Hashed CEO Simon Kim: Bitcoin, Stablecoins, and AI Will Drive Crypto Growth in 2025 | Airdrop Alert Pro

Simon Kim, CEO of Hashed and a leader in South Korea’s blockchain industry, shares his views on the major trends shaping cryptocurrencies in 2025 and beyond.

Under Kim’s leadership, Hashed has ceased to be a venture capital firm and has become a major player in the Web3 investment space. The company has helped shape South Korea’s blockchain ecosystem through initiatives such as co-hosting Korea Blockchain Week (KBW), the country’s largest blockchain event, running Web3 developer education programs, and supporting blockchain policy research.

In this exclusive interview, Kim discusses global cryptocurrency trends, highlighting the growing importance of stablecoins, the growing connections between artificial intelligence and blockchain, and how global markets are responding to changes in U.S. cryptocurrency policy.

What major trends do you expect to emerge in the crypto industry in 2025?

From an industry-wide perspective, Bitcoin and stablecoins will become extremely important in 2025. With the new U.S. government Pro-cryptocurrency stanceBitcoin is increasingly positioned as a strategic reserve asset. According to reports, some countries outside the United States have begun to accumulate Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset.

Stablecoins are another key area. Stablecoin The transaction volume has exceeded that of Visa, and the issuance volume exceeds 200 billion US dollars. While the primary use of stablecoins is on cryptocurrency exchanges and Decentralized Financewe expect their adoption in international trade and retail payments to accelerate by 2025.

In the crypto-native scenario, the intersection of crypto and artificial intelligence will be the biggest agenda. We’ve seen explosive growth Tokenization Artificial intelligence agent. There is also a growing recognition of the need for decentralized AI models. For example, while OpenAI is not actually “open,” Meta’s Llama has demonstrated that open source AI can be developed more cost-effectively.

However, there is currently no incentive model for developers in these open ecosystems. Creating decentralized governance and incentive models for artificial intelligence will be a key experiment in 2025.

Why do you think stablecoins are a strategic advantage for the U.S. dollar?

Stablecoins represent a significant opportunity for U.S. dollar dominance. Although the U.S. dollar has a limited share of global currency reserves, it accounts for nearly 99% of the stablecoin market. This essentially expands the U.S. dollar’s ​​footprint in the digital realm. From a U.S. perspective, there is no reason to resist this trend—private companies are effectively expanding the dollar’s ​​digital dominance without government intervention.

This is very much in the interest of the United States as it strengthens the role of the dollar in the digital economy. Additionally, properly regulated stablecoins that comply with KYC/KYB requirements can provide better monitoring capabilities for financial activities compared to traditional cash transactions or international wire transfers.

With the United States positioning itself as a cryptocurrency leader, what policy changes do other countries need to consider?

in his recent visits At the New York Stock Exchange, Trump talked more about cryptocurrencies than stocks, signaling a major shift in the direction of U.S. financial policy. The impact of cryptocurrencies and blockchain on U.S. finance is about to explode, and many countries, including South Korea, are lagging behind in adapting to the change.

National legislators need to recognize the urgency and timing of this global shift. There are numerous pending bills related to cryptocurrency and blockchain in many countries, including Safety Token regulation, but progress is slow. The United States is actively embracing cryptocurrency innovation in its financial sector, and other countries need to keep pace to maintain a competitive edge in global financial markets.

It’s not just about keeping up, it’s about seizing opportunities in the ever-changing global financial landscape. When a major economy like the United States sends such clear direction on cryptocurrency policy, countries need to carefully consider their positions and responses to avoid falling behind in the digital financial transformation.

What are the main characteristics of the Asian cryptocurrency market, especially South Korea?

The most striking feature of the Korean market is its strong retail investor base. However, this market has evolved entirely around retail investors, with little institutional participation. Without institutional investment products, individual investors are forced to become experts, making them more vulnerable to unreliable information and potential fraud.

From the perspective of development capabilities, South Korea’s advantage lies in applications rather than infrastructure. Even in the Web2 era, if you look at South Korea’s unicorns, most of them emerged from the application and content fields. As the blockchain industry transitions from an infrastructure-centric era to one where applications are booming on various mainnet platforms, Korean developers face huge opportunities, especially in leveraging blockchain technology to build global applications Procedural aspects.

How does Hashed position itself in this market?

What sets us apart from other Web3 venture capital firms is our strong focus on application investing. While approximately 80-90% of the major U.S. cryptocurrency VC firms’ portfolios are in the infrastructure layer (Tier 1, Tier 2, or other infrastructure projects), over 50% of our investments are in applications.

As early as 2018, we were one of the first venture capital companies to invest in the Web3 gaming field. We are a major investor in major projects such as Sky Mavis, which created Axie Infinity, sandbox. There were very few VC investments at that time Blockchain games Due to concerns about Ethereum’s transaction speed and scalability.

How does Hashed’s investment approach differ from other Web3 VCs?

Hashed headquarters makes two types of investments: equity investments through Hashed Ventures and direct crypto investments through our own capital. In South Korea, since venture capital associations cannot directly invest in cryptocurrencies, we operate through two separate investment vehicles.

We also own several venture capital subsidiaries, “UNOPND” is a typical example. As our incubator specializing in entertainment and games, UNOPND created Korean pop entertainment company MODHAUS and achieved great success with its first IP TripleS.

Unlike most investment firms that focus solely on investment activities, we combine investing with filling gaps in the ecosystem to promote mass adoption of cryptocurrencies. That’s why we position ourselves as an “ecosystem builder” and our core vision is the mass adoption of blockchain technology.