Source: iStock/Enjoylife2

Increased scalability of cryptocurrencies is needed before the next run-up in prices, but when that happens the market to increase “10x from here”, according to Joey Krug, Pantera Capital’s co-chief investment officer.

In an interview with Bloomberg he also said that the market has already hit its bottom this year.

Krug further compared the most recent bull market to the current market, saying that news about early adoption by some institutions sparked a surge in speculative investments two years ago. This time around, however, he believes the market is waiting for more “actual adoption” of digital assets, and decentralized applications (dapps) in particular.

He went on to compare the current state of dapps to “the Internet before dial-up,” where they are not scalable, and people are not using them for that reason, hinting that this is the first thing that needs to be solved.

Although Joey Krug and Pantera Capital, a crypto investment firm and hedge fund, remain very optimistic about crypto over the long-term, Krug did warn that prices could continue in their current “range-bound” pattern for a while.

When asked if it is right that he doesn’t believe the market will rebound for the next two years until scalability is solved, Krug answered that “we could see a rebound before then, but I think that’s gonna be the real catalyst that drives the next huge bull-run in my opinion.”

In August, Pantera announced that it is looking to raise up to USD 175 million for its third venture fund. This is a significant jump from its previous ones, as their second one was USD 25 million, whereas its debut deployed USD 13 million back in 2013.

However, Pantera Capital’s Digital Asset Fund was still showing loss in August.

In the meantime, new solutions that help Bitcoin to scale are being launched.

Recently, San Francisco startup Blockstream launched the Liquid Network, a Bitcoin sidechain, which marks "the beginning of a new era of digital asset issuance and transacting by enabling the tokenization of fiat, gold, securities, and even other new crypto assets – all with Bitcoin at the center."

The sidechain has become another important development for Bitcoin alongside the Lightning Network. In comparison, while the Liquid sidechain is purpose-built to cater for the needs of exchanges, brokers and traders, the the Lightning Network is designed to enable the near-instant transfer of small or micro value payments between linked channel members and merchants.

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Watch the entire interview with Joey Krug below: