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Hong Kong has achieved several important milestones in the Web3 field in 2024: it has successively promoted the local exchange licensing system, listed Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, and implemented a number of financial innovation policies on the blockchain industry, demonstrating Hong Kong's strong ambition and potential to become the Web3 center of Asia.
Entering its seventh year, the Tempo 30 Award , which recognizes the 30 most influential people in the blockchain space , is pleased to include the Hong Kong region list this year, which records influential people who have made outstanding contributions to Hong Kong’s Web3 ecosystem. We hope to expand their influence and bring a more comprehensive and new perspective to the Asian blockchain industry.
Finally, we selected 30 leaders with outstanding contributions in the fields of Web3 applications, corporate innovation, NFT, ecological investment, policy promotion and community influence, and invited them to share their key market forecasts and Web3 trend observations for 2025.
Statement: The selection of influential people in the district every year is based on the person’s achievements, deeds, influence on the masses, and industry impact in the past year. There is no ranking difference in the following ranking. However, the crypto market is ever-changing, and Dongqu can only ensure the positive influence of the person in the past and present, but it does not guarantee the future performance and behavior of the people selected in this list, nor does it constitute investment advice.
Xiao Feng/ Chairman and CEO of HashKey Group
HashKey Group, led by Xiao Feng, is a well-known digital asset financial group in Asia. Its HashKey Exchange is one of the first compliant exchanges in Hong Kong to obtain a license from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). In April last year, the Hong Kong Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETF jointly developed by Bosera International and HashKey Capital was also approved for listing.
During his tenure as Vice Chairman of Wanxiang Holdings, Xiao Feng participated in the establishment of Wanxiang Blockchain Lab, promoted the early research and application of blockchain technology in Hong Kong, and was deeply involved in blockchain investment and incubation. He has extensive experience and influence in the fields of blockchain and financial technology, and is an important leader in promoting the development of blockchain in Asia.
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Yat Siu / Co-founder of Animoca Brands
Yat Siu is the co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, a leading company focusing on GameFi and NFT. He has a unique vision and invested in many potential new startups at an early stage, including Axie Infinity, which has led the trend of playing and earning, the popular metaverse project The Sandbox, Decentraland, and the NFT trading leader OpenSea... etc.
Many VCs, including Liberty City Ventures, "financial giant" Soros Fund Management, and Sequoia China, have invested in Animoca Brands.
Yat Siu has received numerous honors, including the World Economic Forum's Global Leader of Tomorrow, the DHL/South China Morning Post Hong Kong Business Awards' Young Entrepreneur Award, and Cointelegraph's recognition as one of the top 100 outstanding figures in the blockchain field. He continues to contribute to the development of the ecosystem at the forefront.
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Justin Sun/Founder of TRON
Justin Sun is the founder of the public blockchain TRON and has invested in many cryptocurrency and blockchain companies, such as the exchange Poloniex, BitTorrent, Huobi... As a well-known Chinese entrepreneur and investor in the blockchain industry, Justin Sun is active in major blockchain forums and social media, continuously promoting the Web3 ecosystem and playing a vital role in the development of the industry.
Justin Sun ’s 2025 predictions and observations:
1. Crypto assets represented by Bitcoin gain wider recognition
In 2024, the halving of Bitcoin resonated with political and economic factors, and global crypto assets represented by Bitcoin experienced a magnificent market trend. I believe that it will further strengthen the public's awareness of the scarcity and intrinsic value of Bitcoin, and will also further promote the popularity of crypto assets and the value storage of such assets. Among them, the penetration of stablecoins in areas such as payment and cross-border settlement will also increase. I expect this will attract more institutional investors and push the crypto market towards a higher level of maturity and stability.
As traditional financial institutions become more interested in blockchain, it is likely to become the world's mainstream payment and settlement platform. TRON is actively cooperating with global financial institutions to promote the application of blockchain in financial services.
2. Growth potential of the meme market
I believe that the Meme coin market is in the early stages of rapid development and will usher in a golden age in the next 2 to 3 years. Meme coin has unique cultural attributes and low market dependence, and is an investment area that can survive bull and bear markets. As the size of the crypto market expands, the market value of Meme Coin will continue to grow and the profit margins will increase significantly.
