Dorji Sun

CryptoCurrently: How Virtual Currencies Went from Mania to Mainstream

Laura Deal Lacey, Andrew Peaple, Bill Barhydt, Ron Cao, Karen Chen, Sam Englebardt, Jeffrey Lin, Dorji Sun

Experts including Bill Barheit, Sam Engelbart, and Karen Chen project that the cryptocurrency market will mature from speculative retail activity into a $500 billion to $1 trillion asset class driven by institutional equity investment and regulated infrastructure over the next three to four years. The panel forecasts a strategic pivot toward utility-based applications, such as tokenized real-world assets and security tokens, while advocating for regulatory frameworks that focus on intermediaries rather than the underlying "ones and zeros." Success in this evolving landscape depends on the convergence of technological scaling via Proof-of-Work or Proof-of-Stake protocols, the adoption of custodial standards by traditional banks, and a regional shift toward governance-heavy business models in both global and Asian markets.