Bitcoin

BTC
and Ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies by a considerable margin, have hundreds of millions of users worldwide after a huge price explosion in recent years.

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The price of bitcoin soared to nearly $70,000 per bitcoin at the end of last year from less than $10,000 two years ago, while the price of ethereum saw a similar increase. However, both are down around 40% from their all-time highs.

Now, Brian Armstrong, the chief executive of leading bitcoin and crypto exchange Coinbase, has predicted that there will be a massive influx of crypto users over the next decade, predicting that one billion people will have used the crypto by 2032.

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“I guess 10 to 20 years from now we’ll see a substantial chunk of GDP happening in the crypto economy,” Armstrong said, speaking at the Milken Institute’s global conference this week in comments reported for the first time. times by Bloomberg. San Francisco-based Coinbase currently has nearly 90 million verified users in 100 countries.

The “crypto-economy” has grown rapidly over the past few years as businesses and services expand around bitcoin, ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) – the idea that cryptographic technology can replace lenders and insurers – and blockchain-based digital collectibles known as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have both become markets for several billion dollars in just a few years.

Some of the world’s biggest tech companies, including Facebook parent company Meta and Elon Musk’s electric car company Tesla

TSLA
, began to embrace crypto. Meta, under Mark Zuckerberg, is looking to expand into the so-called metaverse digital world where NFTs are expected to play an important role. Tesla added bitcoin to its corporate balance sheet and began experimenting with crypto payments.

Financial giants on Wall Street have also slowly started rolling out crypto services for clients. Speaking alongside Armstrong, chief executive of Ark Investment Management, Cathie Wood, one of the biggest proponents of web3 – a name for the next generation of the internet based on crypto and blockchain which, according to some, could succeed the current Silicon Valley-centric model – warned financial firms not to be left behind.

“In the case of DeFi and next-gen internet, we’re seeing a lot of financial companies losing talent to crypto,” Wood said, according to Bloomberg. “So they have to take it seriously, otherwise they’re going to be ousted.”

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Meanwhile, the crypto industry is feeling optimistic about the changing regulatory landscape following an executive order from the Biden administration directing federal agencies to collaborate on a rulebook for blockchain companies. .

“It’s gotten harder and harder to meet a real crypto skeptic in DC,” Armstrong added, speculating that about half of Washington residents are now pro-crypto. Crypto industry lobbying has skyrocketed along with the price of bitcoin over the past two years, research shows.

The price of bitcoin, ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies rallied this week, climbing on the back of a closely telegraphed Federal Reserve interest rate hike that some feared would be more. hawkish than expected and following several positive bitcoin and crypto global developments.

“A growing number of countries are legalizing bitcoin as a currency, embracing its ability to strengthen financial infrastructure, facilitate wealth creation, and provide direct access to financial resources,” said Matt Senter, chief technology officer. from bitcoin rewards app Lolli, in email comments. .

“With the devaluation of the US dollar due to inflation, we now find ourselves in the perfect storm that is catalyzing the global mainstream adoption of bitcoin as an anti-inflationary, disintermediated alternative to our struggling legacy financial system.”