Organized by utility, the main crypto industry sectors include the crypto infrastructure, finance, web3 gaming, creator economy, and community-building. 

This is an overview of the crypto sectors’ main activities and some of their most promising projects.

Crypto infrastructure

The technical base on which the crypto world is built, crypto infrastructure is crucial for the space, and it is constantly evolving. It comprises of:

  • Blockchains. Bitcoin is still unique as money, and Ethereum is still the biggest smart contract platform, but newcomers like Near ($NEAR) or Aptos ($APT) are developing fast.
  • Mining. The eco-shaming that surrounds Bitcoin mining is defied by eco-friendly miners like Bitfarms ($BITF), Stronghold ($SDIG), BBGS… 
  • Layer-2 solutions. The most dynamic L2s include Polygon ($MATIC), Arbitrum ($ARB), and Optimism ($OP), with the promising zkSync to be released soon.
  • Interoperability protocols, that allow cryptoassets to travel across blockchains: Polkadot ($DOT) and Cosmos ($ATOM).
  • Oracles that bring off-chain data on-chain: Chainlink ($LINK) is an undisputed leader.
  • Decentralized storage: Filecoin ($FIL) and Arweave ($AR).
  • Decentralized identity (DID). The two most promising directions are Jack Dorsey’s Web5, and Soulbound Tokens formulated by Ethereum’s creator Vitalik Buterin.

Finance

Crypto finance is a sector that is most exposed to regulatory risk, and a project’s potential largely depends on its ability to defend itself on legal grounds. The main activities include:

  • Payment services (Strike) and wallets (Metamask).
  • Exchanges. While centralized exchanges like Coinbase ($COIN) are now struggling with the SEC, their decentralized versions like Uniswap ($UNI) or Curve ($CRV) thrive.
  • Lending-borrowing: centralized Nexo ($NEXO), which weathered the bear market better than most of its competitors, decentralized Aave ($AAVE).
  • Asset management. While centralized Grayscale is suing the SEC, decentralized Enzyme ($MLN) enables anyone to become an active fund manager, and yield protocols like Yearn ($YFI) offer passive revenue,
  • Insurance: Nexus Mutual ($NXM) is the biggest player, but the space has more room for new projects.
  • Tokenization, or creating on-chain versions of off-chain assets – a high-potential activity, which Citi recently estimated at $6 trillion by 2030. Crypto-friendly banks like Sygnum and DeFi protocols like Synthetix ($SNX) are among the main actors.

Web3 gaming & metaverse

Crypto tools offer a disintermediated ownership of assets, which means that crypto games can implement the play-to-earn model, and decentralized metaverses guarantee true ownership of their land. 

  • Web3 games. With over 570k monthly unique active wallets, Alien Worlds is the most popular web3 game, while Axie Infinity generates the most trade volume. The second generation of more entertaining games could be represented by Illuvium and Aurory, both in beta.
  • Metaverse. Decentraland ($MANA) and The Sandbox ($SAND) are the two biggest decentralized metaverses now, but they are struggling to attract users. The upcoming Otherside by Yuga Labs and The Open Metaverse by Ripple are much expected, as well as the partnership of Polygon with MapleStory Universe, a game with 180 million users.

Creator economy 

NFTs can unlock new revenue streams for creators of all kinds. Most notable examples of crypto use in the creator economy include:

  • Music: streaming platform Audius ($AUDIO) and royalty-sharing Royal.
  • Animation: series like Stoner Cats (NFT-gated content) and White Rabbit (NFT holders decide on the scenario).
  • Social media. Launched by Aave a year ago, Lens protocol, which enables users’ contacts and data portability, is now one of the most promising web3 projects.

Community & cooperation

Blockchain tools like NFTs and DAOs can help organize, incentivize, and remunerate people. This quality is used by:

  • Web3 projects & NFT collectibles, like Bored Apes Yacht Club or Azuki.
  • Consumer brands using NFTs to engage with their clients: Adidas, Gucci, Porsche…
  • DAOs, or decentralized autonomous organizations, are often used as governance bodies for DeFi and become increasingly popular for organizing work. 
  • Charities, like the Ukrainian Museum of War that helps fight off the Russian invasion by raising funds through NFTs.

These 5 sectors are just the biggest conglomerates and most certainly miss other functions of blockchain, for example, certification. Over time, we might have to add more sectors to account for the new use cases.

Written by D.Center