Cryptocurrencies are something that is always going to be a popular topic in finance; what are they, how can you use them, and whether they’re good for investments or day-to-day spending? What we can be sure of is that change is coming, and it’ll come fast. 2024 is undoubtedly going to be a very big year for crypto.

This article will cover some of the biggest trends in cryptocurrencies expected to take center stage in 2024 and beyond.

One industry that is taking to the ideas of NFTs beyond their standard uses is gaming. Creators and artists involved in gaming appreciate the way that NFT helps to change perspectives on digital scarcity and ownership. In 2024, we expect to see more innovation and experimentation in the NFT marketplace for all arts including gaming, but also for music, and even for tokenizing real-world assets.

Artists are now selling their digital art online in a new way through NFTs, and some are also being issued as prizes and unique items within casino games, when gamers play online casino games, their successful bets can be rewarded by winning NFTs that are unique to the player and may carry value. Some poker games in cryptocurrency casinos assign NFTs based on themes or even the hands matched in the game. Famous poker players have even been publicly involved in some NFT promotions.

As NFT platforms become more widely used and user-friendly, they could democratize access to a digital realm previously controlled by those who know how to code. NFTs could also help reshape traditional ideas about ownership and copyright.

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)

Central bank digital currencies are one of the 10 most important future trends. Since mid-2021, several countries, among which China and the European Union, have been actively investigating, rolling out pilots, or even issuing/issuing and distributing/launching their own.

These currencies are in the research stage and would be digital versions of a government’s money that would be issued by central banks without the need for commercial intermediaries to operate and distribute. Governments are motivated to issue them as an attempt to modernize payment systems (and potentially cut costs currently going to commercial intermediaries), improve financial inclusion, and better control the risks that would arise from private cryptocurrencies. The destiny of CBDCs might hinge on the coexistence/interaction between central bank digital currencies and private cryptocurrencies.

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Expansion

Another area that will see significant growth over the next year is DeFi (decentralized finance) — a highly disruptive space inside of crypto. By August 2024, DeFi will have grown to potentially include a higher number of decentralized financial products and services than it does today. This infatuation will extend to more lending and borrowing projects, decentralized exchanges, yield farming projects, and the like, in order to attract more retail and institutional money into crypto. Security and scalability will continue to be critical topics of discussion that DeFi will have to deal with.

Interoperability Solutions

As the crypto industry evolves it will become ever more valuable for it to interoperate smoothly. We’ve already seen this to a limited extent with Layer-2 solutions such as the Lightning Network, and others that help offload some interactions onto side chains to improve the speed of transactions without making fundamental changes to the underlying blockchain code.

In 2024, all eyes are on interoperability solutions that can connect two or more distinct blockchain networks to talk to one another and become friends in a highly populated multi-chain world.

The rise of Layer-1 interoperability solutions such as Polkadot, Cosmos and Chainlink (a crypto protocol also used as an interoperability standard as well as a decentralized oracle) should make it easier than ever for projects from different chains to talk to one another, which in turn could encourage collaboration across projects that might otherwise struggle to get along. Interoperability can make cross-chain applications easier, too.

An Urgent Focus on Privacy

Because privacy will be more crucial than ever before in the context of our financial transactions and personal data, privacy-preserving technologies will be well-positioned to succeed throughout 2024.

Future research in areas such as zero-knowledge proofs and cryptographic techniques is likely to lead to the inclusion of various sorts of privacy features even in mainstream or underground types of cryptocurrencies.

Institutional Adoption and Infrastructure Development

Institutional adoption is likely to ramp up next year – on the retail side, investments through traditional vehicles such as 401k accounts are seeing increasing growth in 2024 and see cryptocurrencies and digital assets as investment vehicles.

Meanwhile, traditional financial institutions such as banks, asset managers, and hedge funds are increasingly offering cryptocurrency services to their clients, which is powering the construction of institutional-grade infrastructure, such as custody solutions, trading desks, and financial products for institutional investors.

Conclusion

In short, it is possible that 2024 could mark an age of cryptocurrency growth, technological advancement, and the ongoing evolution of market positions. Crypto users know the direction of travel is clearly towards mainstream adoption and embedding in the traditional financial system.