"You might have always wondered: after all these years of tinkering with Web3, what have they actually accomplished besides cryptocurrency speculation? Before this year, the answer wasn't exactly impressive. But this year, several signals have made me feel that I can answer this question again." This May, I—Trev Ng, founder of ChainNeXT—was busily preparing for the Web2+3 Summit at BEYOND Expo 2026. I had a long list of speakers in my mind: Yat Siu, Chairman of Animoca Brands; Michael Heinrich, CEO of 0G; Art Abal, co-founder of Vana; and Jack Kong, founder of Nano Labs and director of Hong Kong Cyberport. This list is quite interesting. If you look closely, you'll find that they represent not the "get-rich-quick" myths of the past, but a completely new wave: the deep integration of Web2 and Web3. And my team, ChainNeXT Group, officially became the chief partner of the Web3 section at BEYOND Expo 2026 this year, jointly promoting the deep integration of Web3 technology and industrial innovation. Just as I was racking my brains over the summit, a series of past encounters reinforced my belief that we were standing at a historic turning point. I. Jack Kong: Those half-hour moments changed the course of my life. My acquaintance with Jack Kong dates back many years. I hadn't graduated from university yet, and on my first trip to Austin, Texas, for Consensus, I recognized him immediately at a small dinner party near the venue—he had just become a director of Cyberport in Hong Kong. At the time, I was scouring the world for investors with a tattered PowerPoint presentation that had been revised dozens of pages. Coincidentally, the CEO of a major internet company was sitting next to me. But Jack didn't rush to exchange pleasantries with the bigwig; instead, he turned around and listened attentively to me, this greenhorn, as I talked about my entrepreneurial ideas for a full half hour. Those suggestions and encouragements were an invaluable source of enlightenment for me, who was still quite naive at the time. Later, when OpenClaw exploded in popularity, Jack organized an OpenClaw China tour. I immediately helped him arrange the event in Macau. Because in my mind, Jack has always been a leading figure willing to mentor young people and actively embrace the integration of Web2 and Web3. He's not just someone who focuses on cryptocurrency prices; he's looking at the future of every "super individual" in the digital age. II. Art Abal: The moment I applauded him the only one in the entire audience. I first met Art at a Consensus event in Hong Kong last year.It was a roundtable discussion. Several Web3 experts on stage were fluently discussing obscure terms like ZK and decentralized AI infrastructure, while the audience looked bewildered, an awkward silence hanging in the air—"I don't understand, but I dare not ask." Then Art took the microphone. Instead of continuing with the jargon, he asked two extremely simple questions. He asked, "Who here has used AI?" Everyone raised their hands in unison. He continued, "Who here truly owns their own data?" Silence fell; not a single hand went up. He smiled and said, "Our Vana will allow you to truly own your own data in the future." At that moment, I was the first person in the room to burst into applause. He used the simplest language to tear away the most glamorous veil of Web3, directly addressing the biggest pain point of the Web2 era—data plunder. Later we learned that Vana was the first DeAI project CZ (Changpeng Zhao) invested in after his release from prison, and it also received support from top VCs such as Paradigm, Coinbase Ventures, and Polychain. Last year, when he came to BEYOND Expo, he told me, "This is the first time I've talked about Web3 in front of Nvidia's booth!" This kind of foresight is exactly the kind of voice BEYOND Expo has been looking for. III. Yat Siu: I asked him, "If you can order takeout with fiat currency, why does AI still need Crypto?" I first met Yat Siu during this year's Consensus conference. I was honored to be invited to an internal investor gathering that is usually only open to shareholders. I was very excited to meet him because he is the one who has caught all the trends in the metaverse and has a deep presence in the DeAI field. Some people in the industry jokingly call him "the Jesus of Web3" because he always preaches some grand visions for the future. That day he talked a lot about the future of Web3 combined with AI, mentioning a term—"Crypto is the native currency of AI." I couldn't resist and raised my hand to ask a rather "nitpicky" question: "Yat, Qianwen can order takeout with fiat currency, so why does AI still need crypto?" His answer was interesting. He didn't talk about technical details, but instead described a scenario that the Web2 world couldn't solve. At that moment, I was certain that Yat wasn't just shouting slogans; he was using profound philosophical logic to construct the underlying economic rules for the integration of Web2 and Web3. IV. Michael Heinrich: In this deep bear market, a Silicon Valley bigwig actually came to Shenzhen to visit the factory. Michael Heinrich is the co-founder and CEO of 0G. I first met him at a dinner in Shenzhen, organized by JT, the head of 0G's Asia Pacific region—he was also our guest last year.To be honest, in this bottomless bear market, I've rarely seen foreign founders willing to make a special trip to mainland China to visit the market. Michael usually lives in the US, so his appearance at a dinner in Shenzhen that day surprised and moved me. At the dinner, he didn't talk about cryptocurrency prices or listings, but about what he was doing in China. He said he visited many large companies, even some automotive manufacturing institutions. He was thinking about how to integrate DeAI infrastructure (0G) into the production lines of these real-world businesses. In this Web3 market rife with speculation, foreign founders like Michael, so practical and focused on real-world applications in China, are truly rare. He didn't treat China as a mere retail market, but as a real world with a vast manufacturing sector and AI application scenarios. V. What kind of stage is their upcoming BEYOND Expo? BEYOND Expo, organized by the Macau Science and Technology Association, has been held for five consecutive years since its inception in 2021 and is Asia's largest international technology innovation and ecosystem expo. The fifth BEYOND Expo in 2025 attracted over 25,000 attendees from more than 120 countries and regions worldwide, along with over 800 exhibitors, 300 media outlets, and over 800 professional investors. Overseas attendees accounted for 40% of the total, and the average proportion of attendees at the director level and above was 55%. This year, from May 27th to 30th, 2026, the