Author: Web3 Event

"You might have a question: what have these Web3 people actually accomplished over the years besides speculating on coins?"

"Before this year, the answer was indeed not very impressive. But this year, there are several signals that make me feel we can answer this question anew."

In May this year, I—Trev Ng, founder of ChainNeXT—was intensively preparing for the Web2+3 Summit at BEYOND Expo 2026. I mentally listed a long guest list: 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 Hong Kong Cyberport.

This list is quite interesting. If you look closely, you will find that they represent not the "get-rich-quick myth" of the previous cycle, but a whole new wave: the deep integration of Web2 and Web3. My team, ChainNeXT Group, also officially became the chief partner of the Web3 section of BEYOND Expo 2026 this year, jointly promoting the deep integration of Web3 technology and industrial innovation.

As I was busy preparing for the summit, countless encounters in the past made me more certain: we are standing at a historical turning point.

1. Jack Kong: That Half Hour Changed My Life Trajectory

My acquaintance with Jack Kong dates back many years. I was still in college, attending Consensus in Austin for the first time. At a small dinner on the sidelines, I recognized him at a glance—he had just become a director of Hong Kong Cyberport.

At that time, I was holding a ruined PPT that had gone through many revisions, looking for investors everywhere. Coincidentally, I was sitting next to the CEO of an old internet giant. But Jack didn't rush to greet that big shot; instead, he turned to me and earnestly listened to this young kid's entrepreneurial ideas for a full half an hour. His suggestions and encouragement were extremely precious enlightenment for me at that naive time.

Later, when OpenClaw exploded, Jack organized a tour for OpenClaw in China. Without hesitation, I helped him arrange the event in Macau. Because in my heart, Jack has always been that leader willing to support young people and actively embrace the integration of Web2 and Web3. He doesn’t just focus on coin prices; he looks at the future of every 'super individual' in the digital age.

2. Art Abal: The Moment When I Was the Only One Applauding

The first time I saw Art was at a peripheral event of Consensus in Hong Kong last year. It was a roundtable discussion where several Web3 big names were talking excitedly about ZK and decentralized AI infrastructure, while the audience looked confused, the air filled with an awkward sense of "I don't understand, but I don't dare to ask."

At this moment, Art took the microphone. Rather than continuing to throw out jargon, he asked two extremely simple questions.

He asked, "How many of you have used AI?" Everyone in the room raised their hands.

Then he asked, "How many of you truly own your data?" The room fell silent, and not a single hand was raised.

He smiled and said, "What we do at Vana allows you to truly own your data in the future."

At that moment, I was the first in the audience to start clapping. He used the simplest human language to tear away the glamorous facade of Web3, directly addressing the biggest pain point of the Web2 era—data plunder. Later we learned that Vana was the first DeAI project funded by CZ (Zhao Changpeng) after his release and received support from top VCs such as Paradigm, Coinbase Ventures, and Polychain. When he visited BEYOND Expo last year, he told me, "This is the first time I am speaking about Web3 in front of the Nvidia booth!" This visionary perspective is exactly the voice BEYOND Expo has been seeking.

3. Yat Siu: I Asked Him, If I Can Order Takeout with Fiat, Why Does AI Still Need Crypto?

The first time I met Yat Siu was during this year's Consensus conference. I was honored to be invited to an internal investor meeting typically only for shareholders.

I was excited to see him, as he is the one who has tapped into all the metaverse trends and has deeply engaged in the DeAI field. Someone in the industry jokingly referred to him as the "Jesus of Web3", as he always preaches grand visions of the future.

That day he talked a lot about the future of the fusion of Web3 and AI, mentioning a phrase—"Crypto is the native currency of AI." I couldn’t help myself and directly raised my hand to ask a very "contrarian" question:

"Yat, if takeout can be ordered with fiat, why does AI still need Crypto?"

His answer was interesting; he did not discuss technical details but depicted a scenario that the Web2 world cannot solve. At that moment, I was convinced that Yat was not merely shouting slogans; he was constructing foundational economic rules for the integration of Web2 and Web3 using profound philosophical logic.

4. Michael Heinrich: In This Deep Bear Market, Silicon Valley Big Shots Are Visiting Factories in Shenzhen

Michael Heinrich is the co-founder and CEO of 0G. I first met him at a dinner in Shenzhen organized by JT, 0G's Asia Pacific head—who happened to be our guest last year.

To be honest, in this bottomless bear market, I have rarely seen foreign founders willing to visit the mainland Chinese market. Michael usually resides in the United States, and his presence at a dinner table in Shenzhen surprised and moved me.

At the dinner, he wasn't talking about coin prices or exchanges; instead, he discussed what he had done in China. He mentioned visiting many leading companies, even some automotive industrial organizations. He was thinking about how to integrate 0G's DeAI infrastructure into the production lines of these entities.

In this speculative Web3 market, foreign founders like Michael, who are so down-to-earth and value the practical application scenarios in the Chinese market, are truly rare. He does not see China as just a simple retail market but as a real world with a massive manufacturing industry and AI application scenarios.

5. What Kind of Stage Will Their Upcoming BEYOND Expo Be?

BEYOND Expo, organized by the Macau Technology General Association, has been held five consecutive times since its establishment in 2021, becoming Asia's largest international technology innovation and ecosystem expo.

The fifth BEYOND Expo in 2025 attracted over 25,000 participants from more than 120 countries and regions, over 800 exhibitors, 300 media outlets, and more than 800 professional investors, with overseas attendees accounting for 40% and an average of 55% for directors and above. This year, from May 27 to 30, BEYOND Expo will hold its sixth grand event at the Venetian Macao Exhibition and Convention Center, expecting to exceed 1,200 exhibiting companies and over 30,000 attendees.

