Blocktempo list nearly 40 awardees, including outstanding entrepreneurs, option leaders, and Taiwanese with global influence, compiled into “2022 Taiwan Blockchain Influencers list”, and asked them to share their predictions and trend observations for 2023.
This article you will find a detailed list of the “KOL” and their detailed trend predictions for 2023.
Shortlist：
> Dr. JU-CHUN（dAAAb）KO / Dentsu Web3 Growth Consultant
> lan Hsu / EM3 DAO Founder
> Jacky Wang / Shibuya.xyz & Bu Zhi DAO Co-Founder
> Chris Chang / mrblock Founder
> BrainBroCrypto / Brainbrocrypto YouTuber ＆ Chinee Founder
> Raysky / Raysky’s Investment Founder
> Cryptor / Murmurcats Co-founder & CEO
> Harry Lee / Youtuber&NFT collector
Dr. JU-CHUN（dAAAb）KO / Dentsu Web3 Growth Consultant
- The host of Podcast “寶博朋友說“, 168 episodes have been launched so far. The well-known KOL in the Chinese world brings the popular science knowledge of blockchain and NFT to the audience through interesting dialogues.
- Graduate of “Singularity University”, an school jointly run by Google and NASA
KO’s 2023 predictions and observations:
Last year, my predictions about businesses and brands entering the market and marketing already came true. For 2023, it will be the year of institutional entry and we will see more large institutions enter into blockchain construction, deposit service, and talent cultivation. The confidence shockwave of year 2022 will gradually come to an end and look forward to the halving of Bitcoin at the end of 2024.
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lan Hsu / EM3 DAO Founder
- EM3 community gathers many powerful and influential KOLs in Taiwan, and is committed to early discovery of technological trends and investment opportunities.
- Connect with numbers of international emerging potential projects (Impossible Finance, GuildFi…), enter the Taiwan market and investment community.
Hsu’s 2023 predictions and observations:
As the FED raised interest rates for the first time since March 2022, the cryptocurrency market saw a downturn. Along with a number of events in the DeFi to CeFi industry (including BlockFi, Celsius, Tornado Cash, Ronin, UST, 3AC, and FTX) that impacted market sentiment, many investors within the industry have either stopped or delayed their investment activities, gradually pulling their funds out of the market.
The FTX incident highlighted that weaknesses in internal management can lead to bankruptcy, which could prompt governments worldwide to implement stricter regulations for the industry. The industry has entered a financial winter.
In 2022, a number of projects announced their closure due to insufficient operating capital or failed fundraising efforts. In 2023, it is likely that we will see even more projects declare bankruptcy (or be impacted by the FTX event). On the other hand, there may also be an increase in acquisition cases. Therefore, it is crucial to carefully assess the holdings in one’s portfolio and determine if they have sufficient capital and profitability to sustain operations.
Despite the challenges that 2023 may bring, technological advancement will continue, particularly in ZK privacy technology. It is advisable for investment strategies to focus on fundamental analysis. This is because the next bull market is likely see the development of a wider range of services or products, whether they are based on DeFi, NFT, or Metaverse, all of which require a more excellent and solid technology infrastructure.
It would be beneficial to search for good investment opportunities from Layer 0 to Layer 2. In terms of application layer, it may be worthwhile to observe the on-chain data of potential targets and consider those that have shown growth in TVL or protocol revenue, and do not have significant contract vulnerabilities or have been hacked, even in bear markets. These projects could be valuable additions to an investment portfolio, and it is also important to keep an eye out for event-driven trading opportunities, as there can still be many short-term investment/speculation opportunities even in bear markets.
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Jacky Wang / Shibuya.xyz & Bu Zhi DAO Co-Founder
- Co-founded Shibuya.xyz, a decentralized video creation platform, with artist Pplpleasr, and received a capital injection of $6.9 million from a16z and Variant Fund, with a valuation of $50 million.
- Founded Bu Zhi DAO (BZD), a group of overseas Chinese Taiwanese Web3 entrepreneurs, including top industry figures from Coinbase, Avalanche, Solana, Opensea, etc.
- BZD host the Taipei Blockchain Week conference during 2022.
Wang’s 2023 predictions and observations:
Bear market is the best time to build new technology, applications and community with less noise and only the people who are in the space to build stick around. DAOs and communities who build together will be able to maximize impact such as what we did with Taipei Blockchain Week, the first web3 international conference in Taiwan hosted by a DAO.
I anticipate some innovation in the ZK, DID, DAO space and hope to see impactful progress in the public goods space as well. Love to see more solid infrastructure integration of web3 to lay the foundation of seamless improved experiences for real world mass adoption use cases.
