5 Unexpected Things I Learned From Token 2049 Dubai

Hey guys, we are fresh off the heels of token 2049, one of the largest gatherings for crypto in Dubai. And we have some insights from Hikaru from Elevate Ventures. Hi, Hikaru. Hey, hello, Michael. Glad to be here. Yeah, nice to see you again. And you're looking fresh as always. But I got baked in Dubai for sure. It was so hot. Man, I saw the videos and we'll put some footage. That was a really hot event. I remember last year just baking it out in the sun. I love crypto, but the heat, not so much. So today I want to focus on five unexpected things we found from token 2049. Because this is a really long running series of conferences. It's a really big gathering for everyone who is in crypto. Unfortunately, I couldn't go this year. So I want everyone to be keyed in for what Hikaru saw and what was happening. So Hikaru, first and foremost, I just want to ask you some questions. How was the vibe there? Yeah, so just like the weather, it was actually very hot. You can tell that there was a very overwhelming amount of positive. So people are building things, like actually building stuff. Having more meaningful discussions, not just which meme coin you're buying. So I think there was a back to the basics of, okay, what utility does a coin actually have? What are we going to build together? Let's actually announce a long-term partnership, things like that. So in that sense, it felt me it was more, I would say, comforting in that, you know, it's not the high of the bull market. It's more sensible. So I think that's the first unexpected thing. Because, I mean, Dubai is known for extravagance, right? It's known for opulence displays of wealth. And this year, it's toned down to opulence displays of development. A little bit. I mean, yes, there were Lamborghinis, there were McLarens, but it's not like a whole row of them, right? It's like a couple, right? More reasonable. Yeah. Right. I think money being spent towards a more smarter thing. Right. And I think smarter money is moving in, right? And I think that that's a trend that we see throughout crypto, really. You know, that phase of like insane products were crazy. So I think you were saying that one of the unexpected things you were discovering is people were focusing on Bitcoin, too, right? Yes. In a way, it's unexpected, but also not surprising. Because this Dubai token 24.9, you know, it's that season where so many opulence are launching and people are building. So you think, right? Okay, opulence are going to continue booming. But if you look at the market, that's not how exactly it is. So it's just kind of weird, I would say, vibe where a lot of projects in opulence are building. They're getting ready for launch, but they're not launched yet and it's not so hot. So everyone's just kind of going back to the basics. Okay, what's the most safest asset within crypto? It's none other than the king of Bitcoin. So, for example, when we were talking about Arthur Hayes, he kept saying the same thing. Governments are going to pay more money. Banks are just going to keep printing and flooding all this cheap capital, right? And that's of course going to flow into Bitcoin first and then outpoints later. But we have to first kind of get into this. So, you know, get into Bitcoin. Bitcoin dominance is rising. And I think people are realizing that on a much, much deeper level rather than just having more hopium that, oh, you know, my up point is going to go to the loop. Yeah, I mean, for a conference that's called Token 2049, you expect, you know, 2049 tokens launching. But Bitcoin, you know, it's now primarily a Bitcoin conference now. Like people are focusing on back on Bitcoin. Are there services, like a lot of services surrounding Bitcoin? Do you see that? Yes, I think about one year ago, we had a full Bitcoin boomerang with a more than all those BRC20s and a whole Bitcoin L2 narrative. I think it's not as hot as it was one year ago, but we see a lot more, I would say, serious discussions. Okay, how are you going to actually bring Bitcoin into EVM? You know, what is actually attractive for institutions? How are retail kind of doing the whole BTC play? So, for example, Coinbase, right, they launched their own CBBTC, but this is getting a lot more, I would say, significance in terms of being used in defi like more folks. So these kind of real discussions I actually saw taking place. So we do see developments and maturity when it comes to the whole Bitcoin ecosystem, not just Bitcoin as an asset. And I think it takes longer to mature, right? Because, I mean, that Bitcoin kind of building on Bitcoin narrative went really strong with ordinals, with runes, and there was this wave, but it kind of like petered out a little bit, right? It feels like the Bitcoin crowd, they're rich, but they're not as decent. Would you