In the future, Meme coin will not only rely on short-term market fluctuations, but is more likely to become a part of the crypto industry and drive the long-term development of the market. I believe that platforms like SunPump can bring more stable and sustainable development to this market.
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Kevin Lee / CEO of Gate HK
Kevin Lee has over 17 years of experience in the Asia Pacific region and is an early adopter and thought leader in the virtual asset industry. Actively involved in the virtual assets space since 2014.
As the CEO of Gate HK, he actively leads the team to promote the compliance process of Gate Group in Hong Kong, including applying for relevant licenses from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong to ensure the security and compliance of the trading platform.
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Louis Li / Senior Blockchain Researcher
Louis started buying Ethereum in 2017 and has made long-term contributions to the development of the cryptocurrency industry. He hosts WeeklyDose, which regularly shares Web3 market/knowledge/fun stories online every week.
Louis 2025 Predictions and Observations:
Hong Kong has always been a financial center. At a time when traditional finance is on the decline, the most important thing is that the industry and practitioners are willing to follow the government's general direction, put aside their prejudices against cryptocurrencies and various emerging digital assets, and learn to adapt as soon as possible. When you dig a well when you are thirsty, you will inevitably fall into various traps. The only way to defeat all martial arts in the world is to be fast. Only by proactively upgrading and transforming can you stand in an advantageous position.
In recent years, the government has tightened its regulation of cryptocurrencies. Regulation and innovation have always been in conflict. If you want to innovate, you must have a moderate degree of freedom. Excessive regulation will only stifle new products and new markets, which is naturally equivalent to giving up new opportunities.
We call on the government to loosen up various licenses as soon as possible after establishing a general compliance framework, such as allowing cryptocurrency exchanges to list more currencies and simplifying the various barriers for retail investors to enter new markets.
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Larry – Senior BD Manager, Kaia Foundation
Larry is an important driving force behind Kaia's ecosystem taking root in the Chinese-speaking region. In January this year, Kaia Chain successfully cooperated with LINE to launch the Dapp Portal, which attracted more than 10 million user experiences within 10 days of its launch, and the top-ranked Dapp also earned more than $500K in revenue.
Kaia, jointly supported by Asia's two largest communication software companies Kakao and LINE, aims to allow hundreds of millions of Asian users to experience the Web3 ecosystem in the most convenient way and become Asia's Superapp Chain.
Larry 2025 Predictions and Observations:
2025 is going to be an exciting year for cryptocurrency, and I think there will be unique opportunities in multiple areas. Personally, I am particularly passionate about the following two directions.
Consumer Crypto: As we have done at Kaia, we will continue to lower the threshold for Web3 for novices and ordinary users, continue to optimize the experience of Web3 applications, and at the same time find more usage scenarios for cryptocurrency applications that can be combined with real life.
Institutional Crypto: More traditional financial institutions will enter the Web3 field due to the improvement of international policies and compliance, and choose to include cryptocurrencies in traditional investment portfolios. On the other hand, I believe that the development of RWA will make significant progress and further lower the threshold for individuals to invest in traditional assets.
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Ray / CEO of 9Gag
Founded in Hong Kong, 9GAG is famous for sharing funny pictures and videos. It has accumulated more than millions of users around the world, laying a strong social foundation and brand awareness.
Afterwards, 9GAG entered Web3 with "Memeland" as its new brand and successfully created several high-profile NFT series. Its NFT series such as "The Potatoz" and "The Captainz" have attracted the attention of many crypto communities and investors, bringing 9GAG's huge user base and brand reputation accumulated in Web2 into the Web3 world, creating a new community experience based on blockchain.
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Dominik / Xverse Asia Growth and Community Manager
Xverse is designed with "friendly to everyone" as its core, providing a simple and intuitive interface that allows both novice and advanced users to easily manage and trade Bitcoin. It can not only be used for general BTC transfers, but also supports Ordinals and other ecological applications, providing users with a convenient channel to explore more Bitcoin ecosystems.
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Chris Lee / Co-founder of Merkle 3s Capital & TKX Capital
Merkle 3s Capital and TKX Capital, led by Chris , are both digital asset funds that specialize in investing in the applications and infrastructure of Web3, NFT, Metaverse, GameFi and DeFi.
