Key Predictions for Cryptoland
Hey Amigos…I am Luke Thomas, a crypto/blockchain maniac, and have been very bullish and passionate about this space since 2017! I regularly post my opinions on Crypto Twitter and wanted to take this opportunity to share my key predictions for Cryptoland in 2022 and beyond!
· The future of Crypto is a multi-chain world with developers building bridges between networks to achieve interoperability- which will be key to breaking down barriers for broader crypto adoption.
· Several countries will regulate and/or accept Crypto as a legal tender/currency, leading to some ambiguity on tax implications.
· If 2021 was all about DeFi & NFTs, then 2022 will be all about GameFi.
· Play-to earn (P2E) will completely disrupt the gaming market with Verasity’s Proof of View patent being a key enabler for in-gaming advertising.
· Several banks in developed markets will provide crypto custodial services and introduce private crypto funds for its wealthy clients (primarily targeting Gen X and Baby Boomers).
· Expect to see several multi national corporations (MNCs) adding cryptos to their balance sheet in 2022 with it becoming the norm by 2024.
· Mergers and acquisitions will be rampant between Crypto companies/exchanges and financial institutions over the next two to three years.
· Several crypto exchanges will obtain a digital banking license in APAC and MENA regions, particularly Singapore and the UAE by 2023.
· We could see a stablecoin backed by a commodity (e.g., gold) by 2023.
· We will witness several countries piloting their Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDCs) on a private blockchain ledger that will work in parallel with the public ledger. Ripple will be one of the formidable blockchain companies working on the CBDC front, the other being Wadzpay.
· Africa could adopt a CBDC that covers a block of African countries.
· We could witness an adoption battle between decentralized stablecoins and CBDCs, as most users might view CBDCs playing a key role in surveillance capitalism.
· With the advent of CBDCs, most users will have their savings directly with the central bank with traditional commercial banks trying to reinvent themselves by competing against fintech crypto companies (personal loans, mortgages et al.).
· People will start taking loans against their cryptos to take advantage of the low interest rates and even buy homes with crypto mortgages.
· People will use more of crypto credit cards to get their rewards in Cryptos instead of fiat currency.
· As NFTs go mainstream and rise in value, we can expect users even taking loans against their NFTs. Opensea, the biggest NFT marketplace, recently bought Dharma Labs for its lending and borrowing services.
· We will see OpenSea being challenged in the NFT marketplace by those leveraging the Xinfin or XRP Ledger. Hence, in the short-term, ETH based NFT platforms will be forced to transition to MATIC to be relevant and overcome the huge gas fees.
· MATIC will eventually be the Consensus Layer for Ethereum (formerly known as ETH 2.0) as it would take close to six years to transition ETH from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake.
· Ethereum (leveraging MATIC) could well be the decentralized app store by 2023 and negatively impact Apple and Google’s revenue via their respective app stores:
– Low fees vs. app store revenue share
– No commerce lock-in strategy to Apple
– No single point of control by a Big Tech
– Distributed, decentralized, single sign in across apps
· NFTs in the Digital space will have its digital twin in the physical space via 3D print.
· With India edging towards Crypto legalization, nearly 70% of the banks in India will move away from SWIFT to use $XRP as a universal bridge currency via Ripplenet for global cross border payments.
· According to Deloitte, nearly 82% of Indians surveyed plan to invest in Bitcoin and crypto. This could represent an extra 15% of the world’s population investing in crypto.
· India will be a key Crypto Unicorn hub for fintech services.
· Many countries will classify crypto as a commodity instead of a security.
· Some banks will start providing crypto staking rewards by 2023. Banks that don’t provide staking rewards will experience a Blockbuster moment as they will be significantly disrupted by DeFi.
· Ripple will come to a settlement with the SEC in 2022, leading to one of the biggest fines being paid out in Crypto history.
· Ripple will file for IPO in late 2022, if not in early 2023, and could be the world’s first double digit trillion dollar company (by 2030) as they go after multiple business opportunities such as the multi trillion cross border payments, the quadrillion derivatives market, and NFTs too!
· Once the Ripple case is settled, we will see a global regulatory framework for Cryptoland and we will witness an exponential growth even bigger than the Internet and cellular industry combined.
· Post the Ripple lawsuit settlement, the Howey test could be replaced by the “Ripple test” to classify if cryptos are a security or not.
· $XRP will be used as a universal bridge currency between stablecoins, fiat currency, Cryptos and CBDCs by 2025.
· The biggest market for $XRP will be in the Middle East and APAC. We can expect to see Lulu Exchange becoming a formidable player in the remittance space and could acquire Moneygram for all you know!
· Many enterprises will prefer a hybrid blockchain akin to a hybrid enterprise cloud service.
· Stablecoins will play a key role in digital wallets for several enterprise blockchain services
· Many enterprises will enable their workforce to receive a part of their salary and 401K in crypto by late 2022/2023.
· Once Crypto friendly regulations are passed, more than 70% of cryptos (particularly meme coins) will vanish in thin air with Cryptoland crossing $7 to $10 trillion by 2023.
· Every asset in this world will be tokenized eventually with P2P atomic swaps going mainstream.
· We will see players like Coinbase entering into the stock market world via M&A to compete with Robinhood -who probably will enable people to buy cryptos using their shares in the stock market — which will be tokenized (for e.g., Perform an atomic swap of the HPQ stock to get $XRP).
· Bitcoin store of value and digital gold narrative will follow the same paths of MySpace and Orkut in social media.
· Sending trillions of dollars for a fraction of a cent will be a reality for most financial institutions by 2025.
· Micropayments and Microfinance will be some of the disruptive services in the blockchain space.
· Crypto tipping and sending money via social media will go mainstream by 2024.
· XRP, XDC and ALGO will dominate the future of financial services and it also helps that they are all compliant to the ISO 20022 standard.
· Vechain will dominate the world of supply chain management and sustainability by 2024.
· We will see a Spot ETF approved finally triggered by incumbent financial institutions in 2022 or early 2023
· Smartphone vendors will start supporting crypto wallets, which will become mainstream in 2023.
· Ironically, we will witness one of the biggest bull run for Cryptoland when banks worldwide go mainstream in providing crypto custodial, staking and trading services.