According to Bitwise, stablecoins will settle more payment volumes than Visa in 2024, with the dollar and asset-pegged tokens being crypto’s most noteworthy ‘killer app’.
In an X post (formerly Twitter) on Dec. 13, Bitwise’s Ryan Rasmussen highlighted ten positive themes for the cryptocurrency space in 2024, with a major one being the parabolic growth of the stablecoin sector.
By the third quarter of 2023, Visa processed over $9 trillion in payments, while stablecoin trading volume surged to $5 trillion.
Prediction #4: More money will settle using stablecoins than using Visa.
Stablecoins are one of crypto’s “killer apps,” growing from effectively zero to a $137 billion market in the past four years, and we think 2024 will be another major year of growth. pic.twitter.com/uGjRxZjsyt
— Ryan Rasmussen (@RasterlyRock) December 13, 2023
In the report, Rasmussen underlined that stablecoins had grown from a market capitalisation of near-zero to an eye-watering $137 billion, all within a modest 4-year time-frame. Considering the trend, he forecast that stablecoins will only represent even more payments and trading volumes in 2024.
The researcher also anticipates a strong year ahead for BTC, predicting an $80,000 price-tag next year, with the expected launch of the first Spot Bicoin ETF and April’s halving event acting as catalysts for growth.
That said, predictions for Bitcoin‘s dollar price have varied widely, as they aways do. In November, prominent financial analyst, Plan B, said h expected Bitcoin’s price to be at least $100,000 between 2024 and 2028. BitQuant set a target of $250,000 after the 2024 halving; and former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes expects Bitcoin to hit $750,000 to $1,000,000 by 2026.
Meanwhile, predictions about Bitcoin’s competitor, Litecoin, have also become increasingly popular, with the coin’s unofficial Chief Conviction Officer, Shan Belew, expecting the coin to surge towards 5-digits by 2026.
Litecoin is right in front of us. $LTC pic.twitter.com/J4iUPW0Ze6
— Shan Belew Ⓜ️🕸 (@MASTERBTCLTC) December 12, 2023
The seemingly out-worldly predictions stem from the price-fundamentals discrepancy which has been building for approximately six years.
Briefly, the discrepancy comes from a widening (and somewhat mind-boggling) margin between a cluster of fundamental data points such as new wallets, transactions, network hash rate and node infrastructure (among other metrics), the growth of which has yet to be reflected in price.
In prior bull markets, similar metrics have been held up as the preeminent case buttressing Bitcoin’s critical acclaim, which explains the growing optimism for Litecoin (following its halving event) as a reemerging top three coin that could even surpass Ethereum by market cap in the future.
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