Crypto/Web3 Market Outlook 2024

Market Growth Trends

• Increased institutional adoption of crypto (score: 18) - More involvement expected from institutional investors, banks, and corporations which will help drive mainstream acceptance.
• Growth of DeFi and Web3 applications (score: 16) - Expansion of decentralized apps and services built on blockchain technology across finance, data storage, identity, contracts.
• Expanding NFT utility and use cases (score: 12) - NFTs evolving from profile pictures into functional uses like gaming, metaverse, entertainment, social media, sports, and more.
• Gaming and metaverse adoption (score: 5) - Deeper integration of crypto and NFTs into gaming ecosystems and virtual world metaverse platforms.
• Increasing real-world crypto usage (score: 4) - Beyond speculative trading, crypto expected to be used for everyday transactions, data sharing, contracts, payments and more.
• Gradual recovery anticipated (score: 3) - While market outlook is optimistic, experts predict a gradual rebound for crypto rather than quick return to former highs.
• Growth in Asia and emerging markets (score: 2) - Rising crypto adoption expected in Asia, especially China, India, SE Asia along with untapped potential in emerging markets.

Regulation Trends

• Regulation will increase but bring clarity (score: 11) - More oversight aimed at addressing risks and protecting consumers, which should provide regulatory clarity.
• Regulation varies globally (score: 3) - Regulatory approaches differ across jurisdictions, with continued uncertainty in many regions.
• Bridging crypto to traditional finance (score: 2) - Integrating cryptocurrency into mainstream financial services like banking, payments, investing.

Technological Trends

• Bitcoin and Ethereum remain dominant (score: 9) - BTC and ETH still seen as primary crypto assets with strongest network effects.
• Stablecoins and CBDCs will grow (score: 7) - Rising use of stablecoins for payments and central bank digital currencies issued by governments.
• Focus on infrastructure, DeFi, NFTs (score: 6) - Investment attention on foundational architecture, decentralized finance apps, NFT platforms.
• Struggles for alt layer-1s (score: 1) - Challenges anticipated for smaller alternative layer-1 networks outside of Ethereum and Bitcoin.

Societal Trends

• Role of social media influencers (score: 2) - Crypto/Web3 thought leaders on social media will continue shaping opinions and trends.
• Importance of user experience (score: 2) - Smoother user experiences key for mainstream crypto adoption beyond just speculators.
• Energy usage concerns (score: 2) - High energy consumption of crypto mining remains a concern for sustainability.
• Crypto security issues persist (score: 1) - Despite tech improvements, hacking, fraud and security challenges for crypto remain.
• Role of DAOs and crypto governance (score: 1) - Evolution of decentralized autonomous organizations and governance models based on crypto.
• Environmental sustainability solutions (score: 1) - Developing renewable energy sources for crypto mining mentioned for sustainability.