Analysts say 2022 will be ‘defined by agility and cost-efficiency’ instead of ‘blockchain purity’

The entire crypto market took great strides toward mass adoption in 2021 and now that the year is nearly complete, analysts are setting their price targets for 2022.

Many analysts supported calls for a $100,000 (BTC) price before the end of 2021 and although this seems unlikely, most investors expect the key price level to be tackled before Q2 of 2022.

Here’s a look at some of the Bitcoin price predictions analysts are expecting in 2022.

Bitcoin is still on track to surpass $100,000

Analysts has been more reticent in providing off the cuff Bitcoin predictions ever since PlanB's stock-to-flow model incorrectly predicted a $98,000 BTC price by the end of November, even though the model had been spot on from August through October.

While some traders are now questioning the validity of the stock-to-flow price model, crypto analyst and pseudonymous Twitter user ‘DecodeJar’ still sees BTC surpassing the $100,000 price point within the next few months and according to the analyst, the price could climb as high as $250,000 by the end of 2022.

#Bitcoin top sliding scale model.1/ Conservative/Early projection:Halving-to-top projected at same rate: 7 Jun 22.2.618 Extension in Wave 5: $190,233.2/ Extreme/Late projection:Bottom-to-top projected at same rate: 19 Dec 22.3.618 Extension in Wave 5: $251,971.Thread pic.twitter.com/XP605JZgXg

— Steve⚡ (@decodejar) December 12, 2021

As shown in the tweet above, DecodeJar sees Bitcoin hitting a ”conservative price target” of $190,233 by June 7 based on Elliot Wave extensions and Fibonacci retracement levels.

In a follow-up tweet, DecodeJar cautioned that:

“Projections of future price and time are only a guide, but combining this range with other indicators as we get closer, can allow for a clean exit near the top. I favor the more conservative end of the scale ~$190,000.”

Regulations are coming in 2022

Insight into the future of the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem was addressed by David Lifchitz, managing partner and chief investment officer at ExoAlpha, who stated that “crypto’s will still be around in 2022” in the sense that “governments won’t ban them.”

Instead, Lifchitz suggested that “they want to regulate them to keep cryptos on a tight leash vs. fiat currencies and also see them as a source of taxable income to replenish their coffers.”

The world needs standards to address risks from crypto and the @FinStbBoard should develop a global regulatory framework to help. Read more about the policies needed in the latest #IMFBlog https://t.co/ZIZ6ggxuIu pic.twitter.com/P0TTSLi8SR

— IMF (@IMFNews) December 9, 2021

As the DeFi ecosystem continues to grow and develop new capabilities, Lifchitz predicted that banks and insurances companies will be forced to adapt their business models in order to stay competitive while “middle-man businesses are more at risk as they are made redundant by DeFi.”

When it comes to the frenzy that has been the NFT space, Lifchitz expressed reservations about the sector’s ability to continue its lightning-like pace of growth and he addressed some of the deeper concerns that regulators may have moving forward.

Lifchitz said,

“It has become so hot that one cannot help but wonder if they are not used for money laundering... I know there's so much money sloshing around thanks to the central banks that has to find a home, but the NFTs in 2021 remind me of the Dot.com era in mid-1998, there's still room for a parabolic price boom, then a bust.”

As far as the hype around the emerging Metaverse, Lifchitz stated that while it does look as though we are headed to a future that could resemble scenes from the movie Ready Player One “where people take refuge into a virtual world since their real world is terrible,” our world is still “years away from that.”

Related: Creating a pathway for crypto market growth through better regulation

Mass adoption is likely to continue

Despite the signs of short-term weakness, Loukas Lagoudis, executive director of crypto and digital assets hedge fund ARK36, “firmly believes that the overall bullish trend for the crypto market will continue in 2022.”

Lagoudis suggested that “the sustained adoption of digital assets by institutional investors and their further integration into the legacy financial systems will be the main drivers of growth of the crypto space in the next year” as institutions were seen as starting to favor “digital assets over gold as a reserve asset” over the course of 2021.

Lagoudis said,

“In addition, since digital assets have consistently outperformed traditional asset classes, we predict that investors will see allocation to digital assets as a part of their risk management strategy - especially given the increasingly inflationary economic environment and the declining bond yields.”

According to Jean-Marc Bonnefous, head of asset management at Tellurian ExoAlpha, suggested that “the trend seems to be favoring blockchains that focus on performance, dApp development and that are somewhat more centralized.”

Bonnefous saithis represents a significant change from the trends of the past which centered more on projects “focused on security, store of value and that are more decentralized like BTC and even Ether.”

Bonnefous said,

“Basically, the market seems to go for business agility and cost-efficiency rather than blockchain purity, a big change from the past years. This winning relative value trade is likely to continue into next year.”

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.