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At the end of July, Hanoi played host to Vietnam Blockchain Week, an event that brought together key players from across the global crypto industry.
As is often the case with major conferences, the main event — GM Vietnam — was surrounded by a variety of side gatherings. One such side event brought together industry insiders to discuss the current state of decentralized finance (DeFi) and the challenges it faces going forward.
The Incrypted team spoke with the panelists and asked them all the same question: “What will be the next major retail use case for DeFi in the near future?”
Vugar Usi Zade, COO at Bitget
I think that the tokenization of real world assets (RWA), or like a sharing real world asset is one aspect that probably will become an actual real use case.
Let’s say you have a parking space in front of your house. But you only use it at night, since you’re at work during the day. What if you could rent that spot out to someone who needs it during the daytime?
Sure, it might only earn you a small amount — say, $1 per day. But if everything is digitized, processing those microtransactions through a traditional bank simply wouldn’t be worth it.
Now imagine all of this happening on the blockchain. You could easily plug into a DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network) system — one where people share physical resources and earn income in return.
That’s the first point.
The second major use case is lending — particularly micro-lending via decentralized protocols.
Let’s say you just got paid and have an extra $200. What if you could lend that money out?
Or maybe you hold 1 BTC — you could use it as collateral, borrow against it, and then lend the borrowed funds to someone else. All of this could be done on-chain.
Yes, we’re talking about small sums — microtransactions, essentially. But these can scale into something much bigger.
And finally, here’s my take: whenever we talk about crypto, the conversation almost always revolves around one thing —
“How do we make more money?”
But the real breakthrough use case will come from answering a different question:
“How should we spend money?”
If you look at the traditional financial industry, the biggest profits come from transactions. Every time you use a Visa or MasterCard, the issuer takes 1.5% to 3% off the top. That’s where the real money is.
In crypto, we’re great at creating value — but we’ve done a poor job of building ecosystems where people can actually spend it. If we manage to build that kind of infrastructure, that will be the true catalyst for mass adoption.
Are you referring to stablecoins?
Not necessarily — it could be any token. And the transaction itself could be instant.
Take my own example: my card is denominated in US dollars, but here in Vietnam, I pay in Dong. I just tap the card — I don’t care what happens behind the scenes. The bank processes the conversion in the background.
Crypto should work the same way. It shouldn’t matter what asset I’m holding. Let’s say I have Bitcoin — I don’t want to swap it for some USDT and hold it just to spend. I want to tap my card, and the Bitcoin should convert automatically at the current market rate.
It doesn’t matter what the token is — even a memecoin. What matters is that I can spend it instantly, at real-time value. Just like how multi-currency bank cards work.
We’re all asking ourselves how this should work. But that’s not the right question. The real question should be: “How are we going to use it?”
So it all comes down to UX?
It’s not just about UX design — it’s about overall convenience.
Everything needs to be as simple as possible. I always say: one click, one action. The more steps you add, the more room there is for error. What we need is an Apple Pay-like experience: scan your face, tap your phone, move on. No friction. No extra steps.
You mentioned RWAs. Is Bitget doing anything in that direction?
Actually yeah. We just launched our Bitget pay and also our Bitget card because we believe that next billion users will come from the payment and next two, three years we’ll be talking more and more about how crypto payments work. Over the next two to three years, crypto payments will become a much bigger part of the conversation.
Is this service available in Ukraine?
Yes, the cards are available globally. They work just like a regular dollar-denominated account — the only difference is that now it’s in crypto. Let’s say you hold Solana. You tap your card, and in the background, your SOL is automatically converted to USDT and the transaction is processed.
Kenny Li, Co-Founder of Manta Network
I believe the next big thing is the globalization of equities.
Right now, the stock market is extremely fragmented. For example, if you live in Vietnam, you can’t just go out and buy Nvidia stocks — unless you’re part of an institution, have significant capital, or access to private banking.
There are simply too many barriers to entry for something that’s considered a basic investment option for the average consumer in the U.S.
But with growing regulatory support for crypto around the world, I think we’ll soon witness large-scale tokenization of stocks.
And what does tokenization offer? It gives anyone with an internet connection the ability to invest in assets that were once out of reach.
I’d say that in three to five years, we’ll likely see a global stock exchange built entirely on blockchain — fully tokenized from the ground up. From a user’s perspective, that’s a game-changer: anyone who wants to invest in Nvidia will be able to do so, no matter where they are.
For businesses and publicly traded companies, it’s just as powerful — they’ll gain access to global price discovery, not just valuations confined to closed, local markets.
