Best of the three quarters of 2020

• This year, Wyoming became the first US state to establish a regulatory environment to support blockchain innovation, while providing regulatory oversight to guard against potential risks.

• One of the leading blockchain technology companies LeewayHertz developed a face mask detection system, a telemedicine app, a contactless access system to help reduce the risk of COVID-19.

• The growing interest of financial institutions has led to the emergence of the central bank digital currency (CBDC), which allowed stablecoins to become one of the central topics in the world of cryptocurrencies.

• Telegram, a popular messaging app, has closed its TON cryptocurrency project. The founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, explained that the US court had stopped his TON project and prevented the spread of the gram cryptocurrency among investors not only in the US but all over the world.

• On January 6, 2020, Chinese search engine Baidu, often referred to as Google of China, launched a public beta version of its blockchain service for enterprises called Xuperchain. The service is supposed to allow small and medium businesses and developers to cheaply launch so-called decentralized apps.

• A blockchain voting system worth 7.2 million rubles was ordered in Russia. The system must take into account the votes of voters anonymously and include 4 groups of users: observer, voter, members of the election commission, and system administrator.

1. Bitcoin. After three years of ups and downs, the price stabilized at around 8,470 British pounds. Bitcoin has good prospects for next year due to various factors: it is immune to inflation; used in many countries around the world; burglary protection; an alternative for real money; has a limited emission.

However, experts' opinions on BTC rates differ among both positive forecasts and pessimistic ones.

Among the positive: from the growth of the exchange rate of 90 000 dollars over two years and to an increase in its value to 25 000 dollars by the end of 2020. Among the pessimistic: Nouriel Roubini, who predicted major world crises, believes that 2020 will be the last year for Bitcoin; and critic Peter Schiff suggested that the price would fall first to 6000 dollars and then to 2000 dollars. His analysis is based on graphs.

2. Ethereum. LongForecast analysts claim that Ethereum will be traded at a 300-dollar threshold by the end of February 2021. That being said, a quick look at their website now shows that LongForecast has since updated their price prediction, claiming that ETH will rise to around 860-885 dollars by November-December 2020.

3. NEO. This cryptocurrency had been one of the most sought-after cryptocurrencies in 2020. Its price since the beginning of the year has ranged from 3.93 to 25.86 dollars. Neo hit a new high of 25.86 dollars in September after rising by 30% in just one week.

However, the cryptocurrency has recently failed to hold these highs for a long time, gradually dropping to 15 dollars on October 7. It soon returned to 17.9 dollars on October 13, 2020.

Neo price prediction for the rest of 2020 and early 20212 looks positive enough. For example, Walletinvestor.com, known for its conservative forecasts, predicts Neo's price to hit 18.5 dollars in 2021, which is by 3% more compared to the latest price of 17.9 dollars — a fairly moderate prediction for Neo. However, the same analysts believe that investing in Neo could be a profitable long-term investment, as Neo's price will hit 26 dollars by 2025.

4. Tron. TRX USD has broken out of the downtrend and bear market and should overcome horizontal resistance above the next one. This level is approximately 8 cents per TRX token in USD until the end of 2020.

Analysts predict that as the project continues to expand, there will be opportunities for the price of the TRX coin to rise. TradingBeasts, for example, predicts that prices can be expected in the 0.05 to 0.08 dollars range in January 2021, with high price increases expected from 0.21 to 0.30 dollars by the end of December 2021.

Summary. The cumulative forecast1 suggests that global blockchain technology revenues will grow significantly in the coming years, while the market is expected to grow to more than 39 billion dollars by 2025. The financial sector has been one of the fastest in blockchain investments, with over 60 percent of the technology's market value concentrated in this area.

The future of blockchain is closely tied to other emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). Thus, Gartner analysts predict that in 2020 banks using blockchain will receive additional profits of more than one billion dollars.

Facebook plans to launch its own digital currency, Libra, in 2020. Many details of the project are still unknown, but the tech giant's ambitious plans are causing serious concern among governments and regulators in many countries.

The adoption by the Wyoming authorities of 13 laws designed to provide a legal framework for blockchain and cryptocurrencies is a signal that attitudes towards regulation, which should not impede technological innovation, are changing in many regions. It is possible that other American states as well as other countries will follow Wyoming's example in 2020.