What’s the future of cryptocurrency? To get an insight into what we can expect from the crypto space in the coming few years, we draw upon insights from leading venture capitalists, crypto intelligence firms, and the CEOs of leading crypto projects.
Key themes that emerged are DeFi taking over traditional finance, the growth of web3, and the rise of the metaverse. Let’s start with the CEO of Reef, Denko Mancheski, who shared his thoughts on how cryptocurrency can be the future of humankind.
1. Denko Mancheski, CEO, Reef - The future of humankind
“The future of cryptocurrency is the future of humankind.”
Analysis
The future of cryptocurrency is the future of humankind, as long as things are done properly. Smart regulation, KYC and AML applied where needed to protect both projects and consumers, and real use cases brought to the forefront so that people understand how blockchain and cryptocurrencies can improve their lives with fast, borderless transactions, real ownership of digital assets, making real world transactions and processes faster and more transparent, and more.
About
Reef chain is an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible blockchain for DeFi. It is fast, scalable, has low transaction costs and does no wasteful mining. It is built with Substrate Framework and comes with on-chain governance.
2. Cheng Wang, CEO, Alephium - Decentralisation in a multi-chain space
“The future of crypto is decentralization.”
Analysis
It’s always difficult to speculate about the future, but it's also a fun exercise. The future of crypto is decentralization. Partially because it will be a multi-chain space. There is no single chain that can satisfy all the needs. The highly decentralized blockchains that emphasize good user experience will be the ones that stand out in the long run.
Many projects will have disappeared, but the remaining ones will thrive thanks to bridges that connect different protocols and communities together. New ecosystems other than EVM will emerge, fixing many of the existing security issues and inefficiencies. The crypto-space will have learned from many mistakes in the past, effectively demystifying the concept of cryptography.
Markets will equalize and diversify. Automation will make many of the pain-points of value exchange seamless. This will reduce political friction to a bare minimum. Very much like open-source projects operate, communities will form tribes trading together on a global scale and forking when conflict arises. But then again, anything can happen.
About
Alephium is the first operational sharded blockchain bringing scalability, ETH-inspired smart contracts and dApps capabilities to Bitcoin's proven core technologies while ensuring better performance and improved energy efficiency.
3. Sino Global Capital - A billion person vision for blockchain
"No longer were we targeting 1 million users; that vision was expanded to 1 billion users and an on-chain value of $10 trillion."
Analysis
Solana has been making calculated partnerships to build out the foundations of a vibrant ecosystem. Solana natively supports both USDC and USDT — two key building blocks of decentralized finance (Algorand and Ethereum are the only other blockchains that support both assets).
To support 1B users on-chain, strong “primitives” or building blocks need to be available. These primitives include stable stores of values (stablecoins), borrowing / lending protocols, oracles, asset pools, etc.
Serum is exactly this new type of infrastructure enabled by Solana and can serve as a key primitive for multiple $1T+ industries. Serum is an experiment to bring the full centralized exchange experience, with full limit order books and a matching engine, fast settlement and trading, and low transaction costs, to a decentralized world — at scale.
About
Sino Global Capital provides strategic investment to best-in-class companies that are moving the blockchain and digital assets ecosystems forward and then help them to thrive in the Asia market. They stand at the intersection of finance and technology - East and West. They leverage their network to help their portfolio companies enter one of the most idiosyncratic, but important, markets in blockchain – Asia.
4. Craig McColl, Founder, Venture Venture - Evolution of NFTs
“NFTs will mature into their next use case.”
Analysis
How will the NFT/ metaverse space evolve over the next 12 months?
NFTs will mature into their next use case. We are already seeing dNFTs / iNFTs which are dynamic NFTs, AI driven NFTs. These are NFTs that evolve with either data or AI and that change their form over time depending on their inputs.
Here’s how NFTs can mature:
- NFTs will roll out into other use cases like ownership certificates - house / car / land / fractional ownership.
- Your passport could evolve to being an NFT.
- Same as your insurance policies being an NFT that could be updated each year dynamically.
- NFT digital assets will generate more yield as demand increases for yield generating NFTs in-game / Metaverse. Land gets bought up quickly and harvested for brand advertising in the metaverse.
- People start to make more money in the Metaverse than IRL (In Real Life).
- More brands to get into the metaverse through brand associated collabs.
- Those that got in early, get rewarded with sales of rare web 3 elements - land, in-game assets, rarity items.
- Play-2-earn models grow and are a growth industry for third world countries.
About
Venture Venture partner and equity stake with ambitious entrepreneurs and organisations, who today want to reinvent traditional business models to be ready for tomorrow's future of work, helping unlock early value generation looking at new tech, innovation and high growth models. They explore, design and experiment with NFT value creation, DeFi, dashboards, digital assets, token / creator and community economies and how brands can adapt to this new economy.
5. Ran Hammer, VP BizDev, Orbs - Open and permissionless web3
"Ethereum, DeFi and NFTs will play an immense role in the future of the internet."
