Author: Tom
Recently, the outcome of the US election and the expected improvement in the macro environment have driven a rapid surge in Bitcoin, and the crypto market has also experienced a strong overall recovery. The crypto industry has gone through "changing fortunes" over the years, and now "the light boat has crossed the mountains."
The certainty and global acceptance of crypto assets are increasing, and a friendly regulatory environment will also accelerate the world's entry into the golden age of Web3, and Chinese projects and founders will also usher in a new stage of development. The market has voted with its feet, and recently, both the veteran public chain TRON and Binance have performed well, with the market capitalization of TRX reaching a new high.
01 Regulation removes the "tight collar" on crypto
At the beginning of Bitcoin's birth, due to its small scale, it did not attract much attention until the "Mentougou incident" caught the attention of regulators in various countries. Starting in 2017, the rise in Bitcoin prices and the innovation of Ethereum raised concerns about the threat to the existing financial system, and some countries and regions increased their crackdown efforts. In 2018, the US SEC began to identify certain Tokens as securities and launched a multi-year legal challenge, while the EU launched the "Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive" (5AMLD). However, there were exceptions, such as Japan, which in 2017 passed the "Payment Services Act" to legally recognize the status of Bitcoin payments and clarify the regulations.
In 2021, the US passed the "Infrastructure Act," which was the first time it incorporated crypto currency tax regulation into law. Countries began to explore new regulatory measures and tools such as CBDC to address the challenges posed by crypto assets, and that year, countries like El Salvador were the first to prove the acceptance of crypto assets. In 2022, the EU introduced the "Crypto Asset Markets Act" (MiCA) to unify its regulatory standards, and that year, the FTX exchange went bankrupt due to financial fraud by its founder SBF, which raised high regulatory vigilance. The US accelerated the legislative process and subsequently made history by passing the crypto asset spot ETF.
Today, regulation seems to have found a balance between technological innovation and financial risk, and is beginning to calmly address the challenges posed by crypto assets. Trump's victory may mark the US officially removing the "tight collar" on the crypto market. During the US presidential campaign, Trump openly stated that "we must ensure that America becomes the crypto capital of the world and the world's Bitcoin superpower."
As a new technology product, crypto assets have gone through a transformation from skepticism to vigilance to gradual acceptance globally. A clear legal framework and a friendly regulatory environment mean an excellent soil for Web3 entrepreneurs, and the risks of crypto platform founders have truly become controllable.
02 Payment is the main rigid demand in the crypto industry
From the vision of Bitcoin's peer-to-peer payment to the explosion of various concepts, then the bursting of the bubble, the crypto market has finally returned to pragmatism, and the real adoption value has become the focus of attention.
With the "legal tender" setting in El Salvador and the large-scale adoption of stablecoins, the rigid demand for remittances and cross-border payments, as well as hedging tools, is very high in regions with weak financial infrastructure in the real world. As a special asset class, crypto assets have entered the mainstream vision. Users in markets like Thailand and South Korea are increasingly using USDT-TRC20 for remittances and payments, and the advantages of crypto stablecoins in terms of short settlement time and low fees have to some extent replaced traditional banking channels.
In other words, while crypto assets have entered the mainstream vision, they have brought the vision of reshaping the financial system and built an open and free payment network. The recent hot "RWA" concept has brought together the traditional and crypto worlds, promoting the establishment of consensus among different groups.
The current stablecoin market with a supply of about $160 billion has become the most important track and moat in the crypto ecosystem infrastructure, and the status of the stablecoin track can give a glimpse of the prosperity and adoption value of the ecosystems of various major public chains.
Stablecoin transfer volume by network (unit: trillion USD)
A stablecoin report released by Insights4vc in early November shows that as of October 2024, TRON, Polygon, Solana and Ethereum are leading in stablecoin activities. While Ethereum is leading in overall settlement value, the number of monthly active addresses is gradually decreasing compared to lower-cost networks like TRON.
According to public data, the USDT-TRC20 issued on the TRON chain has a scale of over $61.8 billion, accounting for a large portion of the total USDT circulation. This year, USDT-TRC20 has been successively launched in key markets such as Thailand and South Korea, with a surge in trading volume.
The rapid development of USDT-TRC20 in recent years is mainly due to the low transaction cost and high efficiency of the TRON network, the widespread support of trading platforms, and the large-scale popularization in regions with cross-border payments and fast settlement needs. As more countries accept cryptocurrencies and the regulatory attitude becomes clearer, the market share of USDT-TRC20 is expected to further strengthen, making TRON one of the most prosperous public chains.
In the third quarter of 2024, TRON protocol revenue reached a record high of $577 million. As a veteran public chain, through its keen adaptability to market changes, it has firmly grasped the rigid demand of the industry and consolidated its market position in the midst of drastic changes.
In fact, the current state of the crypto industry is that although the crypto market has experienced a strong recovery, with Bitcoin constantly hitting new highs, many track assets have not been able to return to their historical highs, which reflects that there are still unresolved issues in the crypto industry, and it also means that the crypto ecosystem landscape is not yet determined. Besides Ethereum, there are still ample opportunities for innovative public chains like TRON and Solana that can grasp the "rigid demand" of stablecoins.
03 The real reason behind the Meme craze
In addition to the rigid demand for the stablecoin market, the crypto industry has also experienced a series of Meme crazes. The earliest Memecoin Doge was born from an internet "joke", and with the growth of the community and the support of public figures like Musk, it has gradually become a symbol of social currency and identity.
