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Interview with Maksim Balashevich, CEO of Santiment

Complexity and Expertise in the Virtual Asset Market Increases

Trump Effect... Regulatory Environment Expected to Improve

Bitcoin and Ethereum Strength to Continue

Maksim Balashevich, CEO of Santiment / Photo = Santiment

"The virtual asset (cryptocurrency) market will experience a wave of institutional entry starting in 2025. The market will become more complex, and bidirectional volatility will also increase."

Maksim Balashevich, CEO of the global on-chain analysis platform Santiment, predicted this in an interview with Bloomingbit on the 19th regarding next year's virtual asset market.

We listened in detail to his predictions for the blockchain industry and market outlook, as he is a veteran in the virtual asset industry and a data analysis expert.

Virtual Asset Market, Complexity and Expertise Increase

CEO Balashevich thought that institutional participation in the virtual asset market would increase sharply from next year. This is because the market has grown large enough to be an attractive asset for institutions.

He predicted, "Since the debut of the Bitcoin (BTC) spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the market this year, institutional participation in the virtual asset market has continued," and "Next year, following this year, various asset managers such as hedge funds, family offices, and pension funds are likely to allocate assets to multiple virtual assets, including Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH)."

However, he pointed out that the idea that institutional participation would unconditionally lead to a rise in virtual asset prices is wrong. CEO Balashevich explained, "The increase in institutional investors' market participation is generally a positive signal. However, as institutional investors like BlackRock increase, they will view the market from both long and short positions. This can lead to increased volatility, making the market more professional and complex."

Trump Effect... Improvement in Virtual Asset Regulatory Environment Expected

CEO Balashevich predicted that after the inauguration of the Donald Trump administration in January next year, the global virtual asset regulatory trend would change positively.

He said, "Trump showed a very friendly attitude towards the virtual asset industry through his election pledges," and "Virtual asset regulation is likely to become open and flexible, centered on the United States and Switzerland, and will have a positive impact on the European and Asian markets."

Donald Trump has presented election pledges to promote the virtual asset industry, such as △Strategic asset reserve of Bitcoin △Support for Bitcoin (BTC) mining in the United States △End of virtual asset regulation crackdown △Abolition of Bitcoin capital gains tax △Prohibition of CBDC.

He believed that the improvement in the regulatory environment would lead to more active research on web3 use cases such as artificial intelligence (AI) data processing. CEO Balashevich stated, "Santiment is also actively investing and researching various use cases, such as stablecoins, decentralized lending markets, and data processing using artificial intelligence."

Bitcoin and Ethereum Strength to Continue

He believed that Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), which have already risen to major asset classes, are likely to continue their strength.

CEO Balashevich stated, "No one knows when the market turning point will come in the future, but Bitcoin and Ethereum, which are currently leading the market, are expected to continue their strength," and "In particular, in the case of Ethereum, the possibility of a rebound from negative sentiment and oversold conditions is high."

He added, "The market always follows cycles. Indicators and analysis should be simplified to effectively respond to the up and down cycles."

Meanwhile, he expressed somewhat negative opinions about other altcoins except for Ethereum. He predicted, "Major altcoin projects such as Solana (SOL) may face difficulties in growth due to technical issues and competitive pressure."

Youngmin Lee, Bloomingbit Reporter 20min@bloomingb