Jacquelyn Melinek listed five on-site observations after Korea Blockchain Week, which took place from September 29 to October 1 in Seoul, with the first day being a closed institutional summit and the following two days being an open main conference. Her conclusions are based on conversations at the venue, not the official summary from the organizers.

The first observation is AI overload. Many teams are rebranding their projects as AI, and the term has become a visible cliché. Her judgment is that some are just grasping at straws when they can't find product-market fit, and there are far fewer teams that are truly creating differentiated or meaningful products. She advises caution towards those claiming to be "doing AI."

The second observation is the shifting identity of founders. Several venture capitalists told her that more new founders are no longer positioning themselves as crypto founders in their pitch materials and hackathons. The underlying technology is still blockchain, but companies are being categorized under AI, fintech, and financial infrastructure. What defines a company are applications, such as payment services, rather than the underlying technology, like stablecoin-driven businesses.

The third observation comes from executives at the intersection of traditional finance and decentralized finance. They believe the crypto community misunderstands the position of banks and large institutions: many institutions have already viewed this technology as inevitable, discussing how to profit more from it rather than whether to participate at all. The fourth observation is transaction structure. 24/7 trading, perpetual contracts, and related products are seen as growth accelerators; some teams believe this volume will be led long-term by decentralized exchanges due to first-mover advantage. She does not rule out mainstream exchanges catching up later, stating that it is still early. Discussions around tokenization have decreased overall, while tokenized stocks continue to appear repeatedly.

The fifth observation is the attendance structure. She noticed high exposure attendees from American companies, Korean companies, and government roles, with traders being a distinct category in the venue, corresponding to retail interest. She speculates that more Korean companies are privately assessing this market than publicly stating their positions. The conference agenda itself included stablecoins, tokenization, custody, settlement, and the overlap of AI and on-chain finance, which does not fully align with the focus she heard.

This is narrative trading, not a single financing round. Buyers are venture capitalists still searching for the next thematic round, founders wanting to integrate blockchain into payments and infrastructure, and institutions treating the technology as a revenue enhancement tool; sellers are teams continuing to raise funds under AI or crypto labels. Funds are flowing from the "crypto founder" label to payments, financial infrastructure, and tokenized stocks, with 24/7 trading and perpetual contracts sustaining trading volume. Beneficiaries are exchanges and infrastructure that can deliver volume or institutional revenue, while those under pressure are AI rebranding teams with no differentiated products.

Source: Public Information