2024 Trends & Predictions: Digital Assets & Crypto

In 2022, the crypto space was shaken by the failure of several stablecoins, the subsequent collapse of a number of prominent crypto exchanges, and the alleged wholesale fraud that led to the implosion of crypto exchange FTX. After the rapid rise of cryptocurrencies the year before, 2022 was a sobering reckoning for the retail crypto space.

Fast forward 12 months, and the market has steadied. Prices for cryptocurrencies have remained stable, and many financial institutions, service providers, and technology vendors have ventured into the space across retail and wholesale applications. Evolving use cases for stablecoins and asset tokenization are demonstrating the features that proponents of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies have hailed for some time. On top of that, central banks around the world are looking at concepts central to digital assets and cryptocurrencies—namely programmability and transparency—and beginning to move forward with creating their own central-bank-backed digital currencies.

In short, 2024 looks to be another pivotal year in the development of digital assets and cryptocurrencies. Interest has broadened well beyond the retail investing boom that led to the 2022 collapse. Regulators globally are still looking at digital assets and cryptocurrency with some skepticism, if not outright hostility, but banks and their technology vendors are pushing ahead with developing new use cases for the technology.