Eating Laksa with Binance CEO at TOKEN2049 Singapore

Singapore again. Clean streets. Heavy air. The kind that sticks to the skin and slows your step.

I was invited to TOKEN2049, the flagship gathering of the digital asset world. Thousands of founders, investors, traders, regulators, and observers in one place. On stage, certainty. Behind the stage, fatigue. TOKEN2049 is not a conference anymore. It is a mirror of the system it represents.

I remembered the first edition I attended years ago in Hong Kong. Smaller. Sharper. More curious than confident. Singapore in 2025 was something else. Bigger. Louder. More exposed. The industry had survived crashes, scandals, cycles of ruin and rebirth. Everyone carried a scar. Some wore it proudly.

The main gravitational force of the conference was Tether, with Paolo Ardoino at the center. Calm. Technical. Everywhere. Tether was not posturing. It was infrastructure. Quietly present in almost every conversation, whether acknowledged or not.

Around it, a dense constellation of speakers. Builders from Ethereum and Bitcoin. Macro traders turned crypto natives. Founders who had lost everything and rebuilt. Again and again. Venture capitalists speaking about discipline after years of excess. Researchers talking about resilience instead of disruption. The tone had changed. Less promise. More survival.

One afternoon, I ate laksa with Richard Teng, CEO of Binance. Spicy broth. Sweat on the forehead. No ceremony. Just food and conversation. It felt almost normal, which made it surreal.

In the corridors, security moved differently. I joked with guards shadowing the son of a U.S. president. Power was present, but not relaxed. Everyone was watching something. Markets. Governments. Each other.

I listened to billionaires explain how close they had come to losing everything. Not once. Many times. The room stayed quiet during those moments. No applause. Just recognition. This world rewards risk, then punishes it, then invites you back.

The air was thick with ambition and ruin. With money and fear. With brilliance and exhaustion. It was stunning and grotesque at the same time.

In the evenings, Singapore softened. Warm lights. Reflections on the river. Dinners that stretched late. The city knows how to be romantic without asking for attention. Orchids. Rooftops. Slow walks where the noise fades and the humidity stays.