Web3 Golden Age Opens After the US Election: Sun Yuchen's Accumulation and Breakthrough

Recently, the results of the US election and the general environment have pushed Bitcoin to break through quickly, and the crypto market has also experienced a strong overall recovery. The crypto industry has been "changing all the way", and now "the boat has passed thousands of mountains".

The certainty and global acceptance of crypto assets are getting higher and higher. The friendly regulatory environment will also accelerate the world into the golden age of Web3, and Chinese projects and founders will also usher in a new stage of development. The market has voted with its feet. Recently, both the old public chain TRON and Binance have performed well, and the market value of TRX has reached a record high.

 01 Regulatory removal of encryption "tight ring"

When Bitcoin was first born, it did not attract much attention due to its small scale. It was not until the "Mentougou Incident" that it attracted the attention of regulators in various countries. Since 2017, the rise in Bitcoin prices and the innovation of Ethereum have triggered concerns about threats to the existing financial system, including the monetary system. Some countries and regions have stepped up their crackdowns. In 2018, the US SEC began to identify some tokens as securities and launched a multi-year legal challenge. The European Union launched the "Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive" (5AMLD), but there are exceptions. For example, Japan passed the "Payment Services Act" in 2017 to legally recognize the status of Bitcoin payment and clarify supervision.
In 2021, the United States passed the Infrastructure Act, which was the first time that cryptocurrency tax regulation was written into law. Countries began to explore new regulatory measures and tools such as CBDC to meet the challenges brought by crypto assets. In the same year, El Salvador and other countries took the lead in proving their acceptance of crypto assets. In 2022, the European Union launched the Crypto-Asset Markets Act (MiCA) to unify its regulatory standards. In the same year, the FTX exchange went bankrupt due to financial fraud by its founder SBF, which aroused the high vigilance of regulators. The United States accelerated the legislative process and then passed the crypto asset spot ETF historically.
Today, regulators seem to have found a balance between technological innovation and financial risks, and have begun to calmly deal with the challenges brought by crypto assets. Trump's victory may mark the official removal of the "tight ring" of the crypto market by the United States. During the US presidential campaign, Trump bluntly stated, "We must ensure that the United States becomes the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world." As a product of a new technology, crypto assets have undergone a transformation from doubt to vigilance to gradual acceptance in global regulation. A clear legal framework and a friendly regulatory environment mean an excellent soil for Web3 entrepreneurs, and the risks of crypto platform founders have truly become controllable.

 02 Payment is the main rigid demand of the crypto industry

From the vision of Bitcoin peer-to-peer payment to the blowout of various concepts, to the bursting of the bubble, and finally the return of the crypto market to pragmatism, the real adoption value has become the focus of attention.

With the "legal currency" setting of El Salvador to the large-scale adoption of stablecoins, the rigid demand for remittances, cross-border payments, and hedging tools in areas with weak real-world financial infrastructure is very high, and crypto assets have entered the mainstream vision as a special asset class. Users in Southeast Asian markets such as Thailand and South Korea are increasingly using USDT-TRC20 and other remittances and payments. The advantages of crypto stablecoins such as short settlement time and low fees have replaced traditional banking channels to a certain extent.

In other words, while crypto assets are entering the mainstream vision, they have built an open and free payment network with the vision of reshaping the financial system. The recently popular "RWA" concept brings together the traditional and crypto worlds, promoting the establishment of consensus among groups in different fields.
The stablecoin market, with a supply of about 160 billion US dollars, has become the most important track and moat in the crypto ecological infrastructure. From the status of the stablecoin track, we can get a glimpse of the prosperity of the major public chain ecosystems and the overall picture of the adoption value pattern.

Stablecoin transfer volume by network (in trillions of dollars)

A stablecoin report released by Insights4vc in early November showed that as of October 2024, TRON, Polygon, Solana and Ethereum were leading in stablecoin activity. While Ethereum leads in overall settlement value, its monthly transaction addresses are gradually decreasing compared to networks with lower fees such as TRON.

According to public data, the scale of USDT-TRC20 issued on the TRON chain exceeds 61.8 billion US dollars, accounting for more than half of the total circulation of USDT. This year, USDT-TRC 20 has been launched in key markets such as Thailand and South Korea, and the trading volume has soared.
USDT-TRC20 has developed rapidly in recent years, mainly due to the low transaction costs and high efficiency of the TRON network, the wide support of trading platforms, and the large-scale popularization of cross-border payments and fast settlement areas. As more countries become more accepting of cryptocurrencies and regulatory attitudes become clearer, the market share of USDT-TRC20 is expected to be further strengthened, making TRON one of the most prosperous public chains.
In the third quarter of 2024, TRON's protocol revenue reached US$577 million, a record high. As an old public chain, it has firmly grasped the rigid needs of the industry through its keen adaptability to market changes and consolidated its market position in drastic changes.
In fact, the current situation in the crypto field is that although the crypto market has recovered strongly and Bitcoin has continued to hit new highs,many assets in the field have not returned to their historical highs, which reflects that there are still unsolved problems in the crypto industry, which also means that the crypto ecological pattern is uncertain.In addition to Ethereum, the opportunities for innovative public chains such as TRON and Solana that can seize the "rigid demand" for stablecoins are still large enough.

 03 The real reason behind the Meme craze

In addition to the rigid stablecoin market, the crypto industry is also experiencing a continuous Meme craze. The earliest Memecoin Doge was born as an Internet "joke". With the growth of the community and the support of public figures such as Musk, it has gradually become a social currency and a symbol of identity.

