Looking at the Crypto Industry from TOKEN2049: Reshuffling, Rise, and Hope

This year's TOKEN2049 is the most lively one in history, with the number of participants doubling compared to last year. Many peripheral activities have also reached new heights, as various industry professionals, developers, and enthusiasts actively seek future application directions through the exchange and collision of ideas.

Despite the industry's continuous expansion, the conference this year exhibited a mix of excitement and anxiety, reflecting the significant transformations facing the crypto market and providing a window for observing the current and future trends of the industry.

1. Innovation and Dilemma: Focus Projects at TOKEN2049

This year's TOKEN2049 conference witnessed new directions in industry development, with traditional leaders facing unprecedented challenges, while emerging forces are rising, showcasing their unique application potential and broad market prospects, redefining the competitive landscape.

1. Ethereum: The Public Chain Leader is Gradually Losing Respect

As the king of public chains, Ethereum has always been one of the focal points of TOKEN2049. However, this year, Ethereum's performance has faced numerous doubts. At the conference, Ethereum founder Vitalik discussed the popularity of cryptocurrencies and unexpectedly attracted community attention through a music performance. This performance sparked polarized evaluations in the crypto community, with some praising it as a delightful leisure moment, while others criticized it as untimely, arguing that it would be better to focus on Ethereum's technological development.

In fact, Ethereum is currently experiencing unprecedented scrutiny. In this cycle, Ethereum and its ecosystem seem lackluster. The ETH/BTC exchange rate has dropped to a three-year low, and the much-anticipated L2 has failed to unleash the expected vitality, exacerbating the fragmentation of the Ethereum ecosystem due to the dispersion of liquidity and user attention. Additionally, the recent large-scale sell-off by the Ethereum Foundation and Vitalik has drawn community backlash. The doubts and dilemmas have even compelled the Ethereum Foundation and Vitalik to personally step in to explain.

Ethereum has become a massive decentralized entity in the entire crypto market and even the traditional market, with no such entity existing in history. The challenges for the entire Ethereum community and Vitalik will only become increasingly severe. The biggest issue facing Ethereum right now is that its applications are encountering a bottleneck, which is also a problem the industry faces.

2. Solana: High Community Cohesion

In contrast to the FUD faced by Ethereum, the performance of the Solana ecosystem is evidently more robust and has become a hot topic at this conference. The peripheral event "Solana Breakpoint" received high praise, with many believing it even rivaled the main venue of TOKEN2049. Dozens of projects launched new products at Breakpoint, attracting a large number of attendees, with every session packed, reminiscent of the excitement of an Apple launch event or CES. The community's cohesion and focus on user growth were reflected at the conference.

Although Solana has been criticized for excessive centralization, its core infrastructure around user needs and experience has begun to take shape. The notion of "Solana Killer" in the market not only reflects Solana's rise but also indicates that Ethereum is no longer the absolute leader, and the industry landscape is undergoing profound changes.

3. TON: A Rising Star

At this TOKEN2049 conference, the TON ecosystem also shone brightly, becoming another major discussion hotspot, with every event of TON being fully booked. It is evident that during this challenging cycle, Ton has brought new vitality to the crypto market. Telegram's Mini Apps have significantly lowered the development and user entry barriers, and this close integration of technology and social networks has led to explosive growth in gaming applications, with many games achieving millions of users through Telegram's billion-user base.

More importantly, some Web2 mainstream software has begun to prefer Ton as the platform for adopting crypto. At TOKEN2049, the use of TADA's ride-hailing service and TON crypto payments became a highlight, driving crypto payments through high-frequency ride-hailing scenarios, thereby introducing new users from Web2 to Web3, showcasing Ton's potential and advantages in real-life applications. TON is becoming a strong competitor in the L1 space and is expected to achieve true large-scale adoption.

4. RWA and Depin: A Bridge Between Tradition and Crypto

RWA and Depin have also received attention as excellent entry points connecting the traditional world with the crypto industry. During TOKEN2049, some investors compared RWA and Depin, believing that although the progress of these two tracks may be relatively slow, they hold the promise of achieving large-scale product applications. For example, many are discussing how the development of RWA may enable investors to directly purchase traditional financial products such as Japanese stocks, Hong Kong funds, U.S. bonds, and European real estate through cryptocurrencies, which would represent a massive market. The rise of this trend indicates that the crypto industry is gradually moving towards a more mature and practical direction.

