Web3 & Digital Assets

Digital assets moved politically toward 'normalization' across regions in 2025-26. The US built a federal framework via the GENIUS and CLARITY Acts under the Trump administration, and the CFTC's proposed prediction-market rule (covering sports wagers) made the federal-vs-state sovereignty fight a political flashpoint. Japan made Web3 a national strategy while politically deciding to treat crypto as financial products with a 20% tax; the EU completed unified rules under MiCA. Regulatory direction diverges by country and sets the preconditions for business design.

1. 🇺🇸 US digital-asset policy turned pro-industry in 2025: President Trump signed the GENIUS Act (the first federal framework for payment stablecoins) on 18 July 2025, and around the same time the House passed the CLARITY Act (splitting digital-asset market-structure oversight between the CFTC and SEC) and sent it to the Senate. A federal 'green light' is driving capital inflows and Wall Street integration[3][4].
2. 🇺🇸 Prediction markets became a political battleground: on 10 June 2026 the CFTC published a proposed federal rule that would ban war and assassination bets while legalizing sports wagers, whereas in March 2026 Senators Curtis and Schiff introduced the 'Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act' to clarify that the Commodity Exchange Act does not authorize sports-style wagering and to restrict Kalshi and Polymarket. For MIXI, with a core betting business, the federal-vs-state and CFTC-vs-Congress dynamics matter directly[21][26].
3. 🇯🇵 Japan positions Web3 as a national strategy (e.g. the LDP Web3 White Paper) and, in the FY2026 Tax Reform Outline published on 19 December 2025, set out a flat 20% separate tax on crypto and reclassification under the FIEA (Financial Instruments and Exchange Act). The government is steering 'investor-friendly,' yet NFTs and DeFi are excluded from the favorable treatment — a political stance combining promotion with caution[10][11].
4. 🇯🇵 The government's regulatory clarity politically legitimizes major publishers' return to Web3: Japan has reached roughly 12 million crypto users, and Square Enix, Sega, Bandai Namco, Konami and Capcom are advancing 'IP-utility'-oriented (not speculative) initiatives on Oasys and Sony's Soneium. The 20% tax plan is framed as a regulatory edge over rivals, providing political backing that situates Web3 within national industrial policy[22][23].
5. The EU completed the world's first comprehensive crypto regime with MiCA, politically choosing a 'regulated single market': stablecoin rules applied from 30 June 2024 and crypto-asset service provider (CASP) rules from 30 December 2024, with the transition ending 1 July 2026. The split between the US's pro-industry path and the EU's strict, unified path divides the preconditions for global operations[5].

Coming soon

The economic axis is polarized. Token-driven Web3 game economies collapsed in 2025-26 (over 90% of game tokens fell below issue price; Caladan reported 93% mortality and a 99% funding drop), while stablecoins grew into real-demand infrastructure — over $320bn in supply and ~75% of crypto trading volume — with Visa's on-chain settlement at a ~$3.5bn run-rate and crypto-card spend up 15x in two years. In the US, USDC-settled prediction markets (Polymarket/Kalshi) became a new market clearing over $36bn a quarter. For MIXI: revenue hopes for tokenized games have faded, while payments, sports IP and prediction markets are selective opportunities.

