Crypto seems to have two modes. The first is when your friends won’t stop talking about it. The second is when your friends want you to stop talking about it.
Having watched boom and bust cycles in the web3 world since 2013, I’ve learned to never write off crypto entirely, and also to never expect the most bullish takes to come true — at least in the short term.
The Exchange explores startups, markets and money.
Read it every morning on TechCrunch+ or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday.
But in the last decade or so, blockchain-based technology has managed to not go away. No matter what the general public or investors thinks about it at any point in time, its community of believers and builders are willing to muddle through any downturn.
All that in hand, I think that 2024 is going be a good year for blockchain-based products and services, but not because I expect that 2021-era venture enthusiasm to rear its head once again. No, instead, it seems that there are several market forces going in crypto’s favor that could yield a better year for the technology and its constituent startup cohort.
Rising prices are helping provide a boost to trading and consumer interest, for one. But there’s more that’s worth considering, including regulation and its possible crystallization, and the chance that there is a breakout consumer product to tout. Let’s dig in and see if we can find some good news!
Bullish 2024 signals for crypto
Fully anticipating texts from friends who are crypto-negative in response to this story, I think it’s important to write down here that I do not hold any material crypto assets. I own a de minimis amount of crypto tokens in a Coinbase account that I set up for testing purposes, and I believe I own some zero-value NFTs that are stored in a Metamask wallet that I set up, once again, to tinker and learn. So, I am not talking my book here, and to my friends who consider anything that TechCrunch+ writes that has a positive take on crypto to be a personal failing on my part, please relax.
