5 crypto trends to watch in 2022
2021 is an important year for the crypto market. Today, cryptocurrency is not only a hot topic in the financial world, but also a mainstay of popular culture. These include notable developments such as the unexpected success of NFT, BTC and ETH setting new all-time highs, the ecosystem of Ethereum alternatives like Solana and Polkadot is growing exponentially, reputable companies are buying more cryptocurrencies than ever before.
Now that there are just over 2 weeks left from the old year to the start of the new year, here are 5 top trends we need to look at in 2022, according to a year-end study by trading platform CoinList.
Games are a highly sought after category. Preferably in 2022.
In the current CoinList survey, Cryptocurrency Predictions for 2022, 4,444 participants were asked what categories of projects they would like to follow next year. The most popular response was games (56.5%), which indicates confidence that the gaming industry will lead to massive blockchain adoption. DeFi (52.1%) and NFT (41.6%) are the second and third most popular categories, followed by Tier 1 / Tier 2 (31.4%), Infrastructure (28.3%), Social Token (22 , 8%) and management (16.2%). …
Types of Projects with the Most Demand on CoinList in 2022 | Source: CoinList
Earning games like Axie Infinity are gradually taking cryptocurrency into the mainstream and gaining more access to DeFi and NFT. As the survey results show, the interface between DeFi and games will continue to evolve in 2022, and the importance of gaming platforms such as Flow, Immutable X will continue to grow. The gaming blockchain will allow a new generation of gamers to own in-game assets and trade in secondary markets. Hence, these living ecosystems are expected to see many improvements and be well received in the New Year.
Game and Metaverse were also ranked as the top two NFT uses in 2022, not just the most popular use cases in 2021, such as avatars, event tickets, membership cards, and crowdfunding.
Key NFT Use Cases in 2022 | Source: CoinList
Will NFT be built into non-blockchain games and platforms like Oculus and Instagram? Will user-owned decentralized gaming platforms continue to grow? Time will tell, but with huge investments in games and the metaverse from tech giants like Meta (Facebook), the future may be bright.
Ethereum isn’t the only party worth going to
The Ethereum ecosystem is very special. No other platform directly contributes to as much innovation in the crypto space as Ethereum. But while the surge in demand we saw this year is a very significant plus for the industry, the summer surge in NFT broke Ethereum and made many retail users unusable due to high gas charges and scalability issues. which prompts them to look for alternatives.
No other Tier 1 project has grown as fast this year and put Ethereum at risk this year as Solana. This project is focused on world-class speed and performance (not to mention that SOL has gained over 11,000% in value over the year and is listed on major exchanges).
2021 is also an important year for the mother of chains, Polkadot, following the successful launch of Parachain auctions and many popular projects planned for 2022 (requires users to buy and block DOT).
When survey participants were asked what blockchain they want to interact with other than Ethereum in 2022, over 56% responded that Solana, followed by Binance Smart Chain (48.8%), Polkadot (47.9%), Avalanche (25 %), Polygon (25%). %), Cosmos (17.5%) and Terra (14.2%). In terms of which Tier 1 blockchain will be closest to Ethereum’s market cap by the end of 2022, the answers are similar.
Blockchains that users, besides Ethereum, will most want to interact with in 2022 | Source: CoinList
Bitcoin is still king
The bitcoin price will rise more than 172% in 2021, and with very favorable macroeconomic conditions such as skyrocketing inflation, it’s hard to imagine that one world would no longer be able to favor BTC while the rest of the crypto market continued to rise. Although Bitcoin’s dominance rate has dropped from 70% to 39% this year, Ethereum is its only real competitor. However, since Ethereum faces stiff competition from other Tier 1 competitors, it is highly unlikely that the leading smart contract blockchain will overtake Bitcoin in 2022.
