Why is compliance so important? Starting from 2025, project teams and exchanges can't avoid two words: compliance. It is no longer a question of whether to do it, but whether you have the capability to do it. The cost of compliance is high, often millions or tens of millions, and it may even affect core business operations. In the early days of crypto, which remained in a wild state, the priority was to get the chain running, send assets out, and facilitate trading. Those who are efficient, who tell compelling stories, and who have thick liquidity will do well. If problems arise, no one cares, and it doesn't affect the overall situation. As long as everyone participates early on, they are generally profitable, and issues are rarely a concern. But once the asset scale truly grows, this logic begins to break down. Because once assets involve custody, staking, clearing, or cross-system transfers, risks emerge, and it can even impact the traditional financial world.

As the demand for blockchain mass adoption increases, growing the ecosystem requires more Web 2 users. Without compliance, no country will allow Web3 companies to freely take a share of the pie. Dusk Foundation saw this path early on, but the era of compliance arrived too late. They spent 7-8 years preparing for it. The best thing is: when the timing comes, the project is still here. This is why projects like @duskfoundation almost never participate in direct competition for L1 or fight for transaction volume. Instead, they focus on a very fundamental and practical area: issuance, ownership, compliance, and final settlement.

In any era, selling shovels is a good choice. The compliance era determines who can sell shovels. Therefore, liquidity location is not crucial; assets can circulate on Ethereum, Solana, or even within traditional financial systems. But where assets come from, who owns them, and how they are finally settled—all are governed by a single set of on-chain rules recognized by compliance.

2025 will be a watershed year. Benefiting from the compliance frameworks of the US and EU, global regulation will begin to explore new approaches:
- It’s not about whether you are crypto, but whether you can be regulated.
- Is there clear ownership?
- Is there executable clearing?
- When problems occur, where are the responsibility boundaries?

Compliance is no longer about being constrained; it is a prerequisite for assets to enter long-term systems. Truly large funds and real-world assets will only enter systems where accounts can be settled clearly. If the previous phase was about who can generate more liquidity, now it’s about who can control the rules, responsibilities, and settlement processes.

Compliance determines who can enter the Web 2 world, who can grow big, and most importantly, who can become the winner. $DUSK