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Entrepreneur Middle East Publishes A Special Report Looking Into The Crypto Universe The Crypto Universe, published by Entrepreneur Middle East, in partnership with Lucidity Insights, gives an insider look into cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance, and the various facets of blockchain technology in diverse, real-world scenarios.

By Erika Masako Welch

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You're reading Entrepreneur Middle East, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

Binance
Changpeng Zhao, founder and CEO, Binance

The Crypto Universe is the latest special report by Entrepreneur Middle East, published in partnership with Lucidity Insights, that takes a deep-dive look into the world of cryptocurrencies, which reached a collective market capitalization of over US$3 trillion in 2021.

While there is still much debate about cryptocurrencies, this report is based on a premise that crypto is no longer ignorable.

Cryptocurrencies and the world they have given rise to –from blockchain technology, decentralized finance (DeFi), and decentralized apps (DApps), to non-fungible tokens (NFTs)– are no longer a side-show for cypherpunks and a select group of crypto-enthusiasts.

Thirteen years after the concept of cryptocurrencies was birthed by Bitcoin's anonymous founder(s), under the alias Satoshi Nakamoto, the crypto world has reached unignorable record highs. In November 2021, the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies listed on trading exchanges, which adds up to over 10,000 cryptocurrencies today, was valued at over US$3 trillion. The first ever cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), was worth over $1 trillion alone, which meant that Bitcoin was more valuable than the most valuable companies listed on global stock exchanges, including Tesla, Berkshire Hathaway, and Facebook's parent, Meta.

With valuations in the trillions, institutional investors have begun to join the crypto-craze. Some are allocating parts of their investment portfolios to digital assets, and are creating crypto-oriented products for their customers. Others are seeking to invest in the next big DeFi, blockchain or crypto-related project– in hopes that it will be the "startup-turned-unicorn' that dishes out returns in multiples only seen in big tech and internet stocks to date. Many are touting the fast-paced developments in blockchain and this next phase of crypto-adoption as akin to when the internet boom first began. If that's true, it's time for us all to get on the same page and understand what has been going on in crypto-, blockchain-, digital assets, DeFi, and NFT spaces– to name just a few areas covered.

The Crypto Universe, published by Entrepreneur Middle East, in partnership with Lucidity Insights, helps readers to navigate this brave new crypto universe that seems to be spawning multiple crypto worlds inside of it as the days go on.

We also cover a wide array of projects, from main players that have long-established themselves as the best and largest known by the masses, to up-and-coming projects that have yet to launch in the DeFi and DApps space.

As the cover suggests, we speak to Changpeng Zhao, the founder and CEO of the largest crypto-exchange in the world Binance about the future of crypto and the role regulations have to play in the roadmap forwards.

We also cover new blockchain forks, like Bitcoin Latinum, that claim to be faster and more environmentally-friendly than Bitcoin, designed specifically with in-game purchasing in mind. We speak to Reef, a blockchain project built to compete with Ethereum, as a foundational blockchain on which DApp developers can build decentralized apps (DApps) regardless of what coding language they build in.

We also speak to the founders of @Pay, who are trying to bring one of the first buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) fintech DApps to the market that has a crypto-to-fiat (C2F) payment option. CoinOvy introduces us to a more user-friendly crypto-wallet and how they are targeting new crypto users. WEMP is one of the first women's empowerment tokens which has been created to make crypto a less male-dominated field and which provides an online community for women in this space.

Related: Crypto Czar: Velas Co-Founder Alex Alexandrov Is All About Being Ahead Of The Curve

Last but not least, we cover two investment management firms that have interesting crypto-related investment strategies- Arowana and ICICB. Arowana reveals why they believe in their vertically integrated, renewable energy-powered crypto-mining investment strategy. ICICB talks to us about being at the forefront of gaming and the metaverse, and how they are both investing in, and building their own crypto-based platforms of the future. On all the players we have listed above, we also have a deep-dive case study detailing their projects.

If you don't know what DApps, DeFi, mining, forks, digital assets, staking, fintech, digital wallets, NFTs, the metaverse, or gas prices mean- don't worry, we will walk you through each of these concepts, step by step in our special report. We will introduce you to the most common and readily discussed crypto-assets, and tell you why they are the most well-known.

When creating this special report, our goal was simple- we wanted to put a stake in the ground at the end of December 2021, and review the 13 years of crypto-evolution that came before it. We sought to present the (2008-2021) crypto-journey to you, from all the angles- the technological advancements, the cryptocurrencies and crypto-related projects that have come to fruition, to real-world applications, and the ever-changing global regulatory landscape as it relates to this new asset class.

We hope that by the time you finish reading The Crypto Universe, published by Entrepreneur Middle East, in partnership with Lucidity Insights, you will have a good understanding of what cryptocurrencies are, where and how they came to be, and how the crypto-universe has been evolving over the past decade-plus. We want you to have a basic understanding of the real-world applications that are multiplying by the month, and understand that this is a volatile asset class that is up 25% one month, and down 60% the next. We also want our readers to grasp the inadvertent implications of mining and the crypto-related technologies we are employing, and the impact that crypto is having on the planet and the world at large.

Long gone are the days that we could tout this as a "fringe fad". Governments are getting in front of this, and regulation will be the name of the game in 2022- therefore, we cover regulation in this special report as well.

The crypto universe is here to stay, and will only become more powerful, as more and more individuals partake in the universe –by investing and holding onto cryptocurrencies, building DApps or companies based on blockchain technology, and by getting involved in any of the crypto-related spaces, such as DeFi, NFTs, gaming and the metaverse. The real world applications and use-cases for blockchain technology are ballooning, and it is only a matter of time until the crypto-universe touches you directly, if it hasn't done so already. Countries are using blockchain technology to create greater security in democratic elections around the world, major companies are using blockchains' smart-contract system to reliably trace their products across their value-chain, and institutional banks are adopting blockchains to help them make cross-border payments as efficiently, cheaply and quickly as possible. The question isn't "when will crypto impact you", but "in how many ways has crypto impacted you so far?"

For more insights and data, check out the report for yourself by downloading it here.

Related: Bahrain's Rain Management Aims To Increase Crypto Assets Adoption After Raising US$6 Million In Series A Funding

Erika Masako Welch

Chief Content Officer, Lucidity Insights

Erika Masako Welch is the Chief Content Officer of Lucidity Insights.
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