Bernstein: “The Year 2023 Will Mark The 10-Year Golden Age”

Bernstein analysts expect bullish momentum in the crypto market. Analysts predicted that “2023 will lay the foundation for a decade-long golden age of innovation for crypto applications.” The company’s analysts expect total revenue in the cryptocurrency industry to grow 16-fold over the next 10 years, from $25 billion in 2023 to $400 billion in 2033. According to analysts, this growth in crypto industry revenues will be driven primarily by “decentralized revenues (“on-chain revenues”) generated by blockchains, accounting for around 50% of total revenues in 2033, up from just 15% today.

Bernstein expects on-chain revenues to grow from less than $4 billion today to nearly $200 billion in 10 years, driven by innovations in blockchain scalability and application growth in the financial services and consumer technology segments. Bernstein pointed out that “on-chain revenues include smart contract blockchain revenues, Layer 2 revenues, and application revenues (now from DeFi, NFT, etc.)”. On DeFi (decentralized finance), Bernstein said:

“Within the on-chain financial applications, we expect decentralized exchanges, lending and structured/tokenized products to be the main revenue drivers.”

Analysts predict that “NFT-based gaming revenues will be the main growth driver, followed by social and media assets and digital commerce” in on-chain consumer applications. Finally, Bernstein also predicted “rapid adoption of cryptocurrencies by institutions,” which he said would make institutional services (main brokerage, custody, market making) a driver of revenue growth for the off-chain crypto industry.