The overall cryptocurrency transaction volume has grown a fair bit in the past few years. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and a few other currencies are all maturing in front of our eyes. As a result, we have a market cap hovering around the US$160 billion mark. A new study by Juniper Research predicts we will see over US$1 trillion in transaction value for all cryptocurrencies combined in the near future.
Total Cryptocurrency Transaction Value is on the Rise
The research by Juniper foretells a rather interesting future for Bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies. With so many coins finally cementing their place in the ecosystem, it is only a matter of time before we see some big changes. The combined transaction value of all cryptocurrencies is slowly increasing. During the first half of 2017, transactions surpassed the US$325 billion mark, which is pretty impressive for something a lot of “financial experts” deem to be a niche market.
This increase in value is mainly driven by Bitcoin and Ethereum. Especially now that both ecosystems are inching closer to creating a scalable ecosystem in the future, interesting things are bound to happen in the future. If more transactions can be processed on those two networks, we may reach the projected US$1 trillion cap a lot sooner than anticipated. The new research projects this value will be attained at some point between now and 2022.
One also has to keep in mind the typical daily trading volume of all major cryptocurrencies combined is well in excess of US$2 billion these days. We have seen US$6 billion or even US$9 billion, depending on the day. Bitcoin itself handles around US$2 billion in 24-hour trading volume on a regular basis now, which goes to show the global demand for cryptocurrency will not slow down anytime soon. Ethereum and Litecoin have also seen major increases in trading volume throughout 2017.
According to Juniper, the current growth of Litecoin puts the cryptocurrency on target to surpass US$100 billion in transactions by the end of 2017. That would be a major milestone for this particular cryptocurrency, especially when so many people had almost given up on LTC not too long ago. Then again, good things are coming to the Litecoin ecosystem, including its own version of the Lightning Network and cross-chain atomic swaps. These developments will take some time to come to market, though.
Given the recent value appreciation of all top 10 cryptocurrencies, it is only normal we are seeing more transactions take place on the network. More on-chain transactions result in an increase in the total cryptocurrency transaction value. Although this does not mean people will actively spend US$1 trillion using cryptocurrency on goods and services, the currencies are being used more and more often for whatever purpose the user intends. That in itself is a big step forward, as it shows how cryptocurrency is maturing. With scaling solutions coming to individual ecosystems, interesting things are on the horizon.
Research like this validates the use of cryptocurrencies for many different purposes. It also shows how blockchain technology is evolving through scaling solutions and new use cases. That does not mean every single industry or business model can benefit from blockchain technology, although there is still a lot of research to be done over the next few years. It is good to see positive research related to use cases for cryptocurrency, as a lot of people still associate these currencies with illegal activity first and foremost.
