The Future of DeFi: Hugo Philion on Flare, XRP, and Real-World Assets

For years, the story was clear: crypto companies were leaving Hong Kong for Singapore.In this exclusive interview, Edwin Wong (VP & Head of Risk Control at KuCoin) reveals why KuCoin shut down its Singapore office and moved operations back to Hong Kong… and why many firms may be following the same path.What changed?Why now?And is Hong Kong quietly becoming the global crypto capital again?Edwin breaks down the real reasons behind this shift — from regulatory clarity to institutional trust — and explains why Hong Kong could outperform Singapore, Dubai, and other crypto hubs in the years ahead.He also dives into:• The origin of perpetual futures (and Hong Kong’s role)• Why US–China tensions may NOT matter as much as people think• Hong Kong’s crypto ETF advantage and what it means for big money• The difference between being “crypto-friendly” vs “crypto-ready”• What the return of major trading firms signals for 2025If you want to understand where the crypto industry is actually heading in Asia — this is a must-watch.About the Guest:Edwin Wong is VP and Head of Risk Control at KuCoin, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges serving 30M+ users globally.📍 Filmed at Consensus HK 2026 | Bitcoin.com News👉 Follow Bitcoin.com News official X account for more exclusive crypto interviews: https://x.com/BitcoinNews/👉 Learn more about KuCoin: https://www.kucoin.com/🎙 Host: David SencilTimestamps:00:00 Introduction01:09 From Traditional Finance to Crypto02:22 Regulation of Major Exchanges03:05 Global Regulatory Differences04:01 KuCoin’s Growth Strategy06:59 Hong Kong’s Crypto History08:25 HK’s Key Innovations10:12 Top Crypto Cities (2017–2026)12:33 Hong Kong’s Competitive Edge14:12 US–China Impact on Crypto15:20 Hong Kong vs Singapore

Founded by British aristocrat and high-stakes gambler Lord Porchester (Porchy), Housebets is live right now, giving away more than $5,000,000 in their sign-up airdrop, the most generous offer in online gambling history.Porchy, the son of the Earl of Carnarvon, didn’t launch Housebets because he wanted another startup. He launched it because he was personally sick of being treated like a walking ATM. He’s played every major platform at very high stakes, seen every trick (rigged bonuses, locked out of accounts, delayed & frozen payouts), and finally decided to build the casino he always wished existed — then hand the keys to the players. He recently joined the Bitcoin.com News podcast to share his vision to create a casino platform built on transparency and fairness for players.Porchy, the founder of Housebets, began the discussion by sharing his background in betting and crypto gaming. His interest started at a young age while attending Eaton, where he found he could access Betfair. His journey into crypto was driven by frustrations with traditional sports betting, such as a significant amount of money being owed and the lack of payment recourse from bookmakers, which led him to see the benefit of creating liquidity pools to ensure users get paid reliably.Porchy explained that the initial Housebets model, built on smart contracts and Polygon, was adapted because users were unwilling to deal with network downtime and contract signing. He stressed the importance of building trust, adapting the model to focus on transparency with reserves and margins, and having a public dashboard showing deposits, withdrawals, turnover, and profit and loss, even without being fully on-chain.The core of the Housebets model, according to Porchy, is to be the lowest edge, sustainable casino. This is achieved by planning to give away 100% of the house edge through rewards and keys. He noted that while a casino cannot offer 0% edge forever, Housebets can try to get close to it by providing rebates and giving players a higher chance of winning than a traditional casino.Porchy also detailed the $5 million allocation for the rewards program and the system for on-chain bonuses. Housebets has analyzed the deposit history of top bookmakers and tiered people to receive bonuses ranging from $20 to $100,000, but with a significantly lower turnover requirement (around 10 times) compared to the 35 times often seen in traditional casinos. Porchy confirmed they track ERC20 wallets, primarily USDT and ETH users, estimating nearly two million wallets qualify, while also implementing accurate scoring on token holding duration to mitigate abuse from “abusers” or “farmers.”Regarding the HBTS token, Porchy stated that it is designed to capture all the platform’s value and transparently show its allocation, primarily to stakers. These stakers are granted control over determining the amount of additional rewards that go to users in the long run. Porchy’s confidence in the token’s success is tied to a “flywheel effect”: token holders are incentivized to encourage platform usage and increased turnover, which in turn benefits the token’s value by growing with the platform’s volume.In terms of future vision, Porchy confirmed the project was inspired by Hyperliquid’s community-first airdrop model, and the ultimate goal is for Housebets to become the “Hyperliquid of gambling.” Looking ahead five years, he envisions a heavy focus on developing an aggregated sports book, which will pool liquidity to solve the issue of users being limited by existing bookmakers.To learn more about the project visit housebets.com, and follow the team on X or Telegram.

