“What countries are realizing is they have to participate or they have to be left out.”
This is what WazirX’s Nischal Shetty opined in context to crypto adoption in a recent interview. He further explained that one or two nations can’t decide the technology’s fate as the ecosystem is very similar to the internet.
His comments come as 2021 wraps up with the highest ever crypto adoption of over 880% in the last year. However, the year has also seen increased scrutiny by regulators globally. While China took the extreme policy decision of banning Bitcoin altogether, El Salvador went ahead to recognize the asset as legal tender. At the same time, the U.S. is amid a regulatory discussion, the year also got the industry speculating about what stance India might take as one of the largest crypto markets. As the country awaits a regulatory framework, Shetty also commented,
“2021 has shown us the potential of crypto, especially in India. The India market has grown at least five to 10 times in just this year alone.”
Having said that, Shetty argued that “this is the inflection point where 2022 will probably eclipse the growth of 2021…”
That being said, 2022 can expect thousands of crypto startups in the field, as per the exchange CEO. In retrospect, it is worth noting media reports that had stated- The city of Jackson in the United States has become the first region to allow cryptocurrency as a payroll conversion option for all employees of the city. As adoption skyrockets, there’s more to come.
BlockFi executive Flori Marquez commented in a recent interview with Yahoo Finance that FOMO is a major crypto catalyst. She said,
“The first is we’re going to see more consumers across the U.S. enter the space for the first time. And I think a huge driver is going to be FOMO. So we’re going into the holiday season. People are going to be talking about the new things that they’ve been investing in this year.”
However, even FOMO in 2022 might take a while for mass crypto adoption. Shetty explained that there are around 150 million people in crypto today. On the contrary,
“The internet has 4.73 billion people, so a long way to go.”
However, comparing crypto to the internet adoption, Shetty added,
“If you look back, every country ultimately had to adopt and adapt, and that’s what is going to happen to crypto.”
