The Bridge Summit: Institutional DeFi’s 5-Year Path to Breaking Through Challenges – ICG Forges a Market Entry with “Computing Power + DeFi”!

On November 12, 2025, the financial pulse of Manhattan collided intensely with the crypto wave as the 3rd The Bridge Summit grandly kicked off in New York! Hosted by The Tie, this institutional-level gala attracted over 1,000 industry elites, as well as giants and leaders from more than 250 global top-tier traditional financial institutions and crypto asset enterprises. Among the highlights, the roundtable forum on “Institutional Adoption of DeFi and Risk Governance” brought together representatives from diverse fields including L1 ecosystems, VCs, asset management firms, and DATs, conducting in-depth analysis of core industry issues and emerging as the most watched highlight of the summit.

I. Roundtable Highlights: Four Perspectives Decoding Institutional DeFi Adoption Pain Points

Moderator’s Perspective: Thomas Chen (CEO of Function) – Amidst Diversified Gameplay, Short-Term On-Chain Adoption Rate Below 1%

Thomas Chen emphasized that institutional layout in DeFi is by no means a single-point driven effort, but a multi-dimensional strategic choice built around revenue enhancement, infrastructure empowerment, ecological governance discourse power, and risk closed-loop management.

The roundtable forum gathered representatives from L1 public chain ecosystems, top DAT institutions, leading VCs, and senior asset management firms. The in-depth collisions and perspective exchanges among these diverse roles unlocked a panoramic view of the real landscape and development context of the DeFi ecosystem. Core guests reached a consensus prediction: in the short term, the proportion of institutional assets truly completing on-chain migration will remain at an extremely low level – less than 1%.

L1 Ecosystem Perspective: Charley Cooper (COO of Ava Labs) – “Language Barrier” is the Biggest Obstacle

The guest at the meeting directly stated: the speed of institutional adoption of DeFi is much slower than the market initially expected.

The core issue behind this is actually the “incompatible mindsets” between DeFi and traditional finance: DeFi is centered on anonymity and openness, allowing anyone to participate; while the bottom line of traditional finance is compliance and mutual trust, requiring strict audits for every step.

To truly bring institutions into DeFi, both parties must first “speak the same language”:

On one hand, DeFi projects should abandon the one-way mindset of “disrupting traditional finance” and instead use logic that institutions can understand – clearly explaining where risks lie, how governance works, and the specific operational processes;

On the other hand, for institutions, the key thresholds determining their willingness to enter DeFi are risk control capabilities, infrastructure completeness, compliance process compatibility, and operational transparency.

VC Investment Perspective: Rob Hadick (GP of Dragonfly) – On-Chain Native Innovation is the Key to Breaking the Deadlock

Rob Hadick, GP of Dragonfly, straightforwardly pointed out that most current “on-chain RWA” products are essentially technical encapsulation of traditional assets, failing to form truly native on-chain application scenarios. The integration of DeFi and traditional finance is still in the conceptual narrative stage. He emphasized that the core value of DeFi does not lie in replicating traditional assets, but in building a new native on-chain revenue system.

Three prerequisites must be met for large-scale institutional adoption:

① Clear compliance policies;

② Reconstruction and adaptation of backend systems;

③ Mature trading infrastructure.

Institutional-level on-chain applications with commercial scale will require approximately 5 years of cultivation and cannot be rapidly implemented within 1-2 years.

Institutional Asset Management Perspective: Pascal St-Jean (President & CEO of 3iq) – Compliance is the “First Stepping Stone” for Institutional Entry

Pascal St-Jean clearly elaborated on the decision-making priority ranking for large institutions participating in the crypto asset field: compliance requirements are the primary consideration, followed by operational risk management, counterparty risk prevention, and investment logic feasibility verification, with return rate ranking at the bottom.

Taking the successful practice of ETF products as a typical case, he emphasized that their core value lies in being able to “one-stop meet the dual core needs of institutional investment decision-making and compliant custody,” providing a practical path reference for institutions to standardize crypto asset allocation.

Regarding industry development trends, Pascal St-Jean made a clear prediction: in 2025, the actual exposure of institutions to on-chain assets will still remain at nearly 0%. However, this field is a medium-to-long-term deterministic development track, and is expected to achieve gradual growth over the next 5-10 years. The maturity, improvement, and functional iteration of on-chain tools will become the core driving factors for this trend.

Roundtable Consensus: Shaping the Industry’s Future, ICG Has Already Seized the Rhythm!

1. Institutional adoption of DeFi is a medium-to-long-term deterministic trend, but in the short term, it is limited by multiple thresholds such as compliance, risk, and infrastructure;
2. “Logical interoperability” + “addressing institutional real demands” are the core to breaking the deadlock, with ETF-style compliance and controllable risk solutions becoming key;
3. Large-scale applications rely on on-chain native innovation rather than simply “moving traditional assets on-chain”;
4. Institutional asset on-chain migration is a slow evolutionary process, with an extremely low proportion in the short term and gradual implementation requiring 5-10 years in the long term.

II. The Bridge Summit: ICG Delivers Heavyweight Insights + Practical Value!

Intchains Group (ICG) made its debut at The Bridge, a top-tier U.S. institutional crypto summit, adopting a posture of “proactive voice + in-depth exchange” to deeply connect with decision-makers from traditional finance and the crypto ecosystem – both conveying the core value of the enterprise and accurately capturing cutting-edge industry trends.

