Globally, cryptocurrency has never been in sharper focus.

Following suit from a historic 2021 spanning El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption to all-time high market prices, 2022 has been tipped as another big year for crypto.

We asked the team here at Blockchain.com about their predictions on what 2022 may bring.

The following predictions were made by various Blockchain.com team members. These are opinions of individual team members in a personal capacity and do not represent the opinions of Blockchain.com. They do not constitute any trading or investment advice and shouldn’t be used to make financial decisions.

Bitcoin and Ethereum

“Both Bitcoin and Ethereum will finish 2022 with higher market values than where they started the year.
“During 2022 Bitcoin will also cross back up above the 50% dominance level.”

Overall Crypto

“No crypto winter. We will see the total crypto market cap (excluding stablecoins) finish 2022 higher.”

Stablecoins

“I’m feeling bullish on stablecoins, predicting the combined total market value of stablecoins such as $USDT $USDC (and new ones yet to be launched) will surpass the total market value of Ethereum.”

Adoption

“Crypto and realpolitik will marry up as big game theory. National interest will align to incentivize nations to own and HODL bitcoin. As crypto adoption grows by constituents and citizens, countries that hold crypto now will fare better competitively against their non-crypto holding peers.

“Even countries that don’t believe in the crypto thesis will need to entertain the idea as insurance — this is a small price to pay for a hedge today, compared to a potentially very expensive one in the future!”

“We will see 1–2 more countries who will adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. I’m keeping an eye on UAE!”

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)

“In order to defend market cap and preserve the value of older projects that are losing share, I predict we’ll see a few legacy coin ecosystems merge into something new to be more technologically competitive.

“For example, someone will launch a strong Layer 1 and will take delivery of old coins and issue holders new ones at a fixed rate that everyone agrees on, i.e. a reverse fork.

“Maturity in the space will also arise from cryptocurrency having its AOL moment where a crypto company buys a well-known small/medium financial institution with a decent brand.

“Finally, a large regulated bank will buy and run a crypto business, rather than just passively investing.”

2022, will be the year of…

“The DAO”

“Modular blockchains like ATOM or DOT”

“Layer 2’s dominating sidechains, like MATIC”

“The gaming industry (P2E) — it will be the bridge for user users and the crypto ecosystem”

Let us know your thoughts on the direction you think this year will take, tweet us @blockchain.

And, remember to check back here at the end of the year. Hopefully, you’ll see some of the predictions ring true!