Institutional investors love the idea of digital gold more than ever. With the increase in the number of institutional arrangements available to investors, it can be said that institutions are officially coming into play. There are many people who openly own bitcoin, including famous names like Tim Cook, Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk, Stan Druckermiller, and Paul Tudor Jones. Some countries are even starting to accept BTC. In September, El Salvador officially declared bitcoin legal money, meaning it can now be used for any transactions in the country, from buying coffee to paying taxes.
Will many more countries follow El Salvador’s model in 2022? 87.3% of the survey participants answered in the affirmative.
When asked about BTC price predictions for 2022 with a $ 100,000 low, 46.8% expect an increase between $ 100,000 and $ 150,000, while 10.9% say it will surpass the $ 200,000 mark.
Another trend expected in 2022 is the accelerated flow of Bitcoin to DeFi. Supply on WBTC has more than doubled from the previous year. Many even hope to see tokenized versions of Bitcoin not only in Ethereum, but in all major Layer 1 protocols when building a DeFi service.
Smart investors want to do more with Bitcoin than just HODL. And “doing more” means transferring Bitcoin to Ethereum and other protocols in which financial innovation flourishes. The demand for WBTC is growing rapidly as Bitcoin lending and loan rates become less competitive compared to the lucrative DeFi loan market. Hence, there will be many new ways to transfer BTC to other blockchains through central or decentralized bridges such as tBTC. Other tokenized assets will emerge, but tokenized bitcoin will continue to dominate them. Thus, the king of cryptocurrencies has tremendous growth potential in this market.
OLDToken distribution strategies are flourishing
With the surge in the number of BTC, ETH and Tier 1 tokens in 2021, many crypto funds will be looking for jobs in 2022 and issuing tokens is one of the ideal plans. It is one of the most dynamic corners of the industry.
Smart cryptocurrency enthusiasts know that early reach is critical to success and access to cutting edge assets before they hit the exchange. It’s like entering this space at the beginning.
Since the traditional stock market is almost entirely illiquid, slow and limited for most people, investors around the world are attracted by liquidity, transparency, and strong network effects. In just a few years of its existence, the industry has created an ever-evolving set of interesting token distribution models that have caught the attention of investors. As the ICO craze began to wane, the market was engulfed in the bustle of IEOs, token auctions, and agriculture.
Token Issue Forms | Source: CoinList
As of 2017, almost every team has developed their own version of token issuance. From token auctions like Solana, Celo, Flow, Mina and Casper to Polkadot crowds like Acala, Moonbeam, Astar … this year we’ve seen a variety of issuance and fundraising strategies. This trend is expected to continue until 2022. More importantly, we are seeing a significant increase in the quality and quantity of new protocols, applications and networks – an extremely optimistic sign for the burgeoning crypto industry.
In addition, activity and demand also increased initially as private capital flowing into the crypto space surpassed traditional private equity in 1, 3 and 5 years. In 2021 alone, more than 40 startups are participating in the CoinList Seed program for early crypto startups such as Injective Protocol, Acala, Clover Finance, Rabbithole … Many of them continue to raise capital from the most advanced mutual funds such as Electric Capital, Pantera Capital , Multicoin, Platzhalter …
Decentralized software will replace traditional software
The term “Internet 3” appeared in 2021 to refer to the decentralized technological movement. The main thesis is that we are evolving from the Internet, which is built on “leased land” by monopoly owners, to the Internet, which “belongs to builders and users and is controlled by tokens.”
Decentralized software is gaining in importance and superiority to centralized software. We are seeing an explosion of startups developing decentralized versions of Web 2 platforms and services. These Web 3 ecosystems will be open source without permission and licensed. on the Token Economy platform.
As decentralized software becomes more widespread than traditional vertical software such as search, social media, e-commerce, software as a service, we will see thousands of new tokens and protocols of this type.
At the same time, more and more Web 2 companies are integrating Web 3 architecture into their business models. In a CoinList EOY study, respondents were asked how they thought Web 2 companies would integrate cryptocurrency and Web 3 by 2022.
