Bitcoin
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With 2024 right up our sleeves, it is about time we look into what to expect and what it brings for us. Just because predictions for a new year are a regular year-end exercise, that does not imply it is an easy task. It’s extremely difficult to forecast where the rapidly evolving and unpredictable $40.73bn industry of cryptocurrency will go, especially how 2023 panned out for it. Here is what industry experts have forecasted to expect in 2024 for the cryptocurrency sector.
8 Cryptocurrency trends to watch for 2024
Whether from an investing perspective or just to keep up with the markets, it is of utmost importance to know what trends are forecasted for the coming year. Here are 8 crypto trends that you need to be aware of in 2024.
1) Rise in Bitcoin
The market capitalization of Bitcoin increased by 162% year-to-year as of December 5, 2023. Industry experts hailed the beginning of a new bull run in the crypto market, with predicting new all-time highs for Bitcoin above $100,000 in 2024. A Bloomberg article forecasted Bitcoin will surpass $500,000 during this current bull run. A more modest prediction is that in 2024, the price of Bitcoin will probably surpass $60,000. With events like bitcoin halving also lined up in 2024, an increase in demand and value of bitcoin is one of the easiest yet anticipated predictions for 2024.
2) Stablecoin increase
A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to the price of another asset, hence the term “stable.” In Q4 2023, the net change in supply of the top five stablecoins by market value turned positive for the first time since Q1 2022. This pattern indicates a potential increase in stablecoin demand.
3) Embracing Tokenized Payments
2024 will see tokenized payments via enterprise blockchains to be widely implemented by the world’s biggest financial institutions. 2023 showed global financial institutions such as JP Morgan introducing tokenization products, indicating an increasing interest in blockchain technology among institutions.
4) Spot BTC ETF approvals
A significant progress was made in the area of spot bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF) in 2023, as the SEC is reviewing 13 applications for spot BTC ETFs from multiple companies including Invesco and Blackrock.
In August, Grayscale won its legal battle with the SEC over converting its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot BTC ETF thanks to a ruling from US courts which led to many other players filling their own spot BTC ETF applications.
5) Increased volume of NFTs
Non-fungible token (NFT) trading volumes experienced a sharp decline for the majority of 2023, this pattern ultimately changed in October, and in November, trading volumes again increased.
6) Ordinals and inscriptions
The introduction of ordinals and inscriptions has emerged as one of the biggest advancements for Bitcoin in 2023. The Ordinals protocol is based on the tracking of individual satoshis (sats), the smallest unit of Bitcoin. A distinct identifier can be assigned to each individual Sat, and this identity can then be associated with other forms of content, like texts, photos, etc., to create “inscriptions” or “bitcoin NFTs.”
7) DeFi
The decentralized finance (DeFi) market offers a wide range of financial services without the need for conventional middlemen. It is anticipated that by 2024, the DeFi ecosystem will have further developed and see a rise in its utilization.
8) SocialFi
SocialFi or social finance refers to the fusion of DeFi and social media. This new category in the applications of blockchain witnessed a surge in 2023. The way that social interactions on Web3 take on in 2024 will be determined by SocialFi’s capacity to continue gaining traction.
