Simon Kim, CEO of Hashed and a number one determine in Korea’s blockchain {industry}, shared his ideas on the important thing traits shaping crypto in 2025 and past.
Underneath Kim’s management, Hashed has expanded past being a enterprise capital agency to turn out to be a serious participant in Web3 investments. The corporate has helped form Korea’s blockchain ecosystem via initiatives like co-hosting Korea Blockchain Week (KBW), the nation’s greatest blockchain occasion, working Web3 developer teaching programs, and supporting blockchain coverage analysis.
On this unique interview, Kim talks about international crypto traits, highlighting the rising significance of stablecoins, the rising connection between AI and blockchain, and the way markets worldwide are responding to modifications in US crypto insurance policies.
What main traits do you anticipate within the crypto {industry} for 2025?
From an industry-wide perspective, Bitcoin and stablecoins will probably be extremely vital in 2025. With the brand new US administration’s pro-crypto stance, Bitcoin is more and more being positioned as a strategic reserve asset. Some international locations exterior the US are reportedly already starting to build up Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset.
Stablecoins are one other key sector. Stablecoin transaction quantity has already surpassed Visa’s transaction quantity, with over $200 billion in issuance. Whereas the principle use of stablecoins has been in crypto exchanges and DeFi, we count on to see their adoption in worldwide commerce and retail funds accelerating in 2025.
Within the crypto-native scene, the intersection of crypto and AI would be the greatest agenda. We’re already seeing explosive progress within the tokenization of AI brokers. There’s additionally rising recognition of the necessity for decentralized AI fashions. As an illustration, whereas OpenAI isn’t truly ‘open,’ Meta’s Llama has demonstrated that open-source AI can develop extra cost-effectively.
Nevertheless, there’s at present no incentive mannequin for builders in these open ecosystems. Creating decentralized governance and incentive fashions for AI will probably be a key experiment in 2025.
Why do you see stablecoins as a strategic benefit for the U.S. greenback?
Stablecoins signify a major alternative for US greenback dominance. Whereas the US greenback accounts for a restricted share of world forex reserves, it dominates practically 99% of the stablecoin market. This primarily expands USD territory within the digital house. From the US perspective, there’s no motive to withstand this pattern — non-public firms are successfully increasing greenback dominance in digital areas with out authorities intervention.
This aligns properly with US pursuits because it strengthens the greenback’s place within the digital financial system. Furthermore, in comparison with conventional money transactions or worldwide wire transfers, correctly regulated stablecoins with KYC/KYB compliance can supply higher monitoring capabilities for monetary actions.
Because the US positions itself as a crypto chief, what coverage modifications do different international locations want to contemplate?
Throughout his current go to to the New York Inventory Trade, Trump spoke extra about crypto than shares, indicating a major shift in US monetary coverage course. The influence of crypto and blockchain on US finance is about to blow up, and plenty of international locations, together with Korea, are falling behind in adapting to this transformation.
Legislators in varied international locations want to acknowledge the urgency and timing of this international shift. Many countries have quite a few pending payments associated to cryptocurrency and blockchain, together with safety token rules, however progress has been gradual. The US is actively embracing crypto innovation in its monetary sector, and different international locations have to preserve tempo to take care of their aggressive edge within the international monetary market.
This isn’t nearly maintaining — it’s about seizing alternatives within the evolving international monetary panorama. When a serious financial system just like the US alerts such a transparent course in crypto coverage, international locations have to fastidiously take into account their place and response to keep away from being left behind on this digital monetary transformation.
What are the important thing traits of the Asian crypto market, notably Korea?
The Korean market’s most notable attribute is its highly effective retail investor base. Nevertheless, this market has developed solely round retail buyers, with just about no institutional participation. With out institutional funding merchandise, particular person buyers are compelled to turn out to be specialists themselves, resulting in the next vulnerability to unreliable info and potential fraud.
When it comes to improvement capabilities, Korea excels in purposes reasonably than infrastructure. Even within the Web2 period, Korean unicorns, most have emerged from the appliance and content material sectors. Because the blockchain sector transitions from an infrastructure-focused period to at least one the place purposes flourish throughout varied mainnet platforms, Korean builders have a major alternative forward, notably in constructing international purposes with blockchain know-how.
How does Hashed place itself on this market?
What differentiates us from different Web3 VCs is our important give attention to utility investments. Whereas main crypto VCs within the US have about 80-90% of their portfolios in infrastructure layers — Layer 1, Layer 2, or different infrastructure tasks – greater than 50% of our investments are in purposes.
We have been one of many first VCs to spend money on the Web3 gaming sector again in 2018. We have been lead buyers in important tasks like Sky Mavis, which created Axie Infinity, and The Sandbox. At the moment, only a few VCs have been investing in blockchain gaming on account of issues about Ethereum’s transaction pace and scalability.
What differentiates Hashed’s funding method from different Web3 VCs?
Hashed headquarters conducts two varieties of investments: fairness funding via Hashed Ventures and direct crypto funding via our personal capital. In Korea, since enterprise funding associations can not instantly spend money on crypto, we function via two separate funding automobiles.
We even have a number of venture-building subsidiaries, with ‘UNOPND’ being a major instance. As our incubator specializing in leisure and gaming, UNOPND created MODHAUS, a Ok-pop leisure firm, which has achieved important success with its first IP, tripleS.
Not like most funding corporations that focus solely on funding actions, we mix investments with filling gaps within the ecosystem to advertise crypto mass adoption. Because of this we place ourselves as an ‘ecosystem builder,’ with our core imaginative and prescient being the mass adoption of blockchain know-how.
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