Senior executives of payments company Ripple believe that utility will be one of the most important factors in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry in 2023.
In a new series of predictions, Ripple executives say they believe non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) will play more prominent roles this year.
Sendi Young, Europe Managing Director of Ripple, predicts that more European countries outside the Eurozone will announce CBDC pilots in 2023.
Company executives believe that the NFT industry will continue to expand into more real-world use cases such as real estate and carbon markets.
They also predict that institutions will continue to embrace cryptocurrencies despite massive crashes across the space in 2022.
“Banks and other major financial institutions will invest in new technologies with the expectation that the benefits will be realized, not in days or weeks, but in years, which is why we see the adoption of digital assets and blockchain continuing into 2023 and beyond.”
Ripple’s general counsel, Stu Alderoty, predicts that the company’s ongoing case with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will be resolved in the first half of 2023 with a “favorable to Ripple” outcome.
The payments company was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in December 2020, alleging that Ripple illegally sold XRP as unregistered security for years, and that XRP remains a security to this day.
Alderoty also believes that the decision in the case “will be the necessary catalyst to move the US cryptocurrency industry forward.”
Overall, Ripple executives believe that the ongoing winter in the cryptocurrency space will end with a “crypto spring,” which is a positive moment for the market.
“Ultimately, the entire Ripple team is optimistic that the crypto winter will lead to the crypto spring — that 2022 will prove to be a decisive year with the industry emerging stronger and more focused on real-world utilities because of it.”
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