Looking back, it’s often the most unexpected things that often perform best. In the last bull run, those who got in early on the narrative managed to make huge gains, so what about the next bull run? Here are some future narratives you should be prepared for:
1 NFT-Fi
As we all know, NFTs exploded in the last bull market, with trading volumes reaching billions and attracting a lot of attention from retail investors. Even now, although the trading volume is significantly lower, NFTs are still actively traded. Assuming that NFTs make a comeback, NFT-Fi should be even more prosperous.
NFT-Fi projects are somewhat of a direct advancement in the industry, and as the NFT market picks up, we may see more use cases. The projects I am watching in this sector are: Sudoswap, Nftperp, GumBallProtocol.
2 Sustainable / Real Returns
In the depths of the bear market, attention has shifted to protocols that can achieve sustainable and real returns. While this is not a specific narrative, it is still a good indicator of project-market fit.
Projects that can consistently remain profitable will be a solid bet as their usage and revenue will have intrinsic value. I am watching projects like GMX, GainsNetwork, Redactedcartel, etc.
3 High Beta ETH Projects
I think Ethereum, as a base layer, will continue to lead other L1s in the coming years. As more infrastructure/modular solutions like Celestia, Fuel, Eigenlayer, Arbitrum, zkSync, etc. are built, Ethereum will continue to dominate.
When it comes to this narrative, I’m looking for projects that directly benefit from Ethereum’s growth. Some of these include:
Liquidity Collateralized Derivatives
MEV
Scaling Solutions
4 Projects that can take advantage of stablecoin growth
Stablecoins are one of the biggest use cases for cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. They are of great help to the few who understand them in DeFi and other dApps. On the other hand, stablecoins solve many current problems like traditional payment rails and accessibility of safer currencies.
It’s hard to find projects with stablecoin growth, but I found some: Frax Finance, Y2k Finance, Reserve Protocol.
5 Innovative DeFi Projects
Obviously innovative DeFi projects will do well, but let me expand on that. What I mean by that is finding projects that are creating 0-1 in crypto.
For example: GammaSwapLabs, Eigenlayer, Morpho Labs, etc.
6 Options
Decentralized options have received a lot of hype over the past few months. Judging by the fact that centralized exchanges like Deribit are seeing record high volumes, there is a lot of interest in cryptocurrency options.
So why haven’t DeFi options taken off yet? My guess is two reasons:
1. People still don’t value self-regulation and thus choose centralized options because they are more convenient;
2. Decentralized options still have issues with liquidity, user experience, and customizability.
I'm not even entirely sure that decentralized options will take off like perpetual platforms, but if/when they have a project like GMX, it's important to be prepared.
Projects I’m watching include Lyra Finance, Panoptic, Dopex, and others.
7 Multi-chain Future
While Ethereum will likely continue to be the most prominent L1, other chains will see growth as well. I’m interested in projects building for this future, such as Synapse Protocol, Tapioca, Cosmos.
Cosmos is particularly interesting. While many chains have seen stagnant growth, the Cosmos ecosystem continues to grow with interesting projects like Celestia and Berachain.
Cosmos definitely deserves to be the center of your attention.
8 Real World Assets
RWA is another area where I see significant growth in the future. Because for now, cryptocurrency and the real world are too fragmented and do not have much overlap, which is obviously not feasible for the growth of Web3.
I am following projects like Landxfinance, CytusFinance, Next Factor, etc.
9 Privacy
Privacy may not be obvious, but when people find out their privacy has been violated, they realize its importance. This argument has been rigid for many years, and I think people will finally see the value of on-chain privacy.
Whether the catalyst for this is excessive government regulation, the growth of on-chain tools, or funds realizing their transactions are being tracked, I think it’s inevitable to some extent.
I am interested in projects like RAILGUN and Aztec network.
10 L2
Layer 2s are dominating DeFi, and for good reason. They can leverage the security and decentralization of Ethereum while being scalable. With future token airdrops and new projects launching every day, it’s hard not to get excited.
While I do think that narrative has run its course to some extent, L2 is proving to be where innovation and growth are. Looking ahead, I’m very excited about some of the ZK-EVMs coming out from Polygon, Scroll, zksync.
11 Crypto Games
Crypto games and the “metaverse” were a huge narrative during the last bull run. Many of these games raised millions of dollars with a single game trailer, which led to many scams and blatant cash grabs.
Many people have given up on the crypto game altogether for this reason.
However, billions of dollars have been invested in these early-stage games, and we will start to see them launch over the next year or so. While many will die quickly, some may become popular.
For example: Treasure DAO, illuviumio, Aurory, etc.
