Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC)–Tim Draper, venture capital investor and cryptocurrency proponent, made a recent prediction that the total market capitalization of cryptocurrency would reach $80 trillion in the next fifteen years. First reported by the news outlet DealStreetAsia on Friday, Draper made the statement while speaking at a cryptocurrency Summit event in Singapore.
As opposed to seeing the current bear market as detrimental to the growth and adoption of cryptocurrency, Draper instead believes that the market is purging investors and those interested in the technology of cryptocurrency but have yet to come to terms with the idea of a new digital asset–one that has the potential to replace more than just government fiat. As adoption continues in a more organic approach, with investors being those supporting the projects with more than just their dollars, Draper imagines it will be accompanied with a massive increase in market valuation. Just as 2018 has seen the advent of new companies taking interest in cryptocurrency and blockchain, some of which hold household name status such as Volkswagen and IBM, more industries around the globe will continue to be transformed and beholden to what cryptocurrency has to offer,
“I think it’s going to have such a transformative effect on industries that we never even imagined would be transformable. The internet went after industries that were $10–100 billion dollar markets, cryptocurrency will go after trillion dollar markets — these are finance, healthcare and insurance, banking and investment banking, and governments.”
Draper went on to further compare cryptocurrency to the internet, a relationship that has been made by many in the past. While the internet managed to grab relative fast traction compared to its massive valuation by the time the dot.com bubble occurred, the framework for global networking stretched back decades. Cryptocurrency is in a similar limbo of slow but growing adoption and appreciation for the utility of the technology, one that could tip the scale similar to the internet in becoming a ubiquitous feature of modern society,
“The internet started in the same way, it came in big waves and then it kind of came crashing down, and then the next wave comes concentrated but much bigger, and I suspect the same thing will go on here (with Bitcoin).”
While most analysts and bullish proponents on the price outlook for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in 2018 and beyond hedge their bet on a coming decision by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) over BTC Exchange-Traded Funds, Draper’s prediction is based upon legitimate adoption and industry driven growth. No doubt, the presence of institutional money finally entering cryptocurrency and Bitcoin related projects accompanies Draper’s view for an $80 trillion market capitalization, but he is also making the claim that the average person will drive equal interest into digital assets. Similar to the internet, which has saturated society and become an integral proponent to nearly every industry around the world, Draper believes that cryptocurrency has the potential to create a similar impact. Beyond the use as a currency, crypto represents a new form of digital asset and a technology that could disrupt more than just the landscape of fintech.
