The New Logic of Web3 Entrepreneurship Under the New Global Trade Order

Deteriorating Macroeconomic Environment - A New Order is Emerging from the Crisis

The financial sector is beginning to enter a chaotic era.

Since Trump re-entered the White House, a series of unexpected economic and political measures have caused continuous turmoil in global markets. Among them, one of the most shocking measures is the upgrade of tariff policies: starting from April 5, 2025, the United States will impose a uniform "benchmark tariff" of 10% on all imported goods and impose higher "reciprocal tariffs" on 60 countries including China and Vietnam (with tariffs on China once reaching as high as 125%). In the short term, Trump's tariff stick has caused significant fluctuations in the global market: U.S. Treasuries faced a sell-off, with the 10-year Treasury yield soaring to over 4.5%, marking the largest single-week increase in 20 years; U.S. stocks experienced severe volatility, nearing a circuit breaker at one point; the U.S. dollar index continued to decline, recording the largest daily drop in several years. Although the U.S. later announced a temporary suspension of new tariffs on some allied countries to gain breathing room, investors remain filled with concerns about uncertainty in the future, as the global financial system seems to have entered a "chaotic era."

The post-World War II international economic system centered around the United States (such as the Bretton Woods system and the WTO framework) is facing the risk of collapse: the rise of emerging economies has weakened the relative advantage of the United States, while the massive debt and fiscal deficits accumulated by the U.S. over a long period are gradually eroding the credibility of the dollar, leading to a decline in the dollar's share of global foreign exchange reserves. In particular, China's rapid development since joining the WTO has brought it closer to, and even surpassed, the United States in many technological fields, triggering deep anxiety among the American elite. Breakthroughs by Chinese companies like Huawei in key technologies such as 5G chip design and communication base stations serve as a wake-up call for the U.S.: the once-great technological gap is being rapidly closed, and America's traditional advantages in manufacturing are in jeopardy, while a younger generation of Americans is increasingly turning to finance and the arts, showing less willingness to engage in manufacturing. This series of changes indicates that the old order upon which U.S. dominance relies is beginning to unravel.

In this context, the U.S. decision-makers began to brew a new trade and financial order to maintain its global dominance. The strategic goal of the Trump administration was not only to negotiate better terms in trade talks but also to "start anew"—reestablishing America's central position by creating a new set of rules. This has two aspects: first, to strike at major competitors and weaken the momentum of countries like China that are rapidly rising by leveraging the existing globalization dividends; second, to seek new value anchors, providing new support for the shaky dollar credibility and global trade. Under this idea, traditional dollar credibility needs stronger backing, and the U.S. began to set its sights on assets like gold and bitcoin, hoping to rebuild the trust foundation of the global financial system.

It is noteworthy that since Trump took office, the U.S. government's attitude towards the cryptocurrency sector has undergone a significant change. Shortly after his inauguration, Trump publicly expressed concern about the development of virtual currencies, reversing his past critical stance on Bitcoin. Some factions within the Republican Party and several state governments have gradually embraced Bitcoin in recent years, viewing it as "digital gold" to hedge against the risks of the dollar. It can be said that the United States is preemptively laying the groundwork for a potential new financial order, incorporating Bitcoin into its national strategic vision.

Bitcoin and Gold: The Dollar's New "Double Anchor"

As global trade and financial rules face reconstruction, the United States is attempting to create a new credit cornerstone for the dollar with "dual asset anchoring": this includes traditional gold reserves as well as emerging Bitcoin reserves. This strategy aims to strengthen the credibility of the dollar in the new order through a combination of physical assets and digital assets.

Gold has long been widely held by central banks as a means of storing value, and the U.S. Treasury's gold reserves (stored in the famous Fort Knox) are an important card in the dollar's hegemony. Today, Bitcoin is being assigned a similar strategic position—regarded as the "digital gold" of the new era. By the end of 2024, Bitcoin's total market value is estimated to be about $2 trillion, roughly one-tenth of gold's market value (about $20 trillion). From a long-term potential perspective, if Bitcoin's market value one day reaches parity with gold, its price still has several times the room for growth. Because of this growth potential, along with Bitcoin's unique advantages of decentralization, limited issuance (21 million coins), and high liquidity, the U.S. is beginning to seriously consider incorporating it into its national reserve system.

In March 2025, the U.S. government released a series of significant measures in the crypto space: on March 6, President Trump signed an executive order announcing the establishment of a "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" and a "U.S. Digital Asset Reserve." The next day, the White House held a high-profile crypto summit, inviting certain industry giants along with members of Congress and officials to participate. Trump publicly expressed his support for the development of the crypto industry at the summit, promising to push Congress to quickly pass legislation on the regulatory framework for stablecoins and digital assets to provide a clear legal environment. More notably, Trump stated at the summit: "Establishing a Bitcoin reserve is like establishing a virtual Fort Knox"—in other words, the U.S. intends to regard the Bitcoin reserve as the gold of the treasury in the digital age. This statement marks the formal entry of Bitcoin into the U.S. national strategic level, being endowed with a status similar to that of gold.

This series of actions indicates that the United States intends to anchor Bitcoin alongside gold as a new financial system asset. In practice, the U.S. government has already accumulated a substantial amount of Bitcoin reserves (mainly from law enforcement seizures and other channels) and plans to increase its holdings further. Market rumors suggest the goal is to accumulate control of about 1 million Bitcoins (accounting for 5% of the total supply), a quantity close to the proportion of the U.S. official gold reserves in global gold. Although this goal has not yet been fully realized, the trend is already evident: some U.S. state governments have even taken the lead in approving the purchase of Bitcoin with public funds for reserves; at the federal level, administrative orders and legislative proposals have been made to "normalize" Bitcoin. If the U.S. dollar can partially anchor physical gold and digital gold (Bitcoin) in the future, supplemented by blockchain technology to establish a new international clearing system, then the U.S. is likely to gain an advantage in future global financial games, extending the vitality of the dollar system.