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Chris Chang / mrblock Founder
- Founded the “Mr. Block”, one of the earliest self-media representatives in Taiwan to promote blockchain, DeFi and other topics.
- Curve.Fi evangelist, runs Curve’s largest Chinese community.
- Infinity Ventures Crypto – Venture Partner
Chang’s 2023 predictions and observations:
– DeFi will continue to grow and solve some problems of CeFi.
Most of the major crashes in 2022 are a reflection of human nature, not technology shortcomings.
FTX, Voyager, BlockFi, Celsius, Genesis…etc.The need for DeFi is more stronger than ever.– Nothing is too big to fail, no matter who it is. (government or top investors or celebrities)
LUNA was the 5th largest cryptocurrency before the crash (behind Bitcoin and Ether) .FTX was the 3rd largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world before it went bankrupt.Don’t let the size of the project cover up its vulnerabilities. If the mechanism is fundamentally flawed, then there is nothing to stop the inevitable collapse.
– History tells us that bull and bear conversions in the cryptocurrency world have always come after Bitcoin Halving. So there’s a big chance that the bear market will remain in 2023. But the market won’t stop, there will be more builders and new products. The next time bitcoin Halving is in May 2024.
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BrainBroCrypto / Brainbrocrypto YouTuber ＆ Chinee Founder
- Chinese blockchain popular Youtuber, the total number of channel viewers has exceeded 5.17 million.
- Committed to popularizing blockchain and sharing industry analysis. An important blockchain evangelist in Taiwan
BrainBroCrypto’s 2023 predictions and observations:
It is very likely that some crypto companies (CeFi) which has not yet spoiled turns out insolvent in 2023, which would cause the crypto market panic and fall again. However, in the medium to long-term, it is a good thing that the market kicks out all the bad behavior players who take advantage of their clients’ assets on the sly.. It is difficult for companies with poor management and evil practices to be eliminated by the market mechanism in a bull market.
Only a long enough bear market can exclude those over-packaged and inflated projects for the industry. We might not be able to start the next bull run before the end of 2023, but the downside potential of Bitcoin and Ethereum is expected to be limited.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) will matter a lot more. Traditional financial giants such as Fidelity, Paypal, and Blackrock will continue to launch cryptocurrency-related products and services. Social media leaders like Meta and Twitter will continue to integrate NFT and crypto payments more actively. If the previous bull run was driven by completely innovative financial and digital assets, the next one would probably be driven by the largest financial and tech companies in the major market.
Infrastructure and regulations will be the top topics in 2023. The advantages of blockchain in payment (fast, cheap, transparent, borderless) are indisputable facts, but the lack of competent infrastructure and clear regulation make it difficult for people to access. We do have many smart people working hard in this area, but there is still a long road to go.
To sum up, 2023 doesn’t look like another crazy bullish year for crypto. Before the macroeconomic policy stops tightening, it is unlikely for large capitals to decisively enter the cryptocurrency market which is still highly speculative. However, according to on-chain data, Bitcoin is already in a very cheap position, and there is only tiny room for profiting from short-selling. The DCA (Dollar-Cost Averaging) strategy will probably be suitable for the most investors in 2023.
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Raysky / Raysky’s Investment Founder
- Raysky’s Investment is a popular blogger in Taiwan. He has been exposed to cryptocurrencies since 2016. In 2018, he began to share knowledge about US stocks and cryptocurrencies on his blog.
- In 2020, he was selected as Binance’s official partner KOL “Binance Captain”.
Raysky’s 2023 predictions and observations:
– 2023 General Economic Conditions: In an environment where the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates, it is more difficult to see bears turning into bulls unless the rate of interest rate hikes starts to slow down.
In terms of characteristics, cryptocurrencies are more aggressive growth stocks. A bull market can still bring up this P/E Ratio, but a bear market will be a cold winter, so we see that Tesla, the king of US stocks in these years, has already started to reduce/shut down its factories and its stock price has fallen heavily.
Before the U.S. stock market is up, it is unlikely that the currency world will rise, so it is most important to work hard and accumulate funds during this time. When the bull market returns, there will not be just one wave, so you don’t have to rush to eat the head of the bull.
– The rise of CopyTrader service: Recently, many platforms have launched CopyTrader services, using high leverage to rush trading volume, and do not care about the quality. Based on history, there is a chance that we will see some of these teachers fall from scandals.
– Regulation of blockchain: With the collapse of FTX, it has started to receive attention again. There are pros and cons to this, because in the past, when it comes to regulation, it was often the negative cause of the coin’s downfall, but as more investors come on board, there is a greater desire for regulation, which has pushed up the importance of Defi.
