How Elroy Cheo Is Redefining Community in Web3's Asian Renaissance

Elroy Cheo isn’t your typical Web3 founder. While many entrepreneurs in the space pivot from finance or tech, Cheo built his career by transforming landscapes—literally. His journey through commodities trading and large-scale property development has uniquely positioned him to see Web3 not as a speculative playground, but as infrastructure for genuine human connection. Today, as co-founder and chief architect of ARC, an influential Web3 collective reshaping how Asian communities organize online, Elroy Cheo champions a radically different vision: one rooted in relationships over transactions, merit over hype, and aligned values over token mechanics.

ARC represents a new breed of digital institution. Unlike typical Web3 projects that prioritize token distribution or trading volume, ARC limits membership to exactly 888—a deliberate constraint that prioritizes depth over reach. Members gain access to the ARC app through dual credentials: a Stellar NFT and a Soulbound Token called Fyrian. But the membership isn’t simply a financial transaction; it’s a gateway to a curated ecosystem designed to foster mutual value creation. Exclusive events, merchandise partnerships, and access to global professional networks define the experience. More importantly, it’s backed by a philosophy that treats community as sacred—not as an asset to monetize, but as a living system requiring constant care and intentional design.

Building From Barren Land: The Making of a Web3 Visionary

Elroy Cheo’s worldview was forged across decades of creating infrastructure and bringing people together. In his early career, he led a massive city development project in China, starting with nothing but empty fields and farming communities. The process was transformative: acquiring raw land, building essential infrastructure, connecting resources and people—and watching a bustling economic center emerge over time. That experience of creation from nothing ingrained itself into Cheo’s DNA.

Yet his path to Web3 wasn’t linear. In 2016, a conversation with his then-73-year-old software engineer uncle opened a new door. Together, they explored blockchain’s potential to solve a persistent problem in the music industry: ownership disputes stemming from fragmented databases and conflicting records. They built a blockchain-based music copyright project designed to consolidate ownership into a single, immutable source of truth. What stands out about their venture is what it didn’t require—no token launch, no speculative mechanism, just pure utility solving a real-world pain point. The project remains operational today, a quiet testament to Cheo’s belief that blockchain’s true power lies in creating genuine value, not generating investor returns.

This mindset directly shaped ARC. Inspired by Balaji Srinivasan’s network state theory, Cheo envisioned a digital-first institution—not a nation-state, but a community bound by shared purpose and collective action. The distinction matters. Web3 communities are often dismissed as mere audiences assembled through marketing or token incentives. ARC operates on a different principle: genuine relationships require reciprocal value.

The Anatomy of Community: Four Pillars of ARC’s Philosophy

When Elroy Cheo studies what members actually value within ARC, he identifies four distinct dimensions. First is professional access: curated introductions to builders, investors, and founders who can meaningfully accelerate each other’s trajectories. Second is economic opportunity—not through handouts, but through access to token allocations in promising investments that align members’ incentives. Third is lifestyle: exclusive experiences few can access, whether meeting international celebrities like soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo or enjoying special partnerships with luxury brands like Edition Hotel. Fourth is personal growth through mentorship, career advancement, and skill development.

But the underlying ethos matters more than any individual benefit. ARC promotes what Elroy Cheo calls “give value to receive value”—a principle drawn from the East Asian concept of guanxi (relationships as mutual investment) and reimagined for digital communities. Members aren’t accumulating “alpha” information; they’re actively supporting one another’s success. This reciprocal mindset transforms the community from a transactional network into a genuine ecosystem.

“Community isn’t measured by numbers or floor prices,” Cheo explains. “It’s built on relationships. Without those bonds, you’re just managing an audience.” This clarity of purpose has become ARC’s defining characteristic in a space often clouded by hype and unclear value propositions.

The Asian Difference: Why Web3 Moves Differently in the East

One of Elroy Cheo’s most incisive observations concerns the stark differences between Western and Asian Web3 communities. Western crypto communities dominate public discourse—their voices fill crypto Twitter, shape narratives, and drive market sentiment globally. Yet this visibility masks a deeper reality: Asian communities command disproportionate financial power.

The cultural factors are profound. Twitter, the default communication hub for Western crypto discourse, isn’t as deeply embedded in Asian digital culture. Chinese users gravitate toward private WeChat or Telegram groups; other Asian markets follow similar patterns of preferring private channels over public forums. As a result, Asian Web3 communities often operate invisibly to Western observers—yet they move capital with stunning efficiency.

Elroy Cheo offers a striking example: a relatively small Chinese community can generate $1 billion in DeFi protocol total value locked (TVL) within a single day. This type of coordinated capital deployment is rare, even unheard of, in Western markets. The implication is clear—Asia isn’t just another market; it’s a distinct Web3powerhouse operating by different rules.

At ARC, Elroy Cheo deliberately encourages members to engage more publicly, to build presence on English-language platforms and international channels. His reasoning is strategic: Asia possesses both the talent and the liquidity to lead the next phase of Web3 innovation, but only if it captures global mindshare alongside its existing financial dominance. Right now, Asian builders and communities remain underrecognized despite their outsized influence.

NFTs Evolving: From Collectibles to Digital Identity and Status

The future of NFTs, in Elroy Cheo’s view, extends far beyond digital art or collectible trading. He sees NFTs as the foundation for a new form of digital identity—one that’s pseudonymous yet consequential. Imagine moving from a polished LinkedIn profile to an avatar that masks personal identity while allowing skills, reputation, and expertise to shine through unfiltered by appearance, age, or geography.

