Organization: Yuliya, PANews

From April 20 to 23, 2026, the 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival, themed "Mountains, Wind, Clouds, and Sea", was grandly held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The conference attracted several heavyweight guests from the political and economic fields, including Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, and Binance co-CEO He Yi, to engage in deep discussions on core topics such as "The Convergence of Traditional Finance and the Crypto World" and "The Collision of AI and Web3."

Beyond the official grand narrative, the "small essays" written by front-line practitioners in various sub-venues often best reflect the true temperature of the market. The following are selected contents included in this collection (this article will continue to be updated):

SUN XIAOCHUAN

Core Opinion: There is still "optimization" space in the industry, and offshore dollar asset distribution may become a new trend

Some consensus reached with fellow crypto pioneers during the Hong Kong conference:

1) After several rounds of layoffs, there is still considerable "optimization" space in the industry. This space mainly comes from offshore exchanges.

2) The acceleration of penetration in the crypto industry has seen a sharp decline; the difficulty of achieving growth has escalated again.

3) The main sources of future growth in the industry may not come from the crypto industry itself: offshore exchanges, dex, perp dex... A noticeable trend is the gradual emergence of important offshore distribution channels for dollar assets, including US stocks, US stock derivatives, commodities, US Treasury bonds, etc. These create a perfect complement to the onshore market, promising to jointly build a "new era characteristic dollar asset large circulation (dual-driven)" system.

4) Bloggers with strong investment research capabilities will experience significant enhancement based on the new version of the offshore dollar asset distribution center.

5) The new version of the offshore dollar asset distribution center may bring new regulatory issues because it not only directly bypasses the existing brokerage system, banking system, etc., but also "temporarily" bypasses the CRS. Looking back, the joint siege of Futu Technology by numerous brokerages, reporting them for "violating" regulations by opening accounts online for domestic users, effectively sidelined their efforts in the domestic market within just a few years.

6) Regarding AI, most practitioners indicated they are not so anxious; the intensity of opposition does not match that of the great anxiety era a decade ago. Note: The great anxiety era a decade ago was sparked by the real estate bull market driven by "monetization of shantytown renovations" and the "mobile internet" wave. Its main form was "as long as the asset appreciates faster than others, feeling no progress and not learning new things daily would incur anxiety debuffs." Many "knowledge payment" teachers, such as Liu Run, Luo Zhenyu, Fan Deng, and Wu Xiaobo, at that time played remarkable roles as anxiety production machines/amplifiers, as various "new concepts and new knowledge" spread by them often further amplified anxiety in society, especially among the middle class in first-tier cities, ultimately forming an enhanced anxiety spiral.

7) MM, referring to self-operated passive market makers, not the actively manipulating ones, have faced an extremely high elimination rate in the past two years. A rough estimation reveals that at least half of the small and medium MMs have exited, and there are not a few originally excellent MMs choosing to retire or exit passively.

8) Extreme respect was expressed for MicroStrategy, viewing it as the "supporting pillar of the crypto world." However, there is also fear that it might continuously accumulate "risks" and become like Lu Xiangsheng at the end of the Ming Dynasty, suffering a significant setback. Nevertheless, MicroStrategy has indeed changed the crypto cycle.

Crypto Weito

Core Opinion: Tourists have exited; what remains are the true Builders; set aside biases and recognize the strength of new players

Back to moving bricks, even adding a small essay about Hong Kong at the airport

This was my busiest trip to Hong Kong in the past few years: randomly arranged private meetings and seizing every opportunity to discuss relevant collaborations at various event sites...

Many brothers asked me how it feels to work for a project.

In fact, every year I participate in several projects; the rhythm and intensity are not significantly different. However, being in the public eye increases the mental pressure and sense of anxiety slightly.

Personally, one of my strengths is focusing on the present and not thinking about metaphysical or hypothetical matters.

Contrary to observations from many friends, I believe that this year's Hong Kong conference truly represents the resilience of the crypto space as an independent cultural group (note: not just an industry).

Tourists and larpers (pretenders) have exited, leaving behind the real participants who "have skin in the game" and truly coexist with crypto:

• Exchanges and platforms that consistently hold events

• KOLs (self-media) who criticize the crypto world but whose "livelihoods depend on hundreds of thousands of crypto workers"

• Warriors from small and medium-sized P who are willing to invest regardless of bear or bull markets

• Active market maker BDs who find breakthroughs and innovations in finance

Of course, there are also "real breakout influencers" - Brother Qiang, Empower Love, Teacher Baolong, etc.

Empower Love is such a seemingly outdated initiative; a Tencent meeting's morning session can gather hundreds of people. Many such initiatives don't simply hold meetings for brainwashing; they hands-on teach members how to use VPNs, set up wallets, buy USDT, and deposit funds.

Without irony, their contributions to crypto education and expanding outreach to outside traffic and attracting new users make most of us "industry insiders" feel sweat and shame.

Additionally, I met several small P warriors I took over from before on-chain: Although everyone calls each other "Teacher" online in C language, offline, their quality and research ability far exceed the prejudices held by Simplified Chinese public opinion against them. Almost every one of them is an AI wizard, self-taught quantitative expert, or internet cultural researcher. The professionalism, exploratory enthusiasm, and focus they display sufficiently imply that losing to them is not unjustified - they are deserving of respect as young people.

When the industry’s filters fade, those who still remain can be called the true builders of this industry (if one must use that term). I do not know what the next hot topic will emerge, but I know the victory will certainly belong to those who still sit at the table, not those who slip away through the backdoor under the pretense of "going to the restroom."

If we continue to stubbornly insist on our nearly prejudiced "politically correct" views without understanding the inevitable changes in the crypto circle caused by shifts in participant demographics and generational culture, without sincerely listening to every living newcomer (instead of abstractly categorizing them as "incremental users"), and failing to serve their needs in engaging and making money,

then we do not genuinely seek the industry's development but merely aim to protect our fragile and worthless self-esteem.

You wouldn't want a young (or older) "P warrior" to come to you, shaking their wallet phone at you, saying:

"Old Deng/Young friend, times have changed!"

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