Last year, there was quite a buzz about how crypto mass adoption was expected to rise significantly by 2023.
For instance, Deloitte's published poll of 2,000 senior executives of the retail industry found that around 75% of respondents planned to accept either crypto or stablecoin payments in the next 24 months.
Coinbase shared similarly positive results, with 62% of the polled institutional investors invested in digital assets increasing their allocations over the past year.
And yet, instead of the much-expected cryptocurrency adoption boost, the world has witnessed the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the failures of the crypto-friendly banks Silvergate and Signature.
Such events undermine digital assets' reputation, which has just started recovering from the FTX scandal.
That said, the promise of digital asset adoption still holds strong. Here’s what I believe should happen if we are to see crypto making its way to the mainstream audience in the next three years.
Regulatory Issues and Lack of Consumer Trust
As I see it, the most obvious barrier to crypto adoption is the lack of regulatory clarity in this field, which also leads to a lack of trust between consumers and enterprises that operate in the current digital asset ecosystem.
Last year's lender bankruptcies, Terra's collapse, and the FTX fiasco wreaked havoc on the market, and trust has been slow to come back since.
The current regulatory landscape for crypto is unclear and finds it hard to adapt to the rapidly changing trends.
Consequently, crypto firms often find themselves slowed down, their capacity for improvement limited by the uncertainty of what rules they should follow.
Simultaneously, decisions like the US SEC's aggressive stance against crypto discourage players from entering the digital asset market.
Coinbase and many market players are of the opinion that such crackdowns are not giving crypto the space in which to evolve and develop rules.
I believe that the industry will witness in 2023 that crypto regulation will gradually grow closer to what we already have in the field of electronic money regulation, specifically when it comes to safeguarding client funds.
It has been a common thing among electronic money institutions for a long time now, but crypto companies have yet to develop matching practices.
This stands as a promising direction to explore and implement compliance standards for crypto in the next few years.
Boosting Adoption With TradFi-Crypto Unification
Another prominent avenue of development that is gaining traction is the interest of traditional financial companies in crypto.
Both cryptocurrencies and TradFi institutions rely on networks to operate, which can be boosted via the application of blockchain technology.
While the relationship between the two worlds is still new, it can develop in a mutually beneficial manner.
There are already cases where major banks like JPMorgan, Citi, and Deutsche Bank show willingness to work with crypto companies, seeing the potential in the industry despite the ongoing challenges.
Visa has recently reaffirmed its strategy to bridge traditional finance and digital assets.
Mastercard has a similar focus, exploring blockchain technology to address market pain points and serve clients more efficiently.
Integrating with traditional financial platforms can improve the accessibility of crypto for an average user.
On the other hand, the crypto ecosystem could learn a lot from TradFi entities in terms of risk mitigation and user protection.
I believe that in 2023 we will see many use cases where cryptocurrencies are employed to solve some of the dysfunctions of the traditional fiat world, as people make use of crypto transfers for easier cross-border payments and day-to-day settlements.
What Does It Have to Do With Web3?
It is also essential to talk about Web3's role in the adoption of crypto payments. As the third iteration of the web, this sector's projects are building a decentralized, democratic, open, and user-centric internet.
Interestingly, this transformation also impacts the global payments industry as market players gradually move to the Web3 space.
Web3 wallet integration into the Microsoft Edge browser or Mastercard's recent partnership with Immersve to enable crypto transactions via decentralized protocols are only the start.
If successful, such initiatives could boost the adoption of crypto payments, garnering the attention of many retail customers looking for an easier, faster, and cheaper way to transact.
With the active pace of Web3 development, I wouldn't be surprised to see this space becoming the first to fully adopt crypto payments in the next five years.
During this period, cryptocurrency adoption will also speed up in the retail market as shoppers seek faster and more cost-efficient transactions.