"You may have always had a question: After all these years of tinkering, what have these Web3 people actually accomplished besides cryptocurrency speculation?"
Before this year, the answer wasn't really something to be proud of. But this year, several signs have made me feel that I can answer this question again.
In May of this year, I—Trev Ng, founder of ChainNeXT—was busy preparing for the Web2+3 Summit at BEYOND Expo 2026. I had a long list of guests in my mind: 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'll find that they don't represent the "get-rich-quick" myths of the past, but rather a completely new wave: the deep integration of Web2 and Web3. My team, ChainNeXT Group, has also officially become the chief partner of the Web3 section at BEYOND Expo 2026 this year, working together to promote the deep integration of Web3 technology and industrial innovation.
Just as I was racking my brains over the summit, one encounter after another in the past made me even more convinced that we were standing at a historic turning point.
I. Jack Kong: Those half hours back then changed the course of my life.
My acquaintance with Jack Kong dates back many years. I hadn't graduated from university yet, and I was attending Consensus in Austin, Texas for the first time. At a small dinner party next to the venue, I recognized him at a glance—he had just become a director of Cyberport in Hong Kong.
Back then, I was scouring the world for investors, clutching a tattered PowerPoint presentation that'd been revised over a dozen pages. Coincidentally, the person sitting next to me was the CEO of a major, established internet company. But Jack didn't rush to exchange pleasantries with this bigwig; instead, he turned around and listened attentively to me, this greenhorn, as I recounted my entrepreneurial ideas for a full half hour. Those suggestions and encouragements were an invaluable source of enlightenment for me, a truly naive and inexperienced person at the time.
Later, when OpenClaw exploded in popularity, Jack organized an OpenClaw China tour. I immediately helped him arrange the Macau venue. Because in my mind, Jack has always been a leading figure willing to mentor young people and actively embrace the integration of Web2 and Web3. He's not just someone who focuses on cryptocurrency prices; he's looking at the future of every "super individual" in the digital age.
II. Art Abal: The moment I was the only one in the entire audience applauding for him.
I first encountered Art at a Consensus event in Hong Kong last year. It was a roundtable discussion where several Web3 experts were talking at length about obscure terms like ZK and decentralized AI infrastructure, while the audience looked completely bewildered, and the air was thick with an awkward "I don't understand, but I don't dare to ask" attitude.
At this point, Art took the microphone. Instead of continuing to use technical terms, he asked two extremely simple questions.
He asked, "Who here has ever used AI?" Everyone raised their hands in unison.
He then asked, "Among everyone here, who truly owns their own data?" The entire room fell silent; not a single person raised their hand.
He smiled and said, "Vana, which we create, will allow you to truly own your own data in the future."
At that moment, I was the first person in the entire audience to burst into applause. He used the simplest, most straightforward language to tear away the veil of secrecy surrounding Web3, directly addressing the biggest pain point of the Web2 era—data theft. Later, we learned that Vana was the first DeAI project CZ (Changpeng Zhao) invested in after his release from prison, and it also received support from top VCs such as Paradigm, Coinbase Ventures, and Polychain. Last year, when he came to BEYOND Expo, he told me, "This is the first time I've spoken about Web3 in front of Nvidia's booth!" This kind of foresight is exactly the kind of voice BEYOND Expo has been searching for.
3. Yat Siu: I asked him, "Qianwen can use fiat currency to order takeout, so why does AI still need Crypto?"
I first met Yat Siu during this year's Consensus conference. I was honored to be invited to an internal investor gathering that is usually only open to shareholders.
I was excited to meet him because he's the one who has caught every trend in the metaverse and has a deep presence in the DeAI field. Some people in the industry jokingly call him "the Jesus of Web3" because he's always preaching grand visions for the future.
That day he talked a lot about the future of Web3 combined with AI, mentioning the term "Crypto is the native currency of AI." I couldn't help myself and raised my hand to ask a very "nitpicky" question:
"Yat, even a thousand questions can be answered with fiat currency for food delivery, so why does AI still need crypto?"
His answer was very interesting. He didn't talk about technical details, but instead described a scenario that the Web2 world couldn't solve. At that moment, I was certain that Yat wasn't just shouting slogans; he was using profound philosophical logic to construct the underlying economic rules for the integration of Web2 and Web3.
IV. Michael Heinrich: In this deep bear market, a Silicon Valley bigwig actually came to Shenzhen to visit the factory.
Michael Heinrich is the co-founder and CEO of 0G. I first met him at a dinner in Shenzhen, hosted by JT, the head of 0G Asia Pacific—he was also our guest last year.
To be honest, in this bottomless bear market, I've rarely seen foreign founders willing to make a special trip to mainland China to visit the market. Michael usually lives in the United States, so his appearance at the dinner table in Shenzhen that day surprised and moved me.
During the dinner, he didn't talk about cryptocurrency prices or exchange listings, but rather what he had been doing in China. He said he had visited many large factories, even some industrial institutions that manufacture cars. He was thinking about how to integrate 0G DeAI infrastructure into the production lines of these physical enterprises.
In this highly speculative Web3 market, foreign founders like Michael, who are so pragmatic and focused on real-world applications in the Chinese market, are truly rare. He doesn't treat China as a mere retail market, but rather as a real world with a vast manufacturing sector and AI application scenarios.
5. What kind of stage will their upcoming BEYOND Expo be?
Organized by the Macau Science and Technology Association, BEYOND Expo has been held for five consecutive years since its inception in 2021, and is the largest international science and technology innovation and ecological expo in Asia.