Analysis
I am very bullish about the future of the blockchain and crypto industry as a whole and, specifically, believe that Ethereum, DeFi and NFTs will play an immense role in the future of the internet.
I am a great believer in Web 3.0 and Metaverse concepts and can see these concepts are shaping the next phase of platforms to take over human online interactions. Many market participants hold different opinions as to how the Metaverse should look, with big-tech companies hoping to own significant real estate in this new world, while others would fight to keep it open. I think most would agree that making Metaverse future possible would require the combination of various technologies and industries, from AR/VR, through ad-tech, e-commerce and social platforms, to technologies that allow for censor-resistant digital ownership, trustless economic interaction and transfer of digital value, i.e. blockchain technology.
I personally believe that Web 3.0 should and would be open and permissionless, with Ethereum (and perhaps some of its competitors) acting as its infrastructure backbone and many different decentralized software layers operating on top. This would require utilizing everything the industry has learned in its 12 years of existence and would rely heavily on blockchain technology’s ability to scale and the use of fungible cryptocurrencies and stablecoins as well as NFTs.
Orbs offers the winning blockchain stack, providing the perfect mix of performance, cost, security and ease of use, while harnessing the power of community, decentralization and distribution. Orbs is a public blockchain infrastructure designed for mass usage applications and close integration with EVM-based L1’s such as Ethereum and Binance SmartChain.
6. Ross Soroka, NFT & Gaming Expert, Atesis Capital - Fully decentralised gaming in 5 years
“A 5 year timeframe will not be enough to fully experience decentralised gaming, where you own your assets on the blockchain.”
Analysis
We believe that crypto gaming is the next big thing due to the ease of use it will eventually have. Most people are not very tech savvy, and the best entry to crypto as a space would be through gaming, where all interactions are "gamified", allowing for easy integration into various networks. Obviously, traditional gaming on its own has seen a massive influx of users, and once the paradigm shifts we will see the same for crypto gaming, which also allows for Play 2 Earn models, where you, as a player, own the assets on the blockchain and make money, rather than the large corporations.
We are only dipping our toes now and there will not be AAA gaming titles for a couple more years. Those will be exclusive, high entry games, where only the early supporters will enjoy full benefits of blockchain. In saying that, beasts like Fortnite eventually will not be able to compete, as their business is built around skin sales, whereas in crypto gaming, each person has an opportunity to sell the skins and sometimes even profit from it - which is what we are seeing with the current NFT wave. In a nutshell, it's made for players, supporting an ecosystem of giving back to the community, rather than raking in the cash in return for something that isn't actually theirs.
Currently, Australia is slightly lagging behind compared to Vietnam, China and America. But we do have a few good gaming studios that are being picked up by giants, such as Animoca, which means Australia can indirectly support a gaming ecosystem by plugging into a large network of games, similar to Animoca Brands. As far as large companies go - I do not believe there has been much official information out there to share.
About
Atesis Capital has emerged as the investment arm of Atesis, a successful Australian technology services company delivering business outcomes to large enterprises across the private and public sectors. The team bring a wealth of industry expertise, having worked for recognised brands such as IBM, AWS, Accenture & JP Morgan.
7. Ryan Selkis, Founder of Messari - An infinite frontier of new possibilities
"Crypto, or the recently en vogue “Web3”, is an unstoppable force in the long term."
Analysis
We’re going from an internet built on “rented land” with monopoly overlords, to an infinite frontier of new possibilities. On the frontier, crypto presents a credible revolution to all monopolies, which is why its inevitability scares the incumbents.
We have all the key ingredients we need to succeed:
- Talent: Brilliant, passionate, big-visioned young builders are flocking to the open design space of crypto in record numbers, often on their nights and weekends.
- Capital: We’ve seen mammoth venture capital fund raises, crypto startup fundraises, and staggering growth in emerging liquid protocols across Web3 use cases.
- Timing: Critical infrastructure was installed during the last bear market that made it easier than ever (socially and practically) to embrace this techno-political movement.
About
Founded in 2018, Messari is crypto’s leading market intelligence platform and trusted portal providing the most reliable data and research products and services for professionals looking to make the most informed crypto decisions. See Messari’s full 2022 thesis here.
8. Tom Tirman, CEO, PARSIQ & IQ Labs - Metaverse to go mainstream
“The metaverse will get attention from major gaming studios, merchandisers, and media conglomerates.”
Analysis
The next generation of digital assets in 2022 will be game-changing. NFTs which unlock utility for users and interact with different ecosystems across platforms and the metaverse will get attention from major gaming studios, merchandisers, and media conglomerates, to name a few...
Some of our partners like Starbots and Solcery are already working on this so we’ve seen what is possible and we’re ready!
About
An open-source, DeFi framework — IQ Protocol will unlock billions in utility by giving digital asset owners the opportunity to rent to other users risk-free and without collateral. The IQ Protocol token launches in Q1 2022. See updates here.
