Despite the persisting bear market and dwindling hope that the cryptocurrency markets will soon recover, one industry expert believes that the cryptocurrency market cap could reach the coveted trillion-dollar mark on speculation alone, without the help of institutional and retail funding.

The comments were made by Nick Tomaino, an ex-Coinbase executive and the founder of crypto investment firm 1Confirmation, while speaking to CNBC’s Ran Neuner in a recent interview. He explained that the public investing and speculating on the cryptocurrency markets is adoption, and that the market doesn’t need institutional funds to hit $1 trillion.

“I see investing and speculating as adoption. I think it is possible that crypto gets from $200 billion to several trillion on just that. From my perspective, what I’m seeing globally in terms of viewing this new investable asset class I think that’s possible,” Tomaino said.

At the height of the 2017-2018 bull run, the cryptocurrency market capitalization hit a high of $800 billion, before dropping to its current level of around $200 billion. That being said, a one trillion-dollar market cap isn’t unrealistic, assuming the major cryptocurrencies eventually surpass their previously established highs.

Tomaino also explained that increased consumer adoption could be driven by a global trend of shifting trust from authority-based resources, like fiat currency, to decentralized and immutable alternatives, like Bitcoin.

“My view is that the most important macro trend of our lifetime is people increasingly distrusting governments and large institutions. I see it more as kind of a gradual movement into crypto, I think it’s kind of a gradual and cultural shift from people trusting large institutions and governments to using the blockchain,” he said.

Despite having massive potential regardless of its speculative adoption, the cryptocurrency markets are already seeing unprecedented levels of growth, with major financial institutions, like Fidelity and NYSE parent company, ICE, moving into the space.

The combination of institutional, retail, and speculative adoption could drive the market capitalization to prices significantly greater than $1 trillion, which has already been nearly hit at the height of the 2017-2018 bull run.