I just got back from Token 2049 Singapore, and honestly, the energy there was unlike anything I’ve experienced before. With 25,000 attendees from over 160 countries packing Marina Bay Sands across five floors, it’s clear that crypto has moved way beyond the speculative frenzy days. The big question on everyone’s mind was whether Bitcoin can keep climbing — and the answer I kept hearing was a resounding yes, but not for the reasons you might think.
The Fragmentation Problem Nobody Talks About
One of the most eye-opening conversations I had at Token 2049 was about a problem that’s been bugging me for a while: blockchain fragmentation. Right now we’ve got Ethereum, Solana, BSC, Bitcoin, Tron, Base, Arbitrum — the list goes on. Every one of these networks holds real value, but moving funds between them? That’s still a nightmare. Want to move something from Tron to Base? That’ll cost you $150 and a headache. And honestly, just knowing how much you actually have across all these wallets is its own challenge.
This is where things got really interesting. Our research team was contacted about Yellow Network, which is building out what they call the first Layer 3 clearing protocol. This isn’t just another cross-chain bridge — it’s fundamentally different. Yellow Network enables exchanges and brokers to aggregate fragmented liquidity across chains, which means institutional players can execute multi-million dollar trades seamlessly rather than just passing messages between networks.
Why Ripple’s EVM Integration Changes Everything
The big announcement is that Yellow Network is combining their technology with XRP Ledger’s new EVM compatibility layer. This is huge. Ripple has always had massive institutional backing and a loyal following — I remember back in 2016 everyone was asking me to talk about Ripple. But they were never really integrated into the EVM ecosystem. Now that’s changed.
By leveraging Ripple’s speed and low transaction costs alongside EVM compatibility, Yellow Network can essentially work with every major chain out there. The tech behind it is called Nitro Light, a modular framework built on ERC-7824 that uses off-chain state channels for real-time communication. It can support billions of off-chain messages per day, which is the kind of throughput you need for institutional-grade trading.
How Yellow Network Actually Works
So here’s the technical breakdown. Yellow Network operates as a chain-agnostic clearing layer. Think of it like having a global passport for your crypto — as long as your funds are on Yellow, you can go anywhere. The underlying state channels facilitate billions of messages between different chains, creating what they call a “unified virtual ledger” where applications interact seamlessly across networks.
The key difference from traditional bridges is security. Remember the Wormhole hack? $321 million lost because of third-party counterparty trust issues. Yellow’s approach is fundamentally different — they do clearing rather than hold custody. Trades are conducted off-chain instantly without counterparty risk. Parties don’t even have to trust each other; they just need to know there’s a decentralized network of nodes powering the real-time trading.
We’ve seen this pattern before. People thought decentralized leverage trading was impossible — that was centralized exchange territory only. Then Hyperliquid and others proved it could work on-chain. I think Yellow Network is going to do the same thing for cross-chain transfers: achieve centralized exchange speeds in a fully decentralized way.
Buying a Bank: Bridging DeFi and TradFi
Perhaps the most surprising piece of news is that Yellow Network has started talks with the Prime Minister of Macedonia about acquiring a bank. Yes, you read that right — a crypto protocol is buying a bank. And this isn’t just for show. Because Macedonia has access to European banking infrastructure, this could become a multi-bank gateway connecting decentralized finance with traditional SEPA payments and cross-border transactions.
This move makes strategic sense when you think about it. Having a bank as an access point means direct integration with compliance frameworks, KYC/AML enforcement at the network edge, and a legitimate bridge between DeFi and TradFi that works both ways. The team behind this has serious credentials too — the founder, Alexis Sirkia, co-founded GSR, one of the leading crypto market-making firms, and played a pivotal role in Ripple’s early growth.
What This Means for Bitcoin’s Future
Coming into 2025, the vibe at Token 2049 was clear: having regulatory support is a massive edge. The conference featured speakers from Robinhood, Tether, and even World Liberty Financial discussing institutional DeFi, Bitcoin ETFs, and tokenized real-world assets. Analysts are projecting Bitcoin could reach $125K to $200K driven by ETF inflows and institutional adoption, with some like Gemini’s CEO targeting $150K by year end.
But what really convinced me that Bitcoin and crypto have legs is the infrastructure being built underneath. Projects like Yellow Network solving the fragmentation problem, Ripple finally integrating with EVM chains, and the overall shift from speculation to real utility — that’s what sustains a bull market. It’s not just about price going up; it’s about the plumbing getting good enough that traditional finance can’t ignore it anymore.
Token 2049 Singapore showed me that we’re at an inflection point. The industry has matured from “number go up” to building real infrastructure that institutions actually want to use. And that, more than any price prediction, is why I’m bullish on what comes next.
Michael Gu
Michael Gu, Creator of Boxmining, stared in the Blockchain space as a Bitcoin miner in 2012. Something he immediately noticed was that accurate information is hard to come by in this space. He started Boxmining in 2017 mainly as a passion project, to educate people on digital assets and share his experiences. Being based in Asia, Michael also found a huge discrepancy between digital asset trends and knowledge gap in the West and China.