What are users doing with their digital assets? A study conducted by CoinGecko and Blockchain Research Lab in December 2022 and January 2023 sought to answer this question. After analyzing the responses of 427 crypto industry players, CoinGecko identified eight crypto use cases. Learn more about crypto use cases in 2023: payment, investment, speculation, and more in this article.
Cryptocurrencies, an Investment
According to the report from CoinGecko, investment is the most common use case for cryptocurrency. Indeed, 93.9% of crypto holders use digital assets as a form of long-term investment.
This is likely due to the success of some cryptomineries, including the Bitcoin. While Bitcoin was worth almost nothing at its launch in 2009, it is now worth around $29,000. Although this value is below the peak of $69,000 reached in November 2021, Bitcoin remains the best performing investment of the past decade.
Nevertheless, to take full advantage of your digital assets, you need to invest wisely. Coinpri offers you some crypto investment strategies that have been proven to work.
Staking remains very popular
After investing, staking is the second most important cryptocurrency use case in 2023. In fact, up to 88.8% of crypto holders reported using their assets in staking. As a reminder, staking is when an investor stores his or her cryptos to participate in transactions that take place on a blockchain and earn some assets in return.
It should be noted, however, that staking is currently very much opposed in the United States. The exchange Kraken for example had to stop staking in the USA after being fined heavily.
Cryptos are also used for payment
Cryptocurrencies are commonly used as a means of payment. According to the study by CoinGecko, 84.5% of crypto holders claim to have already used these assets to make a payment.
This usage pattern is likely to grow. Indeed, more and more product and service providers are accepting crypto payments. Ingenico in France, The Palazzo Versace in Dubai, McDonald’s in Switzerland are just a few examples. In some countries, certain state services can be paid for in crypto. This is notably the case in Brazil and in a province of Argentina as well as in the State of Colorado in the USA. New York and Arizona are about to do the same.
Other crypto use cases
Investment, staking and payment are probably the most common use cases of crypto. However, they are far from being the only ones and are followed very closely by speculation. In fact, at least 81% of crypto holders have speculated in the market.
Furthermore, 79.6% of crypto holders have used their assets to participate in token sales. A token sale is a common fundraising method in the crypto industry. It consists of a company needing financing to issue tokens to which investors subscribe in order to access the company’s products and services in the future.
In addition, yield farming is another use case for crypto. About 74.7% of crypto users have resorted to this use case. For the record, yield farming rewards investors for committing their assets to liquidity pools over decentralized lending or exchange protocols.
Additionally, crypto is being used for governance. 74.5% of holders say they have used their assets to vote or participate in projects. Finally, crypto is used as loans and borrowing. 57.6% of crypto holders notably say they have used their assets for this purpose.
Contrary to the title of this article and a misconception, cryptocurrency is not just used for speculation. Its holders use it for many other purposes, and this will continue.
I dream of a world where every citizen has total control over themselves, including their finances. I believe that Bitcoin is one of the tools that will achieve this revolution. Since 2019, I am learning about this cryptocurrency and spreading the word around.
