WisdomTree’s Head of Product, Jason Guthrie, hails the absence of ‘bubble-triggering use cases’ in the current crypto market as a positive sign. Despite the lack of the usual hype that accompanies a crypto bull run, Guthrie remains optimistic about cryptocurrency’s future.
There hasn’t been a “really bubble-triggering use case driving the market cycles like in the past,” such as initial coin offerings (ICOs), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), or DeFi lending, Guthrie shared with Cointelegraph during Consensus.
“We’ve seen the asset class continue to accumulate value, and companies built on this technology are growing revenue, expanding client bases, and innovating without relying on these less than helpful use cases,” Guthrie explained.
In 2017, the ICO boom began, raising an estimated $4.9 billion. This number skyrocketed to $33.4 billion in 2018, fell to a little over $370 million in 2019, and never recovered to its previous peaks. Similarly, NFTs enjoyed a brief period of massive popularity, peaking in 2022 with trading volumes of $57.2 billion and 121.7 million sales, but they have since declined.
However, Guthrie sees the market’s health, even in the absence of such triggers, as a very encouraging sign. He also notes the maturation of the crypto market, despite some ongoing memecoin hype.
Last year, the total crypto market capitalization reached a new high of $3.71 trillion on Dec. 9, with many cryptocurrencies also seeing significant price increases, according to CoinMarketCap.
Guthrie also observed a growing trend of companies, including video game retailer GameStop, and countries like Ukraine, adopting cryptocurrencies for their treasuries and reserves.
Despite the surge in memecoin activity following the launch of Donald Trump’s memecoin on Jan. 18, which saw Pump.fun usage reach a weekly trading volume high of $3.3 billion, Guthrie believes the market’s maturity and sustainability have significantly improved compared to past cycles.
Reported by Sam Bourgi for Cointelegraph.
