Ripple just released a new outlook on the blockchain and crypto industries, predicting 2020 will be the “year of the digital asset.”
The company says it expects to see increased use of its liquidity solution using XRP as a bridge to move fiat currencies across borders.
“XRP is a digital asset custom-designed to facilitate cross-border payments. A number of companies, including MoneyGram and goLance, and applications have endorsed this use case and we anticipate even more will join the adoption curve over the coming year. But our team expects other digital assets and use cases to find traction in the coming year and decade.”
The company’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, says he believes some of the largest banks in the world will soon begin to “hold and trade” digital assets over the next year.
“[Garlinghouse predicts] that half of the top 20 biggest banks in the world will actively hold and trade digital assets in 2020. He is also one of many on the team that believes fiat currencies will go digital in the next year.
SVP of Xpring Ethan Beard expects at least one central bank to launch a tokenized representation of their fiat currency in 2020, Brad forecasts at least one non-G20 currency—like the Argentine peso or similar—will become fully digitized within the next year.”
Ripple is also anticipating mobile payments companies will increasingly support blockchain and cryptocurrency, and expects crypto exchanges to consolidate through acquisitions from bigger brands.
As for Bitcoin, Ripple’s head of global markets, Breanne Madigan, believes exchange consolidation, increasing enterprise adoption and support from banks will trigger a new bull run for BTC and the crypto markets at large.
“These three evolving trends will together likely fuel what Breanne calls the next major pump for the digital asset market. She projects that growing institutional comfort level with digital asset use cases along with increased regulatory clarity in the U.S. and the next bitcoin halving by May of 2020 will all lead to the next large adoption cycle.”
You can check out the full outlook here.