Will FTX’s collapse decentralize the industry?
While the collapse of FTX may invite more scrutiny for centralized exchanges, Binance’s Patrick Hillmann believes it could benefit the industry through more decentralization.
Welcome to Forkast Forecasts 2023. In this series, leaders, innovators and visionaries in blockchains share their industry predictions for the year ahead.
Patrick Hillmann
Patrick Hillman is the chief strategy officer of Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange
He has previously worked at the public relations firm Edelman and marketing company ICF.
He is also the co-founder of Sortie Group, a company that uses predictive analytics data to solve corporate issues and crises.
Predictions for 2023
The crypto industry will become more decentralized
“What we’re going to see is a slow and steady increase in the industry evolving towards greater decentralization. DeFi, as we call it, has always been the end game for crypto and for Web 3.0. That is where this tech is best deployed.”
“You’re going to see that centralized exchanges, like Binance, are going to continue to look towards the DeFi space and diversify their businesses outside of just being a centralized exchange.”
“There’ll always be a place for centralized exchanges. A lot of new users that are going to enter the marketplace over the next year are still going to be much more comfortable in a centralized exchange environment, and that’s simply because the tech is still in its infancy.”
More scrutiny for centralized exchanges
“2023 is going to be a year of increased scrutiny on exchanges, which is a good thing for the industry. It’s going to require platforms like ours and everyone else in the community to be more transparent and to ensure that that transparency is verified by code, which is really much at the heart of why this industry began in the first place.”
“A lot of people are looking at FTX as this moment in time. That is going to bring about a lot of fundamental change in crypto. To a certain extent, I guess that’s fair, but I don’t think there’s going to be any major movements or sweeping changes that probably weren’t going to happen anyways.”
Metaverse growth will be driven by utility
“We’re looking at the industrial applications of NFTs, like what we see at companies like Boeing and Alfa Romeo. We’re looking at the future of consumers in a digital space and the metaverse, not necessarily the maxi version of the metaverse — as Mark Zuckerberg sees it — but the idea that someone should be able to buy a pair of Nike gym shoes and receive an NFT of those gym shoes that they can port over to the latest game of Madden and be able to use those shoes in game. That’s a more clear and present version of the metaverse, which we think will be here pretty soon. You’re going to see a lot of rapid evolvement in this space, and it’s going to be driven by utility and innovation and how we provide utility to users.”