CEO of the fintech project Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse, believes that by the end of 2024, the total capitalization of the crypto market could reach $5 trillion.
Garlinghouse: Three Reasons Crypto Market Will Boom
Central to Garlinghouse’s forecast are spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the impending halving. According to him, the new tool for the first time led to the appearance of real institutional money in the crypto market.
“You see this spot Bitcoin ETFs driving demand; demand increases and supply decreases. It doesn’t take an economics major to understand what happens when supply decreases and demand increases,” he said. In addition, Garlinghouse is optimistic about the price of the first cryptocurrency after halving, which is historically associated with price surges in Bitcoin.
The event will take place in less than two weeks – April 20th. The miners’ reward for a mined block in the BTC network will decrease from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, which will lead to a shortage of coins on the market.
Since the 2020 halving, the total crypto market volume has increased by more than 1,040%. According to CoinGecko, at the time of writing, the figure is $2.72 trillion.
The third factor is changes in the US regulatory framework. In the year of the presidential elections, which will be held in America in November, the hopes of the crypto community are optimistic. Many hope that the next head of the country will be more favorable to the crypto industry. “I think we’ll get more regulatory clarity in the United States this year,” Garlinghouse said.
Ripple and American regulation
There may indeed be hope on the horizon for the crypto market. In March, Republican Patrick McHenry of the Financial Services Committee reported significant progress toward legislation to provide regulatory clarity for cryptocurrencies. Fintech startup Ripple is no stranger to regulatory issues.
The company is currently still dealing with the SEC, which claims that XRP is an unregistered security. In July last year, the court nevertheless recognized that the project token is not a security, and in October the Commission refused to participate in the trial in the Ripple case. However, now the regulator requires the project to pay a fine of $770 million.
Garlinghouse’s optimism echoes broader sentiment among industry experts. Thus, some analysts believe that by the end of the year, the price of Bitcoin will exceed $100 thousand. This bullish forecast is further confirmed by the growing interest of institutions in cryptocurrency ETFs. The crypto community is actively discussing when the SEC will approve a tool targeting Ethereum (ETH).
