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Investment company Ark Invest shares bold forecasts, believing that very soon more than half of the world’s population will have at least one crypto wallet
On January 31, the investment company Ark Invest published the results of the annual study “Big Ideas 2023”. In it, experts shared their forecasts for the future of the crypto industry and leading digital assets in the coming years. One of Ark’s boldest assumptions was predictions about the prospects for crypto wallets.
The popularity of crypto wallets is steadily growing
According to analysts, currently about 40% of the world’s population use cryptocurrency wallets. This is about 3.2 billion people. Meanwhile, Ark Invest expects this figure to grow by 8% annually. As a result, by 2030, about 65% of the world population will be users of online crypto wallets:
“By attracting billions of consumers and millions of merchants, digital wallets have the potential to transform an economy based on transactions through traditional payment methods and reduce people’s costs and expenses by up to $50 billion.”
The study also notes that the popularity of cash as a means of payment is clearly declining, which is largely facilitated by various government initiatives in the field of digital assets.
Trends in the popularity of payment methods. Source: Ark Invest
According to Ark, the growth rate of crypto wallets in the US is significantly higher than that of traditional bank accounts. At the same time, in 2022, mass adoption of digital wallets in the United States has intensified again, absorbing previous highs.
Experts predict that over the next eight years, the number of crypto wallet users will increase by 8% annually. As a result, the figure will grow from 160 million in 2022 to 260+ million by the end of this decade.
Growth in the number of users of crypto wallets. Source: Ark Invest
Friendly Ecosystem
One of the benefits of online wallets is the user-friendly ecosystem that allows consumers and merchants to interact directly.
“Digital wallets are attracting millions of merchants to trading platforms, allowing them to transact directly with consumers without resorting to the services of traditional financial institutions and intermediaries.”
As you can see from the illustrations below, such an ecosystem significantly reduces the number of steps and costs required for effective interaction between the seller and the consumer and the successful completion of the transaction:
Source: Ark Invest
Analysts cited Block Inc. as an example. (former Square), which in 2022 had to pay about 60% of all commissions for transactions with customers to third parties. Meanwhile, interacting with consumers directly could significantly improve the margin structure of wallet providers.
Source: Ark Invest
Ark expects that by 2030, such an efficient interaction structure will form more than 50% of all digital payments.
Earlier in December, the editors of BeInCrypto said that, according to a study by Huobi, in 2022, the number of users of crypto wallets in the world increased by 6.3%.
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