The New Logic of Web3 Entrepreneurship in the Context of Global Trade's New Order

Deteriorating Macroeconomic Environment - A Crisis is Forming a New Order

The financial world is beginning to enter a chaotic era.

Since Trump resumed his presidency, 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 escalation of tariff policies: starting from April 5, 2025, the United States will impose a uniform "baseline tariff" of 10% on all imported goods, and impose higher "reciprocal tariffs" on China, Vietnam, and 60 other countries. In the short term, Trump's tariff stick has caused massive fluctuations in global markets: U.S. Treasuries faced a sell-off, with the 10-year Treasury yield soaring above 4.5%, marking the largest weekly increase in 20 years; U.S. stocks experienced severe volatility, nearly triggering a circuit breaker; the U.S. dollar index fell for several consecutive days, recording the largest single-day drop in years. Although the U.S. later announced a delay in imposing new tariffs on some allied countries to gain breathing room, investors remain filled with anxiety over future uncertainties, 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 is facing the risk of collapse: the rise of emerging economies has weakened the relative advantage of the U.S., and the massive debts and fiscal deficits accumulated over the long term are continuously eroding the credibility of the dollar, with the dollar's share in global foreign exchange reserves declining. Particularly since China's accession to the WTO, its rapid development has gradually approached or even surpassed the U.S. in many technological fields, triggering profound 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 warning signals for the U.S.: the once-dominant technological gap is being rapidly closed, and the traditional advantages of the U.S. in manufacturing are in jeopardy, while a younger generation of Americans is increasingly drawn to fields such as finance and the arts, showing less willingness to engage in manufacturing. This series of changes indicates that the old order on which the U.S. relied for dominance is beginning to unravel.

Against this backdrop, U.S. decision-makers have begun to brew the construction of a new trade and financial order to maintain their global dominance. The strategic goal of the Trump administration is not only to negotiate better terms in trade talks but also to "start anew"—by establishing a new rule system to re-establish the central position of the United States. This includes two aspects: firstly, to strike at major competitors and weaken the rapid rise of countries like China that are capitalizing on existing globalization dividends; secondly, to seek new value anchoring to provide new support for the shaken credibility of the dollar and global trade. In this mindset, traditional dollar credibility needs stronger backing, and the U.S. has begun to look towards assets such as 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 shift. Shortly after his inauguration, Trump publicly expressed his concern about the development of virtual currencies, contrary to 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 U.S. is preemptively laying the groundwork for a potential new financial order, incorporating Bitcoin into the national strategic vision.

Bitcoin and Gold: The New "Double Anchor" of the Dollar

When global trade and financial rules are facing reconstruction, the United States is trying to create a new credit foundation 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 gold reserves of the U.S. Treasury are an important card in the game of dollar hegemony. Today, Bitcoin is being endowed with a similar strategic status—viewed as the "digital gold" of the new era. As of the end of 2024, Bitcoin's total market value is approximately 2 trillion dollars, which is only about one-tenth of the market value of gold. From a long-term potential perspective, if Bitcoin's market value can one day match that of gold, then its price still has several times more room for growth. Because of this optimistic growth potential, along with Bitcoin's unique advantages of decentralization, limited issuance, and high liquidity, the United States is beginning to seriously consider incorporating it into its national reserve system.

In March 2025, the U.S. government rolled out 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 industry giants as well as members of Congress and officials to participate. Trump publicly expressed his support for the development of the crypto industry at the summit and promised to push Congress to quickly pass legislation regarding 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 treat the Bitcoin reserve as the gold of the digital age. This statement marks the formal entry of Bitcoin into the U.S. national strategic level, granting it a status similar to that of gold.

This series of actions indicates that the United States intends to position Bitcoin alongside gold as a new anchor asset in its financial system. In practice, the U.S. government has already accumulated a substantial reserve of Bitcoin and plans to increase its holdings further. Market rumors suggest a target of accumulating control over approximately 1 million Bitcoins, a figure that approaches the proportion of the U.S. official gold reserves in global gold. Although this target has not yet been fully realized, the trend is evident: some U.S. state governments have even taken the lead in approving the purchase of Bitcoin using public funds for reserves; at the federal level, administrative orders and legislative proposals have been initiated to 'legitimize' Bitcoin. If the U.S. dollar can partially anchor both physical gold and digital gold in the future, combined with the establishment of a new international clearing system using blockchain technology, the U.S. is expected to gain an advantage in future global financial games, ensuring the vitality of the dollar system.

