Grayscale Head of Research: Crypto to Penetrate Gaming, Virtual Reality

Space is shifting from digital money like bitcoin to DeFi and the metaverse.

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David Grider, Grayscale Investments; Blockworks exclusive art by axel rangel

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  • Crypto, with about 220 million users, has “long way to go” to reach potential as sectors such as DeFi have reached only a fraction of that audience
  • Grider expects crypto to be the next wave of the internet

Grayscale Investment’s head of research said at Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit in New York City last month that as crypto moves into the metaverse, it is going beyond NFTs into sectors such as gaming and virtual reality.

“I don’t know that we’re absolutely there yet, but there’s definitely a lot of interesting use cases that are being built out around that,” David Grider said. “As the industry matures and evolves, I think the tech and adoption will follow.”

Grider joined Grayscale in August after working for nearly two years as head of digital assets research at FundStrat Global Advisors. He had co-founded Aenigma Capital in 2017, an investment company focused on emerging technology ventures at the intersection of fintech and internet innovation. 

The head of research noted that he expects crypto to be the next wave of the internet. While the internet has billions of users, Grider said, crypto users are estimated at 220 million, and those within DeFi total between 1 million and 3 million.

“If you’re thinking about the runway from that perspective,” Grider said, “I think that the whole space has a long way to go.”

Watch the full interview below and watch all of the panel videos from DAS here


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