Crowdfunding is destined to become one of the finance and investment terms of a decade. Don’t let it wear thin on you, because it is only beginning to pick up momentum. There are already innumerable crowdfunding platforms in the United States, not to mention about 2,000 in China and hundreds in Europe.

Some people, such as Richard Swart, chief strategy officer of NextGen Crowdfunding, overestimated how quickly and vastly crowdfunding would take hold. Swart thought it would be a $200 billion industry by this point, and admits to being overzealous with his forecast. As Mark Elenowitz of TriPoint Global Equities observes, even crowdfunding platforms that have no minimum investment have not seen the stampede of investors they expected.

“Most people don’t wake up wanting to buy stock,” he says. “You still have to sell it to them.”

Despite those setbacks, there has been validation as well, such as the day in October when tra