He was previously president and partner at Black Hole Capital, a venture capital firm that invested in Binance’s seed round. He has also served as the CFO of Huobi Group and CEO of OKX... and has extensive experience in the crypto field.
Chris Lee 2025 Predictions and Observations
We expect the cryptocurrency market to boom in 2025. The entire market cap could reach 7 trillion or more. Under the Trump administration, Bitcoin could very well become the U.S. national reserve. The United States and other countries have more friendly policies for cryptocurrency innovation and relaxed regulations.
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Gao Jianzhong/ LikeCoin initiator
Gao Chongjian is the initiator of the blockchain project LikeCoin, and is committed to providing content creators with a fairer copyright and revenue distribution mechanism through blockchain technology. LikeCoin is based on the "proof of creation" mechanism, which puts creators' works on the chain and registers and tracks copyrights, helping content creators to clearly track their works and sources of income in the digital world.
Gao Chongjian leads the team to actively promote decentralized publishing and content community ecology, hoping to provide a more direct and transparent interaction model between creators, readers and platforms, and reduce the control of third-party platforms over content and digital resources.
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Scott Lai / Founder of Monsterblock
Monsterblock is an active Web3 community in Hong Kong, regularly sharing the latest crypto trends and protocols, and is committed to connecting the Chinese community with global Web3 projects in the most practical way! As the founder, Scott leads the team to continuously promote the implementation and application of the blockchain industry.
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Calvin Cai / Co-founder of Hong Kong Algorithmic Trading Research Center
Calvin is committed to promoting the research, development and application of algorithmic trading in the Hong Kong financial market, and deeply integrating algorithmic trading technology with the financial market.
As a columnist for Economic Weekly, am730, and Patreon, he shares his experience in quantitative investment, helps cultivate a new generation of financial technology talents, and promotes the development of Hong Kong in the field of financial technology (FinTech).
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Desmond / DIwhy Web3 Channel Founder
The DIwhy Web3 channel run by Desmond has 42,000 subscribers and the total number of video views has reached nearly 2 million.
The channel content shares the latest cryptocurrency projects, market trends and trading skills, providing the knowledge and skills that beginners to professional traders need to know, and together with the community, leading the public to join the Web3 world.
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Carl / Scroll Former Growth Lead, Asia Pacific
Carl believes in the innovative momentum and emerging opportunities brought by blockchain locks. Through information sharing and organizing exchange meetings, we hope to combine Hong Kong's advantages as an Asian financial center with blockchain technology to accelerate the exchange of global resources and talents. Co-host WeeklyDose and share Web3 market/knowledge/interesting news online regularly every week.
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Zhang Tao/Founder of UD Blockchain and Caike Anzhan
UD Blockchain is committed to providing customers with innovative solutions to further develop blockchain technology. As the founder of the Youtube channel "Financial Science Dark War", I always share with the community my observations and analysis on Web3 current affairs, finance, technology, and international situation.
We provide in-depth and easy-to-understand discussions on the complex blockchain ecosystem, so that the general public can more easily understand the Web3 market and evolution.
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Goldy / 852 captainz Founder
Goldy has extensive experience in the Web3 space and currently serves as Vice President of Web3 Partnerships and Head of Strategy at KIP Protocol, responsible for integrating NFTs, managing social finance activities, and expanding platform functionality.
He also serves as the Head of Partnerships at AP Collective, a Web3 operations growth accelerator that helps drive market strategies and partnership development for various projects. Goldy also serves as a consultant and campaign strategist for multiple projects, enhancing their marketing and community building efforts.
Goldy 2025 Predictions and Observations
With the transition from the NFT field to all-round development, I am full of expectations for the development prospects of the AI and Game-Fi tracks in 2025. The advancement of these technologies will not only promote innovation in related industries, but will also bring unprecedented interactive experience and value creation to users. I believe that with the integration and application of these emerging technologies, we will witness a qualitative leap in the Web3 field.
It is expected that a large number of new users will invest in Web3 in 2025, which will further accelerate the popularization and development of this field. As more users understand and accept this emerging technology, Web3 will definitely become the mainstream of the next generation of network applications.
