Web3 is dead; Web2+3 must rise
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Web3 is dead; Web2+3 must rise
Trev Ng, founder of ChainNeXT, will join Web3 leaders including Animoca Brands, 0G, Vana, and Nano Labs to host the Web2+3 Summit at BEYOND Expo Macau from May 27–30, 2026. Against the backdrop of four convergence signals—HKD-pegged stablecoin adoption, RWA growth, DeAI emergence, and more—the summit declares that Web3 is entering a new era transitioning from speculative narratives to genuine industrial implementation.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insights“You might have long wondered: After all these years of Web3 enthusiasts’ efforts, what have they actually built—beyond just trading cryptocurrencies?”
Before this year, the answer was indeed underwhelming. But this year, several signals have led me to believe we can finally revisit and meaningfully answer that question.
This May, I—Trev Ng, Founder of ChainNeXT—was deep in the thick of preparations for the Web2+3 Summit at BEYOND Expo 2026. In my mind, I’d compiled a long list of speakers: Yat Siu, Chairman of Animoca Brands; Michael Heinrich, CEO of 0G; Art Abal, Co-Founder of Vana; and Jack Kong, Founder of Nano Labs and Director of Cyberport Hong Kong.
This lineup is telling. Look closely, and you’ll notice these individuals don’t represent last cycle’s “get-rich-quick myths.” Instead, they embody an entirely new wave: the deep integration of Web2 and Web3. This year, my team—ChainNeXT Group—has also officially become the Chief Partner of the Web3 track at BEYOND Expo 2026, jointly advancing the deep integration of Web3 technologies and industrial innovation.
While I was juggling summit logistics, a series of past encounters reaffirmed something profound: We are standing at a historic inflection point.
I. Jack Kong: That Half-Hour Changed My Life Trajectory
My first meeting with Jack Kong dates back many years—to when I was still an undergraduate. I attended Consensus in Austin, USA, for the first time. At a small dinner on the sidelines of the conference, I instantly recognized him—I knew he had just been appointed a Director of Cyberport Hong Kong.
At the time, I was carrying a PowerPoint deck I’d revised over a dozen times, desperately pitching it to investors worldwide. Coincidentally, sitting next to me was the CEO of a legacy internet giant. Yet instead of rushing to greet that heavyweight, Jack turned to me—a complete novice—and listened intently for a full half-hour as I laid out my startup idea. His advice and encouragement were invaluable—a rare, formative mentorship for someone still finding their footing.
Later, during the OpenClaw explosion, Jack launched an OpenClaw China Tour. When it came to Macau, I volunteered without hesitation to help organize the event. In my eyes, Jack has always been a leader who actively uplifts young talent—and who walks the talk on Web2+Web3 convergence. He doesn’t fixate solely on token prices. He looks ahead to the future of every “super-individual” in the digital age.
II. Art Abal: The Moment I Was the Only One Clapping
I first met Art at a side event during last year’s Consensus Hong Kong. It was a panel discussion where several Web3 luminaries were enthusiastically debating ZK, decentralized AI infrastructure, and other esoteric terms—leaving the audience visibly baffled, suspended in that awkward silence where no one dares admit confusion.
Then Art took the mic. Instead of piling on more jargon, he asked two disarmingly simple questions:
He asked: “Who here has used AI?” Hands shot up across the room.
Then he asked: “Who here truly owns their own data?” Dead silence. Not a single hand rose.
He smiled and said: “That’s what Vana does—we empower you to truly own your data.”
In that moment, I was the first person in the room to break into applause. With plain, human language, he tore away Web3’s most dazzling veil—exposing Web2’s biggest pain point: data extraction. Later, we learned Vana was the first DeAI project invested in by CZ (Changpeng Zhao) after his release from prison—and it secured backing from top-tier VCs including Paradigm, Coinbase Ventures, and Polychain. Last year, when he visited BEYOND Expo, he told me: “This is the first time I’ve spoken about Web3 in front of NVIDIA’s booth!” That kind of foresight is precisely the voice BEYOND Expo has long sought.
