Several major media publications, analysts and influencers in the crypto industry have published their predictions for the next year. We at the Kryptografen have read up on a large number of reports and posts to find the red thread in all the predictions. Here is a summary of the main trends and predictions from our editorial team.
- Derivatives and leverage grew at record speed over the last six months of 2019. This may be related to falling volumes on the traditional stock exchanges. This means that the measures will increase the nominal value of trades, rather than to recruit new users.
- The market for DeFi (decentralized finance) increased by 137% in 2019 and is expected to grow even more in 2020. The interest rate for lending crypto products is still very competitively measured against the bank and bond market.
- The use of third-party custody of cryptocurrency is increasing, with major players such as Coinbase and Fidelity dominating the supply side. More and more exchanges are expected to allow you to select external storage providers as an associated service.
- The popularity of stablecoins exploded in 2019 and its popularity is expected to increase further in 2020. Issues such as USDC and Tether were the most popular, but that’s before the launch of Libra and a Chinese central bank coin later this year.
- Scaling will be a key part of writing the history of the new year. Various solutions for Bitcoin (Lightning) and Ethereum (2nd layer) have been “battle-tested” in 2019, and will soon be ready for commercial use.
- Institutionalization is also a popular topic. Many may hope for price increases when banks, funds, and institutions buy into the crypto market, but it is probably first and foremost the professionalization of various solutions that first appear. Exchanges become safer, new storage solutions, analysis products, etc. The framework is improved and developed.
- Bitcoin halves “mining rewards” in May. This means that miners who extract and validate bitcoin will receive half of today’s premiums paid out. It will also lead to halving the number of new bitcoins being inflated into the market. Many predict price rises due to lower bitcoin offerings this summer.
- Non-fungible tokens were popularized through Crypto Kitties, and now several new players have launched games and products on this protocol, including the Formula 1 circus. By 2020, it will spread to art, wine, collectibles, perhaps music and event tickets.