2021 was marked by the intrigue of the masses surrounding non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and meme coins.
As a company, Coinhako rode ahead of the curve. We co-organised Right Click + Save, the first and largest NFT exhibition in Singapore, and brought in-demand meme coins like SHIB and DOGE for our Singapore market.
2022 is may be off to a volatile start, but what else lies ahead? Here’s a list of a few things to keep on the lookout for this year:
- The Growing Utility of NFTs
- Surge in Blockchain Games
- New brands join the metaverse
- Defi: DAO
- Other Countries following El Salvador’s footsteps
The Growing Utility of NFTs
2021 proved to be a landmark year for NFTs, with the total trading volume of NFTs exceeding $23 billion by the end of the year. In 2022, the interest in NFTs may shift towards being more utility-focused, and less about the digital art itself.
Many NFTs nowadays are being utilized as digital passes to gain access to exclusive communities, ranging from music to sports.
Music NFTs
Because NFTs can exist for any type of digital content, NFTs for audio files have also become of interest not only the NFT community, but also artists seeking for ways to monetize their craft.
There’s a growing number of Web3 startups who are making their foray into a the music industry —perhaps in the hopes that it may be the next explosive thing in the digital art realm.
One of the few names making strides in this is Jack Dorsey, Co-Founder of Twitter who also sold his first tweet as an NFT for over $2.9 million USD in 2021. He has since stepped down from the Twitter CEO position to focus on his company Block (previously Square) which aims to encourage the adoption of music NFTs through the streaming service Tidal.
Sports NFTs
According to research from Deloitte, NFTs for sports media is expected to generate US$2 billion, more than double of the transaction volume in 2021. In the sports scene, use of fan tokens are becoming more prominent.
One of the latest sports leagues to dabble in NFTs is the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) joining the likes of the NBA and NFL on the Flow blockchain under Dapper Labs.
👉🏻 View FLOW today
Play to Earn Games
The keyword is “GameFi” —– a term combining the words “game” and “finance”– —which refers to decentralised applications with economic incentive, essentially Play to earn games (P2E)
One of the most well-known blockchain games today is Axie Infinity, home to the token AXS. Axie Infinity placed among one of the highest-grossing mobile apps surpassing popular games like Pokemon Go and Candy Crush with $1.2 billion revenue in 2021 and over 1 million players. It is one of many blockchain games that are dominating conversations within the gaming world.
👉🏻 View AXS today
With the number of 'Active' blockchain games doubling to almost 400, we are likely to see more of them popping up this year!
Metaverse
If the concept of the metaverse still seems far-fetched and abstract, just think of it as an alternative world where you can socialise, play games, and interact with other avatars. Pretty similar to many of older online games from way back, like Habbo Hote or Club Penguin —more recent examples include would be The Sandbox or Decentraland.
Reckoned as one of the rapidly-emerging tech trends of 2022, the metaverse is characterised by its use of various technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, 3D avatars, holographic elements and more, in a hyper-realistic virtual world.
Following Mark Zuckerberg's rebranding of Facebook to Meta, massive brands like Nike, Adidas, Balenciaga, Gucci and many more have entered the metaverse in one way or another.
In 2021, Adidas acquired a virtual plot of land on the metaverse platform, The Sandbox to display its products in a virtual showroom. This year, they have announced that they are joining forces with Prada to further explore the metaverse as a new space for the brand to “re-define luxury for the next generation”.
Defi DAO
DAO or Decentralized Autonomous Organizations is part of the DeFi (decentralized finance) movement and refers to a community-led entity that follows smart contracts to lay rules, execute decisions, proposals, and votings.
Many anticipate that the DAO governance will eventually become a major driver of DeFi activity.
In 2021, DAOs surged in popularity and garnered around a million members, and recording $250 billion in total value locked at year’s end, according to ConsenSys.
Some use cases that DAO can be applied to include crowdfunding, social clubs, human resources, and more. With the many possibilities that belies DAO, it’s one to watch this year.
Crypto as Legal Tender
2021 welcomed the first country, El Salvador, to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. This opens up the possibility to more countries following its footsteps.
👉🏻 Learn more about Bitcoin
Soon after El Salvador’s adoption in September 2021, countries like Panama and Zimbabwe showed their interest in exploring the option. Panama announced their bill to make the cryptocurrency legal tender in the country while Zimbabwe engaged in consultations regarding growing interest in crypto and its potential risks.
There’s also a growing interest for CBDCs to be recognised as legal tender. Among the list of countries that are aiming to test CBDCs are Bhutan, Thailand, Korea and Singapore set to conduct their pilots in 2022.
With the tumultuous start to the year and the volatility that comes in the crypto market, we can never fully know what's ahead for 2022. However, you can start by watching out for the developments of these 5 budding trends.
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Disclaimer: All writer’s opinions are their own and do not constitute financial advice. As a company, we do our best to provide information that is accurate and valuable. The contents of this blog post are intended for educational purposes only. Individuals are advised to perform due diligence before purchasing any cryptocurrencies as these assets are subject to high volatility, and understand the risks associated with trading cryptocurrencies.
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