1B People Will Have Tried Crypto Within Decade - Coinbase CEO

cryptonews.com:

The number of people who have used or tried cryptoassets will reach 1bn within a decade, contributing even more to the global economy, according to Brian Armstrong, CEO of major crypto exchange Coinbase. 

“My guess is that in 10-20 years, we’ll see a substantial portion of GDP happening in the crypto economy,” Armstrong said during a session at this year’s Milken Institute Global Conference, as quoted by Bloomberg.

His estimate is relatively conservative compared with the one offered by another major crypto platform Crypto.com. Last December, the company said it expected 2022 will be the year when the global number of crypto users will for the first time reach 1bn people. The company also estimated that there were more than 292m crypto users worldwide in November 2021. Also, in February 2021, Crypto.com said it hoped to hit the 100 million user mark by 2023. Coinbase says it has over 89m verified users.

Meanwhile, the CEO also reiterated that regulatory uncertainty in the US remains one of the key factors hampering the crypto industry’s growth. Compared with the internet’s regulatory framework, the one related to crypto has been developed at a significantly slower pace, he said.

However, “it’s been harder and harder to meet a true crypto skeptic in [Washington, D.C.],” according to Armstrong.

Speaking at the same panel, Cathie Wood, CEO of global asset manager ARK Invest, said that decentralized finance (DeFi) was one of the crypto sector’s fields that had the potential to absorb some of the most talented finance industry representatives.“In the case of DeFi and next-generation internet, we are seeing a lot of financial companies losing talent to crypto,” she was quoted as saying. “So they have to take it seriously, or else