Tim Draper, venture capitalist and billionaire tech investor, has predicted that within the next 15 years the total cryptocurrency market capitalization will reach $80 trillion. At present and according to CoinMarketCap, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization is only around $202 billion. Draper’s bold prediction, that although the cryptocurrency market has momentarily plateaued it will have further rapid and exponential growth within the coming years, came at the DealStreetAsia PE-VC Summit in Singapore this month.

Cryptocurrency Decline Due to People’s Lack of Faith

Draper, a renowned crypto supporter, has attributed the recent lack of growth in the cryptocurrency market to people’s failure to adopt digital currencies as a new asset class. Draper believes that once people become more familiar with cryptocurrency and blockchain technology they will begin to buy into and trade in digital assets. As cryptocurrency becomes more widely adopted, the cryptocurrency market will grow exponentially.

Draper believes that cryptocurrency and blockchain has the potential to transform industries in a revolutionary way. Although there is presently a lot of volatility in the cryptocurrency market, Draper believes that these are early days. Draper noted that “the current slowdown related to cryptocurrency was because people were not yet accustomed to it, despite clearly seeing its potential. Once people become more familiar with it, the technology is bound to transform many huge industries around the world”.

From Railroads to Internet to Crypto, the Next Leap in Progress

Just as the advent of the railroad, automobiles and the telegraph brought a massive transformation to industries on a global scale, so too will cryptocurrency. According to Draper, cryptocurrency will have “a transformative effect on industries that we never even imagined would be transformable”. He has even gone so far as to state that the technology cryptocurrency runs on is much greater than the internet or any other technology that has ever existed. Draper believes that cryptocurrency will affect sectors such as finance, agriculture, healthcare and insurance, banking and investment banking, and governments.

Draper commented that the cryptocurrency can be compared to the internet in that it also had pitfalls in its infancy. When referring to Bitcoin in particular, Draper stated that “the internet started in the same way, it came in big waves and then it kind of came crashing down, and then the next wave comes concentrated but much bigger, and I suspect the same thing will go on here”.

Brian Kelly, of CNBC’s Fast Money, similarly agreed that Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general is still in its early stages. According to Kelly, cryptocurrency cannot even be compared to the internet of the 1990s but should rather be compared to the internet of the 1980s. Although it’s very early days, Kelly among others, has recognized the potential of this technology as “game changing”. He believes that cryptocurrency is an opportunity similar to that of Microsoft in the 80s that people certainly should not miss out on.

Although Draper’s prediction that the cryptocurrency market capitalization will jump from billions to trillions in the next few years seems extreme, he is not alone in recognizing the enormous potential of cryptocurrency and the technology that underpins it.

Do you think crypto will be the next big leap in human progress? Will Bitcoin’s rise be as meteoric as Microsoft? Or is crypto over-hyped? Give us your thoughts in the comments below.

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