Cryptocurrencies have been constantly entering the main stage. The current state of the game ranges from almost illogical (cryptocurrencies that have no intrinsic value) to logical (products that serve a purpose and are considered to improve our daily lives).
But there is no denying the high level of activity observed in this space over the last year and a growing interest in the cryptography of consumers, businesses and governments.
In a round table ‘Digital coins: the missing piece of the puzzle?’ at the FinTech Festival in Singapore, one participant asked if the value of the crypto has been updated with prices, citing Shiba Inu coins as an example. He also questioned how it is possible that these tokens are currently valued more than assets such as Deutsche Bank.
In response to the question, Kevin Lim, director of Temasek, gave his personal view: “Do I think the global cryptoeconomy now shows signs of speculative behavior? My honest answer is yes.”
“It simply came to our notice then. When people come in, they don’t have to be naive, they have to know what to expect. “
“Speculation itself is a double-edged sword, I think on the one hand, that’s really what drives the interest and involvement of the community to come back. Because look, uh, everyone wants to make money and here it is. has a chance to make significant money, right, so we should call it a shovel, ”Kevin said.
“Now, given how cryptocurrencies have gone up and down, we’ve had crypto winters in the past. I think it’s naive to think that price direction is just one direction, one direction up,” he added.
“If you come to the scene with that in mind, saying that, hello, whatever asset you have today, it will be appreciated 10 times, 100 times, 1000 times, I mean very well to you. But again , it’s really about whether you can come in and go out at the right opportunities. “
Eric Anziani, chief operating officer of Crypto.com, noted that, beyond the price, “there is still much to be done for cryptography.”
“I think where we see a much bigger economy is through Web 3.0. At the moment we’re building the tools, and sometimes they’re priced differently even in NFT space at stratospheric prices,” he said.
“I think we don’t have to focus on that, we should focus on whether we’re building the right tools for Web 3.0 for this fairer and more equitable world that we want to build where people have real ownership and better control of the their money. data and identity. And prices will come to something closer to value, “Eric added.
The NFT craze
Beyond wild price valuations, the board also discussed the exaggeration of non-expendable tokens (NFTs) that has taken the main internet by storm. The reason for the exaggeration is that NFTs are now related to art and music, transforming their intrinsic value as digital products, the panelists explained.
“What we’re seeing is that really over the last year, cryptography is becoming cultural. It’s becoming great,” said Cuy Sheffield, vice president, head of Crypto at Visa.
“Before you were investing in crypto, you were a little weird. Now we’ve seen that with the NFT market there’s a new class of consumers and major consumers entering the space,” Cuy said.
“There are people interested in art or interested in music, interested in culture in general. They are now setting up cryptographic portfolios in waves and are happy to use a cryptographic portfolio to be able to coin an NFT or how they can monetize their creative talent to be able to support other creators, ”he added.
Cuy mentioned CryptoPunks as one of the first examples of this bridge between art and technology and its path to becoming a conventional collectible.
“We believe that NFTs really represent a new tool and it’s really changing the nature of what cryptocurrencies do where not only money is stored, and cryptocurrencies could become the place where people discover their favorite music.” , added Cuy.
“So we think there’s this component of a cryptographic portfolio that becomes a super app and influences a consumer’s life beyond investing in a new asset class. That changes the brand, it changes the way consumers relate to it when you introduce those elements that people resonate with very strongly. “
It’s just beginning
Kevin added that this crypto drive is occurring faster than expected. This includes the evolution of the sector. “This has really been seen in the exponential increase in cryptocurrency volumes over the last few years.”
“If we had had this conversation just three years ago, would we have expected a bit of rising prices and volumes? I think it’s pretty hard to be predictive. It’s hard to predict how things will be modeled, especially when it’s innovative, it’s in a initial phase and it’s happening in a parabolic way, ”Kevin said.
“Now, if you’re an artist and you’ve never been in a programmer’s space or you’re not a developer, that doesn’t mean you can’t join, you just have to know how to find a way to play.”
“I think the whole concept here is that it’s okay, you have to have a starting anchor point. But by collectively bringing together different strengths to make it work, I think that concept itself is powerful,” he said.
Overall, the world itself is becoming increasingly digital, and the focus is really on 10 years and 20 years later, what would be a digital economy, Kevin noted.