say that? Like, it's like they're more conservative with their money. Like, I see Ethereum people, you know, like they'll spend, you know, 40, 50, 100 ETH on an NFT, but you don't see the same trend going for Bitcoin people, right? You won't see a Bitcoin nerd saying, oh, I'll spend 50 Bitcoin on an NFT. Right? I mean, obviously, the amount is different, but a lot of people acquire Bitcoin at $10, $50. So the same logic could apply because when people, when I talk to a lot of Ethereum traders, they are like, oh, yeah, I got Ethereum like $10. So I don't mind spending, you know, 50 ETH, but you don't see that amount of capital moving for Bitcoin, right? Like onto NFT projects. It's like kind of like, it chilled out a little bit, right? Exactly. So that's why like people who are Bitcoin OGs, they're a lot more sensible, right? And they kind of gone through all the ups and downs and investment cycles. So I'm talking 2049. It's always been fun because you kind of see weird things, crazy things, you know, normal things that's happening. And that's the fun side of it too. But I think this year, it just made a lot more sense, like very just sensible things going on. So, yeah, we saw that balance, you know, kind of, I would say becoming more noticeable in this year's token. So it's a good thing. I think, yeah. One of the things I was hearing that was a little bit unexpected was capital. It feels like there's not as much crazy capital as before. You see, like people are just throwing money at anything they wanted. That seems to move, right? Yeah. So I remember token 2049 last year, both in Dubai and Singapore, you know, you go out, just talk to people. And everyone's like, oh, I'm a VC. I'm an investor. You know, I'm an accelerator. So now everyone's a VC popping up out of nowhere. But I think this year, it is very clear that a lot of the existing VCs, they have already deployed capital into their projects. So they're just kind of chilling and waiting. And they're being a lot more cautious. So more projects looking for funding, not enough new VCs in capital. And this is kind of the dynamic, right? Yeah, I mean, that's the way it should be, right? Projects should be dying to get money and not investors dying to spend money. I mean, that was the general trend for the last, you know, like five, ten years, right? Where like every investor is like, oh, my God, I invest in this, this, this. You know, like a badge of honor to be, you know, investing in certain projects. Now it's like, you know, that not a badge of honor is like, I got money. So go eat shit. Exactly. So one thing that's also unexpected is maybe last year you have like a beautiful white paper, you know, placeholder website. And just because the story was great, right? DeFi, Bitcoin, whatever. They're like, yeah, my project is valued at $50 million. And the investor would just throw money at you, right? And then good luck, TG. Right, right, right. But now, because of the dynamic where there's a lot more projects, not enough new capital, the valuations have calmed down significantly for projects, which is good for retail as well. Because at least they feel like they get a better entry point instead of coming into like 300 mil valuation, right? When all the VCs are already in. So it leveled out the playing field for retail. Right, right, right. And those ridiculous valuations are just insane, especially a lot of times they're just for a website. And did you see AI playing as well? Because like AI can make a beautiful website very quickly now, right? You can actually just specify somewhere. It's like, oh, make this look like a, you know, $300 million Silicon Valley startup. And then do you think AI is actually playing a role in like kind of lowering the valuation space as well? Because it's so easy to make an idea. Just type it to like Vercel or type it to Lovable or something like that. You know, website comes up, you're good to go, right? Absolutely. So funny thing is when you have all these conversations, right, with people, before it used to be, oh, are you using AI? But now it's which AI tool are you using for anything, right? When it comes to AI, you know, your blurb, pitch deck, whatever it is. So I think that's a really fun thing. And then people are really like more knowledgeable about like DFAI, DFA, whatever. That's another thing. No one knows how to say that acronym. So yeah, everyone's saying different things. Yeah. I've also seen RWAI as well, which is a pretty cool combination. So we're getting a lot more granularity in terms of where these AI agents are fusing with existing verticals, even gaming as well. So I thought that was pretty cool. Do you think that's like, do you think that's chasing a fad word though? You know, like, oh, RWA, that's a little bit, you know, overplayed. I just put the I next to it. You know, is there a real value