Indeed, the inclusion of Bitcoin also helps the United States address its own problems. For example, the massive national debt burden on the U.S. government is becoming increasingly heavy, leading to a credit crisis. If the U.S. controls enough Bitcoin reserves and pushes its price up in the future, it could cleverly mitigate debt risks by selling part of its reserves to fill the debt gap. This idea of "diluting debt with crypto assets" has become a new imagination of U.S. financial strategy. At the same time, the U.S. is also making efforts in digital currency regulation: a recent bill proposed to bring stablecoins with a circulation of over $10 billion under regulation, indicating that the U.S. wants to control the issuance rights and rule-making authority of crypto dollars to consolidate the dollar's dominant position in the crypto world. Dollar stablecoins + gold + Bitcoin, these three together outline the prototype of a new order for the dollar—maintaining the legal status of the dollar while being supported by physical and digital assets, enhancing risk resistance.

Market environment adjustment and "What is suitable to do in the second half"

In the past year or so, the global crypto market has undergone a dramatic shift from frenzy to calm. The total market capitalization of crypto assets has fallen from a historical peak of about $3.71 trillion to around $3.04 trillion, with the market entering a deep correction and clearing phase. Macroeconomic turbulence combined with stricter regulations has caused many projects lacking genuine value support to vanish during 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 from the last cycle has dissipated, it is a great opportunity to focus on refining products and accumulating energy 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 no longer sustainable, replaced by entrepreneurial logic centered around hard-core value. In the current market environment, the following directions contain new opportunities:

• Bitcoin Ecosystem: Financial innovations, infrastructure upgrades, and the reconstruction of real assets and payment networks based on BTC surrounding the Bitcoin network.

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

• Real-world assets and payment finance: Combining on-chain technology with real assets and payment scenarios to develop a new model supported by stable cash flows.

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

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: Creating new types of financial assets on the Bitcoin network. Bitcoin is no longer just a static store of value but is evolving into an underlying platform for issuing various financial assets. Recent protocols like BRC-20 and Runes have sparked a trend of issuing token assets on the BTC mainnet; the Taproot Assets protocol launched by Lightning Labs makes 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: Reshaping the intelligent infrastructure on Bitcoin. To compensate for the shortcomings of BTC's native functionalities, the industry is attempting to create a similar smart contract layer for Bitcoin. One path is to develop EVM-compatible Bitcoin sidechains or Layer 2 solutions, expanding the DApp development space on the BTC network. Another path involves solutions native to the Bitcoin protocol family, such as the RGB protocol and the Lightning Network, which are Bitcoin-native second-layer technologies. These focus more on enhancing privacy, scalability, and payment efficiency, constructing a lightweight and economical on-chain execution layer for the BTC mainnet. Representative projects focus on building Bitcoin's Layer 2, middleware tools, etc., enhancing 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 tokenizing U.S. Treasuries and physical assets, with Bitcoin providing a globally verifiable settlement mechanism as the settlement layer, giving such assets a highly credible value anchor. Meanwhile, the "PayFi" model, relying on emerging payment infrastructures like the Lightning Network, brings Bitcoin back to the payment stage— for example, by combining AI agents with Bitcoin micropayments, enabling real-time small payments between machines and between people and machines, providing efficient payment solutions for scenarios like SaaS services and data exchange. Representative projects focus on enhancing the practical application efficiency and user experience of Bitcoin in RWA and payment scenarios, empowering the payment and circulation of BTC.

Overall, the Bitcoin ecosystem is waking up comprehensively from the underlying protocol to the application layer. Whether it's issuing assets on the BTC mainnet, building smart contract layers, or using BTC for settling real assets and instant payments, Bitcoin has the potential to become a fertile ground for the next stage of innovation and entrepreneurship. For entrepreneurs, re-examining the possibilities of the Bitcoin network might uncover underestimated golden opportunities.

![Global Trade