The TOKEN2049 conference held in Dubai this month was a major event that brought together industry leaders and featured various activities such as meetups, workshops, networking events, and hackathons. Cryptonews attended the event and conducted interviews with industry experts to uncover key insights and highlights. The atmosphere at the conference was described as electric, with a buzz in the air that hadn’t been felt at crypto conferences in some time. The conversations at the event covered topics such as the impact on the crypto market, bullish outlooks, the rising influence of Ordinals and Runes, and the introduction of a new type of wrapped BTC.
Several industry insiders were interviewed at TOKEN2049, sharing their perspectives on the market and emerging trends. Stefan Kimmel, CEO of M2, discussed the potential impact of macroeconomic policies, US interest rate easing, and spot ETFs on the crypto market. He expressed a bullish outlook for the end of the year and highlighted M2’s decision to establish headquarters in Abu Dhabi for regulatory clarity. Popular trader Ansem mentioned the growth potential of Ordinals and Runes in the crypto space, noting the significant capital present in these areas.
Aki Balogh, Founder of DLC Link, talked about their new dlcBTC product, which offers a different approach to wrapping Bitcoin compared to wBTC. The dlcBTC solution allows users to use BTC in DeFi without involving centralized entities in the wrapping process. Luke Dorney, General Manager for US and Europe at BlockDaemon, discussed the interest of traditional financial institutions in nodes, infrastructure, staking, and digital asset wallets. He highlighted the potential for banks to enable clients to hold and trade BTC and ETH, as well as tokenize real-world assets.
John Glover, CIO of Ledn, shared insights on the importance of risk management in avoiding pitfalls in the crypto lending space. He emphasized Ledn’s approach to credit underwriting and prudent lending practices, which helped the company navigate challenges in the aftermath of the FTX disaster. Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of Near blockchain, discussed the integration of AI and blockchain in Near’s projects and the potential for user-owned AI in the future. Oleg Fomenko, CEO of Sweat Economy, highlighted developments in chain abstraction, magic keys, and Arabic language support in the Sweat Wallet.
Gerald Heydenreich, Founder of EtherMail, addressed the challenge of onboarding users into the Web3 world and introduced EtherMail’s solution of using email addresses as noncustodial wallets. Emmanuel Quzada, CEO of U-topia, shared the company’s mission to facilitate children’s entry into Web3 and its collaboration with governments to regulate cryptocurrencies. Kerem Ozkan, Co-Founder of Soarchain, discussed the platform’s focus on mobility infrastructure for enhanced cars and decentralized ecosystems for the automotive industry. Siddharth Lalwani, Co-Founder and CEO of Skate, talked about building a universal application layer for running applications on multiple chains with one global state.
William Campana, Developer Relations at API3, highlighted the company’s innovative Oracle extractible value (OEV) concept, which creates a competitive environment for information updates on-chain. By allowing users to bid for price updates and directing rewards to dapps, API3 enables dapps to earn money instead of incurring expenses. Overall, the discussions at TOKEN2049 touched on a wide range of topics in the crypto and blockchain space, showcasing the latest trends and innovations shaping the industry.