5. The Rise of Emerging Ecosystems

During TOKEN 2049, the surge of Sui also attracted considerable attention. Sui Builder House was one of the hottest events before TOKEN 2049. Over the past year, Sui has seen numerous favorable developments, and its ecosystem has experienced significant growth, with SUI's TVL recently entering the billion-dollar club, with only Tron and Solana as non-EVM public chains. As a standout in the Move twin stars, expectations for its future ecosystem development and performance are high.

At the same time, the rise of BTCFi has also become a hot topic at TOKEN 2049. The emergence of Layer 2, staking, and DeFi protocols, especially in the Asian market, has attracted significant attention. Despite the spotlight, whether BTCFi can develop into a powerful and scalable ecosystem remains a focal point of debate in the industry.

2. The Industry is More Focused on Real Applications

Many projects showcased at the Token 2049 conference demonstrated broad prospects, but this year's Token 2049 stands in stark contrast to last year's atmosphere, with Token 2049's small essays reflecting a pessimistic sentiment. The past industry narrative is gradually losing effectiveness, and new stories have yet to fully form, leading to a general sense of confusion among practitioners and investors.

Over the past decade, we have been promoting the dream that cryptocurrencies will fundamentally change the world, but the reality is far from it. NFTs, full-chain games, AI, and other so-called new tracks representing the future of the crypto industry have risen and then rapidly fallen. Too many tracks and projects have been hyped and then quickly debunked. The poor performance of altcoins has exacerbated market pessimism, while meme coins outperforming so-called "value coins" has turned the notion of value investing into a joke, leaving practitioners even more bewildered.

The industry's current predicament is not only due to the broader context but also the phased death of underlying logic. The previous industry logic and exit mechanisms have come to an end under repeated shocks.

In the context of the failure of industry narratives, innovation and real application cases have become the focus of attention for industry participants. People are beginning to realize that only projects that truly address user needs and achieve application scenarios can stand out in fierce market competition. More and more projects are starting to emphasize user experience and actual application effects, striving to establish a foothold in the market, providing direction and faith, and seeing the dawn.

3. Interest Rate Cut Cycle Begins, Market Welcomes Turning Point

Just as there are voices of pessimism in every cycle, the development of the blockchain industry has never been smooth sailing. Every project encounters FUD during its growth process, but optimists remain the core driving force behind the industry's progress. Whether it is the financialization process of Bitcoin or the innovative attempts of Web3 applications, they have all gradually grown amidst countless doubts.

At the TOKEN2049 gala, the timing coincided with the Federal Reserve announcing the start of an interest rate cut cycle, which became a hot topic of discussion. The focus of the discussion centered on how the interest rate cut environment could help enhance market liquidity and boost confidence, providing a favorable external environment for the price rebound of crypto assets and the expansion of market scale. The support of the interest rate cut cycle undoubtedly added a touch of "favorable timing and conditions" to this grand event.

However, the short-term stimulus brought by the interest rate cut is also accompanied by an increase in potential market turbulence. Overall, investors need to flexibly adjust their investment portfolios, diversify risks, and ensure they remain undefeated in an uncertain market environment. The rise of the new platform 4E undoubtedly provides investors with more options.

As the official partner of the Argentine national team, 4E offers over 600 trading pairs including cryptocurrencies, foreign exchange, commodities, stocks, and indices, covering assets of different risk levels, supporting long and short trading with leverage up to a thousand times, allowing entry at any time with just USDT, flexibly responding to market changes. At the same time, 4E has launched several financial products, with the annualized yield of its flexible products at 2.5%, available for withdrawal at any time, and the annualized yield for fixed-term products of 30 days reaching 5.5%.

In the current market environment, the importance of asset allocation is becoming increasingly prominent. 4E has quickly gained widespread attention in the market through its diversified trading products and financial services. At this TOKEN2049 conference, 4E appeared as a platinum sponsor, fully showcasing its technical strength and product charm, attracting numerous attendees and achieving a dual harvest of brand popularity and product downloads. Now, 4E has surpassed 1.2 million users, with its business covering more than 20 countries and regions worldwide, demonstrating strong growth momentum.

The 2024 TOKEN2049 conference has concluded, but the reflections it leaves for the crypto industry are just beginning. From Ethereum's dilemmas to the rise of Solana and TON, and the exploration of BTCFi, the industry is undergoing profound changes. Although the current narrative failure leaves the market feeling confused, every dilemma is an opportunity for the next breakthrough, and new directions are quietly growing in silence. In this industry transformation, 4E will continue to leverage its strong platform capabilities to help investors seize every market opportunity and witness the arrival of the next industry peak together.