We have arrived at the start of the next bull market. If history is our guide, these cycles are powered by multiple factors including Bitcoin’s halving events, shifts in macroeconomic landscapes around U.S. elections and Federal Reserve interest rates, as well as the advent of new Web3 and DeFi innovations. Yield farming, for instance, was a significant innovation that fueled the previous cycle. The upcoming cycle may potentially feature a mix of zero-knowledge proofs, novel DeFi primitives like restaking, and innovative blockchain stacks that offer modularity, composability, and are primed for interchain asset and data movement.
This post is part of CoinDesk’s “Crypto 2024” predictions package.
Each cycle is accompanied by a unique cultural narrative. The last cycle was dominated by art NFTs, sparked by Beeple’s $69 million sale at Christie’s, and further fueled by the PFP craze and the fine arts use case growing with proponents at the scale of Sotheby’s and Pace Gallery. The present cycle, predictions suggest, will be molded by the SocialFi narrative, as platforms like Friend.Tech have already set the stage.
Institutional and regulatory narratives, too, play a crucial role. The last cycle saw MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor introducing Bitcoin to the corporate balance sheet, while this cycle is marked by traditional financial institutions and fintech giants applying for crypto ETFs and launching stablecoins.
On the regulatory front, the U.S. is still wrestling with crypto regulations, causing many projects to market their new crypto products outside the U.S. This is why I argue that the next bull market will have a distinct geographical flavor, with Asia taking center stage.
The enthusiasm for crypto in Asia is hard to miss. A stark contrast was visible between less vibrant fall conferences in the States and the buzzing scenes at Korea Blockchain Week and Token2049 in Singapore. Cities like Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Manila, and Kuala Lumpur, not to mention a handful of large Indian cities, are home to substantial developer communities and flourishing Web3 scenes, bolstered by government support and enterprise adoption. The thriving environment at Token2049, in Singapore, the real capital being deployed by APAC investors into crypto projects, and the increasing appetite for…
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