The narrative around Web3 is rapidly evolving. While many still associate it primarily with the speculative highs and lows of cryptocurrencies, the reality is a rapidly maturing ecosystem brimming with genuine innovation and significant investment potential. As Steve Torso, Co-founder & Managing Director of Wholesale Investor & CapitalHQ, aptly puts it, “It’s only got 8% adoption,” indicating that we are still in the very early stages of a profound technological shift with global crypto owners just surpassing 560 million in 2025.

Adam Switzer, Co-founder of BetterX, brings over two decades of experience in traditional finance (TradFi) to the table. His extensive background encompasses trading technology, regulatory capital, and risk management. Notably, he co-headed DBS Bank’s AI technology department, offering a unique perspective on the convergence of TradFi and decentralised innovation.

Adam recently attended Token2049, a leading Web3 conference, and shared crucial observations about the current sentiment and investment theses in the space. He noted a definitive shift away from the “quick and dirty money” projects and pump-and-dumps that have unfortunately tarnished the industry’s reputation.

“I think we’re really in that stage of it’s just starting to settle down from where people had maybe great ideas or are blatantly in there for a pump and dump,” Adam stated. The focus is now firmly on projects with real utility and a genuine customer base. The ultimate hypothesis, he believes, is that “no one actually cares about blockchain. It’s so ubiquitous that no one’s even talking about it.” This signals a move towards an invisible, integrated blockchain layer that simply powers new, more efficient systems – a key theme at Token2049 Dubai 2025.

The decentralised finance (DeFi) sector has seen significant trends emerge in the past year, with risk management becoming paramount. Adam, drawing from his TradFi background, emphasised BetterX’s “risk management first approach,” which includes:

He underscored the inherent challenge of DeFi’s decentralised nature: “with a middleman there’s some level of trust… at least there’s someone you can go to if something goes wrong.” In DeFi, “once it’s gone, it’s gone,” necessitating a fundamentally different approach to personal and technical risk management for users. Innovation in this area focuses on more secure, yielding protocols like restaking or leveraging Bitcoin’s utility to build ecosystems.

The sheer volume of stablecoin transactions, which now reportedly surpass even Visa and Mastercard in some metrics, is a staggering indicator of their growing importance. Adam highlighted the immense holdings of US Treasuries by stablecoin issuers like Tether, making them systemically significant. “The government has to think quite seriously about how they manage Tether as an institution and the distribution of stablecoin and its usage in the global economy, because they are in some ways bankrolling significant part of US debt,” he observed. This elevates stablecoins beyond mere crypto instruments to critical components of the global monetary supply.

The tokenisation of real-world assets (RWA) has gained significant traction, moving beyond a theoretical concept. Adam views this as an “enormous opportunity” that changes how companies with real utility can access capital and share returns with token holders without the complexities of traditional debt and equity. “It’s just a better way to think about the tokenomics… it’s a different part of the cap structure,” he said.

Current traction in RWA tokenisation includes:

As Steve Torso pointed out, markets naturally “move towards efficiencies.” With traditional funds management often burdened by inefficiencies in KYC, administration, and transaction processes, “it absolutely makes sense to me that going forward… there’s a lot more sort of funds management solutions that are utilising blockchain technology sort of behind the scenes.”

Discussing the recent market movements, including Bitcoin’s strong performance, Adam acknowledged Raoul Pal’s “banana zone” thesis (a period of rapid upward price movement). While careful to state “no advice basis,” he noted a “flight to quality” among investors. Capital is shifting “certainly out of NFTs, altcoins, pump and dumps, and really projects that have utility.”

The “blue chips” of the crypto world, like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Ripple (XRP), and Cardano (ADA), are gaining institutional adoption, with Binance’s BNB token also making a significant play for government reserve consideration.

Regarding Bitcoin’s long-term trajectory, Adam referenced a panel at Token2049 featuring industry giants like VanEck and BlackRock. The core institutional thesis: if Bitcoin has a “zero or negative correlation” with equity markets, it’s a “must-have” in portfolios. While the correlation between Bitcoin and equities has become more positive since 2020, reaching around 0.48 in early April 2025, other drivers can still lead to diversification benefits.

Steve Torso highlighted the surprising influence of crypto holders in recent US elections, with 50 million holders acting as a significant political force, influencing political candidates’ stances on the industry. This, coupled with the asset class growing to multi-trillion dollar valuations with historically little government support, makes the long-term growth potential hard to ignore. Michael Saylor’s famous adage, “No one ever lost money holding Bitcoin for longer than 5 years,” resonated as a pragmatic approach for long-term investors.

For founders, this signals a compelling time to explore how Web3 principles can infuse their business models. The industry is shedding its wild west image, embracing utility, and attracting serious capital, positioning itself as a transformative force in the global economy.