The fifth BEYOND Expo in 2025 attracted over 25,000 attendees from more than 120 countries and regions worldwide, along with over 800 exhibitors, 300 media outlets, and over 800 professional investors. Overseas attendees accounted for 40% of the total, and the average proportion of attendees at the director level and above was 55%. The sixth BEYOND Expo will be held from May 27th to 30th, 2026, at the Venetian Macao Cotai Expo, with an expected participation of over 1,200 companies and more than 30,000 attendees.
The names that have graced this stage in previous years are enough to represent an entire industry: Joseph Tsai, Chairman of Alibaba Group; Yu-Chun Tseng, Founder and Chairman of CATL; Neil Shen, Founding Partner of Sequoia China; and Guangchang Guo, Chairman of Fosun International. Leading global technology companies such as Nvidia, Huawei, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent, TikTok, and Foxconn have also been deeply involved.
Why was the Web2+3 Summit established this year? Because the turning point has truly arrived.
VI. Four major signals sound the horn of integration
Signal 1: Hong Kong Dollar Stablecoins Officially Launched. Just recently, on April 10th, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) officially granted the first batch of stablecoin issuer licenses to HSBC and Point Financial (a joint venture between Standard Chartered Hong Kong, Hong Kong Telecom, and Animoca Brands) under 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 Two: Hong Kong's cryptocurrency exchange regulation is maturing. As of the first quarter of 2026, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) had officially issued licenses to 12 virtual asset trading platforms. Hong Kong's virtual asset ecosystem has completely moved beyond the "transitional cleanup" phase and entered a new stage of "normalized expansion."
Signal Three: The US Passes the GENIUS Act. On July 18, 2025, US President Trump signed the "Directing and Establishing the National Innovation for Stablecoins in the United States Act" (GENIUS Act), marking the formal establishment of a federal regulatory framework for stablecoins in the US. The world's largest economy giving the green light to compliant stablecoins provides an unprecedented institutional foundation for the integration of Web2 and Web3.
Signal Four: Under geopolitical circumstances, cryptocurrencies have indeed seen real-world applications. In April 2026, the Iranian Oil Exporters Union announced that during the temporary ceasefire between the US and Iran, oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz would be required to pay their passage fees in Bitcoin. In January of the same year, Iranian officials clarified that overseas military contracts could accept "digital currency" as a payment method.
In addition to the four signals mentioned above, the scale of RWA (Real World Asset) tokenized assets in the financial sector continues to grow, PayFi (Stablecoin Finance) in the cross-border payment sector is beginning to connect crypto payments with traditional supply chains, and DeAI (Decentralized AI) in the artificial intelligence sector is breaking the monopoly of centralized AI in terms of data, computing power, and algorithms—these three tracks are also the core themes of this Web2+3 Summit.
VII. Web2+3: A Bull Market Narrative in a Bear Market
What has Web3 been all about over the past few years?
It's a frenzy for worthless cryptocurrencies, a feast for shills, a casino where "get rich overnight, lose everything the next day." It's a speculative Web3, a zero-sum game where a few reap the benefits of the many.
Over the past few years, I've attended many Web3 conferences and witnessed far too many seemingly impressive industry consensuses. But if you observe closely, you'll find that most people at those events were already already in the industry. Everyone was discussing the future within the same context, but rarely truly addressing the users and needs outside the industry. This is why many narratives sound grand, but ultimately remain confined to the industry's internal loop.
The significance of the BEYOND Expo lies precisely in the fact that it changed this.
The Web2+3 Summit is more than just Web3; it's a premier Asian technology ecosystem that brings together over 30,000 technology industry builders. It gathers Web2 companies, traditional financial institutions, cross-industry decision-makers, and actual buyers—the very users who were previously the most difficult to reach but are now the most crucial for Web3. When Web3 is placed in this context, it's no longer just something to be told to internal stakeholders, but rather it enters a larger business system for the first time, being tested by real needs.
This is why the Web2+3 Summit is worth attending. Here, you'll see not just what the industry is saying, but what's actually being used and what directions are beginning to show scalability. Past Web3 relied on emotion-driven consensus, but the future of Web2+3 depends on whether people actually use it. And BEYOND is precisely the place where this "use" first occurred on a large scale.
The current Web3 market is indeed in a bear market, with sluggish trading volume and many projects going to zero. However, at the same time, the entry of Hong Kong dollar stablecoins into PayMe, the continued growth of RWA tokenized assets, and SpaceX's pre-IPO shares entering the DeFi ecosystem through tokenization... these unfolding Web2+3 integration stories represent the true future. The Web3 bull market relied on FOMO (fear of missing out), while the future of Web2+3 depends on Adoption (real adoption).
This is why the Web2+3 Summit at BEYOND Expo 2026 will adhere to the core principles of "implementability, commercial viability, and compliance." We are not aiming to create a self-indulgent party for Web3 practitioners, but rather to build a bridge for a rational connection between Web2 and Web3.
From May 27th to 30th, the Venetian Macao Cotai Expo will bring together over 30,000 attendees. This summit may not result in a hundredfold increase in cryptocurrency prices, but it will herald the end of an era and the beginning of a new one.
At that time, we will see Jack, who selflessly mentors his juniors; Art, who gives us hope for the return of data sovereignty; Yat, who demonstrates the philosophical logic of the symbiotic relationship between AI and crypto; and Michael, who shows Silicon Valley elites their awe and respect for China's real economy. They will all be there. Their foresight and execution will make Web3 no longer just a concept on a PowerPoint presentation, but a real business that is being implemented through Web2+3.
We're currently in a bear market for Web3, but it's the starting point of the Web2+3 story. And I'm honored to witness the beginning of this convergence with you. I'm Trev; share this article so you can also become a part of this Web3 "Yellow Turban Rebellion."
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
