Bitcoin was first created, it did not attract much attention due to its small scale. It was not until the Mentougou incident that it attracted the attention of regulators in various countries. Since 2017, the rise in Bitcoin prices and the innovation of Ethereum have triggered concerns about threats to the existing financial system, including the monetary system. Some countries and regions have stepped up their crackdowns. In 2018, the US SEC began to identify some tokens as securities and launched a multi-year legal challenge. The European Union launched the "Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive" (5AMLD). However, there are exceptions. For example, Japan passed the (Payment Services Act) in 2017 to recognize the status of Bitcoin payment and clarify its supervision.
In 2021, the United States passed the (Infrastructure Act), which was the first time that cryptocurrency tax regulation was written into law. Countries began to explore new regulatory measures and tools such as CBDC to meet the challenges posed by crypto assets. In the same year, countries such as El Salvador took the lead in proving their acceptance of crypto assets; in 2022, the European Union launched the (Markets in Crypto-Assets Act) (MiCA) to unify its regulatory standards; in the same year, the FTX exchange went bankrupt due to financial fraud by its founder SBF and other reasons, which aroused high vigilance among regulators. The United States accelerated the legislative process and subsequently passed the crypto asset spot ETF historically.
Today, regulation seems to have found a balance between technological innovation and financial risks, and has begun to calmly deal with the challenges posed by crypto assets. Trump's victory may mark the official removal of the "tight ring" of the crypto market in the United States. During the US presidential campaign, Trump bluntly stated that "we must ensure that the United States becomes the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world."
As a product of new technology, global regulation of crypto assets has undergone a transformation from questioning to vigilance and then to gradual acceptance. A clear legal framework and a friendly regulatory environment mean excellent soil for Web3 entrepreneurs, and the risks for founders of crypto platforms have truly become controllable.
02 Payment is the main demand of the crypto industry
From the vision of Bitcoin peer-to-peer payment to the explosion of various concepts, to the bursting of the bubble, the crypto market finally returned to pragmatism, and the real adoption value became the focus of people's attention.
With the large-scale adoption of stablecoins from the "fiat currency" setting in El Salvador, the rigid demand for remittances, cross-border payments, and hedging tools in areas with weak real-world financial infrastructure is very high, and crypto assets have entered the mainstream vision as a special asset class. Users in Southeast Asian markets such as Thailand and South Korea are increasingly using USDT-TRC20 and other remittances and payments. The advantages of crypto stablecoins such as short settlement time and low fees have replaced traditional banking channels to a certain extent.
In other words, as crypto assets enter the mainstream, they build an open and free payment network with the vision of reshaping the financial system. The recently popular concept of "RWA" brings together the traditional and crypto worlds, promoting the establishment of consensus among groups in different fields.
The stablecoin market, which currently has a supply of approximately US$160 billion, has become the most important track and moat in the crypto ecosystem infrastructure. The status of the stablecoin track can provide a glimpse into the overall prosperity of the major public chain ecosystems and the value structure of adoption.
Stablecoin transfer volume by network (in trillions of U.S. dollars)
A stablecoin report released by Insights4vc in early November showed that TRON, Polygon, Solana, and Ethereum are leading in stablecoin activity as of October 2024. Although Ethereum leads in overall settlement value, its monthly transaction addresses are gradually decreasing compared to networks with lower fees such as TRON.
According to public data, the scale of USDT-TRC20 issued on the TRON chain exceeds 61.8 billion US dollars, accounting for more than half of the total circulation of USDT. This year, USDT-TRC 20 has landed in key markets such as Thailand and South Korea, and the transaction scale has soared.
USDT-TRC20 has developed rapidly in recent years, mainly due to the low transaction costs and high efficiency of the TRON network, the wide support of trading platforms, and the large-scale popularization of cross-border payments and fast settlement areas. As more countries become more accepting of cryptocurrencies and regulatory attitudes become clearer, the market share of USDT-TRC20 is expected to further increase, making TRON one of the most prosperous public chains.
In the third quarter of 2024, TRON protocol revenue reached US$577 million, a record high. As an old public chain, it has firmly grasped the industry's rigid needs through its keen adaptability to market changes and consolidated its market position amid drastic changes.
In fact, the current situation in the crypto space is that despite the strong recovery of the crypto market and the continuous record highs of Bitcoin, assets in many sectors have not returned to their historical highs, which reflects that there are still unresolved problems in the crypto industry and also means that the crypto ecosystem is uncertain. In addition to Ethereum, the opportunities for innovative public chains such as TRON and Solana that can seize the "rigid demand" for stablecoins are still large enough.
03 The real reason behind the meme craze
In addition to the stablecoin market, the crypto industry is also experiencing a continuous Meme craze. The earliest Memecoin Doge was born as an Internet "joke". With the growth of the community and the support of public figures such as Musk, it has gradually become a social currency and a symbol of identity.
As a way of building a decentralized crypto culture and circle, Meme has created a unique "circle culture" that has attracted a large number of participants. After years of development, the Meme track has combined Meme culture with the Crypto ecosystem to generate huge energy, and Meme has become an important track.
