Huobi Ventures, the global investment arm of Huobi Group, today announced the release of its Annual Summary and Outlook Report. The report commemorates one year since Huobi Group consolidated its various investment businesses into Huobi Ventures and established a US$100 million fund for early-stage blockchain and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects.
The last year saw transformative changes for the global blockchain and cryptocurrency industries. Bitcoin’s market cap exceeded the trillion-dollar mark, NFTs skyrocketed in popularity, and leading GameFi companies such as Axie Infinity, Animoca Brands, and YGG hit impressive milestones of their own. However, rapid growth also exposed issues within the industry, including security incidents that led to asset losses of over US$2 billion. And over the past few months, the blockchain industry got off to a rocky start when the Russia-Ukraine conflict and fears of Fed monetary policy tightening put the market on edge.
With so much market uncertainty, how should we prepare for the coming year? Huobi Ventures’ Annual Summary and Outlook Report reflects on key events that occurred over the past year, and provides insights on what to expect for 2022.
Taking the spotlight in 2022 is Web 3.0, whose decentralized structure and underlying blockchain infrastructure may solve common Web 2.0 problems associated with value distribution, privacy, bandwidth, storage processing and authorization. A new generation of internet technology may surpass existing infrastructural limitations, and open up new possibilities over the next 5-10 years.
While Ethereum remains the dominant platform player, competitor chains have grown to meet the expanding needs of the market, and multi-chain networks have become more and more important. And while USDT continues to dominate as the stablecoin leader, USDC has its own advantages in that it can both meet regulatory demands and interact freely with new DeFi assets. Unsecured lending protocols, which offer capital efficiency and institutional liquidity, display great potential in the face of a market inundated by over-collateralized lending protocols.
The value of NFTs in 2022 is shifting from simple encryption and art collection to proof of ownership and membership in the evolving Web 3.0 economy. While low liquidity and a shallow trading pool still inhibit its growth, their value as social tokens will play a critical role in the Web 3.0 and GameFi world. As Gamefi transforms traditional game play by introducing new concepts such as ownership, interoperability and play to earn, NFTs will secure their place as a major gateway to the Web 3.0 world.
Despite turbulence in the global macro economy, the fundamentals of cryptocurrencies continue to grow stronger than ever. More and more institutions are setting aside a portion of their portfolios for Bitcoin in the face of inflation and weak investor sentiment for other asset classes. These factors, combined with maturing government regulations and policies around the world, set the stage for long-term growth in the cryptocurrency industry.
Download the full report here.
About Huobi Ventures
Huobi Ventures is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Huobi Group that focuses on global investments. Huobi Ventures’ structure is divided into four business lines: Strategic Investment, Strategic M&A, Asset Management, and Global Cooperation. Thus far, Huobi Ventures has launched three funds to focus on Blockchain, HECO Ecology, and NFTs, respectively. Huobi Ventures aims to drive growth for Huobi Group and create a global ecosystem with our partners. For more information, visit: https://huobi-ventures.medium.com/ or https://twitter.com/HuobiVentures/
About Huobi Group
As a world-leading blockchain company, Huobi Group was founded in 2013 with a mission to make breakthroughs in core blockchain technology and further the integration of blockchain technology with other industries. Huobi Group has expanded its products and services to public blockchains, digital asset trading, wallets, mining pools, proprietary investments, project incubation, digital asset research, and more. Huobi Group has established a global digital ecosystem through investing in over 60 upstream and downstream companies across the blockchain industry. For more information, visit: https://www.huobi.com/
