4 ‘emerging narratives’ in crypto to watch for: Trading firm

Despite an eventful twelvemonth fraught with crypto collapses and terms drops, Steven Goulden, a elder probe expert astatine crypto trading steadfast Cumberland has pointed to respective “green shoots” to interruption the aboveground successful crypto successful 2023.

In a 14-page “Year successful Review” study released connected Dec. 24, Goulden said helium saw 4 “emerging narratives” successful 2023 that volition pb to “significant progress” for crypto implicit the adjacent six to 24 months.

These see non-fungible tokens (NFTs) becoming a “go-to method” of tokenizing a brand's intelligence spot (IP), Web3 apps and games becoming “genuinely popular,” portion Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) could go much commonly utilized arsenic a nation’s reserve asset.

In 2023, we expect that we’ll spot meaningful greenish shoots interruption the aboveground successful respective cardinal areas, which volition pave the mode for important advancement successful the adjacent 6-24 months. Hear from a elder probe expert connected emerging narratives for 2023: https://t.co/8E0cZOp6Ta pic.twitter.com/rO1KKvxIdA

— Cumberland (@CumberlandSays) December 23, 2022

Goulden argued that portion NFTs person until this point, been “largely been confined to the creation space,” helium believes the adjacent measurement for NFTs volition prevarication successful the marrying of NFTs and a brand’s intelligence property.

The expert noted that galore non-Web3 companies are already making “significant progress” to monetize IP and amended lawsuit engagement utilizing NFTs.

Among those see Starkbucks concern with Polygon to make NFTs for Starbucks customers, and Nike’s motorboat of Swoosh, which enables users to plan customized sneaker NFTs.

“Listening to these companies speech astir Web3 initiatives, it’s wide they spot integer engagement with customers and fans arsenic a caller facet of the retail experience,” said Goulden.

He besides noted that “selling NFTs to retail users has the imaginable to make material, high-margin revenue.” Nike is simply a textbook illustration of that, having generated $200 cardinal from integer sneakers alone. The expert expects Polygon’s MATIC, LooksRare’s LOOK and 0xmon’s XMON token to pb the mode connected this front.

CryptoKicks integer shoes from Nike and RTFKT. Source: Nike.

The Cumberland expert besides said that NFTs volition go a “go-to method of tokenizing IP”, sharing that determination is astir $80 trillion of intangible assets that exists connected firm equilibrium sheets today.

Real-world inferior apps to summation traction

Goulden besides sees the adoption of Web3 platforms providing “real satellite utility” starting to summation traction successful 2023, acknowledging it has been “extremely challenging” to disrupt Web2 monopolies frankincense far:

“The world is that it takes clip to physique and bootstrap projects similar these, and truthful we expect worldly traction is astir apt 12+ months out, with superior idiosyncratic adoption astir apt 2-5 years away.”

Some “genuinely utile existent world” platforms that Goulden highlighted included IT recruitment level Braintrust, Internet of Things protocol Helium, GPU rendering work Render, planetary mapping task Hivemapper and thrust sharing app Teleport.

Web3 games to pull “serious” gamers

The expert was besides optimistic astir the Web3 gaming market, noting that determination is astir 3 cardinal gamers successful the world, 200 cardinal of which are “serious” — representing $200-300 cardinal successful full addressable market.

“[...] yet these users usually don’t ain in-game items and person small power oregon governance implicit these gaming ecosystems,” said Goulden.

Related: 5 cryptocurrencies to support an oculus connected successful 2023

Goulden says the play-to-earn aspects of blockchain-based gaming volition pb to important profitability for developers but added that due to the fact that it takes “around 2-3 years to physique a triple A (highest-quality blockbuster) game,” we astir apt won’t spot a “Web3 crippled that becomes a star” until 2023 oregon 2024.

Web3 Gaming Market Figures. Source: Fungies.

BTC and ETH arsenic reserve asset

Finally, the probe expert suggested that adjacent attraction should beryllium placed connected BTC and ETH’s imaginable relation arsenic a reserve asset, peculiarly for nations focused connected exports.

Goulden said galore high-export nations astir the satellite whitethorn take to stock up its reserves with alternate assets specified arsenic cryptocurrency alternatively of U.S. treasury bills arsenic a means to depress their ain currencies against the U.S. Dollar.

“Even a tiny cardinal slope allocation to BTC oregon ETH would beryllium worldly and would apt pb to different exporting states pursuing suit.”