Currently, Memecoin is active in public chain ecosystems such as Ethereum, Solana and TRON. The Ethereum ecosystem and community are mature and it is the birthplace of the old Meme PEPE and ShiB. However, high GAS fees and low efficiency limit its progress. Solana brings high efficiency and low cost, and has become the choice of many new Memecoin, but the network stability and developer ecosystem are relatively weak. TRON is also known for its low fees and high efficiency. Its ecological project SunPump has become one of the most popular Memecoin launch platforms, and the market value of SUNDOG on the platform has exceeded US$1 billion.
The TRON ecosystem promoted by Justin Sun has created a large and passionate community through cultural shaping similar to old memes such as Doge. The Memecoin project and culture on TRON have gradually spread to global users and formed their own circle. The Meme project in the ecosystem has promoted the formation and development of crypto-punk culture. The good performance of the TRON ecosystem in the second half of this year is inseparable from this community spirit.
Musk's support once had a huge impact on crypto assets and Meme culture. Sun Yuchen's previous views coincided with Musk's. They advocated the concepts of freedom, innovation and decentralization, and both hoped to change the world through technology and culture.
The crypto market liquidity is insufficient due to the general environment of interest rate hikes in the United States. At the same time, although the infrastructure of the crypto ecosystem has made some progress, the implementation of Web3 applications is relatively lagging, resulting in no more solid and powerful value support for adoption other than payment. Of course, the success of Meme also represents the continued existence of market sentiments such as FOMO.
The regulatory certainty brought about by the US election and future interest rate cut cycles may reverse the above situation. When FOMO sentiment flows to tracks other than Meme, the implementation of Web3 applications may explode.
04 Next stop: The golden age of global Web3
According to the latest report from Matrixport, 7.51% of the world's population already uses digital currency, and it is expected to exceed 8% in 2025. Cryptocurrency may move from a niche market to the mainstream financial system.
Standard Chartered Bank recently released a report predicting that the global cryptocurrency market value will soar nearly four times in the next two years, reaching $10 trillion by the end of 2026. Currently, the total market value of the cryptocurrency market exceeds $3 trillion, and this forecast means that the market still has huge room for growth. With the improvement of more technology and market infrastructure, as well as the participation of more users and institutions, the application of cryptocurrency and Web3 will become a new mainstream.
After the regulation officially removes the "tight ring" of encryption, we will most likely welcome the arrival of the golden age of Web3. In the future, there will be only a handful of infrastructure public chain ecosystems that can undertake the landing of application value. They will focus on the leading public chain ecosystems such as Ethereum, Solana, and TRON, which have grasped the rigid demand stablecoin market and the good development of Meme.
Among the leading public chains, TRON is the only Chinese public chain.
Although some Chinese projects are controversial, the Chinese community actually plays a vital role in the crypto industry. Globally, Chinese users and developers play an important role in crypto technology research and development and crypto market transactions. TRON is currently one of the world's largest blockchain platforms. Whether it is stablecoin payment settlement or Meme track, it belongs to the first echelon of the subdivided field, providing the best experience for Chinese users and developers, demonstrating the strength of Chinese and Chinese projects in the blockchain industry.
Unfortunately, due to the "original sin" in the eyes of many people, the outside world often looks at companies and people in this industry with tinted glasses.
From its inception to the present, TRON has been accompanied by some doubts and controversies, mostly surrounding Justin Sun’s high-profile marketing methods and technical routes. However, as time goes by, people have discovered that high-profile marketing methods are being more and more widely used in the encryption industry. For example, some projects such as the Solana Foundation use the same method to promote Meme. At the same time, the open source nature and technological innovation of encryption have also eliminated TRON’s suspicion of plagiarism. With the decline of EOS, TRON is using significant results to tell people that its route is correct.
Back to Justin Sun himself, the public's previous stereotype of him was actually not accurate.
"Don't look at what he says, but look at what he does." Justin Sun's on-chain operations in recent years show that compared with SBF and others who have an overly aggressive risk appetite, Sun is more involved in stable stablecoin income and other old and secure DeFi protocols with the same size, and was eventually able to cross the bull and bear markets with almost no risk. This shows that although he uses a flamboyant marketing method, he has a steady and steady personality. This can also be seen from some of the projects he has participated in creating.
Similarly, OK founder Mingxing Xu also encountered some controversy in the early days, but in recent years OK has focused on user experience, and the Web3 wallet portal it created has received good reviews in the industry. Although the trading platform has encountered emergencies, it has also won the recognition of users through full compensation.
It’s time to take off the tinted glasses we have when looking at Justin Sun and others. In the golden age of Web3, the Chinese-speaking community needs more Chinese people who support the industry so that we can establish greater voice and gain greater benefits for Chinese crypto users.
05 Summary
Friendly regulation and changes in the macro environment in the United States have brought about a certain future for the golden age of Web3. At the same time, the leading public chain ecosystem that has seized the two key themes of payment rigid demand and the Meme culture boom will benefit significantly. The influx of more incremental funds, developers, and users will drive the further growth of the Web3 industry.
In the golden age, Chinese forces in the crypto industry will still play an important role. With a deep performance moat and innovation that keeps pace with the times, Chinese projects represented by TRON will obviously bring greater surprises to users and investors.