For years, the story was clear: crypto companies were leaving Hong Kong for Singapore.But that narrative is changing — fast.In this exclusive interview, Edwin Wong (VP & Head of Risk Control at KuCoin) reveals why KuCoin shut down its Singapore office and moved operations back to Hong Kong… and why many firms may be following the same path.What changed?Why now?And is Hong Kong quietly becoming the global crypto capital again?Edwin breaks down the real reasons behind this shift — from regulatory clarity to institutional trust — and explains why Hong Kong could outperform Singapore, Dubai, and other crypto hubs in the years ahead.He also dives into:• The origin of perpetual futures (and Hong Kong’s role)• Why US–China tensions may NOT matter as much as people think• Hong Kong’s crypto ETF advantage and what it means for big money• The difference between being “crypto-friendly” vs “crypto-ready”• What the return of major trading firms signals for 2025If you want to understand where the crypto industry is actually heading in Asia — this is a must-watch.About the Guest:Edwin Wong is VP and Head of Risk Control at KuCoin, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges serving 30M+ users globally.📍 Filmed at Consensus HK 2026 | Bitcoin.com News👉 Follow Bitcoin.com News official X account for more exclusive crypto interviews: https://x.com/BitcoinNews👉 Learn more about KuCoin: https://www.kucoin.com/🎙 Host: David SencilTimestamps:00:00 Introduction01:09 From Traditional Finance to Crypto02:22 Regulation of Major Exchanges03:05 Global Regulatory Differences04:01 KuCoin’s Growth Strategy06:59 Hong Kong’s Crypto History08:25 HK’s Key Innovations10:12 Top Crypto Cities (2017–2026)12:33 Hong Kong’s Competitive Edge14:12 US–China Impact on Crypto15:20 Hong Kong vs Singapore

Hugo Philion, Co-founder of Flare and CEO of Flare Labs, shares the developments underway at the EVM-based Layer 1 blockchain. Philion, who brings a strong background from finance and machine learning, details Flare’s mission to build an end-to-end decentralized finance ecosystem around the vast, yet underutilized, XRP asset. He shares his vision that a superior technology, like decentralized finance, is an inevitable progression that will eventually supplant existing, intermediary-heavy financial systems.Flare operates as a unique Layer 1, leveraging embedded data protocols to power its bridges and DeFi ecosystem. It has built a full suite of on-chain functionalities for XRP holders, allowing users to engage in borrow/lend, trade on decentralized exchanges (DEXes), create decentralized stablecoins, and open collateralized options strategies—all directly with XRP. The immediate focus for the platform is to expand these markets, build substantial liquidity, and prepare for the next critical phase: pairing XRP with a variety of real-world assets on-chain.To make this ecosystem accessible to all XRP holders, Flare recently rolled out its game-changing Flare Smart Accounts. This innovative abstraction eliminates the need for retail users to acquire the native Flare token or download a new wallet, allowing them to control Flare transactions—such as minting FXRP and depositing into a vault—directly from the XRP Ledger. This user-friendly mechanism has driven significant adoption, with FXRP, the bridged version of XRP on Flare, growing by 31% in just 10 days since the Smart Accounts launch, reaching approximately 133 million units.While committed to being retail-friendly, Philion emphasizes that a major market unlock lies in enabling institutional products, given that an estimated 60-70% of XRP is held on exchanges. Looking to the future, he asserts that the migration of all traditional real-world assets—including stocks, bonds, and derivatives—to blockchains is inevitable. The current plan is to maximize the usage and liquidity of XRP, which will then serve as a driver for integrating other major tokens like Bitcoin into the Flare DeFi ecosystem.A critical barrier to institutional adoption of real-world assets on-chain is the need for privacy in trading and complex applications. To address this, Flare is preparing for its highly anticipated Flare 2.0 update, which will introduce a new compute layer. This layer is designed to enable applications to sit off-chain with full privacy while settling securely on-chain. This powerful and flexible, privacy-preserving compute layer will position Flare as a vital hub for RWA, allowing for the creation of complex applications like DEXes and lending protocols for assets issued on Flare or connected chains like the XRP Ledger.To learn more about the technology visit flare.network, and follow the team on X.

SVP of Business Development at Bullish and Chairman of Consensus, Michael Lau, joins David Sencil at Consensus Hong Kong to discuss why Hong Kong is becoming the world's most important city for the convergence of TradFi and crypto.Topics covered:• Why HK ranked #1 globally for IPOs in 2025 — and what that means for crypto• The developer talent gap: "Nobody stays here"• Live events in the age of AI: physical presence as the new scarcity• How HK compares to Singapore, Dubai & Korea as a crypto hub• The institutional adoption thesis for Hong KongRecorded at Consensus Hong Kong.00:00 Michael Lau's Journey into Finance and Technology03:00 The Role of Consensus in the Crypto Ecosystem06:12 Conferences as Catalysts for the Crypto Industry08:55 Hong Kong: A Rising Crypto Hub12:00 Comparing Asian Crypto Hubs14:58 Challenges and Opportunities for Hong Kong18:01 The Future of Crypto in Hong Kong

