In a recent analysis, Bitcoinist’s Christine Vasileva went over the Messari crypto report for 2020 and outlined some of the key trends for crypto investors to keep an eye on for next year. Despite the recent lull in prices, the ever-expanding industry is constantly opening new ventures, with no shortage of fascinating things to look to when it comes to cryptocurrencies’ outlook for the future.
With an industry that is indeed growing at such a rapid pace, one of Vasileva’s main takes from the report involves the setting of trends by industry leaders. As the crypto market expanded over the past two years, investors have often looked towards key figures for direction or a source of optimism during price dips. These have included people like Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao, as well as Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, who maintained his unrelenting support for crypto even during market tremors.
The report expects these influencers to stay in their role as setters of the crypto narrative in 2020. However, with the growth of new projects and interest across the board, the trend of taking into account the opinion of prominent figures should intensify, and the report predicts that investors will be even more inclined to listen to somewhat less-familiar faces, such as economists or crypto project backers.
For Vasileva, another important take from the Messari report is that Bitcoin will remain at the center of all crypto dealings, even as thousands of new altcoins come to life and the underlying technology begins to see use far past finance. Referring to this trend as “hyperbitcoinization”, the report stresses that Bitcoin will keep its center-stage position due to the exceedingly reliable underlying ethos behind it, which includes decentralization, transparency, and a fixed supply.
In order to compete with Bitcoin, so to speak, exchanges and crypto issuers alike will have to adhere to the same high standards that Bitcoin’s creator had in mind. The Messari report fully expects Bitcoin to remain the best-performing crypto asset as it has so far, and that the performance of other altcoins will invariably revolve around Bitcoin’s own fluctuations. The report also predicts plenty more underwhelming altcoin projects and advises crypto investors to pick and choose carefully, adding that crypto securities will still be a lackluster alternative in contrast to owning actual tokens.
Moving past market performance, the report also touched on how the crypto sector could bring about what the author calls a serious Web 3.0 movement. In 2020, the technology powering cryptocurrencies could solve many of the privacy issues that have plagued the internet in recent times by helping build both decentralized software and hardware that restores the privacy rights of the people. Other trends that could potentially shape the course next year include China easing its stance in regards to cryptocurrencies, a flow of institutional money into the crypto market and the halving event that could lead to spikes in demand.
