Web3 Festival 2025 - Opportunities and Challenges for Global Web3 Regulations | RWAs | Vitalik's 10th Anniversary of his First Asia Fund-raise Trip for Ethereum

In Early April 2025 at the Web3 Festival, Kevin Goldstein, Co-founder of Kee Global Advisors (KGA), was joined by Duncan Chiu, HKSAR Legislative Council Member, Technology & Innovation Constituency, David Lee, Chairman, Global Fintech Institute, Genki Oda, Chairman, Japan Virtual and Crypto Assets Exchange Association (JVCEA) on a panel titled "Current State and Challenges of Global Web3 Regulation".

Kevin updated the audience with a long list of regulatory progress and since the Trump Administration took office earlier this year and shared his predictions such as more IPOs and M&As to come.

Genki Oda highlighted forthcoming changes in Japan's crypto industry. Firstly, Japan is considering classifying crypto as a new asset, which would help reduce the crypto gain tax from the current 55% to 20%. Secondly, Japan plans to launch BTC ETF in next April. Thirdly, JVCEA is advocating for raising crypto trading margin from 2x to 10x. Genki pointed out that, at its peak in 2014, Japan accounted for more than 50% of global crypto transactions, and he expressed hope the country could grow its share from 1% to 20% in the foreseeable future.

David Lee fondly remembered the new SEC Chairman, Paul Atkins. In 2021, Paul traveled to Hong Kong and Singapore to learn about Asia's best practices in Web3. David was impressed by his open-mindedness and global outlook.

At the same conference, Coco Kee, Co-founder of Kee Global Advisors (KGA), moderated a RWA panel: "The Convergence of RWA and DeFi: Building the Next Generation of Financial Infrastructure." Plume's CSO and MANTRA's Co-founder joined the discussion. A couple of takeaways are, one, liquidity is important; two, not all assets are fit to be tokenized.

Vitalik from Ethereum delivered his keynote at the Web3 Festival 2025. A decade ago, he traveled to Asia to secure essential funding for Ethereum. Fortunately, he persuaded a group of Chinese investors to support him. Ethereum and Vitalik have come a long way. At the conference, Vitalik received a proposal to establish an Ethereum center in Hong Kong to leverage Asia's talent pool.

Vitalik on stage with two robots

Vitalik on his cell phone