The Inevitable Truth Called Crypto

Why I Think Crypto Investing May Just Be The Best Decision You Could Make Yet

Starting from 2019, the world has been in a topsy-turvy mode and it all started with the global pandemic. Businesses were shut and several workers lost their means of livelihood. The mortality rate also went through the roof as global health agencies grappled with this non-fangled unknown disease.

However, despite what many may term an abysmal start to a new decade, something positive has sprung up from all the chaos and that is from a 2008 whitepaper on Bitcoin.

Several people misconstrue cryptocurrencies as only being Bitcoin and that is far from the truth. In fact, the ecosystem has seen significant growth in the past dozen years and 2021 has been a watershed year for the previously disregarded industry. The figures speak for themselves.

The nascent industry blazed through $1 trillion and also hit $2.5 trillion on a run-of-form to almost $3 trillion. Aside from this, sporadic growth has been seen in the nascent industry as there are over 15,000 crypto assets on record. Although most have few use cases to back their existence, the crypto wave can no longer be ignored.

Investments are pouring in by the second and more legacy-backed businesses and tech giants are swooping in to grab a chunk of this new movement. In fact, the world can no longer ignore cryptocurrencies and neither should you.

In any given sense, this piece is meant to serve as a brief introduction to the sub-sectors currently keeping crypto on the global map as well as the issues surrounding the nascent industry and the positives you should look out for.

Fledgling Sub-sectors Striking A Chord With Mainstream Investors

Several mainstream investors are coming into the crypto ecosystem not only for the promise it holds but for the following fast-growing sub-sectors.

· DeFi

DeFi is short for decentralized finance and the sub-sector has only been a year in the making. Founded on the foremost smart contract Ethereum by Yearn Finance in 2020, DeFi is meant to replace the traditional financial landscape as we know it. You can borrow, save, and earn sizable interests on DeFi and all these without ever stepping your feet into a physical bank location.

Crypto lending platforms, decentralized exchanges (DEXes), and yield aggregating protocols make up this sub-sector.

DeFi has grown in the past year with over $100 billion worth of total value locked (TVL) on record . This is in sharp contrast to less than $500 million a year prior, while reflecting an increased growth well over 1000%. The sub-sector’s remarkable growth lies in its appeal. For one, it is more inclusive as anyone can provide liquidity through their digital assets and earn interests no matter who they are and where they may be.

This presents a number of positives as the traditional credit history needed for borrowing is eliminated and users can easily access much-needed funds without ever leaving their homes. Demographically, DeFi has been an eye-opener as locations geographically cut off from accessing financial services can easily tap into the ecosystem without needing to leave their homes.

DeFi is set to enjoy a record 2022 as more investments pour into the crypto space and more investors onboard into the new decentralized economy. While Ethereum may be the shining light in the DeFi space, close rival Polkadot is also coming online with a fleet of DeFi protocols. One of such is Acala Network which aims to be the DeFi Hub for the heterogeneous network. The layer-1 Ethereum-compatible network features a liquidity hub and ready-made financial applications and an in-house decentralised stablecoin (aUSD).

· NFTs

Another record-breaker this past year is NFTs and as per longevity, these blockchain-based assets pre-date DeFi. NFT was initially minted on the Ethereum blockchain as far back as 2017 with the first being CryptoKitties. So what is NFT really about?

NFT stands for non-fungible tokens and they are cryptographically-unique tokens that are used to represent digital ownerships. Although first adopted in the digital art space, NFTs have since grown beyond this enclosed niche and are now used in tokenizing more physical products and services by the day.

At the moment of writing, NFT sales are through the roof with the 2021 figure standing well above $10 billion in recorded value sales. This posts a 1000% growth from a January 2021 sale figure of only $100 million.NFTs have also enjoyed a record 2021 and this all began with the phenomenal sale of Mike Winklemann’s 5000 Days digital art for $69.3 million. This made Beeple (as he is known in […]

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