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The World Economic Forum (WEF) has said that the technology behind cryptocurrencies and digital assets will remain an “integral” part of the modern economy. In a blog post published on Monday, the WEF spoke about the future of the crypto industry, highlighting the widespread use of cryptography and blockchain technology, particularly in the financial services sector. The WEF said that while the crypto industry is not risk-free, the transparent nature of cryptocurrencies gives bad actors few places to hide.
The WEF also acknowledged that 2022 was a “terrible year” for the crypto market, with more than $2 trillion of value evaporating from the market cap, which dropped from its all-time high of around $3 trillion to around $800 billion. The organization said that the recent failures of large crypto exchanges, including FTX, have eroded trust in the industry and drawn the attention of global regulators.
“Indeed, as a test of the staying power of digital assets and blockchains at the core of financial services (and other areas of the global economy), watch what the big banks and mature financial services firms do, not what they say.”
However, the WEF compared the market crash to the dot-com bubble of the early 2000s, saying that it will lead to more durable companies, business models, and use cases in the crypto and blockchain industry. The organization said that it is worth watching what the big banks and mature financial services firms do, rather than what they say, as they adopt Web3 and crypto technologies. The WEF also compared the adoption of cryptography and blockchain technologies to the embrace of cybersecurity and digital transformation, saying that the embrace of crypto technology is “inevitable.”
