Web3 map reveals blockchain’s strength in SEA

It’s been a few years since we last dove deep into the Web3 landscape, and the industry has – to put it mildly – changed.

From the initial meltdown of TerraLabs, to the overwhelming nihilistic fiasco of FTX, to the jailing of Binance’s CEO, the setbacks have been profound. Here in Southeast Asia, one out of every four companies we included in our 2022 list are gone.

But despite the well-reported losses, Web3 hasn’t gone away. The industry in the region continues to grow, and today’s list of startups is actually longer than it was in 2022.

The value of Southeast Asia’s Web3 sector is expected to hit US$2.9 billion by 2032, up from just US$147.8 million in 2023, according to data from Astute Analytica.

While the list of companies has grown, funding is still far behind its peak in 2022, when US$69.5 billion of funds flowed into the region’s Web3 companies through 188 deals, which included initial coin offerings but excluded undisclosed funding and grants.

In 2023, that figure had shrunk to US$16.5 billion, although the number of deals increased to 189. In the first nine months of 2024, Web3 startups raised US$20.1 billion across 96 deals.

Singapore is the largest recipient of Web3 funds in Southeast Asia, largely due to its position as a financial hub and its numerous government initiatives that focus on the sector.

According to a report by Chainalysis released in September, over 200 Singapore-based companies operated in the Web3 sector in 2023. The country’s government has invested over US$500 million in research and development for the space.

How the industry has changed in the few years since the crypto boom of 2021 and 2022 can be seen just by looking at which companies survived and what new startups are focusing on.

See also: This Web3 firm looks to bring blockchain back to its roots

We’ve increased the number of categories on our list to reflect evolutions in Web3, such as the addition of AI and social media, also called SocialFi. Other categories, such as decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), aren’t new but have seen significant growth.

Infrastructure still going strong

The one category on our list that seems to have done well in the past few years is Web3 infrastructure, which includes companies that focus more on building blockchains as opposed to speculative betting on tokens.

Only three of the 22 companies tracked by Tech in Asia in this category shuttered.

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