Trends in Web3. The Biggest Challenges and Opportunities in the Industry

Cryptocurrencies come closer to use in real life. The hype over cryptocurrencies as a high-profit speculative asset has ceased. At the same time, people consider them more often as a way to escape from fiat inflation. Consequently, salary payments in crypto as well as merchants accepting crypto will be a growing trend in the nearest future.

The net inflow of capital into the crypto market. The news about BlackRock launching a private trust focused on bitcoin was one of the most significant lately. They acknowledged that there is “a substantial interest from some institutional clients”, although a year ago BlackRock CEO Larry Fink claimed he didn`t see much demand among clients. this fact looks like another conformation of the growing role of cryptocurrencies in the finance world.

BlackRock is not only the player who increases its position in the crypto industry. We can see that more banks and other financial companies are starting to offer their clients services on digital assets.

It is worth noting that despite the market downtrend investments in the crypto industry persist and even increase. According to Messari's report, investments for the first half of 2022 exceeded results for the entire of 2021. Only Alphabet invested $1.5B in the Blockchain industry between September 2021 and June 2022.

Metaverses is a big development direction for the coming year. Everybody is talking about metaverses today, companies and states invest in this field stressing its potential, and dozens of new borderless spaces. Nevertheless, this sphere is just forming and there is a huge work to be done by developers until we see real products.

The current global economic crisis is the biggest challenge for all spheres, and there is no exception for cryptocurrencies as their interdependence with traditional finance has increased vastly since 2020.

The current bear market is making many players exit the market. It’s a big test of resilience. However, such a situation makes the market more reliable and safe. Moreover, it`s a time when cryptocurrencies can win and increase their adoption.

The other important problem that should be solved in the nearest time is finding a balance between decentralization and regulation. The outcome of this question will determine the further development of the whole sphere.

Some states tend to integrate existing private cryptocurrency projects, including stablecoins, into traditional finance, insisting on compliance with legal requirements.

Other states prefer to create their digital currencies (CBDC). China has moved farthest in this direction with some results. In the future, we will see much more CBDCs and their integration into traditional finance systems.

At the same time, the idea of the same regional digital currencies might be back soon. For instance, China considered the use of its digital yuan for cross-border transactions.