Solana (SOL) creator Anatoly Yakovenko is laying out a prediction for crypto markets for the next 12 to 18 months.
In a new interview on the Bankless podcast, Yakovenko says while there may be challenging macroeconomic conditions ahead, it likely won’t stop an unprecedented wave of innovation from hitting the crypto space.
Yakovenko warns that if the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates to draw down inflation it could drive investment away from the less established blockchain projects like Ethereum (ETH) rival Solana.
“I think that’s a big question for probably all of the smart contract platforms except for Ethereum: Are we going to be in a high-interest rate environment for the next five years where all the riskier bets get squeezed down and there’s no traction?
That means that there’s nothing for Solana to do that’s useful to the world that Ethereum doesn’t cover, even if Solana is 100 times faster. Even if we do more transactions than all the Ethereum [layer-2s] combined. They’re not providing enough value to the world in that environment, if they’re not, that means it’s not going to survive. Now that’s like the big if and that I don’t know. That’s a big ‘if’ for crypto. What is crypto doing right now that is so crucial to the world that it can’t live without it?”
However, Yakovenko says he is optimistic about Solana’s future. He says that even if there is an economic downturn, Solana’s market share of non-fungible token (NFT) projects would create enough value to sustain the project.
“This is like if I put on my worst bear hat and everything’s going to sh*t, interest rates are at 10%, is the Web3 NFT business model [going to] survive? I think so. And if that’s true, I think Solana survives.”
Yakovenko predicts innovation in the crypto space will surge at a pace never seen before, helping the sector successfully navigate through choppy economic times.
“I feel like way more bullish now than 2018, 2019. There’s so much funding that’s still happening in crypto. There’s so many smart young people that are not joining the big companies and building awesome products.
My guess is if you looked at all the product launches from the inception of crypto to now to what’s going to happen in the next 12 to 18 months, then the next 12 to 18 months is probably going to be way more than everything else combined up to this point. And if people are launching products, they’re grinding for product market fit, they’re going to get users, it means crypto is going to survive.”