sixth BEYOND Expo will be held at the Venetian Macao Cotai Expo Centre, with an expected participation of over 1,200 companies and more than 30,000 attendees. The names that have graced this stage in previous years are enough to represent an entire industry: Joseph Tsai, Chairman of Alibaba Group; Zeng Yuqun, Founder and Chairman of CATL; Shen Nanpeng, Founding Partner of Sequoia China; and Guo Guangchang, Chairman of Fosun International. Leading global technology companies such as Nvidia, Huawei, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent, TikTok, and Foxconn have also participated extensively. Why establish the Web2+3 Summit this year? Because the turning point has truly arrived. VI. Four Signals heralding integration. Signal 1: Hong Kong dollar stablecoins officially debut. Just recently, on April 10th, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) officially granted the first batch of stablecoin issuer licenses to HSBC and Point Financial (a joint venture between Standard Chartered Hong Kong, Hong Kong Telecom, and Animoca Brands) under the Stablecoin Ordinance. Compliant stablecoins are entering mainstream payment scenarios, a landmark event signifying the true integration of Web2 and Web3 financial infrastructure. Signal 2: Hong Kong's cryptocurrency exchange regulation matures. As of the first quarter of 2026, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has officially approved 12 virtual asset trading platform licenses.Hong Kong's virtual asset ecosystem has completely moved beyond the "transitional cleanup" phase and entered a new stage of development characterized by "normalized expansion." Signal Three: The US passes the GENIUS Act. On July 18, 2025, US President Trump signed the "Directing and Establishing the National Innovation for Stablecoins in the United States Act" (GENIUS Act), marking the formal establishment of a federal regulatory framework for stablecoins in the US. The world's largest economy giving the green light to compliant stablecoins provides an unprecedented institutional foundation for the integration of Web2 and Web3. Signal Four: Under geopolitical pressures, cryptocurrencies have indeed seen real-world applications. In April 2026, the Iranian Oil Exporters Union announced that during the temporary ceasefire between the US and Iran, oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz would need to pay their passage fees in Bitcoin. In January of the same year, Iranian officials clarified that overseas military contracts could accept "digital currency" as a payment method. Beyond the four signals mentioned above, the scale of RWA (Real-World Asset) tokenized assets in the financial sector continues to grow; PayFi (Stablecoin Finance) in the cross-border payment sector is beginning to connect crypto payments with traditional supply chains; and DeAI (Decentralized AI) in the artificial intelligence sector is breaking the monopoly of centralized AI in terms of data, computing power, and algorithms—these three tracks are also the core themes of this Web2+3 Summit. VII. Web2+3: A Bull Market Narrative in a Bear Market. What was Web3 like in the past few years? It was a frenzy for worthless cryptocurrencies, a feast for speculative investors, a casino where "get rich overnight, lose everything the next day." That was a speculative Web3, a zero-sum game where a few reaped the benefits of the many. In the past few years, I've attended many Web3 conferences and seen too many seemingly "lively" industry consensuses. But if you observe closely, you'll find that most people in those settings were already already in the industry. Everyone discussed the future within the same context, but rarely truly addressed the users and needs outside the industry. This is why many narratives sound grand, but remain confined to the inner circle. The significance of BEYOND Expo lies precisely in changing this. The Web2+3 Summit is more than just Web3; it's a premier Asian technology ecosystem that brings together over 30,000 technology industry builders. It gathers Web2 companies, traditional financial institutions, cross-industry decision-makers, and actual buyers—the very users who were previously the most difficult to reach, yet also the most crucial. When Web3 is placed in this context, it's no longer just something to be talked about internally; it enters a larger business system for the first time, being tested by real needs. This is why the Web2+3 Summit is so worth attending.What you see here isn't just what the industry is saying, but what's actually being used and what directions are beginning to have the potential for scalability. Past Web3 relied on emotion-driven consensus, while the future of Web2+3 depends on whether people actually use it. BEYOND is precisely where this "use" first occurred on a large scale. The current Web3 market is indeed a bear market, with sluggish trading volume and many projects going to zero. But at the same time, the entry of Hong Kong dollar stablecoins into PayMe, the continued growth of RWA tokenized assets, and SpaceX's pre-IPO shares entering the DeFi ecosystem through tokenization… these ongoing stories of Web2+3 integration represent the true future. The Web3 bull market relied on FOMO (fear of missing out), while the future of Web2+3 relies on Adoption (real adoption). This is why the Web2+3 Summit at BEYOND Expo 2026 will focus on "feasibility, commercial viability, and compliance." We're not trying to create a self-congratulatory party for Web3 practitioners, but rather to build a bridge for a rational connection between Web2 and Web3. From May 27th to 30th, the Venetian Macao Cotai Expo will bring together over 30,000 attendees. This summit may not deliver a hundredfold increase in cryptocurrency prices, but it will herald the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. We'll see Jack, who has shown selfless mentorship to his juniors; Art, who has given us hope for the return of data sovereignty; Yat, who has demonstrated the philosophical logic of the symbiotic relationship between AI and cryptocurrencies; and Michael, who has shown Silicon Valley elites their awe and respect for China's real economy—they will all be there. Their foresight and execution have transformed Web3 from a concept on a PowerPoint presentation into a real-world business reality of Web2+3. We are currently in a bear market for Web3, but it is the starting point of the Web2+3 story. And I am honored to witness this convergence with you. I am Trev; share this article and let yourself become a part of this Web3 "Yellow Turban Rebellion." BEYOND Expo 2026 Official Website: www.beyondexpo.com Customer Service: [email protected] Registration Link: https://portal.BEYONDexpo.com/reg/BEYOND26/web/#/en/ticket/mall?track=tk19 [Web3 Event]