Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong recently took his bullish optimism over crypto a notch higher by tweeting that the crypto industry, which currently boasts of a humble figure of fifty million users worldwide, will soon witness a massive surge and reach as many as five billion users.
To many, it may appear that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has set inexplicably high expectations from the crypto industry by estimating that around eighty percent (80%) of the world’s population will be using cryptocurrency in their daily lives in one way or the other. It will be a considerable achievement, no doubt! However, calling it off as a blatantly implausible claim would be a mistake to make.
If you go according to the statistics, for the crypto industry to reach a figure of five billion users, it would need to hike its adoption rate by an exceedingly high percentage of nine thousand nine hundred (9900%). Currently, there are around fifty million crypto users in the world who are either actively involved in crypto trading and crypto transactions or possess some amount of cryptos.
Coinbase CEO Armstrong’s claim may be an overestimate but not entirely baseless
A chart revealed by Statista, an online portal service for statistical data for market research and decisions, shows that the year 2019 ended with almost forty-five million active crypto wallet users. Around the same time the previous year, this figure was thirty-two million and had doubled since the fourth quarter of 2017.
Moreover, a BitInfoCharts-published Bitcoin Distribution chart reported that there are more than twenty-one million active Bitcoin wallets that hold a minimum value of one US dollar ($1) at least.
Another Statista-released chart shows that currently, there are over four and a half billion active internet users in the world and this figure is likely to grow by leaps and bounds as the technology continues to change the way people live, shop, travel or communicate.
There are other contributing factors to this seemingly exaggerated claim as well.
Factors that make us believe this is doable
Social media giant Facebook has an active user base of two and a half billion. If it is able to get its controversy-stricken stablecoin Libra up and running, the industry will witness a steep spike in the number of crypto users as it is expected to reach out to even those who do not have a bank account. Unfortunately, the project continues to attract negative publicity as more and more regulators grow wary of Libra’s risks to the monetary system.
China and India together constitute around thirty-five percent (35%) of the world’s population. With both countries now changing their stance over blockchain and cryptocurrency in general, it is expected that the industry will get a maximum boost in adoption rate from this region. While Chinese President Xi Jinping wholeheartedly supported mainstream integration of blockchain technology last year, India, on Wednesday, abolished the RBI ban on cryptocurrencies.
Lastly, there is renewed interest in the concept of cryptocurrencies through central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which are likely to become a norm in the years to come. With Sweden already preparing for the test launch of e-krona, Chinese central bank doing its best to introduce digital yuan as soon as possible despite setbacks arising from coronavirus outbreak, and the countries in Europe announcing their support for the idea, it appears that the nations are finally coming to terms with potential benefits of digital currencies.
Thus, Coinbase CEO Armstrong’s over the top forecast for the crypto industry may be an achievable target, but certainly not soon enough as the total number of internet users is yet to reach a figure of five billion. Besides, reaching a landmark figure of one billion would be a remarkable achievement in itself as that would mean that crypto has finally caught on mainstream attention.
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