“Respondents consistently told us that they want consumer protections built into the infrastructure itself – just like how they are used to, in existing banking services,” said Ceridwen Choo, CEO of Cleanverse. “The emphasis on traceability, value assurance and regulatory-grade safeguards suggests that Web3’s next phase will be defined by re-establishing the same financial governance and trust across the ecosystem, not innovation. Users are no longer asking whether Web3 works – they are asking whether it can be trusted.”
1. Trust Gap Persists Despite Growing Interest
75.4% of respondents do not currently use a Web3 wallet and most attributed this to the lack of understanding or education and concerns with trust and security. Almost half of existing Web3 users wanted more platforms for verified on-chain transactions, reinforcing an overall sentiment of distrust on the current state of Web3 for adoption of on-chain finance. .
The data suggests that technical sophistication is no longer the limiting factor. Instead, confidence hinges on whether users are adequately protected and educated on the potential risks when transacting in decentralised environments.
2. Clear Demand for Embedded, Infrastructure-Level Compliance and Shareable KYC
When asked whether compliance and shareable KYC embedded at the protocol layer would improve their Web3 experience, 59.5% said yes and another 35.4% said maybe. Very few saw this negatively.
The data suggests a shift in perception: Users increasingly view compliance not as a burden but as a baseline expectation for safety. The survey also reinforces the industry’s growing call for portable, interoperable identity credentials instead of repeated, isolated checks.
3. Regulated Infrastructure Meaningfully Increases Confidence
Confidence increased substantially when respondents were asked about Web3 services operating on compliance-certified platforms for managing assets and transactions. A combined 87% said they would feel confident or were open to it, indicating that regulated environments, not purely decentralised ones, are more likely to attract mainstream users.
This reinforces the broader trend of institutional-grade digital asset infrastructure becoming the expected norm, particularly as tokenisation and stablecoin issuance become extensions of the regulated financial ecosystem.
4. Banks to emerge as key entry points
Respondents showed strong willingness to adopt Web3 through traditional financial institutions. 40.5% said they would use Web3 services if provided by their bank, while 46.6% said they might. With only 4.5% opposed, the survey suggests that banks are positioned to become the de facto consumer gateway into Web3 — an outcome aligned with regulatory expectations for safe digital asset access.
The future of Web3 will be built on trust, and the infrastructure enabling it
Taken together, the survey findings show a clear pattern. Users want Web3 to offer the same level of compliance, identity assurance and value verification that they already expect in traditional finance. This aligns with global regulatory momentum pushing for interoperable trust layers that make digital asset activity safer by design.
Echoing this sentiment, Chia Hock Lai, Co-chair, Digital Assets Association elaborates, “Institutions cannot scale on anonymity. To unlock the trillion-dollar potential of Real World Assets (RWA), we need certainty, not mystery. Identity assurance is no longer just a compliance tick-box, it is the essential infrastructure required to bridge Web3 with the real global economy.
Zhu Feida, Aptos Move Chair Professor, Singapore Management University added, “The era of anonymous-by-default Web3 is over – real assets, regulated stablecoins, and AI-driven financial flows now require real identity, traceable money, and verifiable counterparties. Without these foundations, institutions and regulators simply cannot participate at scale. Trust-by-design is becoming the prerequisite for Web3’s mainstream breakout”.
Cleanverse was built to meet this shift by placing verified identity, verified assets, and real-time compliance at the core of on-chain value transfer. By using bank-verified KYC as a baseline standard, the platform bridges the gap between anonymity and accountability, helping to establish an interoperable trust system across public blockchains. This directly addresses the structural gaps surfaced by the survey.
The findings also raise clear questions for industry and policymakers: how to build TradFi trust into DeFi, how to balance privacy with identity assurance, how to separate clean from unclean value flows, and how institutions can adopt Web3 without without re-creating the same legacy governance frameworks that have safeguarded the global financial ecosystem for decades.
The path forward points to compliance-native infrastructure that institutions can rely on. By placing identity and asset assurance at the transaction layer, Cleanverse aims to provide the certainty needed for regulated adoption and turn trust from a barrier into a catalyst for growth.