Core Insights from ICG’s U.S. Team Leader: Addressing Institutional Pain Points, Solving ETH Asset Appreciation Dilemmas

1. Break free from short-term profit traps and focus on long-term compound growth It is recommended that institutions stop fixating on the 3%-4% annual percentage yield (APY) and instead take a long-term view: lock in the long-term compound growth of ETH over a five-year cycle, take “long-term asset appreciation” as the core goal, and avoid being distracted by short-term fluctuations.
2. Can high returns be achieved with low risk? A dual-track strategy makes it possible Proposed a dual solution of “basic return optimization + controlled risk advancement”: without taking high risks to speculate, ETH returns can be infinitely close to DeFi levels, perfectly aligning with institutions’ core demand of “both risk control and return enhancement.”

Insights Backed by Actionable Paths!

The insights from ICG’s U.S. Team Leader are not “empty talk” but form a directly implementable ETH asset appreciation framework – from reconstructing long-term return evaluation standards, to low-risk return enhancement, and capturing industry cycle opportunities. Each insight corresponds to ICG’s specific services, forming a complete closed loop of “practice summary → insight output → service implementation.”

This not only demonstrates ICG’s strong service capabilities, providing institutions with a reliable path for ETH asset appreciation, but also reflects the core value of high-end summits: through in-depth insight collisions, precipitating practical results that are both industry-insightful and practically guiding!

III. Summit Focus: What Makes ICG Stand Out?

In the hot topic of “How Institutions Choose Differentiated Crypto Services” at The Bridge Summit, ICG’s U.S. Team Leader deciphered ICG’s unique competitive advantages – different from ETFs and other DAT institutions, ICG has its own unique driving model that significantly reduces the accumulation cost of ETH and ZK assets, with a core logic that is easy to understand!

1. Differentiated Foundation: Be a “Mining Power Producer” Instead of a “Financial Player” – Self-Sustaining Growth is Reliable!

ICG broke away from the routine of traditional crypto institutions that “only package financial products” and focused on building mining infrastructure in the Ethereum ecosystem, forging a path of “self-sustaining growth”:

• Specializes in the R&D of ZK proof-specific mining machines/ASIC chips, with ZK proof generation efficiency 30-40 times higher than the fastest current GPUs, establishing insurmountable technical barriers;
• Participates in the ZK ecosystem through operating these self-owned mining machines to obtain a large number of tokens, with costs only 30%-40% of the secondary market purchase price! This model of “building infrastructure and producing assets independently” allows ICG to move beyond relying solely on financial services, instead possessing sustainable cash flow and the ability to acquire assets at low costs – this is the fundamental difference between ICG and other institutions.

2.Business Resonance: Hardware + DeFi Collaboration, Making Asset Accumulation More “Cost-Effective”!

ICG has created a synergistic effect between “mining infrastructure” and “DeFi strategies,” enabling both itself and its clients to accumulate ETH and high-quality ZK assets at a “discounted price”:

• First, earn stable profits from mining machine sales to lay a solid business foundation and provide sufficient cash flow for subsequent asset accumulation;
• Then, use self-owned mining machines to generate ZK proofs and obtain tokens, which are then converted into ETH at the right time, completing the closed loop of “mining output → token acquisition → conversion to ETH”;
• Finally, seize DeFi industry cycle opportunities and invest assets accumulated from hardware business into low-risk DeFi scenarios to further expand ETH holdings – equivalent to “hardware-driven growth + DeFi value enhancement,” doubling returns!

3.Long-Term Barriers: 7-Year On-Chain Veteran, Being a “Comprehensive Player” for Sustainable Development!ICG’s differentiated advantages also stem from years of industry experience and a clear positioning:

• Deeply rooted in the crypto field for 7-8 years, it is a seasoned on-chain player that has gone through multiple industry cycles, possessing richer experience in risk control and opportunity capture;
• Not limited to a single role, it positions itself as an “Ethereum economy producer + distributor”: building mining infrastructure (as a producer) while conducting efficient asset allocation through DeFi strategies (as a distributor), with both roles jointly supporting the long-term growth of ETH reserves.

As ICG’s U.S. Team Leader stated: “We do not simply raise funds to buy ETH on the secondary market; instead, we first build machines and infrastructure, then use real cash flow to continuously accumulate ETH at structural discounts.” This integrated model of “infrastructure + finance” is the core code behind ICG’s standout performance among numerous institutions!

Synergistic Value: Providing Institutions with a Trustworthy Long-Term Cooperation Option

ICG’s synergistic model of “business supporting insights and insights feeding back cooperation” allows institutions to clearly see its core advantages of “real cash flow + long-term deep cultivation.” This value proposition of “co-building infrastructure + sharing asset appreciation” accurately responds to the breakthrough direction of “understanding institutional real demands” in the summit consensus, becoming a key differentiator from similar institutions. This integrated “infrastructure + finance” model is the core logic behind ICG’s unique competitive edge.

Conclusion: Taking the Summit as a Bridge, Exploring the Long-Term Value of the ETH Ecosystem Together

The Bridge Summit has built a link for in-depth connection between traditional finance and the crypto ecosystem, while ICG has responded to the core pain points in the summit consensus with its practical “mining infrastructure + DeFi” solution, constructing a “implementation bridge” for institutional adoption of DeFi.

With 7-8 years of industry experience, ICG deeply understands the compliance demands and risk preferences of institutions; the dual-drive of “hardware-driven growth + financial value enhancement” enables ICG to create long-term, stable ETH appreciation returns for institutions under controllable risks. At this summit, ICG not only conveyed its differentiated value but also provided the industry with a new actionable path for the integration of institutions and DeFi through practical solutions.

In the future, ICG will continue to deepen its presence in the Ethereum ecosystem with the positioning of “Ethereum economy producer + distributor,” looking forward to collaborating with more institutions that recognize long-term value to co-build mining infrastructure and share the dividends of long-term appreciation in the ETH ecosystem! This cross-border value co-creation between traditional finance and crypto has only just begun!