Though we may not talk about it so often anymore, many of us would still remember what happened at the end of 2022: When news about FTX’s collapse took over the headlines.

This write-up by Forbes might serve as a good reminder of what happened.

“The crypto market is swinging from left to right, comfortable in limited range and smooth curves. The FTX fallout in the year 2022 shook the market and turned it down. This year gave a fresh and positive perspective to major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin, which gradually turned green helped by the relaxed macroeconomic situation of macroeconomic and cooling inflation,” the article writes.

“Nevertheless, the market sentiments have slowly turned from fear to greed and then to neutral.”

With the exception of those who are actively involved in the industry, some of us might wonder: So, what is the state of crypto exchanges today? Has it managed to gain (back) the trust of the general public, who could potentially be the next investors? What are the ways that exchanges are using to attract, particularly retail investors?

Also Read: With new US$100M fund, KXVC aims to help global AI, Deep Tech, Web3 founders win APAC market

On the second day of TOKEN2049 in Singapore on September 14, there was a discussion about the importance of education in acquiring retail investors on board.

According to Huobi Ventures Managing Director Edward Chen in a panel discussion, the strategy that they are taking is to focus on providing support to new users. He sees that in the case of most of its users, who are mainly professional investors, there is already a basic understanding of crypto.

“We also provide education programmes, but we usually come up with a third party.”

On being compliant

Another big theme that seems to have surfaced in the industry lately is the matter of regulation.

In August, Singapore became among the world’s first to agree to stablecoin crypto regulation. As detailed by CNBC, The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) proposed framework includes key requirements such as reserves that back stablecoins must be held in low-risk and highly liquid assets.

If trust is one of the key issues that prevented users from embracing crypto and the Web3 industry from becoming mainstream, perhaps the sense of security provided through regulation can be a piece of good news.

It has definitely helped investors—in this context, VC firms—to be more confident in investing in Web3 industries.

Also Read: How to stay creative in the age of Generative AI and Web3

KX Venture Director Thanaarmates “Paul” Arriyavat, in an interview with e27 during his visit to Singapore, highlighted that several countries in SEA are more promising when it comes to becoming a hub for Web3 companies, such as Thailand and Singapore. The one thing in common between these two countries is the regulatory certainty that enables companies to operate smoothly.

“Because the rules and regulations over there are pretty forward-looking; it has a clear separation between tokens or digital asset that has utilities and security … We’re still waiting for the regulations on liquidity announcement [from the government] so that we will be able to move forward with a lot of use cases,” he stressed.

Like with many regulations, there are plenty of aspirations—and plenty of waiting. But I would like to think that, after a turbulent time, players in the crypto and Web3 space would like to have reasons to feel optimistic.

Whether Web3 will become mainstream or not, it might be up to the customers to decide.

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