After a massive price explosion in recent years, Bitcoin BTC and Ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies by a wide margin, now have hundreds of millions of users worldwide.
The bitcoin price soared to nearly $70,000 (R1.1m)per bitcoin late last year, up from less than $10,000(R159.7k) two years ago, and the ethereum price has followed suit. However, both are down around 40% from their all-time highs.
Now, Brian Armstrong, the CEO of major bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, has predicted that there will be a massive influx of crypto users in the coming decade, with 1 billion people using crypto by 2032.
Now, Brian Armstrong, the CEO of major bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, has predicted that there will be a massive influx of crypto users in the coming decade, with 1 billion people using crypto by 2032.
“My guess is that in 10-20 years, we’ll see a significant portion of GDP happening in the crypto economy,” Armstrong said this week at the Milken Institute Global Conference, as first reported by Bloomberg. Coinbase, headquartered in San Francisco, currently has nearly 90 million verified users from over 100 countries.
The “crypto economy” has exploded in recent years, with new businesses and services springing up around bitcoin, ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies.
Decentralized finance (DeFi)—the concept that crypto technology can replace lenders and insurers—and blockchain-based digital collectibles known as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have both grown into multibillion-dollar markets in recent years.
Some of the world’s largest technology companies, such as Facebook’s parent company Meta and Elon Musk’s electric car company Tesla TSLA have begun to embrace cryptocurrency. Under the leadership of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Meta is attempting to expand into the so-called metaverse digital world, in which NFTs are expected to play a significant role. Tesla has added bitcoin to its corporate balance sheet and is experimenting with cryptocurrency payments.
Wall Street’s financial giants have also begun to gradually roll out crypto services to clients. Speaking alongside Armstrong, Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Investment Management and one of the most vocal supporters of web3—a term for the crypto and blockchain-based next-generation internet that some believe will succeed the current Silicon Valley-centric model—warned financial firms not to fall behind.
“In the case of DeFi and next-generation internet, we are seeing a lot of financial companies losing talent to crypto,” Wood said, according to Bloomberg. “So they have to take it seriously, or else they are going to be hollowed out.”
