Quick Breakdown
- Raoul Pal projects global crypto adoption could hit 4 billion users by 2030.
- He forecasts crypto’s market cap may surpass $100 trillion within a decade.
- Pal says debasement and adoption will remain the key drivers of growth.
Former hedge fund manager and prominent crypto advocate Raoul Pal has projected that the number of global crypto users could reach 4 billion by 2030, a figure that would represent nearly half of the world’s population.
In a post on X, Pal compared crypto adoption rates to the early years of the internet, analyzing wallet growth against the spread of IP addresses. His findings suggest that crypto adoption is outpacing historical internet adoption at a similar stage of development.
Crypto is still being adopted at twice the speed on the internet from 5m IP addresses vs 5m wallets (very like for like). 1/ pic.twitter.com/5v2rmdab8d
— Raoul Pal (@RaoulGMI) August 31, 2025
Faster Growth Than the Internet
Pal noted that crypto’s user base has grown at an annual rate of 137% over the past nine years, reaching 659 million users by the end of 2024. By comparison, internet users totaled 187 million by the end of 2000, growing at an annual rate of 76% from its early years.
Based on this trajectory, Pal expects the number of crypto users to grow by 43% in 2025, with adoption surpassing 1 billion by the end of the decade. His long-term projection places global users at 4 billion by 2030, signaling one of the most rapid adoption curves of any technology in history.
Market Cap Could Top $100 Trillion
Pal also forecast that crypto’s total market capitalization could exceed $100 trillion by 2032, driven primarily by monetary debasement and rising adoption.
“Debasement explains 90% of price action, while adoption explains 100% of outperformance versus debasement,”
Pal said, referencing macroeconomic factors he believes will continue fueling digital asset growth.
His predictions, however, have sparked debate. Critics on X argued that wallet counts may overstate adoption, since individuals and projects often create multiple wallets. Pal countered that the same applies to internet adoption data, as people also maintain multiple IP addresses.
In parallel, Bitwise Asset Management has laid out its own bullish long-term outlook, projecting that Bitcoin could reach $1.3 million per coin by 2035. In its August capital markets assumptions report, the $15 billion asset manager forecast an annualized growth rate of 28.3% from current levels around $112,000.
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