Meme, as a way of building decentralized crypto culture and circles, has created a unique "circle culture" that has attracted a large number of participants. After years of development, the Meme track has combined Meme culture with Crypto ecology to generate huge energy, and Meme has become an important track.

Currently, Memecoin is active in public chain ecosystems such as Ethereum, Solana and TRON. Ethereum has a mature ecology and community, and is the birthplace of the old Meme PEPE and ShiB, but its high GAS fee and low efficiency limit its progress. Solana brings high efficiency and low cost, and has become the choice of many new Memecoins, but the network stability and developer ecology are relatively weak. TRON is also known for its low cost and high efficiency. Its ecological project SunPump has become one of the most popular Memecoin launch platforms, and the market value of SUNDOG on the platform has exceeded 1 billion US dollars.

The TRON ecosystem promoted by Justin Sun has created a large and passionate community through cultural shaping similar to old Memes such as Doge. The Memecoin project and culture on TRON have gradually spread to global users and formed their own circle. The Meme project in the ecosystem has promoted the formation and development of crypto-punk culture. The good performance of the TRON ecosystem in the second half of this year is inseparable from this community spirit.

Musk's support once had a huge impact on crypto assets and Meme culture. Sun Yuchen's previous views coincide with Musk's. They advocate the concepts of freedom, innovation and decentralization, and both hope to change the world through technology and culture.

The US interest rate hike has led to insufficient liquidity in the crypto market. Although the infrastructure of the crypto ecosystem has made some progress, the landing of Web3 applications has lagged behind, resulting in no more solid and powerful value support for adoption except for payment. Of course, the success of Meme also represents the existence of market sentiments such as FOMO.
The regulatory certainty brought by the US election and the future interest rate cut cycle may reverse the above situation. When FOMO sentiment flows to tracks other than Meme, the landing of Web3 applications may explode.

 04Next stop: The golden age of global Web3

The latest report from Matrixport shows that 7.51% of the world's population already uses digital currency, and it is expected to exceed 8% in 2025. Cryptocurrency may move from a niche market to the mainstream financial system.

Standard Chartered Bank recently released a report predicting that the global cryptocurrency market value will soar nearly four times in the next two years, reaching 10 trillion US dollars by the end of 2026. Currently, the total market value of the cryptocurrency market exceeds 3 trillion US dollars, and this forecast means that the market still has huge room for growth. With the improvement of more technologies and market infrastructure, as well as the participation of more users and institutions, the application of cryptocurrency and Web3 will become a new mainstream.

After the supervision officially removes the "tight ring" of encryption, it is likely that we will usher in the golden age of Web3. In the future, there are only a few infrastructure public chain ecosystems that can undertake the landing of application value, and they will focus on the head public chain ecosystems such as Ethereum, Solana, and TRON, which have grasped the rigid demand stablecoin market and the good development of Meme.

Among the head public chains, TRON is the only Chinese public chain.
Although some Chinese projects are controversial, the Chinese community actually plays a vital role in the crypto industry. Globally, Chinese users and developers play an important role in crypto technology research and development and crypto market transactions. TRON is currently one of the world's largest blockchain platforms. Whether it is stablecoin payment settlement or Meme track, it belongs to the first echelon of the subdivided field, providing the best experience for Chinese users and developers, and demonstrating the strength of Chinese and Chinese projects in the blockchain industry.
Unfortunately, due to the "original sin of crypto" in the eyes of many people, the outside world often looks at companies and people in this industry with tinted glasses.
From the founding of TRON to the present, there have been some doubts and controversies, mostly around Sun Yuchen's high-profile marketing methods and technical routes. However, as time goes by, people find that high-profile marketing methods are being used more and more widely in the crypto industry, for example, some project parties such as the Solana Foundation use the same method to promote Meme. At the same time, the open source nature and technological innovation of encryption also eliminate the suspicion of plagiarism of TRON. With the decline of EOS, TRON is using remarkable achievements to tell people that its route is correct.
Back to Sun Yuchen himself, the public's inherent impression of him in the past is actually not accurate.

"Don't look at what he says, but also look at what he does."Looking at Sun Yuchen's on-chain operations in recent years, we can see that compared with SBF and others who have too aggressive risk appetite, Sun Yuchen is more involved in stable stablecoin income and other old and safe DeFi protocols with the same size, and was finally able to cross the bull and bear markets almost risk-free, which shows that although he uses a flamboyant marketing method, he has a steady personality. You can also see something about some of the projects he participated in creating.
Similarly, in fact, OK founder Xu Mingxing also suffered some controversy in the early days, but in recent years, OK has focused on user experience, and the Web3 wallet portal it has created has received good reviews in the industry. Although the trading platform has encountered emergencies, it has also won the recognition of users through full compensation.
It's time to take off the tinted glasses we have for people like Justin Sun. In the golden age of Web3, the Chinese-speaking community needs more Chinese people who support the industry in order to establish a greater voice and to gain greater benefits for Chinese crypto users.

 05 Summary

The friendly regulation of the United States and the change in the macro environment have brought about a certain future for the golden age of Web3. At the same time, the leading public chain ecosystem that has seized the two main lines of payment rigid demand and the Meme culture boom will benefit significantly. More incremental funds, developers, and users will flow in to further expand the Web3 industry.

In the golden age, the Chinese power in the crypto industry will still play an important role. With a deep performance moat and innovation that keeps pace with the times, Chinese projects represented by TRON will obviously bring greater surprises to users and investors.