Welcome to Forkast Forecasts 2022. In this series, leaders, innovators and visionaries in blockchain-related fields tell Forkast.News their predictions for the year ahead.
Nischal Shetty
Nischal Shetty is a software developer who is founder and CEO of Mumbai-based cryptocurrency exchange WazirX and marketing bot Crowdfire, which helps creators grow their brand. WazirX is on open-source exchange that promotes peer-to-peer trading through automatic matching. He was named to the 2014 Forbes India 30 Under 30 as an expert and entrepreneur in social media.
Predictions for 2022:
Growth in India
“2021 has shown us the potential of crypto, especially in India. The India market has grown at least five to 10 times in just this year alone. And this is the inflection point where 2022 will probably eclipse the growth of 2021… With all the investments coming into crypto, 2022 will see probably thousands of crypto startups emerging.”
Regulatory clarity
“We are probably at the later stages of regulation where governments, including India and other countries, are dabbling with what should crypto regulations look like? We are going to see a lot more countries reaching towards that regulatory environment in their respective nations.”
More CBDCs
“CBDC (central bank digital currency) has been the talk of the town and everyone’s talking about CBDC and we’ve seen some early experiments. But 2022 will probably see a lot more countries adopting and bringing about their own CBDC.”
Blockchain breakthroughs
“One of the biggest problems today in the blockchain ecosystem, which is probably slowing down the growth or has the potential to slow down the growth, is the scalability of blockchains. My prediction is that in 2022, you will see some scalable solutions to the existing problems that blockchains are facing.”
Continuing rapid adoption of crypto
“What countries are realizing is they have to participate or they have to be left out. This is not a technology where one or two nations can decide its fate, which is leading to every nation participating, which is a good thing very similar to the internet. If you look back, every country ultimately had to adopt and adapt, and that’s what is going to happen to crypto. We are about 150 million people into crypto today. The internet has 4.73 billion people, so a long way to go.”