Crypto Power Plays: The Rise of Crypto in Asia

This past week, I was in Hong Kong and Singapore meetings with institutional investors, founders as well as attending events like a Trade Mission to Hong Kong, Consensus Hong Kong, and a panel with Amber Group on Web3 AI. Pantera is actively investing in APAC companies as well as scoping out interest in Fund V (venture-style fund investing in venture equity, private tokens, special opportunities, and liquid tokens) to launch June 30, 2025. It was a jam-packed week with lots to reflect on. Let’s get into it!

A highlight was attending part of the Trade Mission to Hong Kong, going to the “U.S. Consulate sponsored LP-GP Networking Reception”. Top family offices and institutional LPs were present, as well as GPs. The US Consulate hosted an excellent event bringing together a diverse group of people interested in investing in US businesses and funds.

Compared to previous years, I've seen a huge shift in institutional investor's interest in crypto. Their industry knowledge has deepened and their interest spans far beyond Bitcoin investments.

Topics of Interest

Stablecoins and DePin:

Stablecoins are a trillion dollar opportunity and appeal is just as high in Asia. Stablecoins are tangible and understandable to many with the idea that issuing stablecoins allows for issuers to collect yield. There was less excitement with tokenized stocks and equities, but there was huge interest in asking the investible parts of the stack. Pantera has invested in stablecoin projects like Ondo and Eco.

Especially now that institutions like Bank of America are preparing to launch its own dollar-backed stablecoin if U.S. Congress legalizes it. Stablecoins already process over $33 trillion in transactions annually—surpassing the combined volumes of Visa and Mastercard.

Limited partners (LPs) are particularly curious about how Pantera can replicate the growth we’ve unlocked in the U.S. market across Asia. With our extensive network, expertise, and resources in supporting and investing in stablecoin companies, we can drive success for those launching products in the Asian market.

The DePin (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) market is still nascent and grows step-wise with each new company. Behind closed doors, there was plenty of discussion about its potential.

I went over trends, use cases and success stories including our portfolio companies Geodnet and Hivemapper, to demonstrate the opportunities.

AI:

AI has been the top headline, especially after DeepSeek. DeepSeek acted like an unlock for many people, showing that it was possible to create performant models with modest, private investments (rather than relying on public markets and huge private investments).

Pantera has invested heavily in this space, funding full stack projects like Sahara, open AI like Sentient, and marketplaces like Akash. In my talk with Amber, there was a lot of discussion about privacy, add-on features that consumers would like in AI, and AI agents. Perhaps in the future, each of us will have our own set of agents that transact on-chain at internet-speed. An increase of global trading volumes by 5x would not be unreasonable in that future.

Interest in Pantera’s positioning and exposure in AI was brought up regularly and based on our investment history and continued conviction that Web3 AI is the future, we are well positioned to capitalize companies that will gain wide-spread use across the world.

AI broadly invites more personalization, a value-add that has yet to be deeply explored. AI agents that allow users to perform complex actions with simple commands (like cross border payments) will let users in Asia leapfrog traditional financial infrastructure and onboard onto the Web3 ecosystem.

Legislation:

Legislation is finally starting to provide clarity in the US. In Pantera’s recent Blockchain Letter, we emphasized how regulation is turning from a headwind into a tailwind. We are very optimistic about the incoming crypto regulation in the US building on top of the SEC recently dropping all their cases against major US crypto firms. Regulatory certainty and a pro-crypto administration are fundamental to our investment thesis this year.

The openness of regulation will no doubt expand US crypto firms into Asia, and Hong Kong is the gateway. At Consensus Hong Kong last week, everyone can see the momentum is there. Since 2022, Hong Kong has been providing more and more support for crypto, launching the first spot exchange-traded funds in Asia and issuing nine virtual asset trading platform (VATP) licences. Regulators are also actively listening and open to supporting the industry through future legislation.

Conclusion:

Asian investors, operators, and users are more bullish on crypto this time around than I’ve seen it the past decade. They want to invest in and build more applications to address fragmented technology that many depend on for income, fun, travel, and payments. Stablecoins, AI, and legislation are fundamental reasons why everyone wants access to the US and I’m excited about Pantera’s position as a long-standing steward of the industry to lead this new wave.

- Paul Veradittakit