The Ice and Fire of the Crypto World: While the West rushes, the East remains silent

In the United States, the daily trading volume of Bitcoin spot ETFs broke 5 billion USD, and Wall Street institutions are lining up to enter; in Europe, the pilot of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is accelerating, and traditional finance is starting to merge with DeFi; in Southeast Asia, young people in Vietnam and the Philippines are obsessed with Meme coin trading, with Telegram Bots and on-chain leverage becoming new casinos.

And what about us?

JD.com has announced plans to develop stablecoins. As soon as the news broke, before the market could get excited, a bunch of “JD stablecoin” Ponzi schemes emerged, harvesting funds and then running off. — This is the current situation.

1. The West is in a rush, and we are watching

Although the US SEC is still in a tug-of-war with the crypto industry, at least exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken can still operate normally. Ripple has fought a lawsuit with the SEC for years but has not been completely crushed.

The European MiCA legislation has been implemented, granting “compliance passes” to crypto companies, banks are starting to hold Bitcoin, and even allowing payments in stablecoins.

And what about us?

Exchanges? They either go overseas or transform into “blockchain technology consulting.”

Public chains? The technology is strong, but they can only tell stories overseas.

Retail investors? They either use VPNs to trade contracts or speculate on “digital collectibles” in WeChat groups, only to find out they are just air.

2. The JD stablecoin farce: The barrenness of innovative soil

JD Finance once revealed it would explore stablecoins, which should have been good news — at least it shows that large companies are still paying attention to this field.

But what’s the reality? As soon as the news broke, scammers immediately packaged themselves as “JD official stablecoin,” formed groups, issued tokens, and painted grand visions, only to run away in the end. — Why do scammers always manage to run ahead of legitimate projects?

Because true innovation is stifled, while scams can exploit information gaps and regulatory vacuums to thrive unchecked.

3. Are we really lagging behind?

Technologically, not necessarily.

China leads the world in the number of blockchain patents.

Ant Chain and Tencent Chain’s BaaS (Blockchain as a Service) are also competitive internationally.

But ecologically, we are indeed falling behind.

DeFi? Cannot participate.

NFT? Can only be called “digital collectibles” and cannot be traded on secondary markets.

Public chains? The technology is strong, but they can only serve overseas markets.

— We excel at building skyscrapers, but we do not dare to let anyone live in them.

Are we participants, or bystanders?