FTX affair: is this the end of cryptos?

You couldn't escape it.

For the past few days, we've been flooded with articles, commentaries and interviews explaining that the fall of FTX signals the "end" of cryptocurrencies. Yes, the end of cryptocurrencies and the whole ecosystem.

But what is it really? We looked into it and the figures show that in reality the crypto industry is doing quite well. Even very well.

Here are some figures to use at the coffee machine 😉.

👉 Number of users

Sources vary, but according to figures from Chainalysis, just over 200 million people now own cryptocurrencies on the planet, which is quite simply an all-time record.

To give you an idea, that's twice as many as before the Covid crisis - in 2020 - which marked a marked acceleration in the adoption of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The rise in the markets has obviously helped a lot 🚀.

Currently, there are said to be just over 50 million crypto holders in Europe, or roughly the population of Spain!

👉 Companies are getting involved

Aside from the scandal surrounding FTX, there have never been so many companies interested in the subject of cryptocurrencies, NFT (we explain everything about NFTs here) or metavers.

Luxury groups such as LVMH, via Tiffany & Co. in particular, are working on NFT projects or collaborating with well-known collections such as the Bored Apes or CryptoPunks.

In finance, every month more banks are testing DeFi (decentralised finance) or, like some especially in the US, allowing their customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

👉 Fundraising

Fundraising is a good indicator of the health of a sector (although FTX is a good counter-example), and Web3 companies are still raising a lot of money.

In 2022, they will have attracted more than $20 billion in capital, according to a recent report by Messari, which is a company specialising in financial data.

Or, while these volumes are down on 2021 - a record year with $30 billion raised! - they are, however, significantly higher than what we saw in 2020 ($7 billion).

👉 Regulation coming into place

Some will say that regulation is a "bad" thing for the sector, because it sets rules, but it is also a sign that cryptos are becoming democratised. Just about everywhere on the planet, the authorities are working on regulations to determine the nature of assets (tokens, cryptos, etc), set up taxation...

The European Union is at the forefront of this with the MiCA regulations due to come into force by 2024.

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