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The bitcoin price soared to almost $70,000 per bitcoin late last year, up from under $10,000 two years ago, while the ethereum price has seen a similar rise. Both are down by around 40% from their all-time highs, however.
Now, Brian Armstrong, the chief executive of major bitcoin and crypto exchange Coinbase, has predicted there will be a massive influx of crypto users in the coming decade—forecasting 1 billion people will have used crypto by 2032.
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“My guess is that in 10-20 years, we’ll see a substantial portion of GDP happening in the crypto economy,” said Armstrong, speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference this week in comments first reported by Bloomberg. Coinbase, based in San Francisco, currently has almost 90 million verified users across 100 countries.
The “crypto economy” has grown rapidly over the last few years as businesses and services spring up around bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies.
Decentralized finance (DeFi)—the idea that crypto technology can replace lenders and insurers—and blockchain-based digital collectibles known as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have both become multi-billion dollar markets in just a couple of years.
Some of the world’s largest technology companies, including Facebook’s parent Meta and Elon Musk’s electric car company Tesla
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Financial giants on Wall Street have also slowly started to roll out crypto services to clients. Speaking alongside Armstrong, Ark Investment Management’s chief executive, Cathie Wood, one of the biggest backers of web3—a name for the crypto and blockchain-based next-generation of the internet that some think could succeed the current Silicon Valley-centric model—warned financial companies not to fall behind.
“In the case of DeFi and next-generation internet, we are seeing a lot of financial companies losing talent to…
Read more:Coinbase CEO Issues Stunning Crypto Prediction As The Price Of Bitcoin And Ethereum