III. Yat Siu: I Asked Him, “If Qwen Can Order Takeout with Fiat, Why Does AI Need Crypto?”
I first met Yat Siu during this year’s Consensus conference. I was honored to be invited to an internal investor gathering—normally accessible only to shareholders.
I was thrilled to meet him: the man who rode every metaverse wave and now deeply invests in DeAI. Some insiders jokingly call him “Web3’s Jesus,” because he constantly preaches grand, future-oriented visions.
That day, he spoke at length about the future of Web3 + AI, introducing the phrase—“Crypto is AI’s native currency.” I couldn’t resist raising my hand and asking a deliberately provocative question:
“Yat, if Qwen can order takeout with fiat, why does AI need crypto?”
His answer was fascinating—not technical, but philosophical. He painted a scenario that Web2’s world simply cannot resolve. In that moment, I knew Yat wasn’t just shouting slogans—he was using deep philosophical logic to construct the foundational economic rules for a post-convergence Web2+Web3 world.
IV. Michael Heinrich: Amid This Deep Bear Market, a Silicon Valley Executive Visited Factories in Shenzhen
Michael Heinrich is Co-Founder and CEO of 0G. I first met him at a dinner in Shenzhen—organized by JT, 0G’s APAC Head, who happened to be our guest speaker last year.
Truthfully, in this seemingly bottomless bear market, it’s rare to see foreign founders make special trips to mainland China to explore the market. Michael normally resides in the U.S., so seeing him sit down at that Shenzhen dinner table surprised—and deeply moved—me.
Over dinner, he didn’t talk about token prices or exchange listings. Instead, he shared what he’d been doing in China: visiting major tech firms—and even industrial players in the automotive sector. He was thinking hard about how to embed 0G’s DeAI infrastructure directly into these real-world manufacturing workflows.
In today’s speculative Web3 landscape, a foreign founder like Michael—grounded, pragmatic, and deeply committed to actual Chinese use cases—is truly exceptional. He doesn’t treat China as merely a retail market. To him, it’s a tangible world—one with massive manufacturing capacity and rich AI application scenarios.
V. What Kind of Stage Is the Upcoming BEYOND Expo?
Organized by the Macau Science and Technology Association, BEYOND Expo has run annually since its founding in 2021—now entering its sixth edition. It is Asia’s largest international science-and-technology innovation and ecosystem expo.
The fifth edition, held in 2025, drew over 25,000 attendees from more than 120 countries and regions, 800+ exhibitors, 300 media outlets, and 800+ professional investors—including a 40% overseas attendance rate and an average of 55% senior executives (Director-level and above). The sixth edition will be held from May 27–30, 2026, at the Venetian Macao’s Cotai Expo, expecting over 1,200 exhibitors and 30,000+ attendees.
Past stages have hosted names synonymous with entire industries: Joseph Tsai, Chairman of Alibaba Group; Zeng Yuqun, Founder & Chairman of CATL; Nanpeng Shen, Founding Partner of Sequoia Capital China; Guangchang Guo, Chairman of Fosun International. Global tech giants—including NVIDIA, Huawei, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent, TikTok, and Foxconn—have all participated deeply.
So why launch the Web2+3 Summit this year? Because the inflection point has truly arrived.
VI. Four Signals Sound the Call for Convergence
Signal One: The HKD Stablecoin Has Officially Launched.
Just recently, on April 10, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), under the Stablecoin Ordinance, granted the first stablecoin issuer licenses to HSBC and Anchor Point Financial (a joint venture among Standard Chartered Hong Kong, HKT, and Animoca Brands). Compliant stablecoins are now entering mainstream payment scenarios—an iconic milestone signaling true integration of Web2 and Web3 financial infrastructure.
Signal Two: Hong Kong’s Crypto Exchange Regulation Is Mature.
As of Q1 2026, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong has formally issued virtual asset trading platform licenses to 12 entities. Hong Kong’s virtual asset ecosystem has fully transitioned beyond its “transition-period cleanup” phase and entered a new era of “normalized expansion.”
Signal Three: The U.S. Enacts the GENIUS Act.
