Pantera CEO bullish on DeFi, Web3 and NFTs as Token2049 gets underway

Pantera CEO Dan Morehead highlighted the potential growth and value of Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Web3 functionality, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and Metaverse applications in his opening keynote speech at Token2049 in Singapore.

Thousands of attendees converged on Wednesday at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Center for the start of the two-day conference which features prominent speakers from the cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem.

Pantera, a blockchain-focused investment fund with $4.5 billion of assets under management, said it continues to see value in emerging crypto use cases. 

Morehead drew parallels to the early 2000s when emerging technology companies like Amazon, Apple, and Google began to attract major investments after years of dominance by Microsoft in the stock markets.

Morehead highlighted that while Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) dominated investors' cryptocurrency portfolios over the past decade, he argued that new projects and use cases could promise even greater returns on investment.

“We’re almost at the point where half of the entire market are things that aren’t the two main blockchains and I’m still wildly bullish on Bitcoin and Ethereum. But I just think these projects are going to perform even better and should be in someone’s portfolio.”

DeFi, Web3, NFTs and Metaverse projects hold the most promise according to Morehead. The Pantera CEO also mused over the state of DeFi, which endured a tough few months following the Terra/Luna collapse and the contagion of now-defunct lending firms.

Related: Pantera to close Blockchain Fund soon after raising $1.3B — double the target

Morehead suggested that DeFi's current command of a $20 billion market cap in comparison to the traditional finance system’s $3 trillion means there is plenty of room for growth in the sector.

The CEO was also bullish about Web3 given its focus on giving users control of their data, as well as platforms owned or governed by communities rather than centralized entities.

“The existing internet is all about extracting value out of you. There are also some sketchy governance issues in big tech. I’m excited for a world where people create and add value and all these networks actually own their data.”

Morehead went as far as describing Web3 as the most inevitable trade he’s seen, highlighting the potential for decentralized versions of existing projects to hand value back to creators and users.

The Pantera CEO concluded his presentation by underlying his belief that the current cryptocurrency market cycle is different from previous years given strong fundamentals, pointing to some 200 million people that use blockchain-based platforms and cryptocurrencies, which could increase to one billion in the next three years.