Messari is considered one of the most important crypto research companies in the entire ecosystem. On its website, you can find important features like watchlists, trading charts, research articles, among others.
Therefore, Messari wrote an annual report where they cover the most trending topics from the ecosystem. In this article, we will make a summary of the most important topics of every section.
1. Crypto Policy and Self-Sovereignty
In this section, Messari begins by talking about the nature of cryptocurrencies, which were created as a social pact for the exchange of goods. However, over time, governments took control of it to the point of manipulating every aspect.
However, since the advent of cryptocurrencies, governments have been trying different strategies to control them with no success. Because if citizens manage cryptocurrencies with decentralized tools, there will be no way to control them.
On the other hand, this report also talks about:
- The influence of the USA and China rivalry in crypto’s behavior.
- The possibility of creating a crypto country
- Crypto integration of Banks
- Pro-crypto influencers.
2. Bitcoin as a Programmable Digital Gold
In this section, the report began by talking about how bitcoin began to be taken into account as its price rose. The world’s biggest banks and investment funds started talking about bitcoin and even said that it would replace gold.
This fact was contrasted with the fact that the majority of people who held bitcoin did so as a long-term investment. This meant that there were fewer and fewer transactions of buying/selling products/services with this asset.
As a result, little by little, more and more alternatives were born to connect large investments with the crypto world. Today, investing in bitcoin is safe where individuals and large companies can do it.
On the other hand, the report made a comparison of bitcoin and gold concerning their technical characteristics as an asset, highlighting the need for the markets to have an investment alternative to gold.
3. Aspects of Investing in Crypto
In this section, the Messari 2021 report began by summarizing how the big crypto investment started from ICOs in 2017. This wave of new projects with a lot of potentials was a fever in that year, but many of them were scams. This caused the whole ecosystem to have a very bad reputation and little by little they disappeared.
On the other hand, the report went on to describe bitcoin, ethereum, the DeFi sector, stablecoins, synthetics, and NFTs. It also mentioned sectors that may be explored shortly such as cryptocurrency collateralized loans, exchanges, and web 3 projects in general.
4. Accessing Synthetic Assets
In this section, the report began by explaining that the current chairman of the SEC, Gary Gensler, is the arch-enemy of the crypto sector for synthetics assets. Thanks to this, the SEC will most likely not approve bitcoin ETFs.
He then went on to explain that ETFs are a very important investment tool worldwide. This would be a fundamental step for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be massively adopted by investors very quickly.
Therefore, the report continued talking about examples of cryptocurrency-based investment tools. These are Grayscale ETFs, Yearn Finance’s vaults, wrapped tokens, synthetic stocks, exchange tokens, DAOs, and IDOs.
5. Crypto Exchange Infrastructure
In this section, Messari began by discussing the fundamental role that exchanges play among users who handle cryptocurrencies. Therefore, it highlights the prominence of these centralized platforms in the entire ecosystem.
Also, the report points out that this leadership has several years ahead of where they detail 3 reasons: Regulators are allowing exchanges to operate legally, attracting huge amounts of investments, and lack of decentralized education from users.
On the other hand, the report mentions that there is a very clear trend that bitcoin stock on exchanges fell to 25% in March 2021. Also, exchanges such as Bitfinex and BitMEX are having judicial problems.
Finally, the report talks about the reasons that may make centralized exchanges less influential in the ecosystem.
6. Stablecoin
In this section, the report began by describing that in the last two years a lot of dollars have been printed. In parallel, the DeFi sector grew a lot in 2021, leading to a large increase in the supply of stablecoins. This led to less and less resistance from users and more stability in crypto investment tools.
Then, the report began to describe in more detail the obstacles for the main stablecoins in the market to grow: USDT, USDC, PAX, DAI, and USD.
On the other hand, the report also mentioned new stablecoins that are getting a lot of adoption such as UST, TerraKRW.
7. NFTs
In this section, Messari began by defining NFTs. They underscored the great potential that such assets directly give an ownership title to the creators. They then gave a short definition of the different types of NFTs: ERC-721, ERC-1155, and ERC-998.
Also, the report mentions predictions of NFTs by highlighting collectibles and marketplaces. Moreover, the report says that collateralized NFT is a niche with big potential.
8. Ethereum as a Finance System
In this section, the report started by saying that Ethereum’s community is very big. It has a big network of developers and protocols that are continuously being created. However, it also says that Ethereum is reaching its limits because of its technical bottlenecks.
Also, the report mentions 10 reasons why ETH should not be considered as money. Some of the most important are: Bitcoin holders have stronger funds, ETH 2.0, competition, among others. However, the report also explains the benefits of ethereum and how its features can make this cryptocurrency have a bright future.
Finally, this section also talks about the burning mechanism and how it affects its ecosystem with a short description of Vitalik Buterin.
9. DeFi
In this section, the report started describing DeFi and the main 5 features of this sector. Considering this standard, Messari defines the DeFi protocols with the best potential.
It included DAI, Uniswap, Compound, Curve, Yearn Finance, AAVE, and Chainlink. Also, this sector talked about security in DeFi where, in many cases, some protocols have stolen open-source code to build their own.
Finally, this section talked about governance tokens and the potential that they have to influence DAOs.
10. Crypto Credit / Trading
In this section, Messari started by introducing the crypto credit sector and the potential that it has for users. Then, it explains who are the companies that manage BTC futures and derivates in the US.
Also, this section explains how the current credit sector is decreasing its value, which justifies the need for innovative products to make it still be profitable. After that, it shows a comparison between cash and crypto collateralization and the position of legal arbitrage brokers in the ecosystem.
Finally, the report talks about crypto trading companies and the pros and cons of their strategies.
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