there? Or is it just chasing the buzzwords? It's a buzzword salad. Yeah. Well, I guess when everyone is using it, right, it is chasing. But rather the way I felt it is if you're not having AI, some sort of AI term in your marketing pitch, you're missing out. And like you're dinosaur age. So that's the kind of thing where people are now like forced to just somehow package it into their narrative and it'd be like, boom, right? Yes. Just shove it in. Shove it in. Shove it in. But I mean, I mean, there is definitely value in AI. I mean, I see that even with everything that even I'm doing, the flow can be improved. So, I mean, it makes sense and it's not hard to add in. And then once the AI improves, you know, three or three years down the line, everything that you built here right now is going to work even better. Right. So why not? Right. Yeah. So actually one thing a lot of people are talking about is Dubai is very large, right? So you need to really plan your transportation time, you know, from point A to point B, the car cost and all that. So this optimization, okay, which side event should I go to? In what order? Because you got to really think about it. No one has built an AI agent for this. No one yet. But we need it. That's a million dollar idea. That's definitely a million dollar idea. If you're watching this and you're building it, please reach out to us. Hey, you can expand that to like busy cities like Bangkok or anything like that, where like it's impossible to get from like one place to another on a car, you know, under like an hour, right? So, hey, your event space optimization, that's a great plan. So what's kind of like some hot topics, you know, expected, unexpected? What are some hot topics from here? Yeah. So another major theme that I wasn't expecting, but I heard a lot of people talking about it is back to what we used to all love, gaming, right? Game 5 gaming is not as hot anymore. I know we had a couple good games launch, but it's not like the Game 5 play turn days anymore. However, I went to, besides Token 2049, there was a Sui base camp. So a conference dedicated for Sui. And they announced and really was showing their handheld portable gaming device. So it's called the Sui Play 0x1. And they can play all kinds of PC games. And like, it was just really there, right? Making it more seamless for anyone to just hop in and play. So I feel that the gaming narrative is coming back. But in a way where the Web3 component, you know, the confusing tokenization part is kind of invisible to the user. But they're still bringing back the core elements of like rewards and gamification into something that makes more sense to our long term. So I think that was something I did not expect, but it was definitely there loud and proud. There's a different angle to attack gaming. I think that's interesting. Because I mean, the problem with gaming is that, like, you feel like it should mix. You feel like it's the perfect solution to a lot of gaming's problems. Because I mean, if you come from old school gaming, there was lots of problems with your dealing with a virtual world. And there's item cloning, item duping, and blockchain 100% solves that. Right? But there's also a current generation move for gaming that's moving away from item ownership, moving away from this kind of like keeping your virtual assets and tradable assets. So I feel like gaming, it definitely needs a different angle to approach it. Because the end fact, and I talked about this in a lot of talks, is that fucking players hate blockchain. You know, the moment they see it, you know, they want to run away. Right? And gaming this year, these few years have been suffering from kind of like a lack of new titles and stuff like that. And it's a very hard industry to break into. So I feel like taking that different approach might work. Who knows, right? That's interesting. I definitely didn't expect them to go into hardware. You know, like hardware seems to be like, it's an interesting play. Yeah, so I thought the same exact thing, right? Because what happened with PlayToEarn was, okay, you know, these developers who are not even gamers because they're in it for the token, they create this game with graphics from like the 1980s. And then they launch a token, they're like, hey, play my game, which sucks. You can only play my game to earn. But what I saw with the gaming is, which is why I think it might work long term, is you take all of these existing games, games out there, right? PC, mobile app store. And as like a middle layer, you can play your game, launch it on my app, and then you can earn rewards. Because the way I can reward you is by collecting, you know, data from you, right? Anonymous. Like how much do you play? What games do you play? But it's not limited to just some crappy games. It's open to all of the existing games