The cryptocurrency landscape, once characterised by rapid cycles and speculative frenzy, is undergoing a profound transformation. As global institutions and high-net-worth individuals increasingly look to allocate capital to digital assets, the focus is shifting towards maturity, regulatory clarity, and the integration of blockchain technology with traditional finance. A recent at the Emergence Singapore 2025 panel discussion featuring industry leaders delved into these critical shifts, offering insights into where the real opportunities lie for investors today.

Moderated by Lim Hui Jie, CEO and Founder at Vision Group, the panel brought together Dr. Sabrina Tachdjian (Director, Fintech and Payments at The HBAR Foundation), Hayden Hughes (General Partner at Tokenized Capital), and Gracie Lin (CEO at OKX Singapore).

Panellists unanimously agreed that the crypto market has evolved significantly since 2018. Dr. Tachdjian, who has been in the space since then as a corporate VC, highlighted the rapid maturation of foundational elements. “Custody wasn’t even a very mature field,” she recalled, noting the emergence of institutional-grade custodians offering sophisticated solutions.

The early days, marked by numerous ICOs, demanded caution. “You had to dodge a few bullets,” she quipped, a sentiment echoed by the market’s cyclical nature. Crypto, she noted, remains “a very narrative-based environment” and “a very cyclical market,” typically operating on a four-year cycle. This requires investors not just to pick the right asset, but to time their entry and exit strategically, particularly given the token-based exit profiles common in venture crypto.

Hayden Hughes of Tokenized Capital observed a recent departure from these four-year cycles. “We’ve seen… basically everything goes up,” he noted, but in the past two to three years, “certain sectors of the market… rotate upwards, and everything else has basically stayed flat.” This, he suggests, reflects the significant flow of liquidity into Bitcoin via new spot ETFs, indicating a growing institutional appetite.

Gracie Lin, CEO of OKX Singapore, underscored the growing integration between traditional finance (TradFi) and crypto. “We now have fiat on-ramps, we have custody solutions mirroring… traditional assets,” she explained. This bridging of the two worlds aims to provide investors with familiar tools for risk management, onboarding, and portfolio diversification.

A critical challenge for investors remains distinguishing genuine, long-term potential from fleeting hype. While panellists deferred specific investment advice, common themes emerged for discerning value.

Gracie Lin pointed to the increasing role of regulation as a guiding light. “Because regulation has come in… regulators are trying to get ahead of the innovation… to figure out which areas are worth allowing to flourish,” she stated. Jurisdictions providing regulatory clarity are often indicative of spaces with long-term potential and increased safety for investors.

Hayden Hughes suggested a more data-driven approach, comparing blockchains to app ecosystems like Apple’s App Store or Google Play. “You can look at the… Token Terminal, DeFi Lama… where the adoption is happening,” he advised. These platforms offer transparent metrics such as user numbers, transactions, fees, and revenue, allowing for a more sophisticated valuation of blockchains and their underlying applications. The emergence of a “price to fees ratio” now enables a form of investment banking-style comparable analysis, once deemed impossible in crypto.

Dr. Tachdjian elaborated, suggesting investors focus on the entire ecosystem around a specific Layer 1 protocol (the “operating system” analogy). Beyond the core token, she advised due diligence on projects built on top, including:

She also outlined current narratives, differentiating between short-lived trends and those with more “legs”:

Hayden Hughes offered insights into Tokenized Capital’s strategy: 90% venture, 10% liquid. The liquid portion acts as an emergency reserve for opportunistic buying during market downturns. Venture investments are broadly split: one-third in Layer 1s, one-third in middleware/scaling, and one-third in application layers. Risk increases exponentially as you move up the stack, with higher potential multiples for successful applications (100x+) compared to exchanges (10x+).

For venture investing, the focus has shifted from mere pitch decks to actual company traction and revenue. Crucially, Hughes looks for founders solving real problems that require minimal “behaviour change” from users, leading to smoother adoption.

OKX’s global expansion, particularly in Singapore and Dubai, highlights the pivotal role of regulation. Gracie Lin noted that regulators vary in their risk appetite and objectives, but a clear trend is emerging: tailoring rules to fit the evolving industry. Singapore, she believes, has set a benchmark by applying the same rules to both crypto firms and traditional institutions, fostering trust and collaboration.

Dr. Tachdjian showcased Hedera’s enterprise-friendly Layer 1 protocol, governed by a council of large institutions like Google and IBM. This permissioned structure ensures high uptime, compliance, and features like account freezing/wiping – critical for institutional adoption. Hedera boasts rapid finality (3-5 seconds) and high transaction throughput (up to 10,000 TPS).

For fintech and payments, Hedera offers open-source toolkits like Stablecoin Studio (for compliant stablecoin issuance) and Asset Tokenization Studio (for debt/equity tokenization). This has enabled the tokenisation of money market funds from giants like BlackRock, Fidelity, and State Street, illustrating the accelerating “flywheel” of real-world asset adoption on-chain.

The panellists concluded with a unified message for the audience:

As the lines between traditional and digital finance continue to blur, the insights from these industry leaders paint a picture of a maturing crypto market ripe with genuine opportunities for informed institutional investors and family offices ready to engage with its evolving landscape.