Solana Company Zhu Junwei: The blockchain finance industry today is like China just joining the WTO

Author: Zhu Junwei

Introduction

In 2025, with Trump promoting the enactment of the “GENIUS Act,” blockchain finance received endorsement from the U.S. government and recognition from Wall Street. This year, from giants like BlackRock accelerating their involvement to the explosion of real-world asset digitization (RWA), overseas crypto markets are bidding farewell to the wild west era and moving toward a new generation of financial infrastructure that is critical and compliant. Meanwhile, the market’s sharp downturn in the fourth quarter once again raises cyclical concerns about “prosperity - depression.”

At the end of December, Luohan Hall hosted an advanced dialogue titled “The On-Chain Future of Financial Systems and Intelligent Agent Economy.” We invited several industry experts, investors, senior scholars, and policy advisors working at the forefront of blockchain finance to examine and discuss the development history, prospects, potential opportunities, and risks of this emerging field from multiple perspectives. For domestic observers, this was an excellent opportunity to gauge overseas fintech development trends. We will share insights and reflections from this event gradually.

In this wave of moving from the fringes to the mainstream, “Digital Asset Treasury” (DAT) companies are emerging like mushrooms after rain, serving as new channels connecting traditional finance and blockchain assets. As one of the representatives of DAT, Solana Company’s founder, Joseph Chee (朱俊伟), has a particularly unique experience and perspective. He spent over twenty years in traditional banking before founding a venture capital fund and becoming one of the earliest Asian institutions licensed to invest in blockchain assets.

As an industry insider who “immigrated” from traditional finance to the blockchain world, Zhu Junwei shared three core judgments from industry perspectives in his speech:

2. Inevitable Evolution of Finance: Compared to the internet’s disruption of consumer markets, innovation in the global financial backend is extremely scarce. He believes blockchain is not just hype but a necessary upgrade to the outdated settlement system, with the ultimate goal of achieving 24/7, around-the-clock, global asset flow.

3. Comparison with China’s Economy: He likens today’s blockchain finance to China’s economy at the time of entry — with huge growth potential but little external understanding. This knowledge gap is precisely the best window for institutional investors to enter.

4. Bridge Connecting Old and New Worlds: To break down barriers between traditional assets and the crypto economy, he focused on analyzing DAT and RWA models. They serve as key channels for capital inflow and asset “on-chain” processes, making them important financial innovations to watch in 2025.

Below is the full translation of Zhu Junwei’s speech:

Thank you to Luohan Hall for the invitation. I am pleased to participate in this cutting-edge seminar.

First, a brief self-introduction. I am currently Chairman of Solana Company, a Nasdaq-listed firm. This is a “Digital Asset Treasury” (DAT) company, ranked second in the Solana blockchain ecosystem by digital asset holdings.

I have over twenty years of experience in traditional banking. To keep it brief, my banking career has been quite fortunate. I spent the first three years on Wall Street in New York, then seventeen years at UBS Asia, starting as a sales in the capital markets department, rising to senior management responsible for all of UBS’s investment banking operations, and before leaving to start my own business, managing Asia-Pacific operations for about three to four years.

At UBS, I spent ten years managing global capital markets. The greatest value of this work was witnessing China and the entire Asia-Pacific region’s rise firsthand. I saw many companies and industries grow from nothing to their current scale. Some outstanding companies transformed from unknowns into industry giants, went public successfully, with market caps reaching hundreds of millions of dollars. Therefore, I tend to view the world from a capital markets perspective — a view driven by finance and capital markets.

I retired early in 2017 and founded Summer Capital. Initially, Summer Capital was a buyout fund focused on cross-industry investments. From late 2017 to early 2018, we began investing in digital currencies, blockchain technology, and related fintech companies. We started early, being one of the first funds in Hong Kong to obtain relevant licenses, and possibly one of the earliest institutions in Asia to invest in blockchain.

Additionally, I serve as Vice Chairman of AMINA Bank. Since its establishment in 2018, AMINA is a fully licensed universal bank registered in Switzerland, capable of conducting various digital currency and blockchain-related businesses. Switzerland has only issued two such full licenses, and AMINA is one of them. Other banks are limited by license scope, technical bottlenecks, or legal regulations, often only able to conduct partial digital financial services.

