Bitcoin all-time highs. Digital asset Treasurys. Inflows from institutions in the billions. This momentum may continue well into 2026. 2025 was a big year for cryptocurrency.
Cointelegraph hosted its exclusive LONGITUDE conference during Token2049, Singapore.
The program featured Neal Stephenson (acclaimed author), Arthur Hayes of Maelstrom, Joseph Lubin from Ethereum, Aave Labs’ Stani Kulechov, and Neal Stephenson.
Unlimit was the co-host of LONGITUDE. Global fintech leader for payment processing and banking as a services (BaaS). Also, a fiat on-ramp solution to crypto, DeFi and GameFi.
Cointelegraph, Flipster, and ICB Labs were also partners at the flagship event.
Hayes’ $3.2 million Bitcoin forecast
Hayes’ fireside talk was packed with all of his spicy takeaways. Hayes outlined his theory for Bitcoin reaching $3.2m, based on models that predicted continued US Treasury monetary expansion.
“The majority of it will go into Bitcoin, and I think the new meta is fundamental season – cash flow and revenue. The token projects that do really well in this altseason will have sort of a Hyperliquid-style profitability, taking those profits, buying back their token or doing some sort of emissions,” Hayes said.
Maelstrom’s CIO said the first-movers will dominate digital asset treasuries.
“It’s another financial product to trade. It’s great that this is sort of a back door to give crypto exposure to investors who otherwise wouldn’t be able to own it,” Hayes said. “The capital is going to be concentrated in the larger names like Strategy or Bitmine. They’re going to receive the lion’s share.”
DAT Treasury Meta
LONGITUDE hosted a DAT between three big players who were focusing on assets that are vastly different. SharpLink Gaming CEO Joseph Chalom promoted the Ethereum playbook of his company. Ether, he said, offers many benefits over any other cryptocurrency.
“I have a belief that most of finance will be fundamentally disrupted by Ethereum and its L2s, and I believe we’re at the point where it’s not just going to be financial markets changing, it’s going to be civilization-level change.”
Related: Ethereum DATs are the next Berkshire Hathaway: Consensys founder
The Smarter Web Company CEO, Andrew Webley — the man behind the UK’s most successful publicly-listed Bitcoin treasury company — was adamant that there is no second best to BTC on the balance sheet:
“So there’s simply two qualities that I like about Bitcoin. The fixed number that will ever exist and the fact that no one controls it.”
David Namdar has raised 500 million dollars for BNC BNB.BNBBinance is the biggest exchange on earth.
“If you think about Facebook, Google, Apple, the largest companies in each of their verticals, they’re publicly listed in the US. In the crypto space, the biggest company in the space, Binance, is potentially five to 10 times larger than any other crypto exchange,” Namdar said.
Metaverse vision
Lubin’s and Stephenson’s fireside went in a different philosophical direction as they decoded the predictions made by Stephenson for an uncertain future based on cryptography, and decentralized system in his critically acclaimed books Snow Crash You can also find out more about the following: Cryptonomicon.
Lubin stated that as a child, he was inspired by Stephenson’s novels and connected deeply to the way Stephenson imagined an cypherpunk futur.
“The thing that was really positive and compelling was how he articulated what cyberspace might look like and feel like and how you might get into cyberspace and interact with objects and space. It was a crisp, stark vision. I think it showed the way for a lot of builders of my generation,” Lubin, said.
Consensys’ founder gave a deeper insight into his hopes and dreams for SharpLink, Ether-based Digital Asset Transactions (DATs), and revealed SWIFT uses Consensys Ethereum-based development tools to upgrade its current infrastructure.
Trillion-dollar infrastructure
A panel discussion on the Synergies of TradFi Infrastructure Rails and DeFi Infrastructure Rails concluded the event.
Kulechov noted Aave’s increasing dominance on the DeFi scene, with net deposits exceeding $70 billion.
“To put that into context, that would be like the 35th biggest bank in comparison in the US, and we’re not thinking of being that end-user product. We think of Aave and DeFi as an infrastructure that is then embedded into these fintechs and traditional financial services that will distribute this.”
Kiril Eves, Unlimit founder, said that his company was forced to adopt crypto-services due to the demand of its large customer base.
“Everything’s going to be crypto. And of course, stablecoins would replace the classic way of wire transfers completely. That’s what they can be for us. This future is super clear. So that’s why we need we need to serve this industry.”
TradFi also looks to the blockchain for its infrastructure because of privacy concerns. Rayls CEO Marcos Viriato stated that Rayls service taps into a sector which is ready for a decentralized revolution.
“When it comes to infrastructure for banks and financial institutions, it needs to be secure, reliable and abstract the complexity for the end-user. Our focus has been to provide this to banks so they can serve clients in a way that the client doesn’t know that’s being tokenized, but will take the benefits from it,” Viriato said.
Cointelegraph is hosting its LONGITUDE in Abu Dhabi from Dec. 11 to 12. You can find out more about the event on Luma.
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Source: cointelegraph.com
