Former hedge fund manager and prominent crypto advocate Raoul Pal predicts that the total number of crypto users could reach 4 billion by 2030.
In a post on X Sunday, Pal highlighted data comparing crypto adoption to internet adoption, measured from the point when each surpassed 5 million users.
His analysis was based on tracking the growth of crypto wallets versus the growth of IP addresses.
Raoul Pal, former hedge fund manager and well-known crypto proponent, says the global crypto user base has expanded at an average annual rate of 137% over the past nine years, reaching 659 million by the end of 2024. For comparison, internet adoption stood at 187 million users by 2000, growing at an annual rate of 76%.
Looking ahead, Pal projects crypto adoption will rise at a slower pace of about 43% annually, putting the total user base at 1 billion by 2030—roughly one-eighth of the world’s population.
A $100 Trillion Market Cap?
Pal’s outlook goes beyond user growth. He believes the crypto market could surpass a $100 trillion valuation within the next decade, potentially as early as 2032. According to him, two main forces—currency debasement and adoption—will drive this expansion.
“Debasement explains 90% of price action, while adoption explains 100% of outperformance versus debasement,” said Pal, who founded Real Vision and Global Macro Investor.
Pushback From the Community
Not everyone is convinced by Pal’s bullish forecast. Some users on X argued that wallet data is an unreliable measure of growth, noting that project founders can create thousands of wallets to inflate numbers, while individuals often maintain multiple wallets themselves.
Pal countered that the same criticism could be leveled at internet adoption, since users also tend to have multiple IP addresses.
Data from B2B digital currency platform Triple-A estimates there were over 560 million crypto users worldwide by the end of 2024. Meanwhile, an October 2024 report from Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm put the number of active monthly users between 30 million and 60 million.