Animoca Brands Chairman Yat Siu makes a bold prediction: within the next few years, there will be 30 to 50 billion AI agents operating online. And they won't live on Facebook or Google — they'll live on the blockchain.In this wide-ranging conversation, Yat breaks down why crypto infrastructure was built for this moment, why Europe faces "technology colonization," and what Apple's 30% Patreon fee reveals about platform power.In this conversation:• Bitcoin acting as a safe haven vs. risk asset• Hong Kong's position as Asia's financial hub• The real state of NFTs and gaming• Animoca Combines: AI agents for everyone• His prediction: 30-50 billion agents on-chain• Why digital identity matters more for agents than humans• Agent swarm security experiments at AnimocaAbout the Guest:Yat Siu is the Chairman and Co-founder of Animoca Brands, one of the world's leading blockchain gaming and investment companies. Animoca Brands has made over 400 investments in Web3 projects.📍 Bitcoin.com News✅ Subscribe for more interviews with the biggest names in crypto and Web3.🔗 Links:Bitcoin.com News: https://news.bitcoin.comAnimoca Brands: https://www.animocabrands.comYat Siu on X: @ysiu

A veteran of the global crypto industry, Colin Goltra has been an early adopter and advocate for digital assets throughout his career.Colin Goltra is the Chief Executive Officer of Morph, a blockchain platform building universal infrastructure for borderless payments and financial services. He recently joined the Bitcoin.com News Podcast to talk about the market.In this episode Colin identifies the previous year as the critical "stablecoin moment," driven by a perfect storm of regulatory clarity (like the Genius Act and MiCA) and technological advancements on smart-contracting ecosystems that have finally solved the performance and scalability issues that plagued earlier attempts with Bitcoin. Morph's mission has pivoted to stablecoin-based global payment settlement, adopting a "ruthlessly pragmatic" strategy to prepare for a market that could be dominated by either one or two fiat-backed stablecoins (USD-linked like USDC and USDT) or by a rise in relevant regional stablecoins.He highlights the profound impact of stablecoins in emerging economies, where access to the dollar provides a crucial hedge against high local fiat inflation, citing the Philippine Peso as a prime example. Looking at the current landscape, Colin pinpoints four key active verticals in crypto: institutional stablecoin-based payments, the significant growth of Real-World Assets (RWAs), prediction markets for valuable information, and the emerging space of Agentic AI, which will require crypto layers for payment and transacting.The long-term vision for crypto, according to Colin, anticipates a transition from a purely "cryptonative" era to a more institutional and pragmatic phase over the next decade. He predicts that for the average person, the underlying blockchain infrastructure will "melt away at the UX level," becoming an invisible rail for better, faster payment solutions. A major challenge remains a knowledge gap for small and mid-sized businesses. To address this, Morph is funding a $150 million payment accelerator to incentivize traditional payment businesses to migrate their transaction volume onto the Morph chain.

Robinhood’s General Manager of Crypto, Johann Kerbrat, joins David Sencil at Consensus Hong Kong to discuss the launch of Robinhood Chain, the company’s public testnet, and its $1M global hackathon.They cover:Moving traditional financial assets fully on-chain24/7 trading and instant settlementPerpetuals and global expansionRobinhood’s Layer 2 strategyPrediction markets as one of its fastest-growing business linesAI integration through CortexThe future of on-chain financial infrastructureRecorded at Consensus Hong Kong 2026.

Terminal 3 CEO Gary Liu breaks down the four unsolved problems threatening agentic commerce — including the OpenClaw breach that proved your private data is never safe once it touches an agent's memory. Plus: why Singapore stepped back from retail crypto, and why Hong Kong leads Asia.00:00 The Importance of Data Privacy and Security04:07 Gary Liew's Journey to Terminal 308:10 Real-World Applications of ID Verification and Financial Credentials12:11 AI Credentials and the Future of Autonomous Agents15:48 Regulatory Challenges and Global Perspectives on Blockchain19:58 Hong Kong's Position as a Crypto Hub23:51 Talent Retention and the Future of Innovation in Hong Kong

Mahad Mohamed is a senior crypto tax and accounting specialist with over 25 years of experience in public accounting and tax advisory. His background includes work with Big Four firms and government tax authorities, giving him deep insight into regulatory review and enforcement.Mahad Mohamed is the CEO of Block3 Finance, a firm dedicated exclusively to cryptocurrency taxation, accounting, and advisory. He recently joined the Bitcoin.com News Podcast to talk how cryptocurrency is taxed, primarily in Canada and the U.S., and what traders, investors, and builders need to understand to stay compliant:Mahad advises crypto traders, investors, and builders on reporting, audits, and long-term tax structure, with deep expertise across Bitcoin, high- volume trading, DeFi, staking, NFTs, mining, and cross-border crypto activity. His work is focused on audit-ready reporting, clean records, and defensible tax positions that stand up under real regulatory scrutiny.Block3 Finance works with clients operating across centralized exchanges and on-chain protocols, delivering accurate reporting, audit support, and tax structures aligned with current regulatory expectations. The firm places strong emphasis on clean records, defensible positions, and practical decision-making that holds up under real scrutiny.