Tag: southeast asia

Web3's $250M Week: Southeast Asia's Artists Ready to Build?

Web3's $250M Week: Southeast Asia's Artists Ready to Build?

• Commentary

$250 million sloshing around the crypto space. Great! Who actually feels that money? There’s been a lot of talk lately about infrastructure and DeFi. How are these ideas affecting the kampungs and artists’ studios throughout Southeast Asia? Are we just building larger pipes for the same tired concepts? Or are...

Crypto Regulation 2025: Southeast Asia's Artists Are Being Left Behind

Crypto Regulation 2025: Southeast Asia's Artists Are Being Left Behind

• Commentary

Think of Nandar, a young artist in Myanmar, harnessing her colorful digital art to share narratives of resilience and hope. By utilizing NFTs, she was able to make direct connections with collectors around the world and circumvent the censorship and economic turmoil surrounding her country. Crypto was her lifeline. Now...

5 Binance Hopefuls: Will Southeast Asia's Creative Web3 Finally Break Through?

5 Binance Hopefuls: Will Southeast Asia's Creative Web3 Finally Break Through?

• Commentary

Binance is also making waves, cleaning house to open the door to new talent. The “Vote to Delist” program … It’s more than housekeeping, it’s making a big statement. An indication that they’re open, willing, desirous for innovation, for projects that really speak to the future possibilities of this Web3....

Axelar: Southeast Asia's Artists Hold the Key to Cross-Chain Adoption?

Axelar: Southeast Asia's Artists Hold the Key to Cross-Chain Adoption?

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Picture a future where the rich culture of Southeast Asia is not held back by distance or lack of access, time, or resources. Picture this situation—in a Balinese painter in his studio easily hawks artwork to a buyer in New York City. They get paid in their preferred crypto, benefiting...

CoinFerenceX Hackathons Empowering Southeast Asia's Web3 Artists or Just Another Booth?

CoinFerenceX Hackathons Empowering Southeast Asia's Web3 Artists or Just Another Booth?

• Commentary

Let's be blunt. Yet another Web3 conference, yet another set of promises to decentralize our futures and empower individuals. CoinFerenceX has been drawing attention for all the right reasons, too, due to its glitzy setting in Dubai. It dares to call itself the “first decentralized Web3 event.” Are the hackathons...

Meta Earth Airdrop: Is This Dubai Event the Key to Southeast Asia's Web3 Boom?

Meta Earth Airdrop: Is This Dubai Event the Key to Southeast Asia's Web3 Boom?

• Commentary

Southeast Asia is buzzing. From busy Jakarta to the makerspaces of Bangkok, you can feel the excitement for Web3. Now, we’re witnessing artists, creators, and regular people alike become wooed by the allure of decentralized platforms, NFTs, and other miraculous economic models. The road is definitely not lined with cash....

Zora's Update: How Southeast Asian Artists Can Ride the NFT Wave

Zora's Update: How Southeast Asian Artists Can Ride the NFT Wave

• Commentary

Jesse Pollak's retweet. A 20% price jump. Millions in trading volume. Sounds like another Tuesday in crypto, right? Wrong. As artists of Southeast Asia, this is a clarion call. We must act swiftly. ZORA is only the beginning. This is a monumental change in how creators are able to reach...

Coinbase's Oregon Fight A Southeast Asian Artist's Perspective On Crypto's Future

Coinbase's Oregon Fight A Southeast Asian Artist's Perspective On Crypto's Future

• Commentary

As a Southeast Asian artist, I tread the slippery digital terrain. In the meantime I continue to watch regulatory battles unfold in the West with growing concern. The recent news of Oregon's Attorney General planning to sue Coinbase on April 18th, mirroring the SEC's previously dismissed case, feels like a...

Trump's Crypto: How Southeast Asia's Artists Can Navigate the Risks

Trump's Crypto: How Southeast Asia's Artists Can Navigate the Risks

• Commentary

The rise of Trump's crypto empire is not just a Wall Street story. It's a global one, and Southeast Asia's vibrant artistic community needs to pay close attention. We’re discussing the prospect of market manipulation, of lax regulations that favor those who are already the 1% and a whole bunch...

Japan's Bitcoin Revolution: A Boon for Artists and Web3 Creators?

Is Japan on the verge of accidentally unleashing a tsunami of creative destruction and financial liberation onto the rest of the emerging markets? I know this seems like a tall order, but hear me out. Japan’s regulatory change to officially recognize Bitcoin as a financial product. This step is a...

Crypto's 'Light-Touch' Regulation Gamble Will It Protect You?

The Senate Committee’s proposed “light-touch” regulatory framework for crypto is a long high-stakes poker game. Are we all truly holding a winning hand, or are we collectively bluffing our way into a future financial crisis? It’s a question every investor, every innovator, and frankly, every citizen should want to know....

Trump Jr. at KBW2025: Web3's Punk Rock Moment or Sellout?

Or I think about Nandar, a wonderful Burmese artist that I met in Yangon, sharing with me her latest NFT collection. Each work exploded with vivid imagery, bravely fighting back against the junta’s repressive hold. She began selling them directly to supporters around the world, allowing her to cleverly sidestep...

KBW2025: Is Trump Jr. Web3's Trojan Horse or its Savior?

Donald Trump Jr. at Korea Blockchain Week? It's a head-scratcher, isn't it? About as easy as locating a MAGA hat at a Burning Man soirée. Before we put this down as just another short-lived publicity stunt, let’s take a closer look at what this could IoTally Web3 means. Cynical ploy...

Schiff's Crypto Ban: Is He Protecting Us or Silencing Innovation?

Senator Adam Schiff's proposed crypto ban, the COIN Act, aimed at preventing the President (read: Donald Trump) from dabbling in digital assets, raises a critical question: Is this genuine protection against corruption, or a veiled attempt to stifle innovation, especially for emerging markets? Let's be real, the optics are terrible....

Immutable's Gamble: Will Gas-Free Trading Save Web3 Gaming?

Yet the hype around Web3 gaming is real, offering gamers true digital ownership and player-driven economies. Let’s get real: that promise usually meets a very different fate. High gas fees and a clunky user experience can quickly derail those intentions. Immutable is taking a big bet with its zkEVM and...

Civitas' Immutable Leap: A Win for Emerging Artists in Web3?

I think back to visiting a small art collective in Yangon just a few years ago. It was a time when the energy was electric, the talent readily evident, but the artists themselves were suffering. They were making amazing digital art and wanted to access the global NFT market. Those...