Networking, Collaborating and Building Together

As we are stepping into Q4, the digital asset scene in Asia is heating up! This month, there was ETH Tokyo, followed by the Singapore TOKEN2049 in September. Hong Kong is also building momentum towards Blocktober, featuring a series of blockchain events, including the StartmeupHK GameOn!, Solana Hacker House, Chainlink SmartCon Hacker House, Fintech Week, and more. The pre-hype has already begun and the OAX Foundation has been participating in various events this month, diving into topics around RWA, infra, memes and so much more.

Here’s a snapshot of some noteworthy events we attended in August:

Getting real with RWA

We participated in discussions on creating value through tokenization with RWA. An insightful panel featuring industry leaders from DigiFT, Hashkey, and Mantra, hosted by Chainlink, explored the transformative potential of blockchain. The conversation highlighted not only opportunities but also challenges, particularly regulatory hurdles. The speakers emphasized the importance of collaboration with traditional sectors, highlighting the opportunity to unlock greater market liquidity. General consensus is that regulatory landscapes across different countries are vastly different. Singapore offers a simpler structure for initiatives, while Dubai, despite being friendly, comes with its own challenges. Builders need to consider critically where their target market is and thoroughly understand the rules and navigate with key stakeholders before entering. As we discussed, regulation often lags behind technology; as the technology becomes more frictionless by the day it is ready, disruption becomes inevitable. For more on RWA use cases, check out our previous write-up here.

Rockstar builders from Hong Kong: Scroll and Memeland

We celebrated the first anniversary of one of Hong Kong’s leading web3 communities, where a network of web3 leaders including Animoca and Hedera came together to drive collaboration. At this event, the panel discussion featured Scroll and Memeland. Scroll is focused on providing ZK tooling for builders, while Memeland has successfully launched a memecoin that went viral globally.

The discussion highlighted various challenges faced by infrastructure and application projects based in Hong Kong, with a keen focus on aligning government policies that support growth. The moderator emphasized the breadth of web3, each comes with their own set of fundamentals of challenges. For Scroll, it’s about how to onboard builders who embrace their ZK tooling while Memeland is about how to become more than a meme by innovating their own blockchain technology. Noting the necessity for stakeholders to understand project dynamics is crucial. The event wrapped up with a series of unveiling for activities in Blocktober, hosted by industry leaders including Solana, Animoca and Chainlink.

Discussing Women’s Careers in Crypto & Innovation in Payments

We are thrilled to have attended an inspiring evening dedicated to payments, stablecoins, and opportunities for women’s career growth in the crypto space, co-hosted by Women in Web3 Hong Kong and Ripple, with support from First Digital, Animoca Brands, GAIA Labs, and OffChain. The first panel discussion - ‘Women Shaping Careers in Crypto’ addressed the gender disparities in crypto and how we can foster inclusivity in the space. In the second session, there were discussions of innovations in payments, the role of stablecoins, and a potential future of interoperability and integrations with traditional systems. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has launched a Stablecoin Issuer Sandbox to allow institutions to test stablecoin business models in a controlled environment, focusing on compliance, risk management, and practical use cases to support the development of the virtual asset ecosystem.

Women in Web3 is fostering a vibrant and supportive environment for women to thrive in their web3 careers which is crucial for the growth of the ecosystem, and we’re eager to support more of their future initiatives.

Growing Community in Hong Kong and Beyond

It’s been a thrilling year for the digital assets space indeed, as we’re witnessing more community participation and a growth in events - not just in Hong Kong, but also across Asia. Here are a few upcoming events for the ecosystem - we attended Token2049 last year and we’re looking forward to an exciting Blocktober and Hong Kong Fintech Week ahead.

We’re proud to connect with passionate builders committed to elevating Hong Kong’s position as a web3 hub, stay tuned for more event highlights coming up in Blocktober. On the community side of things, we’re gearing up for an exciting, jam-packed September ahead – don’t say we didn’t give you a heads up! Watch for our announcements coming soon on our social media channels.

OAX Team

Disclaimer: The above is an opinion piece written by an authorized author, but in no way represents the official standpoint of OAX Foundation Limited, nor should it be meant to serve as investment advice.