The Consumer Crypto Catalyst: Decentralized Applications for Everyday Users

The consumer crypto landscape is poised to reshape how individuals interact with products and services in their everyday lives. This report focuses on defining, mapping, and analyzing the emerging sector of consumer crypto, which refers to blockchain-enabled platforms and services designed for the general public's use. Despite the growing interest in this space, there is a lack of clarity around what constitutes consumer crypto and how it differs from other sectors in the broader crypto ecosystem. To shed light on this nascent sector, we provide a clear definition and a comprehensive taxonomy of the various subsectors within consumer crypto which is set out in Section 1. This report aims to equip stakeholders with a solid foundation for understanding and navigating the consumer crypto space. By providing clarity around the definition, taxonomy, and key trends shaping this sector, it seeks to facilitate informed decision-making and contribute to the ongoing development of blockchain-powered consumer applications.

The report is structured as follows:

Section 1 defines consumer crypto and provides a structured taxonomy breaking down the key application and infrastructure layer subsectors. The application layer subsectors identified include community/brand engagement, decentralized social, gaming, media, and messaging. The infrastructure layer subsectors include wallets, payments, networks, identity management, metaverse, analytics, and decentralized physical infrastructure networks. 

Section 2 explores the current market landscape across both the crypto-native ecosystem and traditional consumer brand activity. It covers each application and infrastructure subsector, highlighting notable projects, user activity, and venture funding trends. The analysis also reviews data on Fortune 100 companies to gauge the penetration and maturity of consumer crypto initiatives among traditional consumer brands. We’ve found that both venture funding and user growth has increased across all five application layer subsectors over the five years from 2019 to 2023. Additionally, nearly one-third of Fortune 100 companies have consumer crypto initiatives in development.

Section 3 envisions the road ahead for consumer crypto, identifying the key barriers to mainstream adoption such as high transaction fees, complex user experiences, negative public perception, and regulatory uncertainty. This section also projects how the subsectors we’ve outlined may evolve, such as decentralized social media platforms offering customizable content curation algorithms. In addition, we explore the potential emergence of new subsectors such as on-chain AI agents and tokenized personal data markets.

Finally, Section 4 explores the on-chain consumer regulatory direction by analyzing past enforcement actions and their potential implications for the future of consumer crypto products. This section also provides a high-level overview of the regulatory approach to consumer crypto across key markets in North America, Europe, and Asia, offering insights into the potential impact of different regulatory frameworks on the development and growth of on-chain consumer products.