Names that have stood on this stage in previous years are enough to represent an industry: Cai Chongxin, Chairman of Alibaba Group; Zeng Yuqun, Founder and Chairman of CATL; Shen Nanpeng, Founding Partner of Sequoia China; Guo Guangchang, Chairman of Fosun International. Top global technology companies like Nvidia, Huawei, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent, Douyin, Foxconn have also participated deeply.

Why establish the Web2+3 Summit this year? Because the turning point has truly arrived.

6. Four Major Signals Sound the Horn of Integration

Signal 1: The official launch of Hong Kong dollar stablecoins. Just recently, on April 10, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority officially granted the first batch of stablecoin issuer licenses to HSBC and Dock Financial (a joint venture of Standard Chartered Hong Kong, Hong Kong Telecom, and Animoca Brands) according to the Stablecoin Ordinance. Compliant stablecoins are entering mainstream payment scenarios, marking a significant event in the true integration of Web2 and Web3 financial infrastructure.

Signal 2: Mature regulation of cryptocurrency exchanges in Hong Kong. As of the first quarter of 2026, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has officially granted licenses to 12 virtual asset trading platforms. The Hong Kong virtual asset ecosystem has completely bid farewell to the "transitional clearance" phase and entered a new development stage of "normalized expansion."

Signal 3: The United States passes the GENIUS Act. On July 18, 2025, U.S. President Trump signed the "Guiding and Establishing American Stablecoin National Innovation Act" (GENIUS Act), marking the formal establishment of a federal regulatory framework for stablecoins in the United States. The world’s largest economy has issued a "green light" for compliant stablecoins, which provides an unprecedented institutional foundation for the integration of Web2 and Web3.

Signal 4: Under geopolitical circumstances, cryptocurrencies are indeed appearing in real application scenarios. In April 2026, the Iran Oil Exporters Alliance announced that tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz during the temporary ceasefire between the US and Iran must pay tolls in Bitcoin. In January of the same year, Iran officially stated that foreign military contracts could be settled in "digital currencies."

In addition to these four major signals, the tokenization of RWA (real-world assets) in finance continues to grow, while PayFi (stablecoin finance) in cross-border payments is starting to connect crypto payments with traditional supply chains. In the field of artificial intelligence, DeAI (decentralized AI) is breaking the monopolies of centralized AI in data, computing power, and algorithms—these three tracks are also the core themes of this Web2+3 Summit.

7. Web2+3: The Bull Market Narrative in a Bear Market

What has Web3 been like over the past few years?

It has been a carnival of air coins, a feast of dog coins, and a casino of "getting rich overnight and returning to zero by morning." That was a speculation-driven Web3, a zero-sum game where a few harvest from the many.

In the past few years, I have attended many Web3 conferences and witnessed too many industry consensuses that seemed very lively. But if you observe closely, you'll find that most people in those settings were already in the industry. Everyone discussed the future in the same context, but rarely faced users and demands outside the industry. This is also why many narratives sound grand but remain stuck in the internal loop.

The significance of BEYOND Expo lies precisely in changing this.

The Web2+3 Summit is not just about Web3; it is a gathering of over 30,000 builders in the technology industry—the top technology ecosystem in Asia. It brings together Web2 companies, traditional financial institutions, cross-industry decision-makers, and real buyers—these individuals are the crucial users that Web3 has struggled to reach in the past. When Web3 is placed in such a scenario, it is no longer just speaking to its own people, but for the first time enters a larger business system, tested by real demands.

This is also why this Web2+3 Summit is worth attending. What you will see here is not just what the industry is saying but which things are actually starting to be used and which directions are beginning to have the potential for scaling. The previous Web3 relied on consensus driven by emotions, while the future of Web2+3 depends on whether anyone will truly use it. And BEYOND is that place where this "usage" is happening on a large scale for the first time.

Currently, the Web3 market is indeed in a bear market, with trading volumes sluggish and many projects hitting zero. But at the same time, the Hong Kong dollar stablecoin enters PayMe, RWA tokenized assets continue to grow, and SpaceX's Pre-IPO stocks enter the DeFi ecosystem through tokenization... These ongoing Web2+3 fusion stories are the real future. The bull market of Web3 relies on FOMO (fear of missing out), whereas the future of Web2+3 relies on Adoption (real adoption).

This is also why the Web2+3 Summit of BEYOND Expo 2026 will focus on "feasibility, commercialization, and compliance." We do not want to throw a self-indulgent party for Web3 practitioners, but rather build a bridge for rational connections between Web2 and Web3.

From May 27 to 30, at the Venetian Macao Convention and Exhibition Center, over 30,000 participants will gather. This summit may not bring about a hundredfold increase in coin prices, but it will announce the end of an era and the beginning of a new one.

At that time, let us see the selfless support of Jack for the younger generation, the hope of data sovereignty returning with Art, the philosophical logic of coexistence between AI and Crypto with Yat, and the awe and respect of Michael from Silicon Valley elites towards China's real industry. They will all be present. Their vision and execution make Web3 not just a concept on PPT but a tangible reality in the Web2+3 business.

It is currently a bear market for Web3, yet a starting point for the story of Web2+3. I am very honored to witness the beginning of this integration with you. I am Trev, share this article, and become part of this Web3 "Yellow Turban Uprising."

BEYOND Expo 2026 Official Website: www.beyondexpo.com

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Conference Link: https://portal.BEYONDexpo.com/reg/BEYOND26/web/#/en/ticket/mall?track=tk19

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