“It’s really about the people and the millennials and the generations that will come after … The way Temasek sees it too is if we have an enabling infrastructure and we bring together groups of talented individuals in a world without permission to contribute to its different aspects “.
“When we build things that are exciting, fun and have a cultural aspect, that’s when the products have a certain longevity.”
Achieving a balance amid volatility
The panel also addressed the role that centralized players play in the cryptographic space and whether it is a conflict of interest with the decentralized concept of crypto and its foundational vision.
Panelists justify that centralized players, such as centralized cryptographic exchanges, fill the middle ground for consumers who do not know the technical aspects but want to participate in the cryptographic space.
Yusho Liu, co-founder and CEO of Coinhako, said: “I think at the end of the day, let’s be honest, a lot of people talk about it, but not a lot of people have accessed it. Because most users in general, people don’t techniques, they have trouble just resetting passwords. So how do you expect them to understand how to open a MetaMask account, pay for gas, and then do the transaction. “
Keeping users safe with their assets is a priority when a cryptographic company is regulated, and Coinhako goes through a framework that includes making sure it conducts analysis so it knows where the tokens are coming from and where they are going.
“They are a couple (more) steps. A lot of resources are used. But I think the most important thing is that the reason we go through these steps is so that we can create a safe environment for users and also make sure that it is controlled. said Yusho.
Cuy noted that in today’s cryptographic space, there are very few merchants who directly accept cryptography and it is a “difficult experience for consumers to have to figure out which merchant they want to spend money on”.
“Therefore, the possibility of linking a visa credential (physical or virtual) with the same account where the cryptography is maintained and creating it as a perfect experience, we believe will solve a major problem. It will make consumers more interested in invest and be exposed to this class of assets “.
Cuy points out that today there are about 250 million cryptographic users. While this shows huge growth over the past six months, compared to the world’s population, there is still a long way to go.
“Being able to connect traditional financial instruments to digital currency and go back to traditional instruments is still a very important function that we have to play if we want to continue to grow the industry,” he said.
“It will continue to be there to really help in the adoption of this space. I think centralized platforms have made great progress on this front, and it is usually shown through certifications and licenses that they have acquired to demonstrate as a testament to their efforts and investment to protect customers’ funds, “Cuy added.
The role of stable currencies is growing
Beyond the luxuries of NFTs for art and music, the role of stable currencies is growing.
Kevin de Temasek noted, “What I’ve seen for stable currencies is that there’s an explosion of momentum. I think by mid-last year, we’re talking about a total market capitalization of no more than 20,000. million dollars globally. And now it’s increased, the last check was about $ 130 billion. So it’s an increase of six to seven times, “he said.
“There is a lot of interest in the space and an interest that is not diminishing. On this basis, then, what is this interest like, what really motivates it? One, of course, is price volatility, which cryptography as a whole is an attractive asset. “
“If you go back to the real world economy, there is a lack of a solution right now. The lack of what could be the alternative to that, apart from stable currency projects, and the bankers or central bankers of the ‘space are trying to innovate and find ways to bring new solutions,’ Kevin said.
“We have seen a lot of activity and research on the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC) that is not yet online. I think the wholesale market is also waiting with its breath. There are a lot of questions, it has also been researched a lot about the value of this space, and we have seen some that I think promise, ”he added.
Kevin highlighted the Dunbar Project that is making international settlements through multiple CBDCs. He also highlighted Partior, Temasek’s recent blockchain-based interbank clearing and clearing network company set up jointly with DBS and JPMorgan.
“These concepts really take advantage of blockchain technologies to enable faster, broader transactions in the wholesale field,” Kevin said.
Regulation is still needed
At the end of the day, the panelists point out that there is still a need for regulation, the most important question is when and how.
“The industry is such that it is valued at $ 3 trillion right now. There is a recent IMF report that says that at this time it is probably not yet an implicit or immediate threat to financial stability, but it ‘s growing. “
“Now, though, the question is: how do you regulate and who do you regulate? And how do you regulate something that nature doesn’t have permission for?” Kevin said.
“There are a lot of debates on these fronts, but from a directional point of view, I think the central banks will get into it safely. Because, again, this will not be a toy. It will not go away.”
“When you have stable currency companies or projects that contain massive amounts of fiduciary coins or fiduciary bonds within cryptographic networks, it’s hard to ignore them and say look, there’s no need to regulate space,” he said.
Featured Image Credit: CryptoPunks, Forbes
