What the next wave of Web3 startups is building

Every year, a shortlist of startups pitches live at Zebu Live. Looking across the 12 teams that took the stage, a few clear themes stood out about where Web3 is heading.

1. Boring infrastructure is winning

Compliance automation (ChainComply), crypto accounting that syncs with QuickBooks and Xero (Tulo) and on-chain fund administration (Fume). The unglamorous back office is where real businesses need help, and where crypto is quietly becoming useful.

2. Self-custody is getting simpler

United Network's NFC hardware wallet in card form makes self-custody as simple as a tap. They handed out 20,000+ cards across TOKEN2049 and MERGE. The UX gap is closing.

3. AI and crypto are converging

AI-native and intelligent wallets (Ask Gina), autonomous investment algorithms (&Volume) and structured data layers built for humans and AI agents (Baselight). Agents need verified data and rails to act on. Crypto has both.

4. Finance is going social

Bloom combines trading, social reputation and verified on-chain activity, so people can earn from their influence. Reputation is becoming an asset.

5. Better tools for builders

contract.dev offers production-level private test chains, or "Stagenets", so teams can ship with more confidence.

The takeaway

The hype projects get the headlines, but the next wave is solving real problems for real users: compliance teams, finance teams, developers and everyday people managing money. That's a good sign for the industry.

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