Bitcoin and Crypto Prediction for 2022

Making predictions about the crypto markets, or the wider cryptocurrency domains is always a very unfortunate business. Rarely is any individual or organization completely right and even when they are partially correct, the correlation they initially offered is skewed at best. That is why even spot-on predictions usually have some factors that their creators conceived as important, which end up irrelevant. The same applies to minor factors in the minds of those futurists, which often become presented as of key relevance. Because of that, it is hard and unrewarding to create any kind of prediction of where the crypto markets are going during any given future period, even those that are exceedingly short, like a day or a week. 

However, when that task is superimposed on a period of 12 months, the true predictive difficulties begin. But, it is in human nature to try and gauge what the stars hold when it comes to the time that is yet to be. That is why a range of crypto experts, technology innovators, and market insiders came together to try and churn out some global predictions for crypto and the coming year. The task has not been easy and the results will not fall into place perfectly – or potentially, at all – but they still offer a fascinating futurists’ insight into a domain that is anything but clear to basically anyone.

Institutional Influx into the Metaverse

In 2021, the concept of the broader metaverse exploded onto the mainstream stage. Some metaverse-type ecosystems and games have been around for a range of years, like Roblox and Second Life, it was Meta or the former Facebook which really took it to the center of many futurist discussions. The same has also shone a strong light on the growing metaverse development ecosystem. Things like The Sandbox are a great example of this trend, which also recorded an amazing level of growth in the present year. 

In 2022, it is likely that many institutional players will begin exploring the same space in development and financial terms. That will surely include some famous Fortune 500 companies that will try to define their metaverse strategy. For many, this is very similar to a period two decades ago, when a mass of businesses suddenly came up with their online strategies or even e-commerce systems. Now, the same period is upon them once again, but this time it revolves around crypto and things like the metaverse and Web 3 applications. No one can tell if these will go mainstream through these big companies, but it will be seriously explored by them for sure.

El Salvador Example and Inspiration

2021 gets a huge mention in the future crypto history textbooks because of its decision to become the first nation in the world to officially recognize the bitcoin token as its national legal tender. This is already showing results, as now more residents of this country have a digital wallet than a bank account. While this was a regular thing in esports circles and similar online communities, it has never been seen before in entire countries. But, it has not been all sunshine for El Salvador. 

Both the World Bank and the IMF were publicly against this move and have warned the country on several occasions to reverse its decision. Yet, the Ginnie seems to be out of the bottle, and many poor countries across the globe today have the same possibility at their disposal. It looks like at least some will go for it in 2022, including some in the same region as El Salvador. Paraguay appears to be at the top of that list, but chances are that it is not the only one by no means. Even in other countries, the public is open to this possibility. For example, in the US, a recent poll showed that some 27 percent of adults are supportive of the idea of making BTC legal tender in the same country. 

Ethereum Crunch

The second-biggest cryptocurrency in the world is going to have a very important year pretty soon. In 2021, it had a range of legacy problems, from its huge fees to the crucial scalability problems. However, it was the transactions that really got people worrying about the use of ETH tokens. During the ongoing year, ETH tokens saw fees that ranged from 4 USD and went to 70 USD, according to different points in time. 

At the same time, there is a huge level of optimism regarding ETH 2.0 and the changes in protocol that it could bring to the table. It should also be able to drastically cut away from the legacy issues once it gets rolling, as well usher the age of proof-of-stake. The last factor is very important because it could revolutionize how the same crypto token is used and created, all the way up to the highest point in its entire ecosystem. If that goes all according to plan, even if ETH 2.0 does not come into being, the value of this cryptocurrency will explode even beyond the current all-time high of 4,800.

Gaming and Web 3

Web 3 is also going to see a massive expansion in the coming period. While Web 2.0 is still going to be the staple of the internet in its current form, gaming will likely usher in Web 3.0 and create long-term user cases. Even in 2021, the gaming industry has been following this tech closely and developing its potential. What is just as important is that the process takes place in small startups and new gaming projects, but also in huge AAA productions that include hit titles like Ghost Recon. Naturally, the NFT craze is playing a big role in all of that and the euphoria around them is keeping the pressure on developers to expand the Web 3 field further. 

Digital Yuan

While all of the previously mentioned ventures are mostly company-based and very decentralized, the final trend of 2022 will be both centralized and nation-based. That is the digital yuan project that China is developing at a breakneck pace. While there are other CBDCs that are also under development, it is certain that all eyes are on China. So far, nearly 10 billion USD in digital yuan has been processed in China and over 140 million residents have access to e-CNY wallets. In 2022, those numbers could rise significantly, just like the relevance of this CBDC.

Source: Coindesk