Of course, the inclusion of Bitcoin also helps the United States address its own challenges. For example, the massive national debt burden carried by the U.S. government is becoming increasingly heavy, triggering a credit crisis. If the U.S. controls enough Bitcoin reserves and drives up its price in the future, it could cleverly mitigate debt risks by selling part of its reserves to fill the debt black hole. This idea of "using crypto assets to dilute debt" has become a new imagination for U.S. financial strategy. At the same time, the U.S. is also stepping up its efforts in digital currency regulation: a recent bill proposes to bring stablecoins with a circulation exceeding $10 billion under the regulation of the Federal Reserve, indicating that the U.S. aims to control the issuance rights and rule-making authority of crypto dollars (dollar stablecoins) to consolidate the dollar's dominant position in the crypto world. Dollar stablecoins + gold + Bitcoin, together outline the prototype of a new dollar order—maintaining the legal status of the dollar while being supported by physical and digital assets to enhance risk resistance.

Market Environment Adjustment and "What to Do in the Second Half"

In the past year, the global crypto market has undergone a dramatic shift from frenzy to calm. The total market value of crypto assets has fallen from a historical peak of about $3.71 trillion to around $3.04 trillion (data source: a data platform, data date: 2025.04.23), and the market has entered a deep correction and liquidation phase. Macroeconomic turmoil (such as rising inflation and increasing interest rates) combined with stricter regulations has caused many projects lacking true value support to disappear in this round of adjustments. However, for entrepreneurs who firmly believe in the long-term value of blockchain, this moment is actually the best time to build a foundation, gather strength, and nurture new opportunities— as the bubble of the previous cycle has burst, it is a great opportunity to calmly refine products and accumulate strength to stand out.

In such a "second half" environment, entrepreneurs should consider: what is suitable to do in the second half? Simple traffic strategies are hard to sustain, and instead, a startup logic centered around hardcore value takes precedence. In the current market environment, the following directions hold new opportunities:

• Bitcoin (BTC) ecosystem: Financial innovations around the Bitcoin network ("BTC Fi"), infrastructure upgrades, and the reconstruction of real assets and payment networks based on BTC.

• Other public chain ecosystems: Innovating on public chains like Ethereum to return to the essence of efficiency and profitability, breaking away from merely "competing for traffic" and creating sustainable decentralized finance (DeFi) applications that are product-oriented.

• Real World Assets (RWA) and Payment Finance (PayFi): Combining on-chain technology with real assets and payment scenarios to develop new models supported by stable cash flows.

• Cryptocurrency concept stocks: Focus on the rise of "blockchain concept stocks" in the traditional capital markets, as well as the new path of Web3 startups moving towards stockification.

Next, we will analyze the above ideas and explore specific entrepreneurial opportunities worth paying attention to during the macro pullback period.

Entrepreneurial Opportunities Surrounding BTC: BTC Fi, BTC Infra, BTC RWA & PayFi

Although Bitcoin has long been regarded as "digital gold" and its mainnet functionality is relatively simple, a series of recent technological and application advancements are injecting new vitality into the Bitcoin ecosystem. Around the BTC network, we see three major entrepreneurial opportunities:

• BTC Fi (Bitcoin Finance): Creating new types of financial assets on the Bitcoin network. Bitcoin is no longer just a static store of value but is evolving into a foundational platform for issuing various financial assets. Recently emerging protocols such as BRC-20 and Runes have sparked a wave of token asset issuance on the BTC mainnet; a company's Taproot Assets protocol (TA protocol) has made it possible to issue stablecoins, bonds, and other financial assets within the Bitcoin ecosystem. This means that the Bitcoin mainnet is expected to take on more value-bearing functions in the next cycle, upgrading from "digital gold" to a value storage network that supports a rich array of assets. Representative projects focus on building decentralized financial services such as lending, trading, and derivatives on the Bitcoin network, driving a leap in BTC financing and asset issuance capabilities.

• BTC Infra (Bitcoin Infrastructure): Reshaping the intelligent infrastructure on Bitcoin. To address the shortcomings of BTC's native functions, the industry is attempting to create a smart contract layer for Bitcoin similar to Ethereum. One approach is to develop EVM-compatible Bitcoin sidechains or Layer 2s (such as BTC L2 with Ethereum smart contract capabilities), expanding the DApp development space of the BTC network. Another approach focuses on solutions native to the Bitcoin protocol family, such as the RGB protocol and the Lightning Network, which are Bitcoin-native layer 2 technologies that prioritize enhancing privacy, scalability, and payment efficiency, creating a lightweight and cost-effective on-chain execution layer for the BTC mainnet. Representative projects focus on building Bitcoin Layer 2s, middleware tools, etc., to enhance Bitcoin's development ecosystem and scalability.

• BTC-Powered RWA & PayFi: Unlocking the potential of Bitcoin in the realm of real-world assets and payments. RWA based on the Bitcoin network is gradually emerging, such as the tokenization of U.S. Treasury bonds and physical assets, with Bitcoin serving as a settlement layer providing a globally verifiable clearing mechanism, endowing such assets with highly credible value anchoring. At the same time, the "PayFi" model emerging from payment infrastructures like the Lightning Network is bringing Bitcoin back to the payment stage— for example, integrating AI Agents with Bitcoin micropayments to enable real-time small payments between machines and between humans and machines, paving the way for S