Lack of Innovation in the Financial Industry

Looking back over the past two decades, we all know that internet finance has brought huge disruption to many industries. Many who experienced the late 1990s and early 2000s internet bubble burst and recovery still remember that history vividly. E-commerce development is a prime example. In the early 2000s, many doubted online payments and distrusted e-wallets provided by e-commerce companies or payment firms, believing e-commerce was infeasible. Twenty years later, e-commerce has become a reality and swept the globe, fundamentally changing retail and many other sectors.

However, the financial industry itself has not been disrupted. My first positive outlook on blockchain technology around 2017 was because, as a seasoned banker, I witnessed the outdated and aging financial market system. Although capital markets provide various financing supports for global innovation — from angel investments, VCs, to public market financing — the industry’s own innovation is extremely limited.

While many fintech companies emerged over the past twenty years, many focus on consumer solutions without bringing much update or transformation to the infrastructure layer of the financial system. Some European exchanges still operate on T+6 or T+7 settlement cycles, only recently moving toward T+2. Even in Hong Kong, IPO settlement was T+5 until a few years ago, only recently shortened to T+2 or T+3.

Frankly, many technologies in payments, settlement, and back-office operations have not been updated for over a decade or even twenty years. There are several reasons why this traditional approach is hard to change. On one hand, major reforms require long negotiations with regulators, which is very challenging. On the other hand, some say, “If the current system isn’t broken, why fix it?” For example, Switzerland and Hong Kong still retain the habit of handwritten checks, and many companies are content with the status quo. Moreover, behind traditional finance are deeply entrenched vested interests. New technologies may threaten existing financial firms or service providers — such as monopolistic exchanges — which naturally lack motivation to change. This is one reason why financial reform has been slow.

From a capital markets perspective, what is the ideal ultimate state? A market open 365 days a year, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, where assets and liquidity are interconnected and can flow freely across regions, industries, and commodities. In an ideal scenario, many transactions could even be peer-to-peer without going through exchanges.

For capital markets, this is the goal, the target for practitioners, and the future. After gaining a preliminary understanding of blockchain, my first reaction was: Some technological prototypes for this ideal state have already appeared, heralding the beginning of a financial revolution. Despite concerns about regulation, taxation, fraud, and security, I believe this is the future direction. It will make markets more efficient and financial services more inclusive, serving more groups.

Review of Blockchain Finance Development

Of course, blockchain finance did not develop overnight. In its early days, it attracted little attention — I was no exception. As a busy senior banker, I completely missed its germination period. I still remember hearing about Bitcoin’s white paper during the 2008 financial crisis, but I didn’t understand it well and took no action. I thought it was an interesting but niche idea destined not to go mainstream, so I paid little attention.

The second phase of blockchain roughly spanned 2011 to 2013, when people began to see it as a technology. To my surprise, many current giants — like Grayscale and Coinbase — were founded during those years. That was a very early start, and they have come a long way since.

The next phase was 2014 to 2016, when traditional finance started paying attention to the potential benefits of blockchain technology. Then came 2017, a wild west expansion period for digital currencies, with speculators and gamblers flooding in, and exchanges blooming everywhere. At that time, the two largest exchanges dominated 80% of global Bitcoin trading volume, almost defining the blockchain market.

Many related startups emerged during that period. Numerous on-chain funds clustered in Zug, Switzerland, which became known as the “Crypto Valley” of Switzerland — and arguably the world. Enthusiasts’ firm belief in blockchain technology started there. From 2017 to 2018, I visited Zug frequently. I remember at my first blockchain finance conference, a guest with a ponytail and boots on stage shouted: “We hate governments, banks, regulators, we want to draw a clear line from all of this.” They asked me: “Mr. Chee, I hear you just founded your own company and started investing in crypto assets. What’s your first plan?” I replied: “Sorry, my first idea is to establish a bank.” Clearly, I was not very popular at that conference. I had to carefully explain: “At some stage of development in this field, you still need to stay grounded, need a bridge to the real world. And a bank is exactly that bridge.”

