Reflections from Attending the Singapore Conference: Stay Away from the Noise; Industry Progress is Always Driven by Optimists
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Reflections from Attending the Singapore Conference: Stay Away from the Noise; Industry Progress is Always Driven by Optimists
Industries are always driven by optimists—let's go all in for the wonderful things ahead!
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsFrom WebX and KBW to TOKEN2049, every event has set a new all-time high (ATH) in attendance.
Another year of conferences—what are people competing on this time?
1- Dress code wars: Sparked by Berachain, the trend has now swept everyone. Wearing a mask is basic; the boldest take it further by going shirtless during presentations—all aiming for maximum virality.
2- DJ competition: It’s no longer just about the music. People check DJ rankings, their looks, even whether they have hair.
3- Award ceremonies: This year, nearly every event handed out awards. But most aren’t really about merit—they’re about networking and favors.
That said, one award ceremony truly stood out this year: Breakpoint’s. In fact, it was one of the best conferences I’ve attended recently.
Breakpoint 2024: One of the Best Conferences This Year
Key highlights:
1- Most speakers had only 5 minutes—forcing them to get straight to the point;
2- Debate sessions replaced dull panel discussions;
3- A fresh, community-driven awards segment that perfectly captured the vibe.
Walking into the Solana pavilion felt like entering a supermarket—not just an exhibition hall.
From a project standpoint, dozens including Jupiter, Pyth, Wormhole, and Birdeye launched new products—zero dull moments throughout.
The conference was split across two stages. I lost count of how many times I ran back and forth, determined not to miss key sessions.
Day one ran from 10:30 AM to 6:00 PM. Thanks to tightly packed sessions and an agenda almost free of ads, every talk was packed to capacity.
During the talks, whether it was the standing ovation for "Firedancer" or the crowd shouting "GO!" for "DeGods," it was clear the Solana community shares strong consensus on major directions.
Everyone knows what Solana’s future priorities are;
Everyone knows which projects are truly loyal members of the Solana ecosystem;
Everyone understands the inside jokes only true insiders get.
It's widely agreed that Solana is the beta of this cycle. The disagreement lies here: many believe that with major projects like Pyth, Jupiter, Wormhole, and Drift already launched, there aren't many promising alpha opportunities left in the Solana ecosystem.
But that’s not actually true.
Projects like Backpack, Cube, Flashtrade, Sonic, Solayer, and ComputeLabs are just a few examples showing that developers continue flooding into Solana, building more exciting things.
I remember at the tech-focused stage, the host asked how many attendees were first-timers at Breakpoint—nearly half raised their hands. Fresh blood made up as much as 50%!
Solana, having climbed back from its lows, now boasts a stronger, more resilient community. Kudos to Solar for letting me be part of such an amazing event.
Solana is truly blessed to have a community like yours.
Move Ecosystem: Another Alpha Beyond Solana
During TOKEN2049, Sui’s surge drew significant attention.
Sui Builder House was also one of the hottest events leading up to TOKEN2049.
I started talking about Sui around April this year, mainly based on three points:
1- Spillover traffic from Solana: For developers and speculators who think Solana’s ecosystem is saturated, they’re actively seeking the next alpha. Last cycle it was Polygon and Avalanche; this cycle, it’s Sui, TON, etc.
2- Move’s similarity to Rust: Transitioning from Rust to Move isn’t hard. So whether pushed out of Solana or looking to launch side projects, builders find Move-based chains appealing. For example, Solend launched Suilend on Sui. This applies to Sui, Aptos, and Movement alike.
3- Recognition from technical experts: Both Sui and Aptos have launched mainnets with tokens. After consulting several technical friends, many agree Sui’s tech and documentation are better written.
At the time, there was no Grayscale trust or native USDC on Sui yet. With these now in place, Sui is poised for even stronger growth.
Overall, I remain highly optimistic about Sui, Aptos, and Movement. While writing this, $APTOS has already surged 14%.
However, Sui still suffers from a lack of hype-worthy assets. Despite launching SuiPlay and hosting the largest gaming booth at Korea’s KBW, standout projects remain limited—Cetus, Turbos, Navi, Scallop—and counting memes, you can still count them on two hands. Hopefully, the incubation program between Cetus and Sui will yield more results.
Aptos seems to face uncertainty around its foundation’s strategic direction. Movement is currently the only Move-based project without a token—worth watching closely, hoping to see some breakout success stories soon.
With Rate Cut Expectations, Everyone’s Feeling More Optimistic
From Japan and Korea to Singapore, since I’m a trading novice, I seized every chance to ask friends about their market outlook. Overall, sentiment seems noticeably more optimistic.
Two or three months ago, most believed the cycle had ended—or at best, the bull run would end by Q4 this year or Q1 next year.
Now, expecting the bull market to last until Q1 next year is seen as conservative. Many now think it could extend to Q3.
The main reason: the rate cut cycle has begun. A 50-basis-point cut is just the start—easing takes time, and capital flows from U.S. stocks/BTC haven’t fully kicked in yet.
The biggest uncertainty remains the November U.S. election.
While some say people are just looking for exit liquidity, and even seasoned players express deep disappointment, claiming there’s no innovation at all,
My advice is: let it go.
Don’t focus only on the pessimism. Let those who are disappointed leave.
There are still plenty of dedicated founders and solid projects pushing forward. Yes, some are actively hunting exit liquidity, launching memes, or manipulating markets—but many others are tirelessly exploring the industry’s future, iterating to find product-market fit, and top-tier founders are still running between events like workhorses.
Take Jambo, for instance—from last cycle’s “Africa phone” project to selling over 500,000 units, covering 120+ countries, and recently launching JamboPhone v2. Every time I meet their founder, I feel their genuine passion.
Or Solv—after struggling to find PMF, they embraced the BTC ecosystem. Their persistence has paid off with $13 billion in solvBTC under management.
Or Sonic—from initially building a marketplace for games to now gaining fame for developing SVM;
Or Matr1x—facing skepticism from launch to listing to testing, they’ve now officially launched their open beta play-to-earn test.
Every cycle has its skeptics, just as every project faces FUD.
Skepticism and FUD are inevitable,
but the industry is always driven by optimists. Without FUD, there can be no real community.
Let’s go all-in for the things that matter!
WebX a few days ago · Osaka Fireworks Festival
By the way, this year’s GrowthNet event also took place as scheduled. Though not as火爆 as last year, it was still nearly full—especially impressive given it clashed with Vitalik Buterin’s appearance and opened on the same day as TOKEN2049. We’re grateful.
Big thanks again to our speakers. See you next year 🫡
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