Exploring Europe's Relationship with Cryptocurrency Today
Greenfield, a European crypto investment company, has published State of European Crypto Report 2023. The report's central thesis is that regulation has been the primary focus of the year and is likely to facilitate the growth of the European ecosystem.
Additionally, the researchers sought feedback from the founders of EU crypto companies on the status of the sector as of Q1 2023.
Here are the six key conclusions of the report:
1. The authors dubbed 2022 as the "year of clean-up," a period marked by fraudulent players facing prison time. This likely refers to the downfall of the FTX exchange. As of now, there's a prevailing sentiment that 2023 will be a full-fledged "crypto" year in Europe. Expectations are even higher for the outlook leading up to 2030, referred to as the "ubiquity of cryptography".
In 2030, the word crypto doesn’t exist anymore because it’s everywhereassert the researchers.
2. The year's main trend is expected to be regulation. Yet, legislative efforts are not perceived as barriers for EU crypto projects. Contrarily, entrepreneurs view MiCA as a boon for conducting business within Europe. The transparency offered by legislation outweighs any potential legal constraints. Following regulatory trends, Zero Knowledge (ZK) is garnering interest as one of the most promising technologies of 2023.
3. Lisbon has earned the title of the cryptocurrency capital of Europe, and even globally. The Portuguese capital is leading due to the robust development of the DeFi sector. Experts also believe that Lisbon has become a hub for the "crypto brains" from the US, where the investment climate has deteriorated due to legal ambiguities. Other European cities ranked as crypto hotspots include Berlin (2nd place) and Paris (7th place).
4. An important metric is the extent of European developers' participation in the global crypto market. This is gauged by the EDIC (European Developer In Crypto) index, which accounts for the participation of European programmers in the creation and maintenance of significant crypto protocols and companies within the crypto sector. The list, comprising 42 companies, was assembled by participants in the survey. Since the start of 2022, approximately 1300 specialists from the EU have been working on these projects monthly (according to GitHub repository data), a 30% increase compared to the last few months of the previous year. Interestingly, the overall market capitalization of the 42 assessed projects has noticeably declined compared to Q4 2022 and, according to Greenfield, doesn't even reach $20 billion.
Describe your expectations for cryptocurrency in 2023 in one word Source: European Crypto Report 2023
5. Cryptography master's degrees are now popular in European universities. This is especially the case in the UK, where university crypto hubs are being established. This discipline is also expanding in Ireland and Spain. Across the continent, numerous new programs related to cryptofinance and cryptoeconomics are being launched. However, despite this, there remains a shortage of technical experts in the crypto sector. The number being produced by European universities is insufficient.
6. Furthermore, as the sector develops, a growing number of European projects are finding themselves short-staffed in their commercial departments. Surveyed owners have stated that in 2023, they aim to hire marketers and specialists in sales and marketing. Entrepreneurs admit that the greatest challenge their crypto projects currently face is a lack of user awareness and a low level of readiness to adopt innovative technologies. Concurrently, filling these vacancies is becoming an increasingly complex task.
In conclusion, Greenfield has pledged to broaden and refine the report's data. The investment firm plans to conduct their research on a regular basis in order to accurately track the evolution of the European crypto landscape.