From 2018 to 2020, the focus shifted to building blockchain financial infrastructure. True entrepreneurs — those with vision and motivation to innovate and drive change — began to emerge. This is when the first blockchain financial infrastructure companies we know today appeared, such as Bitwise in the U.S. Additionally, many traditional firms also entered the space, like Fidelity and CME Group.

By 2020 and 2021, more Bitcoin companies were established, and the blockchain financial ecosystem grew rapidly. It was during this period that I kept hearing about Bitcoin and Ethereum in Bloomberg news, prompting me to tell the Summer Capital team: “Now, we must pay close attention and analyze this sector intensively. We need to make heavy investments.” That marked the beginning of our current journey.

Subsequently, stablecoins emerged. Before that, converting crypto assets into fiat currency was the most difficult step. I recall around 2015-2016, early Ethereum investors (many from Asia-Pacific and clients of UBS) tried to convert some gains back into fiat for reinvestment. The process took about nine months, and although eventually completed, it was extremely arduous.

In overseas markets, stablecoins became an important payment medium. Bitcoin was initially the primary currency, but later Ethereum (Ether) gradually replaced it, with everything on-chain priced in Ether. However, due to high volatility of Bitcoin and Ether, they were not suitable as payment mediums. When stablecoins like USDT and USDC appeared, the field rapidly exploded.

This was followed by the cycle of prosperity and depression: between 2022 and 2023, scams and scandals like LUNA and FTX emerged. In an industry with little regulation, such pyramid schemes and similar projects were inevitable, and their collapses unavoidable.

After the FTX incident, many believed the industry was doomed. But like any emerging industry, cycles of boom and bust will continue. As long as a technology can solve real problems, it will eventually rebound. Now, blockchain finance is making a strong comeback and growing stronger. Currently, the total market cap of global blockchain finance is about 3-4 trillion USD, with a Total Value Locked (TVL) of around 120 billion USD. While not small, compared to the entire global financial market, it remains a very young and rapidly growing sector. I believe it will not disappear but is still in early growth stages.

At the same time, this is also a misunderstood industry. You see, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has made critical comments, yet they have become one of the fastest Wall Street firms to adopt blockchain technology. Similarly, former UBS Chairman Alex Weber once called it a scam. If you visit regulators worldwide, many still believe this entire industry is a scam, as speculation, fraud, and illegal activities are indeed rampant. For countries like China, Vietnam, and India, it’s a convenient channel for capital to illegally escape.

Compared to artificial intelligence, the core value of blockchain technology may not seem as attractive or full of imagination. As a competitive emerging tech, AI attracts a lot of attention, capital, and research efforts. If choosing between AI and blockchain, many researchers would pick AI because its future seems limitless. In contrast, blockchain and digital currencies seem somewhat dull. But if you examine their core value, you’ll see they are the infrastructure of future financial markets.

The major event of 2025 — especially the series of supportive policies launched after Trump’s election victory — marks the moment when this technology, once seen as speculative and gray, finally gained legitimacy in the U.S. It is now recognized by Wall Street as the infrastructure for future financial services. Overnight, the application and adoption of this technology accelerated significantly. From my personal observation, at least in the U.S., Wall Street investment banks and mainstream financial institutions are deploying blockchain technology at 120 mph, bringing assets and products on-chain. Progress in other regions varies.

Today’s blockchain finance map already features numerous sub-sectors and various companies. I often tell people, today’s blockchain world is a bit like early 2000s China. Back then, Western investors knew China’s economy was growing rapidly. They flocked to Hong Kong, eager to invest in mainland China but lacked timely, accurate information. At that time, mainland China had no reliable third-party information providers, no companies audited by the Big Four, no Moody’s or S&P-rated firms, and no major banks producing research reports. So, what could they invest in? China National Petroleum, China Telecom, China Mobile.

Today’s blockchain world is very similar. Many large and small companies exist, along with good applications, but the outside world lacks understanding, leading to significant information asymmetry. Therefore, Wall Street and mainstream funds will start by investing in leading companies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. But I believe this information gap will soon be bridged, and within the next six months, they will find many niche companies becoming more investable.