In addition, some projects that continue to innovate and optimize amid market fluctuations will demonstrate their true corporate value and mature business models in 2025. These projects can not only survive the test of economic cycles, but also demonstrate strong market competitiveness and sustained growth potential during the recovery period.
In short, 2025 will be a year of rapid development of Web3 and related technological innovations.
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Raccoon Chan / Senior blockchain researcher
Little Raccoon is a senior community leader who is fully committed to the field of cryptocurrency and blockchain, and shares a lot of cutting-edge trends such as investment, DeFi ecology, NFT and decentralized applications in real time.
In addition to continuously deepening market research and technological insights, we also often interact with users through communities to promote the innovative value of blockchain in finance, creativity, and community economy.
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Hazel / Apecoin Special Director
Hazel has held BAYC since 2021 and is the only special director in Asia who has served for more than one year. She is deeply involved in and promotes the development of the APE ecosystem, actively promotes the combination of NFT IP and traditional top brands, and facilitates cooperation with high-end retail malls such as Lane Crawford and PARCO, bringing NFT into the mainstream vision.
During the 2024 ApeFest, Hazel and tens of thousands of community participants witnessed the launch of ApeChain and are optimistic about the future possibilities of the ApeChain ecosystem.
Hazel 2025 Predictions and Observations
2025 belongs to Web3.
Let's build together. APE TOGETHER STRONG !
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Winchman / 852 Web3 Founder
As a local Web3 community in Hong Kong, 852 Web3 is committed to connecting local and global blockchain projects, entrepreneurs, investors and enthusiasts, and promoting Hong Kong to become a Web3 innovation center.
We often hold offline gatherings and forums to promote the integration of Web3 technology with traditional finance, retail, art and other industries, and communicate with government departments to promote compliance development and policy support.
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Chris Fung / Founder of Yuliverse
Yuliverse promotes an immersive experience in the Web3 world through the combination of blockchain and gamified social networking, allowing players to not only play games, but also gain value through social interaction, creating a new decentralized digital community ecosystem.
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Conan / community director of Memeland
Memeland was founded by 9GAG, a well-known entertainment community platform in Hong Kong. It focuses on NFT, decentralized communities and Web3 creator economy. With the influence of 9GAG's millions of users around the world, it has quickly risen in the Web3 field and become one of the most representative NFT projects in Asia.
Memeland's NFT ecosystem includes The Potatoz, The Captainz, MVP..., all of which have received high attention in the market and have shaped a unique ecosystem through community, token economy and Web3 culture.
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Christian / Founder of Infini
Christian is the founder of Infini, a practitioner dedicated to integrating cryptocurrency with traditional finance. The debit card launched by Infini is a MasterCard/Visa debit card (virtual card) issued by the United States, which allows users to easily transfer USDT and other US dollar stablecoins, and can be added to payment tools such as WeChat and Alipay for use.
Christian's original intention in creating Infini was to make digital assets closer to daily life and truly become a tool that people can trust and use. The stablecoins that users can deposit will automatically benefit from the optimized delta-neutral strategy, with the main income coming from on-chain lending agreement partners or RWA based on US Treasury bonds.
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Adrian / Newman Capital
Newman Capital has launched an important layout with "Integrating Web3 into Culture" as the core. As the first official Web3 partner of ComplexCon, we work with Web3 brands such as Animoca Brands and Memeland to create an immersive crypto experience. Through forums and physical exhibition areas, blockchain is brought into the trendy cultural scene, allowing consumers to have a more intuitive and in-depth understanding of encryption applications.
Newman Capital is also actively developing the Bitcoin ecosystem and supporting the development of Bitcoin Layer2 and smart contract protocols. We believe that Bitcoin is in a transformation stage similar to the early days of Ethereum. In the future, it will evolve from "digital gold" to a "programmable ecosystem", releasing greater application potential.
Adrian 2025 Predictions and Observations:
AI agents will further penetrate the crypto space, and automated DeFi strategies will become the norm.
As the Bitcoin ecosystem upgrades its technology, it will attract more traditional institutions to explore the compliant application of on-chain assets. SocialFi is expected to reshape user acquisition and reward mechanisms, making Web3 applications more in line with mainstream market demands.
