Steven Goulden, senior research analyst at crypto trading firm Cumberland, appears to be optimistic about Bitcoin and altcoins. The analyst highlighted a few items that will point to positive developments in the crypto space in 2023, despite having an eventful year filled with crypto crashes. Here are the details…
These narratives are important for bitcoin and altcoins
In his 14-page annual report published Dec. 24, Goulden said he sees four “emerging narratives” for crypto in 2023 that will lead to “significant progress” over the next six to 24 months. These include, first, the rise of NFTs, which have become the “suitable method” of tokenizing a brand’s intellectual property (IP). In second and third places are Web3 apps and games becoming “really popular”. Fourth, the analyst pointed to the possibility of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) being used as more reserve assets by countries.
In 2023, we anticipate that we’ll see meaningful green shoots break the surface in several key areas, which will pave the way for significant progress in the next 6-24 months. Hear from a senior research analyst on emerging narratives for 2023: https://t.co/8E0cZOp6Ta pic.twitter.com/rO1KKvxIdA
— Cumberland (@CumberlandSays) December 23, 2022
Goulden argues that NFTs have been “largely confined to the field of art” up to this point. However, he believes the next step for NFTs will lie in the integration of NFTs and a brand’s intellectual property. The analyst pointed to the goal of many non-Web3 companies to monetize IP. Thus, he stated that he has already made “significant progress” in improving customer engagement using NFTs.
These include Starbucks creating NFTs for its customers. As we reported as Kriptokoin.com, Starbucks had partnered with Polygon for this purpose. Apart from that, Nike had launched the Swoosh. With this launch, the sports brand allowed users to design customized sneaker NFTs. “While listening to these companies talk about their Web3 initiatives, it becomes clear that they see interaction with customers and fans as a new aspect of their individual experience,” Goulden said.
Brands generate massive revenue from NFTs
It also stated that “selling NFTs to retail users has the potential to generate tangible, high-margin revenue.” Nike, which has made $200 million in digital sneakers alone, is an example of this. The analyst expects Polygon’s MATIC, LookRare’s LOOK and 0xmon’s XMON token to take the lead on this front. The Cumberland analyst also shared that there are approximately $80 trillion of intangible assets that exist on corporate balance sheets today. Thus, he said, NFTs will become the “IP tokenization method.”
Goulden also admits that breaking Web2 monopolies has been “extremely challenging” so far. But it sees adoption of Web3 platforms that provide “real-world utility” starting to gain traction in 2023. Goulden uses the following expressions:
The truth is that projects like this take time to build and boot. So, we anticipate that momentum will likely pick up after at least 12 months, with serious user adoption likely in 2-5 years.
Some “really useful real-world” platforms Goulden highlighted include IT recruiting platform Braintrust, Helium, GPU rendering service Render, global mapping project Hivemapper, and ridesharing app Teleport.
Serious players are coming to the field with Web3
The analyst was also optimistic about the Web3 game market. He stated that there are about three billion players in this field in the world, of which 200 million are “serious”. He stated that this represents 200-300 billion dollars in the total market. Goulden says the play-to-win aspects of blockchain-based games will lead to significant profitability for developers. But he added that we probably won because “it takes about 2-3 years to build a top quality (AAA) game.” He stressed that we can expect to see a “Web3 game with stars” by 2023 or 2024.
Bitcoin and ETH as reserve assets
Finally, the research analyst suggested that close attention should be paid to the potential role of BTC and ETH as a reserve asset, especially for export-focused countries. Goulden said that many high-exporting countries around the world may choose to stockpile their reserves with alternative assets such as cryptocurrency rather than US treasury bills as a way to lower their currencies against the dollar. The analyst used the following statements:
Even a small central bank allocation of BTC or ETH will be significant and will likely lead other exporting states to do the same.
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