However, excessive regulation can often degenerate into ugly political issues. The next potential black swan event may be the “regulation of Defi / public chains”, so it is important to pay attention to the information related to this issue.
– Localization of blockchain services: Many new startups are currently working on this, and we will see more web 2 companies cutting into web 3 technologies.
– The investment trends for 2023 and 2024 are not very predictable. In terms of investment, stocks and tokens are not suitable for investment as the interest rate rise cycle has not yet slowed down.
In terms of technology, we can foresee that socialfi, gamefi, and projects that combine physical empowerment will continue to develop.
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Cryptor / Murmurcats Co-founder & CEO
- Since its establishment in 2021, the “Murmurs of a Million Cryptocurrency Traders” podcast has ranked first in the business category for cryptocurrency podcasts, with over 500 ratings and an average of 4.9 or higher stars. It has listeners in 64 countries around the world.
- He founded the Murmurcats, a community of 10,000 NFT enthusiasts that brings together top traders and investors in Asia for investment discussions. The NFT floor price for Murmurcats is still 5.1 ETH, and the Opensea listed rate is only 2%.
Cryptor’s 2023 predictions and observations:
In 2023, due to the impact of the FTX incident, centralized exchanges will accelerate the process of transparent financial situation. In addition to continuing to communicate with traditional accounting firms on how to audit, they will also explore decentralized ways of conducting third-party audits, such as through consortium blockchains of multiple exchanges, to give users peace of mind. Users will also store and trade cryptocurrency in multiple exchanges and cold wallets, similar to how they diversify risk by holding accounts at multiple banks and brokers in the traditional financial system.
On-chain custody, clearing, and decentralized exchanges will also receive more attention. Protocols that enable users to have an experience on the chain that is closer to that of a centralized exchange are worth noting.
More cryptocurrency investors will realize that the probability of one-sided markets will decrease in 2023, and to survive and continue to make profit in the market, they will need more diverse investment knowledge and skills. For example, traditional financial market techniques such as long-short trading, event-driven trading combined with fundamental analysis, and program trading will become more common in the industry to cope with the increasingly unpredictable market.
Some of the popular protocols in 2021 and 2022 will face the opposite of their tokenomics and market sentiment, such as large-scale token unlocks and failing to meet growth targets, resulting in difficulties in securing new rounds of financing. These protocols’ valuations will decline due to fundamental factors, resulting in losses for early investors who are not paying attention.
In Q3 2022, Ethereum has successfully completed “The Merge” upgrade, further expanding its leading advantage, especially as several competitors’ backing capital has been out, establishing this situation. However, this does not mean that a single chain will dominate the ecosystem. Ethereum still needs to better integrate Rollup technology and create a more complete application ecosystem. At the same time, emerging public chains will still have room to develop with new capital support. In addition, the competition for the public chain in the future will not only be limited to technological strength, but also the ability to create large-scale commercial scenarios will be a core factor affecting the competition for the public chain in 2023.
In 2022, STEPN caused a sensation in the gaming industry (monthly revenues peaked at over $100 million, which is comparable to the top 10 mobile games at the same time). Such performance is undoubtedly a shock to the traditional gaming industry. Although the bubble and ponzinomics of GAMEFI are still unresolved issues, they do not detract from its precision marketing, rapid cold start, fair and transparent, and external investment attraction advantages. It is expected that in 2023, more traditional game companies will follow suit and explore the best model for combining web2 and web3. (Note: Ponzinomics is not a derogatory term, but a double-edged sword that, if used well, can accelerate the positive flywheel of protocols.)
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Harry Lee / Youtuber&NFT collector
- Youtube channel “Harry Lee” has 163,000 subscribers, actively shares cryptocurrency and NFT, and has a large fan base in Taiwan.
- Early BAYC Evangelists
Lee’s 2023 predictions and observations:
Gamefi and the metaverse will be the next big race. With Yuga labs’ further promotion and construction of metaverse, there should be a revolutionary change within 2 years, which may change the whole social media status and enter the era of social media 2.0.
2023 will be the beginning of this era, with the popularity of 3D NFT, we will find that in the future, only PFP will be difficult to survive, and the threshold of 3D will also greatly increase the difficulty of the project, so there will not be a phenomenon of pictures everywhere in 2021.
Regarding Generative Art, this field has proven to be able to sustain in a bear market. I think whenever I see blue chips at a good price, I will consider buying them as a collector because it is a long term investment and the return is very good.
Overall, I think there are many new opportunities waiting for us in 2023.
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