EXCLUSIVE: Yat Siu, Co-founder and Chairman Animoca Brands on NFTs, MEME and Middle East – PART 2

One question that I am sure you have been asked a lot, but also I believe that almost no one knows this particular space better than you. Are NFTs dead?

So, first of all, we think NFTs are far from dead, in fact, NFTs are busy going through a little bit of a comeback when you actually think about the fact that it’s still a 10 million-dollar industry, relatively to, of course, where it was two years ago it’s lower, but that’s because it was a little river hype cycle going on, in fact, we think what’s happening between MEME coins and NFTs is that they’re actually really in the same bubble as it works. In other words, in 2021 and 2022 when NFTs were at the super high, actually, NFTs were the MEME coins of the era, right?! you know whether this is, you know, cat NFTs, dog NFTs, or monkey NFTs, doesn’t really matter, because kind of all going through the cultural direction. But the MEME coins have a slightly different narrative which is more about the economic capital and there’s a lot of discussions in the financials media news and that’s a difference between the two, but notice now how MEME coins issuing their own NFTS, right?! So, before it was NFT collections issuing their tokens that could be MEME, and now MEME coins issuing NFTs. So, in many ways, I think of it as the same ecosystem but emerges differently, but ultimately very similar in construction.

At the same time, do you think MEME coins are the easiest gate to create scammy projects and ultimately, make a successful rug pull?

So, very similar to other types of social, and cultural artifacts, if you do it for fun, or you do it for something that is entertaining for you, and you don’t take that seriously, that’s ok. But if you think that’s going to help you in a big way or you hopping to giving you access to a big break, that’s absolutely something that I don’t recommend. At the same time, bear in mind that, most of the MEME coins are very speculative in nature, and you need to understand where you get into. We also like when the communities of these MEME coins holders can become a real community that is lasting and it has an effect, that’s a community that we will support. That’s basically our lens. So, again, have some fun, all cool, that’s actually what we do in real life, right?! in a way, MEMEs are a game in itself. You can’t look only as a financial thing, is actually a game. Like poker. Do you play poker to make money or do you play poker to have some fun?

We all know that in our industry we have some strong hubs like Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai or Miami in the USA. Where else do you think we can have the next Dubai or Singapore?

Well, I think many places around the world can do that and the reason why is because web3 solves problems in those domestic markets. So, for instance, in South America, even though there is no specific hub, there is a lot of talent and development that comes from that and think about all the start-ups in web3, including The Sandbox for instance, or like Vietnam with Axie Infinity or YGG in the Philippines, you can’t look specifically as a single hub, but they all share something that solves the domestic problem and it’s something very attractive to young people. For instance, when you look at the demographic and statistics for places like Korea, 60% of people under the age of 30 are basically all in crypto, holding or trading or doing whatever they like and you see this development class in many other places around the world, so it’s a kind of an unstoppable trend. Now, in terms of specific geographies, is not basically, you know, places like MENA, Philippines, or Vietnam, but also Japan has very positive web3 rules and is the only country in the world that actually has a legal frame for issuing an AIO for instance, right?! Many places don’t even have that. When you look at Saudi, where we do a lot of work in Saudi, and yes, it is very early, they don’t have all the frameworks, but we work with NEOM to create a blockchain framework for that country for instance and that’s actually emerging markets and what are the trends there? Saudi has a really young population and most of them play games so they are all digital native. Look for places that have a genuinely young population, right?! and a good appetite for gaming and for living in a virtual world. So, that’s what you see in Hong Kong, in Korea, in the UAE, and that’s why emerging markets like Saudi have great potential.

Lately, we’ve seen the Middle East playing a massive role in onboarding people in the web3 space and I want to ask you what’s your take on this region here, where do you see actually the highest value provided?

I am very bullish on this region as a whole because it has the young demographics, the digital demographic and it has the demographic that is excited about this space and new innovation. And all these ingredients matter. But, also another important aspect when it comes to demographics, is that not only do they have a young population, but also a huge migrant force. So, whether you look at Saudi, or the UAE for ex, from the population standpoint, is actually mostly people who are from outside the country. In Saudi, 1/3 of the population are migrant people. So they need to connect back and web3 and blockchain are the perfect use cases to leverage that. And, again, I think the demographic fits very well here. And in terms of consumers, you look at places like Turkey that stands by its own. It’s one of the single largest markets basically when it comes to tokenization and token assets. These are things that we may not see from outside, but it kinda shows the hunger and desire in the area. And they all play video games and they all want to have virtual assets for ex for these games and is a growing young population. Even places like China now they are having a demographic time out where people are getting older and there are not a lot of young people being born, so this region ( Middle East ) is very much the opposite. Is more about the growth of a young population, therefore, you can sort of match how the future will go.

ANOTHER MUST-READ: Read the PART 1 of the interview HERE