Messari CEO writes 2023 Crypto Theses Report

Ryan Selkis, the co-founder and CEO of Messari, recently published his 2023 Crypto Theses report where he looks at key trends and his predictions for the coming year.

Selkis writes his reports on an annual basis, and this is the sixth consecutive Messari Theses Report. He starts with stating that while cryptocurrency portfolios are down 80% since the last report, the question is:

“Is this the dark before the dawn, or the beginning of a long Arctic winter?”

He outlines that both Bitcoin and Ethereum appear to be “on long-term stable ground”, and that “DeFi will take major strides forward next year.” He believes that privacy tech will either be integrated into public blockchains, or that it will be banned on “dystopian and vague “national security” grounds.”

He also gives his view of the following:

“Infrastructure investments around code security, decentralised hardware, virtual worlds, custody, protocol governance, and blockchain scalability are all in vogue. There will be less NFT speculation. Fewer moon fumes.”

He says that there is a certain amount of “rage” that fuels the report, given all the bad actors in crypto that have hogged the stage and set back the years of progress of the good actors.

He includes a short tweet thread in the report, which sums up how he feels about crypto today:

The report is split into 2 parts: the first part is titled “What H-A-P-P-E-N-E-D in 2022”. Very likely a humorous reference to a certain tweet by Sam Bankman-Fried.

The second part of the report is titled “Why crypto matters in 2023”. He begins this with a tribute to Hal Finney for being a visionary who had inspired and motivated him.

Selkis writes with integrity and honesty when he says of Bitcoin that it has “big carbon footprints”, but then writes of it:

“as a single purpose, commodity money, and secure settlement system, it has held up miraculously. It has proven durability and will continue to serve as a powerful check on absolute sovereign authority”

The rest of the report is more on Bitcoin, Privacy Coins, Stablecoins, and finally a chapter on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and their dystopian character.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.