1. Web3 gaming's token economics broke down in 2025: over 90% of game tokens launched in 2025 failed to hold their issue price, and studio closures, weak tokens and unmet expectations pushed the sector into its toughest phase. The economic failure of the speculative 'play-to-earn' model forced the 2026 pivot to a realistic, fun-first approach[16][15].
2. The supply of capital itself dried up: on 23 April 2026 Caladan reported that 93% of Web3 games are effectively dead, tokens are down 95% from their 2022 peak, and annual funding inflows collapsed from ~$4bn in 2022 to ~$0.36bn in 2025 (a 99% quarterly drop from $1.6bn to $18m). The exception is 'Off the Grid' from Gunzilla Games, which raised over $100m and launched on Steam — and the winning formula converges on 'real games first, blockchain second'[18][15].
3. Stablecoins have become real-demand infrastructure: total supply crossed $320bn on 16 April 2026, with USDT (Tether) leading at ~$189.6bn and USDC (Circle) next at ~$78bn, and stablecoins made up ~75% of crypto trading volume in Q1 2026. Chainalysis projects stablecoin payment volume could overtake Visa/Mastercard between 2031 and 2039[12][17].
4. 🇯🇵 A real-demand market for a yen stablecoin took off in Japan: JPYC issued the country's first legally recognized yen stablecoin on 27 October 2025 (1 JPYC = ¥1, backed by bank deposits and Japanese government bonds), closed a ¥1.78bn Series B first tranche, and targets payments, remittances and corporate settlement. For MIXI it signals a new domestic digital-payment rail[7][8].
5. 🇺🇸 With the GENIUS Act, US stablecoins opened up as a regulated payments market, accelerating entry by banks, payment firms and issuers. Stablecoin-related investment surged to ~$1.5bn in 2025 (from under $50m in 2019), Visa's on-chain stablecoin settlement reached a ~$3.5bn run-rate, and crypto-card spend grew 15x from ~$100m/month in early 2023 to ~$1.5bn/month by late 2025. PayPal's PYUSD is available across ~70 markets and Cash App is rolling out USDC send/receive in 2026[20][25].
6. 🇺🇸 USDC-settled prediction markets are an emerging economy: in Q1 2026 on-chain gambling volume hit ~$14bn and prediction markets ~$36.6bn, with Kalshi processing $43.1bn in 2025 and Polymarket $33.4bn. Kalshi commands ~89% of tracked US prediction-market activity, while Polymarket (USDC-settled on Polygon) acquired CFTC-licensed exchange QCEX for $112m in July 2025 to regain a US foothold. This is a growth market adjacent to MIXI's core betting business[21][26].

Coming soon

Socially, consumer interest moved away from speculative NFTs and play-to-earn toward genuinely fun games and digital ownership that works. Blockchain games remain Web3's largest category (~4.5-5m daily active wallets, ~28% of all Web3 activity, over half on mobile), but users now want experience over speculation. In the US, stablecoins are starting to reach mainstream consumer payments via PayPal/Cash App. MIXI's social graph plus sports IP could align with digital assets framed as fan experience rather than speculation.

1. The lesson of 2025 was that 'fun won over hype': blockchain games held ~4.5-5m daily active wallets through 2025 and, in October 2025, accounted for 27.9% of all Web3 activity (the year's high) as the only sector to grow. Over half of activity now comes via mobile, and the audience is shifting from speculators to mainstream players[1][15].
2. 🇯🇵 Japanese consumers are skeptical of digital collectibles after the speculative NFT bubble burst, but affinity remains for sports-fan engagement and IP-linked experiences. MIXI touched this space with 'DAZN MOMENTS' (on Flow), turning official J.League footage into NFTs with DAZN — and designing for fan experience rather than speculation is the key to social acceptance[13].
3. 🇯🇵 Japan has roughly 12 million crypto users and leads on the social acceptance of Web3 gaming. Because major publishers center on IP utility (ownership and perks for existing fans) rather than speculation, there is fertile ground for mainstream gamers to engage without being aware of blockchain. MIXI's social graph and sports-fan base fit this 'ownership as experience' framing[22][16].
4. Abstracted wallets, gasless transactions and L2 adoption have created UX where non-crypto-native users engage with digital ownership without noticing it, lowering the social barrier to entry. Sustainable economy design — where value comes from gameplay itself rather than token rewards — is favored by both players and regulators[1][16].

Coming soon

Technology is one of Web3's few areas of clear progress: Layer-2s, gasless transactions and wallet abstraction remove friction; NFTs shift from speculative objects to functional in-game assets; and stablecoins become in-game settlement. Ronin (Axie) migrated in May 2026 to an OP Stack Ethereum L2, redesigning for lower inflation and builder rewards, while Immutable's zkEVM shows real-play metrics. In Japan, Sony's Soneium and Oasys' Verse target friction directly. MIXI carries experience with Flow (a consumer chain) and as an Oasys validator.