On July 18, 2025, President Trump signed the “Guidance and Establishment of a National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act” (GENIUS Act), establishing America’s federal stablecoin regulatory framework. The world’s largest economy has officially greenlit compliant stablecoins—providing unprecedented institutional foundations for Web2+Web3 convergence.
Signal Four: Real-World Use Cases Emerge Amid Geopolitical Shifts.
In April 2026, Iran’s Oil Exporters Alliance announced that, during the U.S.-Iran temporary ceasefire, tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz must pay tolls in Bitcoin. In January of the same year, Iranian authorities confirmed that overseas military contracts may be settled in “digital currency.”
Beyond these four signals, three additional trends reinforce the convergence narrative: the continuous growth of RWA (Real-World Asset) tokenization in finance; PayFi (stablecoin-powered finance) bridging crypto payments with traditional supply chains in cross-border payments; and DeAI (decentralized AI) dismantling centralized AI’s monopolies over data, compute, and algorithms. These three domains form the core themes of this year’s Web2+3 Summit.
VII. Web2+3: A Bull Narrative Within a Bear Market
What has Web3 been over the past few years?
A carnival of meme coins. A feast for rug pulls. A casino promising “overnight riches, overnight ruin.” That was speculation-driven Web3—a zero-sum game where a few harvest from the many.
I’ve attended countless Web3 conferences—and witnessed too many “vibrant” industry consensus moments. But look closer: Most attendees were already insiders. They debated the future within a shared vernacular, rarely engaging with users or needs outside the industry. That’s why so many narratives sound grand yet remain stuck in insular, self-referential loops.
BEYOND Expo’s significance lies precisely in breaking this pattern.
The Web2+3 Summit isn’t just about Web3—it’s Asia’s premier tech ecosystem, convening over 30,000 builders across technology sectors. Here gather Web2 enterprises, traditional financial institutions, cross-industry decision-makers, and real procurement officers—precisely the cohort Web3 has historically struggled hardest to reach, yet whose adoption is most critical. When Web3 enters this context, it ceases speaking only to itself. For the first time, it enters a broader commercial system—tested not by hype, but by genuine demand.
That’s why this Web2+3 Summit matters. Here, you won’t just hear what the industry says—it’s where you’ll witness what’s already being deployed, and which directions show real scalability potential. Past Web3 ran on emotion-fueled consensus. Web2+3’s future hinges on real-world usage. And BEYOND is where that usage begins—at scale.
Yes, the current Web3 market is bearish: trading volumes are depressed; many projects have collapsed to zero. Yet simultaneously, HKD stablecoins are rolling out on PayMe; RWA tokenization continues growing; SpaceX’s pre-IPO shares have entered DeFi via tokenization—these unfolding Web2+3 convergence stories *are* the real future. Web3’s bull markets thrive on FOMO (fear of missing out); Web2+3’s future rests on Adoption (real-world usage).
That’s why BEYOND Expo 2026’s Web2+3 Summit is anchored on three core principles: “Actionable, Commercially Viable, and Compliant.” We’re not hosting a self-congratulatory party for Web3 insiders. We’re building a rational bridge between Web2 and Web3.
From May 27–30, at the Venetian Macao’s Cotai Expo, over 30,000 attendees will gather. This summit may not deliver 100x token gains—but it will mark the end of one era and the dawn of another.
There, you’ll find Jack—the embodiment of selfless mentorship across generations; Art—the beacon of data sovereignty restored; Yat—the architect of AI and crypto’s philosophical symbiosis; Michael—the Silicon Valley leader who treats China’s physical industries with reverence and respect. Their vision and execution transform Web3 from PowerPoint slides into tangible, real-world Web2+3 business.
It’s a bear market for Web3—but the starting point for Web2+3. And I’m honored to witness this convergence unfold—with you.
I’m Trev. Share this article—and become part of Web3’s “Yellow Turban Uprising.”
BEYOND Expo 2026 Official Website: www.beyondexpo.com
Customer Support: admin@chain-next.com
Registration Link: https://portal.BEYONDexpo.com/reg/BEYOND26/web/#/en/ticket/mall?track=tk19
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