The Next Bull Run May Be Some Time off, but These Are the Trends That Will Lead It

Crypto analytics firm Messari has identified seven unique trends that could catalyze the next great crypto bull run. 

According to the analytics company, “The next major bull market will be driven by technology and trends currently being built out.”

As Messari themselves state, not all trends are equally valuable. To measure their potential the industry experts used a number of criteria including the total addressable market, value capture potential and competition. These are the seven trends they identified to power the next crypto bull run.

Apps

With a huge total addressable market, Apps will figure highly in the next crypto bull run. Messari predicts that “protocols in the application layer will start to accrue more relative value when compared to Layer 1 and Layer 2 tokens.

Apps are already highly profitable, have proven business models, and are quick to adapt and to adopt new chains. Apps could provide the rocket fuel of the next bull run.

Ones to watch: Aave, MakerDAO, Curve, Uniswap, Frax, Balancer, dYdX, Synthetix, Lido

Decentralized social trends

The concept of decentralized social, is to create completely “open, customizable and ownable” social media.

The total addressable market is colossal, but due to networking effects social media has always been a winner-takes-all, zero-sum game. Case in point: Myspace and Facebook. It’s one or the other, but not both. 

If any decentralized social company can navigate the risks and chart a path to become No. 1 in their field, the rewards will be huge. History suggests that second-best efforts will have much less joy, and even less longevity. 

Ones to watch: Lens, Farcaster, Orbis, DeSo, CyberConnect, Phaver, Lenster, Ceramic, Lit

Web3 gaming trends

Much like decentralized social, Web3 gaming is a sector brimming with potential. Games like Axie Infinity have proven that there is a huge market for this type of product, and a profitable one at that.

What about sustainability? Like Icarus, many Web3 games have found themselves soaring to the heavens, but their waxy wings only ever last so long. Competition in the sector is fierce, but a sustainable economic model for Web3 gaming could change the landscape for the entire crypto sector.

Ones to watch: StepN, ImmutableX, Axie Infinity, Stardust, Enjin, Sandbox, Illuvium, Webaverse, NOR

New Layer 1s (blockchains)

Another major driving factor for the next bull run could be a batch of new Layer 1 protocols, or blockchains as the industry used to call them. The next generation of blockchains will have to carve out a niche for themselves in an already crowded market. For these upstart chains the name of the game is specialization. Expect to see more chains designed specifically for gaming, decentralized finance (DeFi) and other market sectors.

Ones to watch: Aptos, Sui, Sei, Canto, 0L Network

Web3 infrastructure trends

Decentralized apps need decentralized infrastructures. Web3 infrastructure protocols build out networks of physical services that support the next generation of decentralized apps. The potential is there, but it’s capitalizing on it that counts.

Ones to watch: Helium, Pollen, Hivemapper, Livepeer, Filecoin, Arweave, RNDR, DIMO, Akash

Modular chain architectures

By breaking chains into individually optimized components, modular chain architectures hope to increase scalability at a lower cost. The exact mechanics of this process vary, but often involve parallel transactions, or horizontal scaling. Confused? Just think bigger, better, cheaper, faster.

Ones to watch: Ethereum, Celestia, Polygon, Arbitrum, Cosmos, Fuel

Ethereum rollups

Unlike modular chain architectures which use a modularized base layer, Ethereum rollups all use Ethereum as the base layer. Rollups helps to scale the Ethereum network by increasing speeds while reducing transaction costs, further encouraging ecosystem growth. Ethereum is such an important player in the wider crypto ecosystem that rollups could be a significant factor in the next bull run.

Ones to watch: Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, Scroll, Starkware