out there that are actually fun. So I saw this kind of sense coming back into what could GameFi evolve into? Yeah, that could work. Because I mean, I think people are starting to realize how hard it is to make a good game. It's not just about good graphics. I think that was the misconception of 2020. And I, you know, I was like screaming top of my lungs, like, hey guys, it's just not about the graphics. And everyone's like, oh, we have Fortnite style graphics. Okay. You're still not going to be Fortnite. Like, buddy, you know, it's more than that. It's about gameplay. Players are very sensitive to that. Most people don't realize that. But anyways, so yeah, so that's kind of cool. That's kind of cool. The last thing I want to talk about is the altcoin season, right? Because everyone's interested, like, when is the altcoin season going to be? And what's your kind of vibe and take on that? Yeah, so it's one of those things where psychologically, right? If you look at every bull and bear cycle, these boring long times that were kind of winding up to make that bigger wave just feel so long, right? Because everyone's waiting for it, everyone's building, and everyone's kind of delaying their launch. So I was talking to Arthur Hayes about this, like almost the same question. And his take is that essentially, these central banks have to print a lot more money. You know, the Fed has to lower interest rates to create that kind of risk-on environment where cheap money does flow into Bitcoin and then into altcoins. Because if you look at the previous two major altseasons, I'm not talking the small ones, but the major ones, it always happened in a risk-on environment when interest rates are low. And then all these central banks across the world were printing massive amounts of money. Now, here's a good thing, right? If you look at the M2 global liquidity data, a lot of these central banks, US, Germany, China, Japan, et cetera, Europe, they're all printing huge amounts of money. So that money will eventually come into crypto, right? And eventually, the Fed or Powell will be forced to lower rates because Trump is just on his ass. So once that happens, we don't know exactly when, we will get the altcoins season. But it's just very clear that we're not in that same environment where people are willing to be more risky, and putting it into 100x altcoins. I mean, that makes a good point. It's about having the kind of macro environment, right? Basically, it's almost like putting all the puzzle pieces together. Like, okay, here, interest rates, all right, money printing, flows into Bitcoin. You know, it connects everything together and once everything's together, boom. All right, the altcoins season map is here, guys! Let's fucking go! Exactly. There we go. So it's like, the chef is cooking, right? Cooking, slow cooking. It's almost there, but not complete yet. But you know, it's going to taste damn good, right? When it's ready. Or it's going to taste over burnt. Sorry. Yeah, that too, but yeah. It's been too long. Two years. Chef, you got a problem. But anyways, so there's a lot of footage we're going through. Hecarus got a lot of great interviews, so I'll put a link to his channel and everything that's going on. You're working on a human and machine, right? So there's a lot of content there. Is there anything else that we should put links to? Yeah, so again, we spoke to experts like Arthur Hayes, Yasu, even the Sui executives. So I'm by no means an expert, but we did talk to the people who can provide more insights, so feel free to check that out because they say a lot of good things, right? Which can help you with your Alcoin or crypto journey. Awesome. Also, I'll put down some links down below. So Hecarus, thank you so much for showing up and sharing it with us what's unexpected. That's a great time and I hope, yeah, I actually feel like it's good to have some insights. I hope you can come on more on the channel to share some insights with us. Yeah, of course. And I think just one last thing is if you've been in crypto, I know it's not the easiest thing, but don't be too bearish and leave because the bull market is not over. Rather, I think now is a perfect time to kind of set up your dream portfolio. Be ready to capture that explosive upside because it happens very quick and that we know it's coming for sure. Yeah, and even like, even that jump, right? Like, I was like longing Ethereum at 1500 and I was like, it felt like swapping and swapping and swapping and then just like, it just moved up. And that's, that's the thing about crypto. It's like, there's no warning. Just like, the upward momentum just comes. It's just like, like that. So, anyways, guys, thank you guys so much tuning in. Check out Hecarus' channel. We'll put the links down below and there's a lot of great interviews there. So, can't see you there.