Cryptocurrencies have gone a long way, from being “drug money”, to being pure speculation, to today where countries are beginning to accept this new asset class. So how will the future of cryptocurrencies affect our daily lives?

Changes

Thanks to the Internet, information within the world travels faster than ever, news about events that happened is usually online within minutes. Cryptocurrencies have had their fair share of time within the mainstream media since the inception of Bitcoin, but previously all these headlines were often focused on two things, price volatility and regulations.

It wasn’t until recently, cryptocurrencies were portrayed into mainstream media in a different light. From being portrayed as a volatile alternative currency, to tokenized assets that have utility and real use cases. Cryptocurrencies have gone from news headlines of “Bitcoin crashes 20%” and “China looking to ban cryptocurrencies”, to “US banks looking to offer Bitcoin to clients” and “Bitcoin ETF approved”, the general news around cryptocurrencies seems to have taken a sharp turn.

 Can’t Be Stopped

The best opportunity governments had to ban cryptocurrencies was when Bitcoin was still a novelty about a decade ago. Nowadays, there are countless reasons why governments can’t truly ban this asset class. Unlike the ban of the possession of gold back in 1933, where it would be pretty easy to determine whether someone had gold through a simple search. Cryptocurrencies aren’t so similar as they’re digital assets that live on a blockchain, thus no physical evidence to prove possession. Additionally, the transactions of cryptocurrencies are pseudo anonymous, so while everyone will be able to view the transaction, it’d quite the task to track a wallet to the correct owner. As seen following China's ban on cryptocurrencies, transactions within decentralized finance applications have been consistently rising.

Over the past couple years, many governments have scrapped the idea of banning cryptocurrencies within their jurisdiction, and have decided the next best decision is to regulate the space for investor safety while allowing innovation and growth within this space to continue. From Bitcoin ETFs popping up around the world to an increasing amount of corporations accepting crypto payments, to even the country of El Salvador making Bitcoin legal tender with multiple other countries considering the same. The adoption and acceptance of cryptocurrency are visibly growing around the world even in our everyday lives.

 Going Mainstream

In previous years the crypto space was gaining some minor traction into mainstream media from a select group of people within finance. Today there are advertisements and collaborations of cryptocurrency companies around the world.

In March Visa announced a partnership with Circle and CRO (Crypto.com), this partnership allowed the birth of crypto debit cards allowing users to spend their USDC without having to convert their crypto to fiat. CRO has successfully landed multiple other partnerships, from popular E-Sports companies such as Fnatic and Twitch Rivals, to some of the largest teams in sports like the Philadelphia 76er’s of the NBA and famous MMA entertainment giant UFC. CRO has since been continuing to look out for potential partners, while advertisements of CRO can be commonly seen across the Internet.

Though CRO isn’t the only exchange to be have begun marketing towards the general public, as Coinbase and FTX have also begun securing partnerships with big entertainment industry names such as the NFL, NBA, TSM and Mercedes F1. From advertisements on team jerseys to creating an NFT marketplace for these entertainment providers to create on.

The process of bringing the general public awareness into this space and hopefully spark some curiosity within them to look further beyond the “speculative internet money”, and understanding the diversified boundaries of this space. From scam tokens named after trending topics, to NFT tokens for access the metaverse, all the way to utility coins building to a global financial infrastructure. As interest about this space grows, and more growth is adopted we could see new job opportunities within software, marketing, art, and many other career paths.

  Pandemic Printing

When the pandemic hit, many countries had to print large amounts of money in order to provide for medication purposes along with stimulus for their citizens as it left over 200 million unemployed. As a result, global debt has risen about $32 trillion since prior to the pandemic. Some countries have already begun to notice the consequences of printing money irresponsibly due to inflation. By printing more money without an increase in production, there is no improvement on the goods and services, but more money within circulation, general goods and commodities will rise in price to offset the devaluation of the currency.

With many around the world, fear began to arise as panic buying erupted along with the fear of general goods and services rising to absurd levels. Many began for a way to retain their wealth, as people began looking into equities especially growth stocks such as Tesla, while some bought into commodities such as gold, and discovered this space of alternative money and banking where fiat currency didn’t have to be the only option.

As many currencies values around the world as slowly withering away and global debt at an all time high of over four times global nominal GDP. The popularity and overall interest of alternative decentralized and digital assets are growing exponentially.