This shift toward pseudonymity is particularly empowering for younger participants who can operate behind digital representations while their capabilities and knowledge receive recognition. At ARC, Elroy Cheo is exploring NFTs as status symbols in practical contexts—imagine entering a hotel or event where your NFT instantly grants access and recognition, functioning as a credential or badge of expertise. The precedent already exists in platforms like Stack Overflow, where badges represent specific accomplishments and technical mastery.

Beyond that, Elroy Cheo sees NFTs evolving into achievement records and expertise markers. Rather than being purely collectible assets, they become digital artifacts representing expertise, skills acquired, or milestones reached. This transformation could make NFTs genuinely useful infrastructure rather than speculative trading vehicles.

Scaling Exclusivity: Maintaining Value While Growing

With ARC capped at exactly 888 members, the question inevitably arises: how do you scale this model without diluting the very exclusivity that creates value?

Elroy Cheo’s answer reveals sophisticated thinking about brand economics and community dynamics. True exclusivity works only when tethered to genuine brand equity and rigorous community management. Reddit demonstrates the principle: one moderator can effectively oversee millions of users through well-designed guidelines, incentive structures, and moderation systems. The limiting factor isn’t the number of people but the clarity of the rules and the strength of the brand.

When ARC partnered with Edition Hotel for the luxury hospitality brand’s Singapore opening, the hotel director offered exclusive rates and special treatment. When Elroy Cheo asked why, the director’s response was telling: “You’re ARC.” That name carries weight—scarcity, reputation, consistent delivery of value. Brand prestige is the currency.

Additionally, ARC employs a contributor system that incentivizes active participation. Top contributors gain early access to investment opportunities, special events, and unique experiences. This creates a merit-based hierarchy within the community—value flows to those who add value. The mechanism enables scaling without losing coherence; a larger organization can still maintain standards if participation is structured around contribution.

The NFT Misconception Holding Asia Back

Across Asia, Elroy Cheo identifies a persistent misunderstanding about NFTs among brands and IP creators: they view NFTs primarily as revenue streams. Companies launch NFT collections expecting direct sales, treating the mechanism as a transactional revenue channel rather than as infrastructure for community building and engagement.

Elroy Cheo advocates for an entirely different approach. Imagine a boba tea shop using NFTs not as a merchandise item, but as a gateway to membership. Instead of following traditional marketing funnels—awareness, consideration, purchase—the NFT creates a non-linear experience where holders become invested members. They engage repeatedly, contribute to the brand’s growth organically, and transform from customers into advocates. The NFT becomes the community credential, not the revenue endpoint.

This reframing—from transactional to relational—could unlock NFTs’ actual potential in Asian markets where brand loyalty and community already hold deep cultural roots.

Asia’s Web3 Moment: Talent, Infrastructure, and the AI Frontier

When Elroy Cheo surveys the current Web3 landscape across Asia, what excites him most is talent. Vietnamese developers, Chinese engineers, Singaporean innovators—the region brims with brilliant builders creating sophisticated projects. The challenge isn’t capability; it’s internationalization. Language barriers, cultural differences, and lack of global platform access keep many projects invisible despite their technical quality.

Yet infrastructure improvements are changing this trajectory. As tools, funding mechanisms, and cross-border communication improve, Elroy Cheo believes Asia will cement itself as a leader rather than a follower in Web3 innovation. Southeast Asia is already leading in DeFi protocol development and NFT experimentation—advantages that compound as more capital and talent concentrate in the region.

Beyond blockchain, Elroy Cheo sees AI as the next frontier for Asian innovation. The intersection of AI and Web3—intelligent autonomous agents, decentralized intelligence networks, AI-assisted community coordination—represents genuinely unexplored territory.

For Today’s Builders: Passion as Your Enduring Asset

ARC launched in January 2022, squarely in the midst of crypto’s bear market. That timing wasn’t accidental—it reflects Elroy Cheo’s conviction that genuine projects are built in bear markets, not bull runs. Hype attracts speculators; conviction attracts builders.

His advice to current and aspiring Web3 entrepreneurs is unambiguous: build with passion. Crypto narratives shift rapidly; without deep personal conviction, the emotional weight of downturns leads to burnout and abandonment. Too many founders lose sight of their underlying purpose, treating projects as vehicles for quick returns rather than long-term vision.

Instead, Elroy Cheo advocates treating your projects as social experiments—frameworks for testing how humans coordinate, create value, and organize meaning. Stay hungry, remain curious, and execute rapidly with clear goals. The projects most likely to endure aren’t those chasing trends but those answering genuine problems with authentic commitment.

The Web3 Social Product: Community First, Coordination Second

As an upcoming speaker at Consensus Hong Kong in February, Elroy Cheo plans to focus on what he knows best: using NFTs and blockchain to build genuine communities. His thesis is straightforward but often overlooked: start with the community. Design for relationship, engagement, and mutual value. Then, once that foundation exists—once the community is aligned and functional—introduce a fungible token to coordinate members toward a shared goal.

This inversion—community first, token second—represents what he calls the “Web3 social product.” It’s fundamentally different from the dominant paradigm where tokens launch first and community follows (or fails to materialize). Digital communities as a form really flourished only post-COVID, when tools like Zoom and Google Meet made geographically distributed collaboration normal. Elroy Cheo sees Web3’s community infrastructure as the natural evolution of that shift—digital-first institutions designed for genuine alignment, not just transactional exchange.

ARC represents one experiment in that direction: a digital institution built on merit, relationships, and shared purpose. Whether it scales into a model others adopt remains to be seen. But in Elroy Cheo’s hands, Web3 community isn’t a marketing slogan—it’s a serious architectural project with real implications for how humans might coordinate in the future.