To say that COVID-19 intensified certain trends as well as gave way to the new trends in 2020 will be an understatement to say the least. Numerous professionals in the blockchain technology revealed that this disruptive technology gained huge popularity during the pandemic crisis.

Reason: As Blockchain Specialists will say – The global pandemic accelerated the pace of digital transformation and businesses across the world followed suite to stay competitive.

According to a recent article by Central Blockchain Council of America (CBCA), various businesses across the world, in order to stay competitive, developed new trends that were based on upcoming technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), Blockchain technology, along with the Internet of Things (IoT) in the last year.

Interestingly, the Blockchain technology was developed as the medium for cryptocurrencies’ transactions. However, over the years, the technology has branched out further, thus finding use cases in various areas. Some of the common and the most important use cases include –

• Payment settlements
• Smart contracts
• Supply chains
• Identity management
• Data Management
• Healthcare

As revealed by Blockchain specialists, the 2020 saw a huge adoption of this technology and various organizations came to known as blockchain companies – owing to their vast adoption of the technology. It is predicted that the use cases of Blockchain technology is going to grow as well in 2021.

So let’s explore what does the future hold for this disruptive technology, which has been making slow and steady waves in the IT industry, with some occasional thunder and shower. But before that let’s understand the trends in both blockchain and cryptocurrency and how they will shape up in 2021 and beyond.

1. Exponential growth in Global Blockchain Market
2. Further acceleration of Blockchain adoption/ transition due to pandemic
3. Acceleration in the pace of digital transformation
4. There will be a hold on long-term projects for now amid the uncertainty
5. About 30% of the Blockchain products will enter into production cycle
6. Domination of private aka permissioned blockchain
7. China will continue to lead the blockchain technology
8. Domination of finance sector and banking will continue
9. Growth of non-traditional financial institutions such as cryptocurrency-based banks to completely decentralized financial (DEFI) services alternatives

 These apart there will be few more developments in the space of Blockchain technology. Growth of Blockchain companies for one. As the organizations will start adopting the blockchain technology there will be numerous organizations that will adopt central bank digital currency also known as CBDC.

As is the case with any new technology, Blockchain technology will also witness a fraud – Blockchain specialists as well as Blockchain professionals predict that there will be a rise in cryptocurrency fraud. Result: A surge in stricter rules and regulations in FinTech industry.

While there are numerous promising upcoming trends in Blockchain industry, what’s worrisome is some of the trends will bring a different kind of tensions amid the industry. Blockchain professionals predict that in 2021 and even beyond there are chances of rules and regulations become more stringent. It is believed that the pandemic triggered digitalization growth of the economy can prove to be destructive if not monitored closely by the regulators globally. On a similar note digital banking, cryptocurrency, and blockchain will remain the topics of huge concern.