Leveraging Consumer Participation In Crypto For 2022

When it comes to the realm of cryptocurrency (“crypto”), 2021 has been a year for the books. Over the past 12 months, we’ve watched as decentralized finance becomes more accessible and available to a broader range of consumers than ever before. 

Along with increased participation in the trade of thousands of different cryptocurrency coins, the mainstream adoption of other forms of decentralized financial transactions (e.g., the sale of non-fungible tokens, or “NFTs”) have resulted in the exponential growth of cryptocurrency across consumer markets. Likewise, the explosive popularity and subsequent use of NFTs as “collectible” tokens have seen them taking hold in other consumer markets, such as blockchain-based gaming, along with being used as a form of collateral for traders looking to borrow and back more stable cryptocurrency coins such as Bitcoin (BITCOMP) and Ethereum (ETH-X).

In a report published earlier this year by Goldman Sachs, co-founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital Holdings Michael Novogratz is quoted as saying that we have now, “...hit a critical mass of engagement [in crypto]. Everyone from major banks to PayPal (PYPL) and Square (SQ) is getting more involved, which is a loud and clear signal that crypto is now an official asset class.” While Novogratz’s insight helps add credence to crypto as a formal consumer market, the ways that organizations like private businesses and government agencies can best leverage consumer participation in crypto in the coming year are still up for debate.

 

Digital currencies acting as consumer assets are here to stay

For most cryptocurrencies and tokens, prices remain extremely volatile. According to Goldman Sachs’s report, this is due to a number of factors including environmental concerns, crackdowns on crypto markets from federal regulators, and a heightened scrutiny of its impact on taxes as a larger number of credible investors — including institutional financial investors — have started to launch an increasing amount of crypto-related offerings.

One factor that makes investing in crypto so attractive to general consumers serving as investors is that it allows them to hedge against the inflation and debasement of more traditional fiat currencies, due to the more scarce and nature of these tokens as finite financial assets. Despite the higher risk-adjusted returns that these assets can offer, as well as the higher quantity of them being sold off within the first few months after the initial onset of 2020’s global pandemic, the crypto market’s rebound and subsequent growth following this has shown investors, businesses, and regulators alike their resiliency to millions of consumers, solidifying their position as a valuable and popular asset class.

Because of this, it likely won’t be incorrect to assume that crypto will continue to be utilized by a growing number of consumers as we move forward into 2022. As such, it would neither be surprising to witness an increasing number of businesses take advantage of this increased consumer participation in crypto by leveraging new and/or improved ways that their companies can take advantage of this.

 

Ways businesses can increase consumer participation in crypto

The methods that businesses could ultimately use to leverage higher consumer participation in crypto is bound to be unique to each business itself. However, there are a number of ways that organizations can start implementing methods to heighten this leverage.

For example, one of the most common ways businesses can leverage higher consumer participation in crypto moving into the New Year is through implementing Customer Support teams dedicated to processing customers’ crypto transactions. This initial step will prove critical for businesses looking to process not only their customers’ crypto-related transactions, but also any rewards their customers receive by using their crypto wallets to make purchases through their company’s digital platforms. Similarly, businesses looking to leverage a projected increase of consumers participating in crypto markets for 2022 should consider integrating means of more easily transferring their customers’ rewards when these purchases or other transactions are made. Through expediting this process, more businesses will gain a competitive advantage by offering customers the ability to transfer cash rewards to their bank accounts, or crypto to their blockchain wallets.

Both of these initiatives will prove critical when it comes time to process customers’ crypto rewards in a more timely manner, especially considering the high volatility of many crypto coins and tokens.

Additionally, businesses that implement initiatives such as these to better leverage their consumers’ participation in crypto during the coming New Year may desire to integrate their offerings with a browser extension, such as one usable with Google’s Chrome browser, as it still remains the most popular web browser for most consumers. Such an integration will allow businesses to offer consumers more timely notifications of reward opportunities, and — if implemented correctly — may even allow for more seamless integration between purchases made by their customers and their crypto wallets.

 

Concluding Remarks

As it currently stands, the ways in which businesses can improve leveraging their customers’ participation in crypto still have yet to be fully explored. However, by formulating and implementing customer-centric initiatives that can bolster this leverage through offering more unique benefits to consumers, an increasing number of businesses will be able to set themselves apart from their competitors through those initiatives and offerings.

While cryptocurrency may still seem a mere commodity to some businesses and their leadership teams, their place as an asset class to consumers remains anything but. By creating ways that focus on improving their customers’ experience by integrating crypto into the equation, more businesses can be certain that their leveraging of consumers’ participation in crypto leading into 2022 will offer a quantifiable return in exchange.