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Author: Paul Veradittakit, partner at Pantera Capital; compiled by: 0xjs@Bitchain Vision
Over the past week, I have met with institutional investors and founders in Hong Kong and Singapore, and participated in activities such as the Hong Kong Trade Mission organized by Trademissions.org, the Hong Kong Consensus Conference, and a symposium with Amber Group on Web3 AI.
Pantera is actively investing in companies in Asia-Pacific and is seeking interest in Fund V, a venture capital fund investing in venture equity, private tokens, special opportunities and liquid tokens, which will be launched on June 30, 2025.This week is full of arrangements and there is a lot to reflect on.
The highlight was attending some of Trademissions’ visits to Hong Kong, attending the “LP-GP Friendship Reception sponsored by the U.S. Consulate”, with top family offices and agencies LPs and GPs attending.The U.S. Consulate held a wonderful event that brought together different groups of people interested in investing in U.S. businesses and funds.
Compared to previous years, I have found that institutional investors’ interest in cryptocurrencies has changed dramatically.Their industry knowledge is deeper and their interests go far beyond Bitcoin investment.
Topics of interest
Stablecoins and DePin:
Stablecoins are a trillion-dollar opportunity, and are equally attractive in Asia.Stablecoins are practical for many people, and their idea is that issuing stablecoins can make profits from issuers.People are not very interested in tokenized stocks and equity, but they are very interested in the investable part.Pantera has invested in stablecoin projects such as Ondo and Eco.
Especially now, banks and other institutions are preparing to launch their own dollar-backed stablecoins after the U.S. Congress legalizes stablecoins.Stablecoins have processed more than $33 trillion in transactions each year, exceeding the sum of Visa and Mastercard combined.
LP is particularly curious about how Pantera can replicate the growth we achieved in the US market in Asia.With our extensive network, expertise and resources in supporting and investing in stablecoin companies, we can help those launching products in the Asian market to succeed.
The DePin (Distributed Physical Infrastructure Network) market is still in its infancy and is gradually growing with the addition of every new company.Privately, there is a lot of discussion about its potential.
I reviewed trends, use cases and success stories, including our portfolio companies Geodnet and Hivemapper to showcase the opportunities.
AI:
AI has been headlines, especially after DeepSeek.DeepSeek opens the door for many people, showing that high-performance models can be created with modest private investments (rather than relying on open markets and huge private investments).
Pantera has invested heavily in this field, funding full-stack projects such as Sahara, open AI such as Sentient, and markets such as Akash.In my conversation with Amber, we talked a lot about privacy, the additional features consumers want to have in AI, and AI proxy.Perhaps in the future, each of us will have our own set of agents to trade on the chain at the speed of the internet.In that future, it is not unreasonable to see a 5-fold increase in global transaction volume.
People are often interested in Pantera’s positioning and exposure in the AI field, and based on our investment history and ongoing belief that Web3 AI is the future, we are fully capable of investing in companies that will be widely used worldwide.
AI has widely promoted more personalization, and this value-added feature has not yet been explored in depth.AI agents allow users to perform complex operations (such as cross-border payments) using simple commands, which will enable Asian users to join the Web3 ecosystem across traditional financial infrastructure.
legislation:
The legislation in the United States is finally beginning to become clear.In Pantera’s recent blockchain newsletter, we highlightedHow does regulation change from headwind to tailwind.Given that the U.S. SEC recently revoked all cases against major U.S. cryptocurrency companies, we are very optimistic about the upcoming U.S. cryptocurrency regulation.Regulatory certainty and support for the management of cryptocurrencies are the basis for our investment theme this year.
The openness of regulation will undoubtedly allow U.S. cryptocurrency companies to expand into Asia, while Hong Kong is the gateway.Everyone can see this momentum at last week’s Hong Kong Consensus Conference.Since 2022, Hong Kong has been providing increasing support for cryptocurrencies, launching Asia’s first spot exchange-traded fund and issuing nine Virtual Asset Trading Platform (VATP) licenses.Regulators are also actively listening and willing to support the industry through future legislation.
in conclusion:
Asian investors, operators and users have higher confidence in cryptocurrencies this time than at any time in the past decade.They want to invest in and build more applications to address fragmented technologies that many rely on, which can bring in revenue, entertainment, travel and payments.Stablecoins, AI and legislation are the fundamental reasons why everyone wants to enter the U.S., and I’m glad Pantera is able to lead this new wave as a long-term manager in the industry.