Meme, as a way of decentralized crypto culture and circle building, has shaped a unique "circle culture" that has attracted a large number of participants. After years of development, the combination of Meme culture and the Crypto ecosystem has generated huge energy, and Meme has become an important track.
Currently, Memecoins are active in ecosystems such as Ethereum, Solana and TRON, with the Ethereum ecosystem and community being the birthplace of veteran Memes like PEPE and SHIB, but high gas fees and low efficiency have limited its progress. Solana has brought high efficiency and low fees, becoming the choice for many new Memecoins, but its network stability and developer ecosystem are relatively weak. TRON is also known for its low fees and high efficiency, and its ecosystem project SunPump has become one of the most popular Memecoin launch platforms, with its SUNDOG having a market cap of over $1 billion.
The TRON ecosystem driven by Justin Sun has built a large and passionate community through cultural shaping similar to old-school Meme projects like Doge. The Memecoin projects and culture on the TRON TRON ecosystem have gradually spread to global users, forming their own circles, and the Meme projects in the ecosystem have driven the formation and development of the crypto punk culture. The good performance of the TRON TRON ecosystem in the second half of this year and this community spirit are inseparable.
Musk's support has had a huge impact on crypto assets and Meme culture. Justin Sun's previous statements were in line with Musk's, as they both advocate the ideals of freedom, innovation and decentralization, and hope to change the world through technology and culture.
The lack of liquidity in the crypto market due to the US interest rate hike, and the fact that the infrastructure of the crypto ecosystem has made some progress, but the application of Web3 has been relatively lagging, has led to the lack of a more solid and powerful adoption value support other than payment, of course, the success of Meme also represents the persistent existence of market sentiment like FOMO.
The regulatory certainty brought by the US election and the future rate cut cycle may reverse the above situation, and when the FOMO sentiment flows to tracks other than Meme, the application of Web3 may explode.
04 Next stop: The golden age of global Web3
The latest report from Matrixport shows that 7.51% of the global population is using digital currencies, and it is expected to break through 8% by 2025. Cryptocurrencies may shift from a niche market to the mainstream financial system.
Standard Chartered Bank recently released a report predicting that the global cryptocurrency market capitalization will nearly quadruple in the next two years, reaching $10 trillion by the end of 2026. Currently, the total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market exceeds $3 trillion, which means that the market still has huge growth potential. With the further improvement of technology and market infrastructure, as well as the participation of more users and institutions, the application of cryptocurrencies and Web3 will become a new mainstream.
After the regulatory "tight collar" on cryptocurrencies is officially removed, we will most likely welcome the arrival of the golden age of Web3. Among the public chain ecosystems that can undertake the application value landing, only a few can be counted, and they will focus on grasping the urgent need for stablecoin market and the good development of Meme, such as the leading public chain ecosystems of Ethereum, Solana, and TRON.
Among the leading public chains, TRON is the only Chinese public chain.
Although some Chinese projects are controversial, the Chinese community actually plays an important role in the crypto industry globally. Globally, Chinese users and developers have played an important role in crypto technology R&D and crypto market trading. TRON has already become one of the largest blockchain platforms in the world, whether in terms of stablecoin payment settlement or the Meme track, it belongs to the first echelon in its niche, providing the best experience for Chinese users and developers, and demonstrating the strength of Chinese people and Chinese projects in the blockchain industry.
Unfortunately, due to the "crypto original sin" in the eyes of many people, the outside world often looks at the companies and people in this industry with colored glasses.
Since the founding of TRON, it has been accompanied by some doubts and controversies, mostly around Justin Sun's high-profile marketing approach and technical roadmap. However, over time, people have found that the high-profile marketing approach is being increasingly widely applied in the crypto industry, such as some project parties like the Solana Foundation promoting Meme in the same way. At the same time, the open source nature and technological innovation of crypto have also eliminated the suspicion of plagiarism against TRON, and with the decline of EOS, TRON is telling people with its remarkable achievements that its roadmap is correct.
As for Justin Sun himself, the public's preconceived impression of him is actually not accurate.
"Don't just look at what he says, but also look at what he does." Looking at Justin Sun's on-chain operations in recent years, compared to people with overly aggressive risk preferences like SBF, with the same scale, Justin Sun is more involved in stable and safe DeFi protocols like stablecoin yield, and has managed to navigate the bull and bear markets with almost no risk, which reflects his steady and steady personality despite his flamboyant marketing approach. One can also see this in some of the projects he has participated in creating.
Similarly, the OKEx founder Star Xu also faced some controversies in the early days, but in recent years, OKEx has focused on user experience and has built a well-regarded Web3 wallet portal in the industry, and although the trading platform has encountered some unexpected events, it has also won user recognition through full compensation.
It's time to take off the colored glasses when looking at people like Justin Sun. In the golden age of Web3, the Chinese community needs to provide more support for Chinese people in the industry, in order to establish a greater voice and secure greater benefits for Chinese crypto users.
05 Summary
The friendly regulation in the US and the change in the macro environment have brought certainty to the golden age of Web3, and the leading public chain ecosystems that have grasped the two key lines of payment urgency and Meme culture craze will clearly benefit. The influx of more incremental capital, developers, and users will drive the further growth of the Web3 industry.
In the golden age, the Chinese force in the crypto industry will still play an important role. With a deep moat of performance and innovative with the times, the Chinese projects represented by TRON will obviously bring greater surprises to users and investors.
