Bitcoin will soon turn 11, while many of the outstanding crypto projects aren’t even 5 years old. However, this was enough to make a $500 billion crypto market cap from scratch. How much room is there still left for growth, if any? How strongly do people believe in crypto, and is it really to become the money of the future?
In this article, we’re taking a look at the current status of crypto adoption, consider the key factors for its growth, and discuss what this all means to you personally.
Where does cryptocurrency spread most rapidly?
“Viral spread” is not the best way to describe things in 2020, but this is what the Onfo project’s team has demonstrated this year regarding cryptocurrency. They sent some crypto to 100 individuals in 4 countries including Germany, the USA, Russia, and Indonesia, and promised that if they’d attract their friends to try using crypto, they would get more coins.
Here’s what the researchers got: participants from Germany and the U.S. attracted 763 and 1112 people respectively, and the ones from Russia and Indonesia have managed to bring 2304 and 4350 people into crypto.
The crypto spread index for the developing countries which Russia and Indonesia were ranked as was almost 4 times higher. This could only mean that the sums of crypto were more significant and thus exciting for people from lower-income countries, but we still have the fact — crypto is spreading much faster in the developing countries. Why are they a driver for the crypto market’s growth today?
Cryptocurrency replaces unstable local currencies prone to high inflation. When your local currency faces an over-100% inflation rate, you’d look for some assets where your money wouldn’t lose in price so quickly. This is what Bitcoin is suitable for.
Crypto allows unbanked people to access financial services. Over 2 billion people still don’t have access to banks — and they embrace Bitcoin because all you need to use it is a phone or a computer with internet access. Cryptocurrency lending platforms are an example of what the unbanked get with crypto.
In the USA, 14% of people use cryptocurrency — some of them do since 2010. In Indonesia, it’s 11% while it only started to adopt digital coins 1-2 years ago. The same is for Nigeria’s 11% and South Africa’s 13%.
A new revolution
The conceptual distinctions of cryptocurrency from traditional finance are what drive its growth. Crypto is decentralized, peer-to-peer, trustless, and intermediary-free — people tend to trust the system where they know nobody can access and freeze their money. Bitcoin doesn’t have any real-world assets backing it, but the value people find in it is way too real.
Crypto still has a long way to go in terms of user-friendliness, hacker resistance, and other things that form a pleasant and welcoming user experience. But adoption by end-users is far not enough for making crypto the money of the 22nd century.
What drives crypto adoption is the engagement of institutional investors. When people with big money come to the industry, they make things grow many times faster. And this is what’s happening right now!
In December 2020, the Director of product at Twitch Shaan Puri announced that he has put 25% of his capital into Bitcoin “to front tun a wave of institutional capital.” He’s expecting a major influx of funds into Bitcoin in the next 2 years.
Shaan Puri
Fine — this is a personal opinion. But take a look at this: for months, funds from gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been moving out to a Bitcoin crypto currency investment fund. And according to a survey, 80% of American and European institutional investors find cryptocurrency appealing.
What does this mean to me?
Crypto adoption is cool, and the future dominance of blockchain-based digital money feels exciting. But besides feelings, what direct benefits does it bring you here and now?
- We are not price forecasters, but the common opinion among crypto trading experts today is rather optimistic — it seems we’re expecting a robust bull run. Some say Bitcoin is to hit $30,000 next year, some say $80,000. Bitcoin scarcity and the “traditional” post-halving price growth, Ethereum 2.0 implementation, DeFi and crypto lending program growth are significant reasons for this.
For you, this is a chance to explore the crypto market and find the most attractive assets to invest in or trade — now could be a good time for making money from this. However, we are obliged to tell you that this isn’t financial advice, and of course, we encourage you to do your own research. - If you are a crypto lover but your family or friends don’t share this enthusiasm, memorize a couple of facts from this article and convince your beloved ones that you are doing the right thing following the institutional whales 🙂
- It may turn out that if, say, Bitcoin hits $20K and you sell it, it may then surge to $30K. Again, we’re not here to give financial advice, but we encourage you to estimate whether it’s worth keeping your Bitcoin still, in other words — hodling it, not to regret the potential loss.
While BTC is growing, you might feel you’re losing something. You now have more money but still can’t use it to buy things. This is a problem that the cryptocurrency lending service CoinRabbit solves. We give you a crypto loan in USDT while you temporarily store your BTC or ETH at us as collateral. We lend crypto up to 95% LTV rate: 63 814.965 USDT for 1 BTC at the time of writing. No credit checks, no crypto lending limits. Get your USDT loan fast and smoothy. Lending cryptocurrency service has never been simpler.
Final word
Engaging with the crypto now means you’ll be one of the early adopters who drive the crypto to become a digital currency of the future. Feels honorable, doesn’t it? There’s only one thing to do — to avoid the temptation to cash out after the huge price shifts that we’re expecting. Let’s do our best in this together!