Authored by: @hetty-rowan

After @silverstackeruk shook us up with a loud bang!

And reminded some of us of the importance of backing up, I also want to wish you all a Happy New Year.

May 2022 be a good year, with many positive moments. I wish you all a year with many highs and few lows.

Although in crypto, and perhaps even in life, we certainly need lows to appreciate the highs, and without lows we won't be able to rise to greater highs.

But between what we need, and what we want, and what we're going to get can be a big difference. It remains crypto of course, and we can never be 100% sure what will happen next.

Various people who call themselves “Crypto Expert” have made predictions, and I have listed 13 of these predictions.

I thought it would be worth taking a look at these 2022 crypto sector predictions.

It can be a good starting point for a good discussion. Between the predictions, I see things that I think could be true. But also other predictions that in my opinion are really nothing more than an empty cry for attention.

• The price of Ethereum will rise much faster than that of bitcoin due to the switch to proof of stake. - Tom Higgins, CEO of wealth management platform Gold-i

I think this prediction may well come true. We have seen it more often lately that Bitcoin is not the forerunner, but that Ethereum is able to pull all crypto along with it. We have known for a long time that Ethereum has potential, that the gas fees are now just ridiculously high is also a fact. The transition to Proof of Stake should change that. IF that indeed happens, Ethereum could indeed rise much faster…

• Bitcoin could prevail over common stocks in 2022. - Mike McGlone, chief crypto analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence

I really have no opinion about the possibilities of this prediction myself, because I simply don't know anything about the 'normal stock markets'. What do you think about this?

• A Fortune 500 company that primarily allows employees to work remotely announces that their headquarters are in one of the metaverses. - Brandon Arvanaghi, CEO of crypto startup Meow

Would it? Would the metaverse become so important in such a short time? Seriously, I also see quite a few disadvantages of the metaverse, especially security and privacy is something that makes me personally still very reluctant with regard to the metaverse.

• The metaverse becomes the main point of interaction with the internet and each other. - Justin Banon, co-founder of the Boson Protocol decentralized network

For this prediction I have the same question marks as for the above.

• Expect a battle between the crypto-based metaverses set up by gaming and those of big companies like Meta. - Brock Pierce, President of the Bitcoin Foundation

I actually expect that Meta (Facebook) will have a difficult time.

• The market cap of the crypto economy is set to rise from $3 trillion to $7.5 trillion sometime in 2022. - Rohit Talwar, CEO of research firm Fast Future

Logically, this wouldn't even be that strange. At least, Bitcoin can be expected to make another parabolic move, closing the bull market. Since Bitcoin has still not shown a parabolic move, it can be assumed that it is yet to come. And if the market capitalization of the entire crypto economy is currently hovering around $3 trillion, then you can assume that bitcoin's parabolic move could indeed increase it somewhere around $7.5 trillion. It is therefore not surprising that this increase is predicted for this year.

• Next year, we're going to see the first billion-dollar hack as the decentralized finance business continues to grow. - Benjamin Whitby, who oversees regulatory affairs at Qredo, on decentralized finance

Ouch! I am afraid that we will indeed be confronted with bigger and bigger hacks as crypto rises, and more people get in. And the capital on the exchanges is increasing due to the rise of crypto. I can only hope it doesn't come true because it's not good for crypto in general!

• At least 25 countries will use a central bank digital currency by the end of 2022. Either their own currency or one issued by another country, such as China's digital yuan. - Talwar from Fast Future

I certainly expect this to happen… but whether it will be this year. That remains to be seen.

• Investors will use bots to buy NFTs as they are created. This would exclude fewer technical buyers. - Ethan McMahon, economist at blockchain data platform Chainalysis, on non-fungible tokens.

Since crypto and bots do seem to go hand in hand, I can see this becoming a reality, whether it is good too… we'll have to wait and see. Time will tell.

• Most people will do part of their daily work in the metaverse. - Shane Molidor, Head of Revenue at digital asset financial platform AscendEx

I actually don't believe in this at all… Although it is of course true that people have already become quite used to working from home due to the corona pandemic, if their work allowed it.

• Banks look to crypto for fraud trends. - Chris Stephens, Head of Fraud and Security Analysis at Callsign identification platform

Uhm… well, I guess everyone is looking at crypto for fraud trends, just whether this should make us happy? That's another story.

• Initial Game Offerings will become popular. Expect the larger organizations like GameStop and Epic to start offering these types of products sometime in 2022. - Nick Saponaro, co-founder and CEO of the decentralized payment ecosystem Divi Project, on Initial Game Offerings, which allow companies to raise money for blockchain games still in development

I think this could just be… I wouldn't think it strange.

• If countries adopt a hostile stance, cryptocurrency adoption will be much slower. - Witek Radomski, co-founder and CTO at blockchain platform Enjin

And this last one wouldn't come as a surprise to me either. Would it be a surprise to you?

Now with these 13 predictions made by the “Crypto Experts” you could expect, if you search a bit between the predictions for the undertones, that the bull market will continue in 2022!

At least, I'd like to think so. I can still remember the long crypto winter well. And I'm personally not ready to dive back into that just yet, but luckily for you, I don't have much to say about it. LOL!

Fact is, these are all predictions too… and we won't be able to say what happened until the end of 2022 as always. And hopefully we'll all be well by then.
LBI will work hard to take us to great heights again this year. We will definitely try to keep the trend we created in 2021 in 2022! !

On to a new year!

Have a nice Sunday!