  Institutional Adoption

For the first time financial institutions are beginning to accept and adopt the existence and work with crypto assets. As many stock exchanges around the world have begun offering clients crypto exposure through a variety of assets such as crypto mining companies along with crypto backed funds. Many have begun allocating to these assets as they previously were hoping for crypto exposure, but were scared away by the technicality.

Aside from institutions offering crypto products to clients, large companies have begun to add crypto assets to their balance sheets. What initially began with Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor adding Bitcoin to their balance sheet, has since had many followers doing the same with companies like electric vehicle giant Tesla, video game publisher Nexon, and Jack Dorsey’s financial service firm Square, the list of companies goes on.

  Corporate Utility

While financial institutions and large companies have begun delving into this space, there are many corporations and organizations that have taken interest upon certain projects and have built partnerships to accomplish some ambitious tasks and solve economical issues. Some of these examples may include LCX working with the World Economic Forum to provide regulations on CBDCs, Google becoming a Council member of Hedera, Quant and Ripple collaborating within the Digital Pound Foundation, and Constellation working with the US Air Force to allow the use of data transferring through a secure and scalable blockchain. Many companies, especially within technology have begun broadening their potential list of partners to crypto companies.

Many tech companies have begun realizing the impact some of these projects have. Financial services, software firms and gaming platforms alike have begun to work with cryptocurrency companies as they see the technology and utility to provide their clients with innovative products and services all while promoting the use cases of cryptocurrencies to the general public. With products such as NFT’s for items within video games, payment services running through distributed ledgers, and cloud computing data through blockchains.

  Something Feels Different

Its no secret by now that every four years after the Bitcoin Halvening prices within this space rise substantially, every run many retail investors begin taking interest in this space whether through speculation and curiosity or in hopes to hit the jackpot. Corporations and authoritarians have gradually begun to show more interest in this space through every run, with this one feeling like it might be different, in which cryptocurrencies becomes mainstream and gradually begins becoming integrated within our global economy. With record amounts of money printing along with news catalysts such as crypto ETFs around the world, notable partnerships from large companies and acceptance from corporations. It seems like the stars are finally aligning for the perfect storm towards global adoption.

Regardless of all the good news going on within this space, there is still a strong amount of focus within the potential risks of this space in the eyes of retail and institutions alike. With the fear of certain cryptocurrencies being illegitimate projects and the unregulated free market aspect, many fear the potential loss of funds through scams and money laundering tactics. While these are all reasonable topics for concern, its unlikely governments will stifle the economical and technological innovation of this space due to these concerns, though government regulations will likely be implemented into this space to prevent malicious activities.

  Supercycle?

So is this the super cycle? Well its sure starting to feel like it, but then again, as euphoria kicks in every cycle feels like its the cycle. While this time it is different with big names around the world beginning taking recognition and working with this space. There is still lots of speculative opinions from the general public about the legitimacy and intrinsic value for many assets within this market.

While this current cycle does help bring the legitimacy and utility of this space to corporations, its unlikely the mass adoption will roll in within this cycle just due to the general unawareness as the majority of retail are still only vaguely familiar with Bitcoin, while some more familiar may have just begun discovering Ethereum.

By the time the next Halvening cycle begins in 2024, CBDCs will likely be utilized within multiple countries, allowing general retail to learn the basics around how blockchain and DLT technology work. This will give users a better understanding of how this space can be utilized and possibly onboard potential entrepreneurs and businesses to work and develop within this new asset class.

*None of the information listed is financial or investment advice and should only be taken as entertainment or educational as I’m not a financial advisor*

About Me

Hey, thanks for taking the time to read my work. I’m your average 20 year old, currently in school for Economics and Finance. Some of my hobbies consist of sports, working out and staring at price charts.

I initially began interested in the crypto space after frustrations with legacy markets. From the second I read about the Ethereum ecosystem, I fell in love. An entire ecosystem built on one platform that anybody can access? Unheard of, until now.

With how fast this space is developing, I try and find projects within this industry that show promise and potential to disrupt our modern world. All this fundamental analysis not only helps me better understand these projects better, but hopefully gives you guys some newfound information!

If there are any projects you’d wish to suggest me take a look into, I’m always available on Twitter