Bitget Research, the research arm of Bitget, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange and Web3 company, has released a research analysis delving into macro and micro trends within the Bitcoin ecosystem. This report offers insights for investors and outlines potential future technological and financial trends for Bitcoin and its assets within the network for 2024.

Given the future macroeconomic environment and market conditions, the Bitcoin ecosystem presents a promising outlook. Not only do popular cryptocurrencies like BTC and ORDI have significant potential for appreciation, but there will also be new opportunities for 100x coins within the Bitcoin ecosystem. While the trading volume in the Bitcoin NFT market has surged, its current scale remains relatively small, indicating the anticipated potential for over 100x growth in the future. Simultaneously, the Lightning Network is expected to serve as the primary technological support for the broader adoption of Bitcoin payments in the short to medium term.

Combining the above analyses, Bitget Research makes six major predictions of future trends in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Predictions:

• If the Bitcoin ecosystem continues to expand, the surge in demand for Bitcoin may drive the price of BTC to surpass its previous highs in the upcoming bull market, potentially reaching as high as $100,000.
• As the leading coin of the Bitcoin ecosystem, ORDI will rank in the top 30 by market cap in the next bull market.
• The size of the Bitcoin NFT market will grow by over 100x in the future.
• Opportunities for 100x coins will appear on protocols such as Ordinals, Atomicals, or Taproot Assets.
• In the short term, the Bitcoin ecosystem will retain the ‘one project, one protocol solution’ status, fostering a variety of Bitcoin protocols. In the long run, a BTC virtual machine will emerge within the ecosystem, unifying developer compile environments.
• The Lightning Network will be the largest technical foundation supporting the continued adoption of BTC payments, with more assets to be issued on it.

Key Takeaways:

• ORDI: As one of the most popular memecoins on the BTC network, ORDI is likely to continue the exponential growth. Currently, ORDI’s market cap stands around $400 million, suggesting a potential 1200% growth when compared to the $4.9 billion market cap of SHIB, the leading ETH memecoin. However, the introduction of the Ordinals protocol, while offering new functionalities to the BTC network, also brings challenges. Ordinals function by embedding data into individual Bitcoin transactions, occupying considerable block space and increasing the complexity of using the Bitcoin network as Ordinals map BRC-20 and Ordinals NFT to specific Satoshis. These hurdles require collective attention from the community and developers.

• Improved Miner Revenue: The launch of the Ordinals protocol has significantly boosted Bitcoin miners’ earnings over the past three months, with the proportion of earnings from on-chain fees rising gradually from 1.7% in August to a peak of 19.57% on November 10. These improvements to miners’ earnings will, in turn, lead to further support for the BRC-20 asset class and the Bitcoin ecosystem from the heavily capitalized miner community.

• The Lightning Network: The Lightning Network is poised to be the primary technological support for the broader adoption of Bitcoin payments in the short to medium term with its almost instantaneous transaction processing and new micropayment options in the digital economy. However, setting up and maintaining channels on the Lightning Network is more complex than conducting simple Bitcoin transactions. Therefore, users need to understand how to open, manage, and close channels, raising the entry barrier for the wider adoption of Bitcoin payments.

• Potential Bottlenecks: The question of whether the Bitcoin ecosystem can sustain its current growth trajectory is challenging to predict, but data hints at potential shifts. As a global cryptocurrency, Bitcoin strengthens its consensus with increased acceptance. Yet, bottlenecks may emerge within the ecosystem for two main reasons. Firstly, Bitcoin’s limited scalability impedes application implementation, causing bottlenecks at this stage and potentially affecting the ecosystem’s overall development pace. Secondly, Bitcoin’s core developers, mostly conservative, hold reservations about various asset protocols within the Bitcoin ecosystem. If prices drop or innovation stalls, this stance could hinder ecosystem development.

Overall, considering the future macro environment and market conditions, the Bitcoin ecosystem shows promising development prospects. Assets like BTC, ORDI, and Bitcoin NFTs have significant potential for growth, with new opportunities arising for 100x coins within the Bitcoin ecosystem. The Lightning Network is poised to act as the primary technical backbone facilitating the wider adoption of Bitcoin payments.

“This in-depth report is an invaluable source, providing historical insights into the development of the Bitcoin network and unique perspectives on potential future scenarios. The profound insights from the report will play a pivotal role in guiding Bitget’s comprehensive plan for product and platform enhancement,” said Gracy Chen, Managing Director of Bitget. “Bitget remains steadfast in its commitment to supporting and advancing these trends within the evolving Bitcoin ecosystem and the Web 3 industry.“

In line with Bitget’s efforts to support the development of the BTC ecosystem, Bitget Wallet is strategically focused on expanding its support for the Bitcoin ecosystem. Apart from offering basic functionalities like providing support for BTC asset management, swaps, and on-ramping, Bitget Wallet also offers Taproot compatibility together with asset transfers for BRC-20 tokens and NFTs. Users can track market trends on Bitget Swap and interact with popular projects on Bitget Wallet’s DApp browser. In the future, Bitget Wallet will place its focus on medium to long-term market prospects of the Bitcoin ecosystem, and work to enhance both its technological infrastructure and product features. This also includes increased investments in key areas such as Lightning Network, Nostr and Taproot Assets, BRC-20, and ARC-20 inscriptions.

About Bitget

Established in 2018, Bitget is the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange that offers Copy Trading services as one of its key features. Serving over 20 million users in more than 100 countries and regions, the exchange is committed to helping users trade smarter by providing a secure, one-stop trading solution. Bitget inspires individuals to embrace crypto through collaborations with credible partners, including legendary Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi and official eSports events organizer PGL.

To safeguard users’ funds on the platform, Bitget adopts top-notch security and protection measures including a $300 million Protection Fund, a Fund Custody service, pledged to be fully reserved back by the Merkle Tree Proof of Reserves model. 

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