2026 APAC Crypto Infrastructure Map: Builder Sentiment & Market Readiness Across the Region ARC × @PreferencesAI Six markets. Nine sectors. A practical map for founders, allocators, institutions and practitioners of where crypto businesses can: → operate → access capital → bank → hire → find customers → deploy Full report is live. Get it here: arc.xyz/cognitive-logs/2026-…

APAC led global growth in on-chain transaction volume. Over that same period, however, its most established hubs steadily raised their barriers to entry. So, which APAC market is "winning crypto"? Vietnam ranks highest for builder conviction in our six-market analysis. Yet it ranks last overall on the Builder Sentiment Index (BSI), which gives greater weight to the conditions businesses need to operate. How does the most optimistic market end up at the bottom? That's one of the questions behind the 2026 APAC Crypto Infrastructure Map report, co-authored by ARC and @PreferencesAI, with insights from our network layer at @arcthecommunity. Pairing qualitative field research with large-scale synthetic modelling, the report examines six markets: Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. It covers nine sectors: Stablecoins, RWA/DePIN, DeFi/prediction markets, AI, centralised exchanges, funders/VC, macro, robotics and launchpads. The analysis looks at what it takes to build a crypto business, from licensing and banking access to capital, institutional infrastructure and talent. It also examines builders' expectations and whether conditions are improving. Hong Kong and Singapore lead the BSI rankings, supported by their strengths in institutional infrastructure and capital depth. Vietnam ranks last despite leading on conviction, reflecting gaps in the infrastructure businesses need to operate once licensed. The report also explores where each hub's strengths lie. Depending on your priorities, its findings point towards: - Hong Kong for institutional issuance - Singapore for raising and holding capital - South Korea for reaching users at speed - Vietnam for testing consumer product-market fit - Malaysia for a faster, realistic path to licensing - Thailand for tax-efficient retail distribution The full ARC × PreferencesAI report drops on Wednesday, 14 October.

First-time founders and businesses looking to expand to APAC often ask us: "Where can a crypto business actually operate and grow?" In APAC, a market might have users but limited access to capital. Another might have capital, but banking restrictions make it difficult to operate. Others have plenty of builders, yet institutional investors remain hesitant to deploy capital. Honestly, there’s no straightforward answer. If you were starting a crypto company in APAC today, where would you base it? - Singapore - Hong Kong - South Korea - Thailand - Malaysia - Vietnam - Somewhere else

See you soon at ARC Week 2026 during TOKEN2049. If you're a founder looking to back fellow founders, or if you're in the business of helping new projects capture growth, get in touch. We'd love to explore how we can work together.

Looking for businesses to back or founders to build with? Meet ARC during TOKEN2049 week in Singapore. ARC is a venture scaling network proudly based in Singapore. We work alongside founders to shape their products, build their brands, and reach new markets. We connect them with investors and partners who can get their products into customers’ hands, and operators with experience scaling businesses. What makes ARC unique is that we’re backed by a collective of 888 curated builders and investors across Web2 and Web3, @arcthecommunity. Their experience, relationships, and support help the businesses in our ecosystem grow. During TOKEN2049 week, we’ll be bringing together our members, the teams we’re incubating, fellow investors, and venture builders. So, if you represent a family office exploring new businesses in Asia, are a founder looking to back other founders, or can help a company reach new customers, we’d like to meet you. Send us a DM with what you’re looking to build or back, and our team will get back to you.

Enough founder success stories. Tell us what almost killed the company. At a recent event ARC co-hosted with @elephantsinc & @awscloud, we got founders and investors to talk candidly about the mistakes, wrong assumptions and near-death experiences that shaped how they build today. Four lessons for anyone building in Asia 👇

Yacht parties are so 2020. Not because they’re bad. But because nothing compounds afterwards. Since June, the ladies in ARC have been leading AI sessions for the collective. For Session 4, 12 ARC members came together to share what they’ve been building with AI. They demoed their projects, gave each other advice, and shared useful tools and resources to help everyone push their ideas further. Recap: arc-ladies-ai.vercel.app/ses… At the end of a yacht party, you leave with mostly photos and a hangover. At the end of these AI sessions, you leave with something you’ve built. Maybe it improves your daily workflow. Maybe it solves a problem for someone else. Maybe it becomes a product you keep building long after the session ends. That’s the kind of gathering we want more of at ARC: come together, build something, and help each other make it better. Then see where it compounds from there.