We see that all kinds of financial institutions and investors are rushing in. Traditional financial institutions, especially American firms, are entering. With the approval of the U.S. “Digital Asset Market Structure Act,” I believe more traditional financial firms will follow. Additionally, many digital financial companies you’ve never heard of are actively entering. Some of these new players are significant, holding billions of dollars in assets or generating hundreds of millions to billions in revenue.

Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) and Real World Asset (RWA) Digitization

Here I want to introduce two key concepts in overseas markets: Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) and Real World Asset (RWA) digitization. They are bridges connecting liquidity.

In overseas markets, DAT essentially refers to publicly listed companies holding digital assets. Globally, total financial assets are roughly between 900 trillion and 1,000 trillion USD. In comparison, the 3 trillion USD scale of blockchain finance is tiny. We know that to support any emerging industry, the most likely source of capital to acquire and further expand liquidity is the public equity market, which is about 120-150 trillion USD. Historically, such investments were mainly through private equity (PE), venture capital (VC), or investment banks, which are less efficient. In contrast, hedge funds and large funds in public markets can commit billions or even tens of billions of dollars within hours.

For blockchain finance to grow from 3 trillion to 10 trillion or even 100 trillion USD, support from traditional finance is essential. DAT is one pathway to achieve this. Stock market investors can indirectly hold digital assets via the DAT model. Currently, there are about 80 pure DAT companies. Including all listed companies holding digital assets, the number exceeds 200. The industry really started accelerating after April 2025. These DAT companies recently raised around 20 billion USD. The most notable is MicroStrategy, which has bought Bitcoin through financing and has effectively become the largest treasury in the Bitcoin ecosystem. It pioneered the entire industry.

Why does the DAT model work? First, it reduces operational risks. Most fund managers prefer not to manage digital wallets directly or handle large fund transfers, avoiding operational risks. Second, it addresses authorization issues. Not all funds are authorized to invest in crypto-related ETFs. Even if authorized, fund managers’ main responsibility is selecting excellent management teams and companies. Investing heavily in ETFs would make management fees unjustified. Additionally, DAT can bypass entry restrictions. In some regions, regulators prohibit retail investors from directly buying cryptocurrencies, but they can indirectly invest through listed companies like DAT.

The business logic of DAT companies is simple. They raise low-cost capital by issuing convertible bonds, selling options, etc., and use the funds to buy digital currencies. When market sentiment is high, they issue shares at high prices, increasing the average amount of digital assets per share. That’s their core logic. This is why MicroStrategy’s performance has outperformed Bitcoin itself, even tripling it. An important point is that, unlike Bitcoin, other blockchain-based digital currencies (like Solana) can also “yield” — generate additional income.

Currently, the DAT field is experiencing a cycle of rapid growth and decline — many DAT companies are desperately absorbing all available liquidity. But I believe this industry has found its business model. In the future, more DATs will emerge as mainstream holders of digital assets, which everyone should watch closely.

In contrast, RWA is still in an earlier stage of development. RWA involves digitizing traditional real-world assets and bringing them onto the blockchain to increase liquidity. Since blockchain finance is an emerging market, assets here can earn higher risk-free yields. It’s similar to depositing USD in Cambodia for higher interest rates. We see that RWA based on private credit is growing fastest. But RWA based on safer instruments like U.S. Treasuries also performs well, as more digital asset investors are willing to give up some yield for diversification and risk reduction. This is why RWA has accelerated in recent years.

RWA is technically ready, and operational processes are not complicated, but regulation and liquidity are key. Different assets are at various stages of their lifecycle. The task is to identify suitable asset types, digitize them, obtain liquidity, and ensure feasibility and success. It also depends on the asset type itself. In the U.S., if an asset is classified as a “security,” it faces higher compliance requirements. With the rise of asset digitization, standardized and highly liquid products will be prioritized for on-chain listing, followed by major asset classes that need liquidity and are widely accepted. All these developments are underway, and we look forward to seeing how they unfold.

That’s all for my sharing. Thank you all.