9. WeMoney - Crypto is taking over traditional finance
"Crypto is more than a passing fad; it is here to stay and may replace traditional finance as we know it."
Analysis
The days of traditional investing are behind us, with an overwhelming proportion having already invested in cryptocurrencies or NFTs - more so than traditional stocks. The surge in popularity has heeded warnings from regulators, but little is getting in the way of adoption.
Key findings from Australian investors:
- 38.7% intend to invest in crypto in 2022
- 29.9% believe that crypto will replace traditional finance.
- Cryptocurrencies and NFTs are more popular than traditional stocks.
Crypto is more than a passing fad; it is here to stay and may replace traditional finance as we know it. We’ve clearly hit the tipping point where crypto is becoming more mainstay by the minute as even some Australian old and more traditional institutions adopt crypto in their banking apps.
WeMoney is a financial wellness platform with over 170,000 downloads within Australia. They have a deep understanding of the FinTech landscape, specifically the adoption and future of cryptocurrency.
10. Chris Brycki, CEO & Founder, Stockspot - Volatility to continue
"We can probably expect to see that volatility for a while, and until they level out over the long term."
Analysis
Most cryptocurrencies are obviously still in the process of being capitalised and early in the overall adoption cycle which is one reason prices have been quite volatile. We can probably expect to see that volatility for a while, and until they level out over the long term.
Regarding cryptocurrencies, here are the two main things I’d be recommending to clients:
- Clients should consider their financial position before investing. As these are highly speculative products, clients should not be borrowing money or go into debt to invest in crypto; and
- Clients should also limit their exposure to crypto and have their crypto exposure as a small percentage of their overall wealth.
Stockspot is Australia’s leading online investment adviser. They build you a smart, custom portfolio using ETFs (exchange traded funds), which give you access to a range of different investments with low fees.
11. a16z - An agenda for the third generation of the Internet
“Web3 technology can usher in a renaissance of creativity, innovation, democratic participation, and prosperity with few parallels in human history.”
Analysis
Web3 technology can usher in a renaissance of creativity, innovation, democratic participation, and prosperity with few parallels in human history.
As a fundamentally new technology paradigm, the advantages of decentralized, digitally secured platforms cut across sectors. Virtually every industry and sector of society could benefit from more secure, resilient, and inclusive infrastructure; greater economic prosperity; and new modes of participatory, accountable governance.
We believe these tools can help build a better vision for how to use technology in society—one that moves beyond the excesses of surveillance capitalism and protects people from the abuses of surveillance authoritarianism.
About
Founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz (known as "a16z") is a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, California, that backs bold entrepreneurs building the future through technology.
12. Capterra Australia - The state of cryptocurrency in Australia
“The future of cryptocurrency in Australia is looking bright, but only time will tell whether it will remain stable and reliable, and possibly even overtake regular currency as our go-to monetary system.”
Analysis
The continued rise of cryptocurrency can also be attributed to the positive feedback that the platform is receiving. Currently, 23% of Australians currently buy and use crypto. Additionally, 33% say that they plan to use cryptocurrency in the future, meaning that over half of Aussies are willing to take part in this new age of digital currency.
The future of cryptocurrency in Australia is looking bright, but only time will tell whether it will remain stable and reliable, and possibly even overtake regular currency as our go-to monetary system.
Capterra helps organisations around the world find the right software for their needs. Founded in 1999, Capterra's global product footprint, verified user reviews backbone, independent research, and tailored comparison tools, provide more than five million in-market buyers with a confidence-building discovery experience every month.
13. Shane Stevenson, CEO, Cointree - Capital rotation into the fastest growing networks
“Next year, it’s possible that we see capital rotate into the strongest coins and fastest-growing networks.”
Analysis
2021 has been an incredible year for the entire crypto space. Bitcoin became legal tender in El Salvador, the NFT ecosystem has exploded, and institutions have begun adopting crypto. Naturally, this adoption has translated into impressive gains of 250% for the market overall.
Can we expect the same gains next year? As the total crypto market cap has more than doubled in 2021, it would be an impressive feat for it to rise another 250% to ~AU$10.5 trillion. That would make it larger than the entire gold market.
While many people expect the crypto market to become much larger than gold over the long term, they don’t expect such significant growth to come so soon. Next year, it’s possible that we see capital rotate into the strongest coins and fastest-growing networks.
About
Founded in 2013, Cointree’s Melbourne-based team has built an intuitive crypto trading platform that’s easy to use, has low fees, and offers world-class security. Cointree is continuously updating our platform to ensure that our users have access to tools that help them trade smarter.
Conclusion
As the crypto space continues to grow and exciting new innovations emerge, it’s important to update your investment thesis to match the changing landscape. While 2021 has been an important year for crypto, the space will continue to grow and evolve. As the crypto space grows, it’s important that you grow with it.