Most tokenized stocks we see today are essentially “wrappers.” What do you think about companies like Exodus, which issue shares directly on the blockchain?
I think full blockchain-native issuance is still a bit premature, mainly because traditional market players still lack direct access to cryptocurrencies.
These investors don’t want to set up wallets or handle self-custody. The result is a kind of uneven hybrid. That’s why wrappers are a suitable interim solution for now.
They’re trendy at the moment, but the process requires significant regulatory involvement. Regulation is absolutely crucial — especially during this transitional stage.
That said, I genuinely believe that in the future we’ll see pure blockchain IPOs — especially once both regulators and users are ready for it.
Maybe that will happen in five years. Maybe in ten. But in my view, that’s the direction we’re inevitably heading.
Kenneth Shek, Project Lead at Moca Network
I think the most obvious use case is yield — the ability to generate income.
Look around: in many countries, interest rates are close to zero, or local currencies suffer from high inflation.
Take Turkey, for example. The lira is experiencing hyperinflation, and the government is forced to offer high-yield products to stop people from abandoning the national currency.
In Japan, on the other hand, interest rates are practically zero. That makes it very easy for people to understand DeFi products that offer yield. But consumers there don’t have access to the 4–5% returns available from U.S. Treasury bonds.
For many people, this makes perfect sense — but then the issue of regulation comes into play. We can’t treat every country the same.
Back when DeFi wasn’t on regulators’ radar, things were simple. But the situation has changed. Countries are imposing currency controls — restrictions on exchanging local currency or moving capital abroad. Ukraine, South Korea, China, Vietnam, and many others are examples.
So this is one of the driving forces?
Absolutely. The way I see it, in the future, governments will simply require that all crypto buying and selling go through centralized exchanges. These platforms will only process transactions in local currency.
So essentially, we’d end up with another banking system — just on blockchain? And at that point, it’s not really DeFi anymore.
Exactly. Although, of course, there will still be a global DeFi sector.
We believe there’s a compromise between regulation and decentralization — and that’s why we’re building solutions based on digital identity with ZKPs.
How do you stay anonymous while still meeting regulatory requirements? The answer is ZKP-based digital identity. You can prove who you are without revealing your personal data.
For example, if I need to confirm that you’re over 18, the traditional method is to show your passport — revealing all your personal information. With our technology, the data stays entirely on your device. It’s never sent to a server or stored in a centralized database.
All verification is done without transmitting personal details.
How does this work in Moca Network?
No one but the user can unlock their personal information. All data is stored on the ledger — but fully encrypted. Only the owner can decrypt it.
The platform receives only a proof — something like: “I am over 18.” And that proof cannot be forged — the technology guarantees it.
Sounds like a perfect use case for lending.
Exactly.
We’re also developing a product that enables the creation of on-chain credit scores. We’re building the underlying infrastructure, and there are already teams using our system — for scoring, accredited investor verification, KYC/AML checks, and more.
For example, loan interest rates and collateral requirements could vary depending on a borrower’s score. In some cases, you could even pull in tax data to strengthen the profile.
Interesting — especially since I keep hearing people say that in its current form, decentralized lending is almost useless.
Right now, you can’t implement even the simplest borrowing scenarios. Imagine: I need a new phone but don’t have the cash, so I take a loan. That’s impossible in DeFi today because the protocol will demand overcollateralization. That defeats the whole purpose.
Yes — at the moment, collateral requirements are above 100%. This isn’t really about solving borrowing needs; it’s about liquidity. A truly mass-market product would be “buy now, pay later” solutions.
For that, protocols need proof that a user is creditworthy — and that’s where the credit score comes in.
Fred Xue, Co-Founder of D3
I think one strong use case is having a human-friendly address — something like fred.sol.
We want people to realize that domain names and DomainFi go hand in hand, because they are essentially digital real estate — an asset class that can become extremely valuable. The market is still in its early stages, and this type of property will only appreciate over time.
A domain like incrypted could be used not only as a wallet address, but also as a website or an email server. And, of course, it could be resold.
I personally came from the traditional domain industry. Typically, people buy a domain name with the intent to sell it later for 10–20 times the purchase price. Often, this happens via shadow brokers who take massive commissions — and they only accept fiat, never crypto.
It’s a large industry, but a very inefficient one.
Imagine if gold wasn’t traded on public markets. Or oil. Or housing — if there were no centralized listing systems for real estate.
What we’re doing is moving this asset class — domains — onto the blockchain, to unlock more liquidity, more composability, and to make it possible to build applications on top of these assets.
So DomainFi, together with the ability to acquire valuable domains, is in my opinion a very compelling use case.