The Web3 industry seems to be on an ever-evolving movement where blockchain-based concepts arrive and die on an everyday basis. Last year, for instance, the sector of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) dropped to its record low in-terms of sales – but then the Ordinals category of these digital collectibles managed to re-ignite the interest of the buyer community. In conversation with Gadgets360, Vikram Subburaj, the CEO of the Giottus crypto exchange shared a list of some Web3 trends that are expected to gain traction this year.
Real world assets (RWAs) and Decentralised Finance (DeFi), as per Subburaj, are enroute mass adoption this year. Through RWAs, digital versions of physical or traditional assets are recreated on a blockchain network as tokens. Each token of an individual property, amount for some percentage of the entity. Tokenising an asset can increase the liquidity of the assets. A property owner, for instance, could sell 50,000 tokens of a tokenised real property instead of selling the entire property and losing its utility as a liveable space.
“Think of them as NFTs for things like real estate, art, or even bonds. Today, the tokenised RWA ecosystem accessible on-chain is about worth $2 billion (roughly Rs. 17,452 crore) currently,” Subburaj said, predicting that tokenising assets is expected to pick pace this year as more people understand the concept.
About DeFi taking the masses by storm, the Giottus chief said, its nature to give people independence and control over their finances is what will propel DeFi to be experimented with heavily this year. DeFi projects like Uniswap, Aave, and Lido among others use smart contracts and cryptocurrencies to offer financial services without involving a middleman. The smart contracts, essentially replace the intermediary.
As per Finbold, the total value locked in DeFi as of December 2023, stood at $52.71 billion (roughly Rs. 4,38,040 crore).
“From staking, lending to market making, there are multiple avenues to earn in this space – DeFi is the fastest growing segment of Web3,” Subburaj added.
2024 marks the fifteenth year since the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was mined in 2009. In these fifteen years, several crypto concepts and projects have matured to accommodate more use cases linked to their ideas – escalating the network’s scalability. This year, some already established blockchains could support ‘layer-2s’. A layer 2 refers to a network, that is built on top of an existing blockchain, that serves as the layer-1 network.
“Ethereum’s upcoming 2024 Dencun upgrade is a pivotal development, poised to significantly benefit Layer 2 solutions by reducing gas fees and improving overall network efficiency. This upgrade and with the support from ecosystem programs, Ethereum’s Layer 2 platforms are well-positioned to gain prominence soon. Key layer 2s to watch out for are: Arbitrum (ARB), Optimism (OP) and Polygon (MATIC),” Subburaj told Gadgets360.
Along with these projected trends, the Giottus CEO said Artificial Intelligence (AI) will boost the overall ecosystem of Web3. The emergence of ChatGPT and Bard ignited a rally for AI tokens in 2023.
As per Indian exchange ZebPay, the top five AI crypto tokens are – Injective, Graph GRT, Render, Oasis, and Singularity (AGIX).
“As more companies integrate AI and Web3 solutions, the AI narrative will stand out over time, particularly in sectors like healthcare and finance. As the year 2024 unfolds, these trends collectively shape a dynamic environment, offering promising prospects for the future of crypto assets,” Subburaj noted.
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