TOKEN2049 Day 1 Recap: Positive Outlooks, Fresh BTC, Transitioning from Web2 to Web3, and Traditional Finance Interest
The TOKEN2049 conference, which took place in Dubai this month, was an extraordinary event that brought together leaders in the industry. The conference featured meetups, workshops, networking events, hackathons, and much more. Cryptonews had the opportunity to attend the conference and conducted interviews with various industry figures to gather key insights and highlights.
The conference venue was breathtaking, and the atmosphere was filled with excitement. Cryptonews Podcast host Matt Zahab noted that there was a certain energy in the air that hadn’t been felt at crypto conferences since late 2021 / early 2022.
During the interviews, participants discussed interesting aspects of attending the event and how it unexpectedly benefited the local economy. They also delved into topics such as the current state of the crypto market, bullish perspectives, the growing influence of Ordinals and Runes, and a new type of wrapped BTC.
Other discussions revolved around the relationship between traditional finance and crypto, innovative solutions for bringing more people into Web3, and much more. Cryptonews’ Matt Zahab had the opportunity to talk to industry insiders such as Emmanuel Quezada, Luke Dorney, Illia Polosukhin, John Glover, Stefan Kimmel, Ansem, Oleg Fomenko, Aki Balogh, Gerald Heydenreich, Kerem Ozkan, Siddharth Lalwani, and William (Billy) Campana. Each interview can be found by following the respective links.
One of the main takeaways from the conference was that the recent Bitcoin halving is not expected to have as significant an impact on the crypto market as it did in the past. Instead, macroeconomic policies, US interest rate easing, and spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are predicted to have a more significant influence. Stefan Kimmel, CEO of M2, expressed a very bullish outlook for the end of the year and highlighted that M2 chose Abu Dhabi as its headquarters due to the clear regulations and rules in place to protect investors and the company.
Trader Ansem focused on the rising prominence of Ordinals and Runes in the crypto market. He emphasized the significant capital present in these sectors. Ordinals allow for the creation of NFT-like “inscriptions” on Bitcoin, while Runes are fungible tokens that were launched on the day of the halving.
Aki Balogh, Founder of DLC Link, discussed their new dlcBTC and how it differs from wrapped BTC (wBTC). The dlcBTC allows users to wrap Bitcoin and use it in DeFi without relying on a single centralized entity. This differs from wBTC, where institutions mint the wrapped BTC and control the process.
The conference also shed light on the interest of traditional financial players in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). Luke Dorney, General Manager for US and Europe at BlockDaemon, revealed that major banks like JPMorgan, Citibank, and Goldman Sachs are interested in nodes, infrastructure, staking, and digital asset wallets. Most banks are looking to enable their clients to hold and trade BTC and ETH, but regulations make it challenging to go further at the moment. The tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) was also discussed as a significant area of interest for traditional finance.
John Glover, CIO at Ledn, highlighted the importance of risk management in the crypto industry. He shared how Ledn’s stringent risk management practices saved the company from facing significant losses during the FTX disaster. Ledn’s cautious approach and proper credit underwriting protected the company and allowed it to thrive while many other lenders faced difficulties.
Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of Near blockchain, explained that Near initially began as an AI company and later incorporated blockchain technology to enhance its capabilities. Near is now working on various projects and aims to achieve a broader vision of a user-owned AI operating system.
Oleg Fomenko, CEO of Sweat Economy, announced three exciting developments during the conference. Sweat Economy is introducing chain abstraction from the NEAR Protocol, enabling cross-chain activity for users. They have also introduced magic keys, which allow users to recover their keys through control over their email addresses. Additionally, Sweat Economy has made the Sweat Wallet available in Arabic, meeting the demands of millions of users.
Gerald Heydenreich, Founder of EtherMail, discussed the challenge of bringing people into the Web3 world and introduced a solution called “sign in with EtherMail.” This feature allows users to register on the EtherMail site using their email addresses, creating an email and noncustodial wallet for them. Companies can integrate the “sign in with EtherMail” button on their websites, simplifying the process of onboarding from Web2 to Web3. EtherMail also offers an advertising feature where companies can engage with users and share a percentage of earnings from these interactions.
U-topia, a Web3 entertainment company, aims to help children enter the world of Web3. CEO Emmanuel Quezada shared that the company is working with governments globally to regulate crypto, with a particular focus on children. Quezada’s family is also entering the political sphere in Mexico, with his brother running for mayor of Chihuahua and planning to run for President in 2030.
Kerem Ozkan, Co-Founder of Soarchain, discussed the importance of creating infrastructure to support the growing industry of enhanced cars. Soarchain aims to provide a decentralized ecosystem for the car industry, which is currently fragmented and lacking a comprehensive infrastructure.
Siddharth Lalwani, Co-Founder and CEO of Skate, highlighted the need for infrastructure that can be deployed universally across different chains. Skate is working on building a universal application layer that would allow apps to run on thousands of chains with one global state. This would simplify the fragmentation issue at both the liquidity and application levels.
William (Billy) Campana, Developer Relations at API3, emphasized the importance of API3’s Oracle extractible value (OEV) in a competitive market. API3 allows users to bid for price updates, creating a “race of opportunity” and enabling dapps to make money instead of losing it.
The first day of TOKEN2049 provided valuable insights and showcased the exciting developments taking place in the crypto industry. Stay tuned for our recap of day 2, where we will share more fascinating conversations from the conference.
