How would one describe the impressions of the previous year within the realms of cryptocurrency universe? Well, if an analogy is enough, I’ll go with this one: 2018 was a roller-coaster ride for the community. I mean, literally. In spring and early summer, things looked quite promising, but the sudden and growing decline of digital currencies’ value by the end of the year has resulted in the advent of the “crypto-winter” state.
In December 2018, the biggest name in the industry – Bitcoin – was down by nearly 75% in comparison from its peak results, and the whole token market couldn’t help but fall by 80% in terms of capitalization. According to a recent report from Reuters, an American multinational investment bank and financial services company JP Morgan believes that Bitcoin could still hang out somewhere around $2,400, but chances are it could fall below $1,260 due to the impact of the bear market.
But let’s look at this rather grim picture from an optimistic perspective. Brayton Williams, the co-founder of Boost VC, is sure that what the general public calls a “crypto-winter” is just a return to the status we could have witnessed if the Great Bitcoin Boom hadn’t taken place: “The investment money is returning back to the norm of difficult to obtain. I think the ‘winter’ is greatly exaggerated. We are just back to normal behaviors.”
So what’s the conclusion? Is the situation becoming worse and worse for the global crypto community? Not at all. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Here are the numbers. The fourth ICO / STO report by PwC Strategy in co-authorship with Crypto Valley Association (CVA) claims that last year, 1.132 Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) and Security Token Offerings (STOs) were successfully completed, doubling the results of 2017 with 552 done deals respectively.
- a new level of protection;
- flexible custody solutions;
- market data services;
- reliable rating services;
It’s worth noting that these increasing expectations are largely beneficial for the whole market. As the regulatory requirements of STOs have become stricter, the current infrastructure, like trade and custody, will evolve too. The most experienced stock exchanges and financial institutions have smelled this opportunity, so now they are expanding their services to support precisely the world of crypto.
As for the actual trends in the crypto domain, according to the report, the asset tokenization, or the conversion of real-life assets to the blockchain technology, may be regarded as the presiding trend this year.
So haters gonna hate, or, as they say, only time will tell.
