Just two weeks ago it seemed like doomsday arrived in the crypto ecosystem with cryptocurrencies taking a collective dive in the proverbial frozen hell. Crypto users were selling and having buyers remorse, nay-sayers were laughing at people using "scam money" with no value and investors were lamenting that cryptocurrencies are too volatile to invest in with confidence. Others were praying that the value of Bitcoin (BTC) for example would fall to under $20k in order for them to go bullish on it. But this week BTC is currently sitting at the $37k mark after it initially dropped to under $35k. Of course, this doesn't mean that the prices will not go down anymore but the expected crash didn't happen and predictions on the contrary remain strong or get even stronger. 

Ark Invest Expects Bitcoin to soar to $1 million by 2030 — Notes that BTC could go down in monetary history

Ark Invest Management (Ark Invest) has recently made a prediction that the price of Bitcoin could surpass $1 million per coin by the year 2030. One of the firm's analyst, Yassine Elmandjra, noted that: "Our research suggests that bitcoin has the potential to transform monetary history by providing financial freedom and empowerment in a fair, global, and distributed way,". The same Elmandjra explained in Ark Invest's report "Big Ideas 2022" that: "As bitcoin’s market capitalization hit an all-time high in 2021, Ark’s research indicated that its network fundamentals remained healthy." Some of the events the report is based on include the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender by El Salvador. After making this move the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele predicted the BTC will become the legal tender in at least two more countries in 2022. He is also not alone in thinking this, being joined by the CEO of Devere Group who expects 3 countries to join El Salvador in adopting a cryptocurrency as legal tender, while Bitmex's CEO believes 5 countries will do so. Meanwhile, Fidelity says that: "wouldn’t be surprised to see other sovereign nation states acquire bitcoin in 2022 and perhaps even see a central bank make an acquisition." The Ark report further cites as a basis for the prediction network upgrades and growing adoption and implementation by more and more institutions which will make cryptocurrency prices soar. Also, the firm noted that crypto mining is pushing industries to encourage and generate cleaner solutions. 

In addition, the Ark Invest report notes: "Public blockchains are powering novel forms of coordination across money, finance, and the internet. By decentralizing institutions with open-source software, blockchain technology minimizes the need to trust centralized authorities." Their findings seem to corroborate with the fact that blockchain technology is not only helping the crypto ecosystem but is also being implemented in more industries as its uses seem to be limitless. Elmandjra as well as the other analysts from Ark conclude: "We believe bitcoin is the most profound application of public blockchains, the foundation of ‘self-sovereign’ digital money." BTC has started something akin to the Cambrian Explosion of crypto enabling according to Ark's analysts: "...two other revolutions: the financial (defi) and internet (Web3) revolutions." Web3 (also known as Web 3.0 and sometimes stylized as web3) is an idea for a new iteration of the World Wide Web based on the blockchain, which incorporates concepts including decentralization and token-based economics. 

Bank of Sharjah CEO - Blockchain and Cryptocurrency is "Here to Stay and Impossible to Regulate at Large"

The chief executive officer (CEO) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) -based financial institution, Bank of Sharjah, Varouj Nerguizian has recently noted that blockchain and cryptocurrencies are hard to regulate but also not going anywhere. But, despite this the CEO recognize the fact that many in the banking industry still do not fully understand this new technology which in turn makes implementing it a slow process. Nerguizian commented in a recent interview that blockchain technology can be similar to a double edge sword to financial institutions adapting to the post-pandemic scene: "Blockchain is a revolutionary technology that is not yet fully understood by the banking industry at large. While its application is easy to grasp in certain areas like Know Your Customer [KYC] or the real estate title deed verification, blockchain supposedly allows parties to transact with each other without the need for an intermediary. This raises the concerns of the authorities that would like to monitor the activity." This, of course, raises concerns and questions. What happens to the future of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies if authorities around the world fail to regulate them to their arbitrary satisfaction level? Bank of Sharjah's CEO also had something to say about this, claiming that this technology is here to stay and not going anywhere: "I personally believe blockchain technology and by extension, cryptocurrency is here to stay and [are] impossible to regulate at large. However, in UAE, jurisdictions like Abu Dhabi Global Market [ADGM] and Dubai International Financial Centre [DIFC] have come up with crypto regulations and might in time be a significant part of the banking landscape as we move forward,"