1. Mature infrastructure now lets ownership be embedded in non-crypto games: scalable Layer-2s, gasless transactions and abstracted wallets remove friction, NFTs evolve into 'functional in-game assets' with true ownership and cross-platform utility, and top Web3 titles expect 2-3x growth in stablecoin transactions. The move away from token-reward dependence is technically underpinned[1][16].
2. Cases delivering on real-play metrics have emerged. Axie Infinity drove Ronin's comeback — the chain's daily active wallets rose 55% in Q3 to 419,000, with over 27m lifetime on-chain transactions and over $4.3bn in sales — while on Immutable's zkEVM, gaming NFTs led by Gods Unchained generated $135m in trading volume[2][1].
3. Architecture is consolidating: on 12 May 2026 Ronin migrated from a standalone chain to an OP Stack Ethereum Layer-2 after a ~10-hour pause, promising lower token inflation and rewards 'for builders and players, not speculators.' The trend of Web3 games converging from bespoke chains onto Ethereum L2 ecosystems brings advantages in liquidity, interoperability and security[19][16].
4. 🇯🇵 MIXI already has touchpoints in Japan's digital-asset tech stack: it built DAZN MOMENTS on the consumer-facing Flow blockchain and became a validator on the domestic game-focused chain Oasys in April 2023. JPYC runs multi-chain across Ethereum, Avalanche and Polygon, so the technical options are in place should MIXI add payment or ownership features[14][8].
5. 🇯🇵 Japan's game-focused infrastructure advanced on friction reduction: Sony's 'Soneium' and Oasys' Layer-2 'Verse' architecture tackle fee/UX barriers directly, Square Enix revived its shelved Web3 game 'SYMBIOGENESIS' on Sony's Soneium, and Bandai Namco Research is building the AI virtual-pet game 'RYUZO' on Oasys. These domestic-chain options connect directly to how MIXI could implement sports-IP × functional ownership[23][22].

Coming soon

The legal axis is among the most important: the US GENIUS Act (reserve/redemption rules) plus CLARITY Act (CFTC/SEC split), and now the CFTC prediction-market rulemaking and the 'Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act' make wagering a federal-vs-state legal flashpoint; EU MiCA (1:1 reserves, EU-issuer requirement, USDT delisted across exchanges); and Japan's amended Payment Services Act (enacted June 2025, effective 2026; electronic payment instruments, three issuer types, a foreign-trust path) plus FIEA reclassification — all advancing at once. If MIXI moves into digital assets, payments or wagering, this is the binding constraint.

1. 🇺🇸 The GENIUS Act imposes federal reserve, redemption and supervision rules on payment stablecoins and creates the permitted-issuer (PPSI) framework, while the CLARITY Act splits digital-asset market structure at the federal level — commodities to the CFTC, securities to the SEC. The US is granting 'regulated clarity' in law while also concretizing compliance requirements[3][4].
2. 🇺🇸 Prediction markets' legal status is unsettled: states such as Wisconsin, New York and Illinois classify Polymarket and Kalshi as 'gambling' and insist on state regulation, while the CFTC's 10 June 2026 proposed rule seeks to bring them under the federal Commodity Exchange Act framework — leaving a federal-vs-state jurisdiction fight. For MIXI, whose core is betting and sports, this is a material issue that shapes the licensing and product-design preconditions for any entry[26][21].
3. EU MiCA requires authorized stablecoins to be fully 1:1 backed by liquid reserves and issued by an EU-regulated entity, excluding non-authorized coins. Because Tether did not apply for authorization, USDT was delisted from in-region exchanges including Binance, Coinbase, Kraken and Crypto.com, and reportedly over 40 CASPs were fully authorized as of February 2026[5][6].
4. 🇯🇵 Japan's amended Payment Services Act was enacted on 6 June 2025 and is set to take effect in 2026 (June): it regulates stablecoins as 'electronic payment instruments,' limits issuance to three entity types (banks, fund-transfer providers, trust companies), and adds a lighter intermediary category, relaxed reserve rules for trust-type issuers and a qualified path for foreign trust-type stablecoins. Payments effectively become the licensing chokepoint[9][8].
5. 🇯🇵 Japan's FSA plans to submit a 2026 bill reclassifying crypto as a 'financial product' under the FIEA, expected to bring insider-trading bans, stricter custody audits and disclosure duties, and in November 2025 the FSA also mandated liability reserves for exchanges. NFT and DeFi profits, however, are excluded from the 20% separate tax (still miscellaneous income), so the compliance preconditions for issuing tokens or NFTs are heavy[11][10].

Coming soon

The environmental (V) axis is comparatively small. As major game chains and stablecoins moved to low-energy proof-of-stake / Layer-2 designs, the earlier proof-of-work mining critique has receded; digital assets are now more often framed in a social-sustainability context of financial inclusion and payment efficiency.

1. The energy critique of Web3 gaming and digital assets has receded: with major game chains and stablecoin rails on low-energy proof-of-stake or Layer-2 designs (Ronin also moved to an Ethereum L2 in May 2026) and over half of activity completed on mobile, the former proof-of-work mining critique is a minor business risk[1][19].
2. Digital assets are increasingly judged less on environmental footprint than on 'social sustainability' — financial inclusion, low-cost remittance and payment efficiency. Stablecoin cross-border transfers settling in seconds at low fees are, in ESG terms, sometimes framed as a social benefit[7][12].

Coming soon