Crypto mass adoption is only 12-18 months away – Yat Siu

There is a long-standing debate in the crypto community that the blockchain use case will be the first to bring widespread mass adoption. For some, the answer lies in Bitcoin's (BTC) store of value nature, while others believe that fiat tokens (NFTs) are an underappreciated technology waiting to explode.

But, for Animoka Brands founder and chairman Yat Siu, mass adoption will be the primary catalyst for play — and we're closer to that than many think.

The future of gaming and crypto mass adoption

“I think we'll definitely see mass adoption in the next 12 to 18 months,” Siu told host Jonathan DeYoung on Cointelegraph's latest Decentralize with Cointelegraph, which was taped in person at the Consensus 2024 conference in Austin, Texas. Co-founder of Animoka Brands, this timeline is achievable because there are more tools for distributing Web3 applications than ever before.

Eventually, even former players who have historically opposed Web 3 like Apple, Google, and Valve Steam will have no choice but to join the revolution. “Once those floodgates are opened, we'll get more mass adoption,” Siu said.

“Imagine what happens when you suddenly have 100 million or maybe even a billion people on these kinds of networks. In my mind, they're going to be completely invincible, right?”

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Siu believes gamification will lead to mass adoption because it is a social movement, which gives it its true power.

“The power of blockchain comes from the community, which is inherently social,” Siu said. “Whether it's a game or a social fi or a Defi system, you know, the social interactions that come from that really give it its strength and its longevity. Why do we think the game is the way to do this? Because basically games are a social network.

Is the metaverse dead?

Animoka Brands' Siu also commented on the state of the metaverse, which he declared to be “never dead” despite various news reports in recent months stating that it was. “It depends on how you define the metaverse,” he said, adding that Facebook has done a remarkable job of convincing itself that “meta” equals “metaverse” by turning itself into meta.

“When Facebook couldn't run the Metaverse in their vision, which we'd say didn't work the way they thought it would, then the rest of the world was like, Huh, look, that didn't work. And they came with that,” Siu said. However, the co-founder of Animoka Brands sees Metavas as something very different:

“We think the metaverse doesn't start in a virtual world. Metaverse starts with holding your digital assets. […] It is like building a country. The foundation of nation-building is not about whether you can go into space, it's about your community and it's about owning space.”

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“That segment is thriving,” he says, likening the Web3 space as a whole to a larger “open metaverse” where the opportunities are imaginary but the value is tangible. “For us, that's the open metaverse, and that's already a rich space. [is] $2.5, $2.6 trillion.

To hear more from Siu — including his thoughts on memecoins, the importance of financial education, and the investment strategy of Animoca Brands — listen to Decentralize with Cointelegraph in full on Cointelegraph's podcast page, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your podcast platform of choice. And don't forget to check out Cointelegraph's full lineup of other shows!

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