Nerguizian has also been quoted as saying that he believes the banking industry was already heading towards a digital transformation even before the pandemic. But because of the pressure to change things around in order to both keep people safer and satisfy new regulations as well as the work from home situation, the banking industry is now undergoing rapid evolution as well as other companies and industries. The CEO noted that companies that use the fact the employees can work from home now will most likely "reap future gains and profitability". This seems to go in tune with how the situation is developing with VISA. The credit card giant is now partnered with over 65 crypto platforms and exchanges. They recently revealed that crypto-linked card usage exceeded $2.5 billion in the first fiscal quarter. This volume, apparently represents "...already 70% of the payments volume for all of fiscal 2021." This comes after a report which shows that consumers will be able to spend cryptocurrency at 80 million merchants using crypto-linked Visa cards.

If crypto is inevitable, than so is opposition

There will always exist those that oppose change. Especially when it's the new replacing the old. Previous systems will have deep roots and will not easily let go of the accumulated power. Of course, not all change is good, a lot of it is experimentation. It can fail over and over before it finally blooms into something better. But just like evolution, it doesn't just stop because we will it to. It will come no matter what. Change is by definition inevitable. So when it comes to blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, this change did not come just from this air. People were looking towards a decentralized system as opposed to the old one for the longest time. Now that it is implemented and becoming more popular by the day, crypto is also under heavy opposition from certain parties. Some large countries in particular have a vested interest in not letting crypto grow since they fear it will take control away from them which it will. Crypto is here to free people from the chains of an old centralized system which has been encumbering them for a very long time. One such country which seems to vehemently opposes crypto is to maybe no surprise to some, Russia. It's not to say that all former or current communist countries will ban crypto but with China also having a thing against cryptocurrency we are noticing a trend. But recently, Dmitry Medvedev, former president and prime minister of Russia, has voiced his concerns over the initiative to ban crypto operations from the Bank of Russia. He is not the only one to oppose the recent restrictive measures and at the same time not the only one to point out that prohibition may very well have the opposite effect. People want what they can't have and if authorities will prohibit such things, they will only be pushed underground making the entire situation worse. 

The recent proposal from the Bank of Russia to make most crypto-related activities outlawed has sparked a wave of reactions and criticism from both the international crypto community but from internal officials as well. Among the critics are the Finance Ministry which put out its own regulatory concept. There is also the State Duma where deputies are working on a new crypto law and the government which prepared a roadmap for crypto regulation together with various departments. With all this opposition to the ban you might be wondering why would the central bank still go ahead with its plans? Dmitry Medvedev who is now the deputy chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation acknowledges that the Russian monetary authority has some legitimate concerns for their stance on crypto like the fear that it could potentially affect the nation's financial stability. But at the same time Medvedev warns that it might go wrong even with the ban: "To be honest, when you try to ban something, this very often leads to the opposite result." On the ban of crypto-related activities, other Russian officials have more specific concerns, namely that such a ban would affect the development of blockchain technology. This would directly go against the country's policy of supporting the IT sector. The Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC) is also joining the fray against the crypto ban stating that it would not solve existing problems with fraud and other illegal acts but, on the contrary, it will make it even harder to control as the illegality will move underground. RAEC was quoted as saying: "The ban on the circulation of cryptocurrencies will leave Russia on the sidelines of the development of one of the fastest growing digital markets at the moment, which will significantly slow down the innovative development of the country."

RAEC experts compiled data which showed the big contribution that the digital market has made towards the Russian economy. Just in 2020 the amount reached 6.7 trillion rubles (over $85 million). The association’s preliminary estimates for 2021 suggest that the indicator has increased by 29%, to 8.6 trillion rubles (around $110 million at current exchange rates). At the same time, Anatoly Aksakov, the head of the State Duma Financial Market Committee, proposed using the law "On Experimental Legal Regimes in the Field of Digital Innovations" in order to legalize cryptocurrencies. This would test how various elements of the crypto infrastructure will behave under strict governmental control. In the end, whatever decision will be made in Russia it will be how many have not so eloquently put it "not something that is done in developed countries" referring to the crypto ban and will only be detrimental to them in the long run. As for the crypto ecosystem, this ban will only be a hiccup which will pass and not affect it in the future.