[English Thread] The New Positioning of the Global Crypto Market: Who Will Take on the Role of the "Middle Platform"?

Chainfeeds Guide:

If tax policies can keep pace with policy rhetoric, Japan is poised to become the "middle platform" of the crypto industry: a place where capital is transformed into products, products into distribution, and distribution further into policy leverage.

Source:

Author:

arndxt

Opinion:

arndxt: In recent years, the center of gravity for the crypto industry in the Asia-Pacific region has been quietly shifting, with Japan's changing policy stance being one of the key factors. In the past, Japan's attitude towards crypto assets was more "tolerant," but now it has clearly shifted to "competitive," signaling its intention to become the compliance hub of East Asia. If Japan adjusts its crypto asset tax regime from the current "miscellaneous income" rate as high as 55% to a unified financial tax rate close to 20% (with a compliant corporate tax rate around 15%), then as the world's third-largest economy, Japan would be openly competing with the US for an equivalent position in East Asian digital asset finance. Beyond policy, Japan is also optimizing visa pathways and reducing employee visa costs, making it more attractive for international teams to expand in Tokyo. As a result, not only are major exchanges accelerating local hiring, but North American funds and even Tokyo Stock Exchange representatives are frequently appearing at industry events. Overall, Japan is building a compliant, secure, and pragmatic "middle platform" city that is highly attractive to founders, exchanges, and capital providers. Against this backdrop, we can expect to see yen-denominated staking notes, digital assets allocated in the financial reports of listed crypto companies, and even Japan-packaged LST ETF products emerging in the market. If the US delays related approvals, Japan will have the opportunity to take the lead. In the cross-chain bridge sector, competition is evolving into a battle for distribution. LayerZero won the Stargate governance vote, while Wormhole countered with a higher cash offer, with both sides vying for cross-chain liquidity routing rights. Whoever controls the flow path will have a say in fee sharing, user experience entry points, and developer mindshare. This means that protocol moats are gradually shifting from technical advantages to market expansion and security reputation. Meanwhile, the market structure is also accelerating its specialization. Jump Crypto's "Dual-Flow Batch Auction" (DFBA) mechanism attempts to compress the "latency rent" of high-frequency trading through parallel millisecond-level auctions and unified settlement, thereby reducing toxic flow and improving quote quality and depth. If such a mechanism is adopted, future decentralized exchanges (DEXs) will gradually approach the execution quality of top prime broker dark pools, while maintaining transparent on-chain attributes. The ultimate goal of this shift is to move DeFi from a "speed game" arena to a mature market where "price and liquidity quality" win. In other words, the next generation of DEX growth will come from mechanism innovation and market structure optimization, rather than simply liquidity incentives. Overall, the core driving force of the next phase of the crypto market is no longer "global liquidity rising," but rather "the construction of institutionalized tracks." Continuous ETF subscriptions, corporate treasury strategies (such as ETHZilla's accumulation and buybacks), exchange security staking modules, restaking yield distribution, and compliant LST products are replacing the old logic of "increased money supply → price rise." More importantly, changes in policy and institutions are redefining capital flow paths: who are the rigid daily buyers, and can the market provide them with reliable, compliant, and low-friction access channels. This also explains why this summer's WebX summit in Tokyo attracted over 12,000 participants, with 80% of exhibitors from overseas, more than 50% of attendees being local users, and nearly 90 side events held. This combination of "external supply + local demand + friendly regulation" is a typical precursor to accelerated capital formation. In the future, Tokyo does not need to become the largest risk investment venue; it only needs to become the most "custody-friendly" venue—where founders register companies, exchanges apply for licenses, funds meet regulators, and enterprises issue and distribute structured products in a compliant environment. As such, Japan is likely to play the role of "global crypto middle platform" in the next cycle. [Original text in English]