2025 will be the year when technology becomes “invisible”. Users may not be able to feel the existence of blockchain, but the underlying innovation will profoundly change the interaction mode between business and culture, and push Web3 into the next peak of development.
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Johnny / Founder of Chinese Ape Club
Johnny is an opinion leader who has been deeply involved in the field of cryptocurrency and blockchain for many years. He is keen to explore the infinite possibilities of NFT, has a keen insight into the market dynamics of non-fungible tokens, and actively participates in the development of related ecosystems.
He is also the founder of Chinese Ape Club, leading this unique community project to promote the application of blockchain technology in the fields of community, culture and art.
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Rachel Lee / Director of Web3 & FinTech Development, Cyberport
Rachel is the Director of Web3 and Fintech Development at Hong Kong Cyberport, dedicated to promoting cutting-edge development in blockchain technology and financial innovation in Hong Kong. With his in-depth understanding of the Web3 ecosystem and keen insight into financial technology, he leads Cyberport to collaborate with the industry to support the continued growth and development of many potential Web3 startups.
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JENKO / Co-founder DeGods Asia
As one of the co-founders of DeGods Asia, Jenko is committed to promoting the development of Asian and local Web3 and NFT communities. In addition to supporting many large-scale industry events in the past three years, it has also collaborated with other NFT communities in Hong Kong such as 852Garden, 852Captainz, Asia Doods, PudgyHK, CoolscatsHK, etc. to jointly organize regular community activities to attract more people to understand Web3 and NFT culture and to strengthen the development of Hong Kong's Web3 community.
Jenko 2025 Predictions and Observations
2025 will be a revolutionary year. As different countries continue to become more open to cryptocurrencies and digital assets, and as blockchain technology and artificial intelligence technology mature, I believe that the Web3 industry will further promote the public's adoption of decentralized applications and promote the mainstreaming of digital assets.
At the same time, we also hope that as the public gradually gains a deeper understanding of Web3, Hong Kong will have a more comprehensive ecosystem and promote the development of the local Web3 community.
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Samuel / Co-founder of Blockbooster
Samuel has extensive experience in blockchain technology, digital assets, and entrepreneurship incubation. With his keen market insight and strategic vision, he has successfully positioned BlockBooster as a promoter of Asia's Web3 innovation ecosystem.
Under his leadership, BlockBooster is committed to promoting the development of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency ecology in Asia, working with top investors and partners to incubate and invest in high-quality Web3 projects.
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Joanne / CMO & COO of MEET48, Co-founder of Offchain
In 2024, Joanne led Offchain to successfully expand to more than 150 regions around the world, providing local developers and communities with more opportunities for communication and promoting the popularization of blockchain technology and ecological growth through resource sharing.
In the same year, she also planned and organized a number of large-scale events, such as AI AGENT RISING and Transforming Web3 with Real-World Solutions, which attracted more than 30,000 participants from around the world, built a bridge between startups and investors, and promoted the implementation and development of many projects.
joanne 2025 predictions and observations
In 2025, the Web3 space will see more diversified development, especially driven by emerging trends such as AI Agent and Memecoin. The rapid rise of AI Agents will completely change the way dApps interact, allowing users to automatically execute transactions, manage assets, and participate in decentralized governance through intelligent agents, improving user experience and efficiency.
At the same time, the Memecoin craze will continue to burn, evolving from a simple social and cultural phenomenon into an ecosystem with community economic value, attracting more young users into the Web3 world. The addition of these new elements, coupled with the deep integration of blockchain technology and the real economy, will push Web3 from concept to large-scale application, accelerating the innovation and transformation of the global digital economy.
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Masterchief / Founder of Wonton
Masterchief is a creative person who combines cooking and blockchain. He founded WONTON, a popular project that combines food and Web3, and launched the NFT series HungryDegens for players who love digital collections and are eager for them.
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LEO / Mad lab CN Community
As a community influencer active in the Hong Kong blockchain ecosystem, Leo focuses on promoting the application and development of Web3 ecology and crypto assets in finance, creative industries and community economy. We firmly believe that blockchain is not only a technological innovation, but also an important driving force for changing business models and industrial structures.
