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2018 was once the new year everyone was waiting for, because the cryptic world was full of positive forecasts and expectations for the year.
Now the year is completely spent and its events are historical. It is important to take a retrospective look at the year to see to what extent the industry is really developed.
Here is a look at the main events and events that shook the cryptic world in 2018.
2018: Cryptocurrency Year in Review
The bearish trend 2018
Most cryptocurrencies had their historical highs in January 2018, but since then the markets have been increasingly bearish. There were different levels of price support during the descent, and each of them fell apart over time.
Bitcoin was trading close to $ 20,000 in December 2017, but the crash began in January 2018 and continued through December. Currently, Bitcoin is about $ 3,800, which is about 80% lower than its historical high.
Most of the altcoins suffered more serious losses. For example, Ethereum has suffered a price drop of more than 90% over the course of the year.
Other altcoins have suffered the same level of losses and even more, except for the exchange of coins and stablecoins. The Stableco have kept their value stable while the coins in exchange have suffered a much less severe decline in prices.
The negative price trend has influenced public sentiment on cryptocurrencies, however it has not influenced the fundamental development in the blockchain space.
Some of these exciting developments include:
Moreover, LinkedIn states that the development of blockchain is the largest growing sector of work in 2018. Search for Glass door it also indicates that blockchain jobs are growing at a faster pace despite falling prices in the encrypted market.
Indeed, it has been established that blockchain jobs pay far above the median salary in the United States, as can be seen in the table below:
This is an indication of the strength of the industry. Despite the market downturn, the industry continues to attract technological talent to build and improve blockchain systems around the world.
The arrival of cryptographic regulations
After the massive price increase in 2017, cryptocurrencies have started to gain a lot of attention from governments. They turned out different rumors, back and forth statements, is prohibitions during 2018.
Regulators pressure has developed on several blockchain projects, many of which are already behind their goals. In particular, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stuck on ICO which were not registered with the federal regulators.
South Korea regulated the cryptographic market in 2018 prohibiting the anonymous trade of cryptocurrencies, prohibiting minors and government officials from trading, taxing encryption exchanges, revoking the prohibition of ICOs and legalizing Bitcoin as a remittance.
Another notable development was when the leaders of the G20 accepted to adjust the cryptocurrency space.
Regulations are a necessary step for the next level of cryptocurrency growth as they provide the necessary controls and balances to fully stabilize and legitimize cryptographic space. Furthermore, the presence of regulations reduces the scams and scammers who try to take advantage of people.
Hacks
A decentralized system is theoretically difficult to hack, but this has not prevented bad actors from trying.
The 51% offense on Proof of Work systems it was a point of vulnerability in 2018. This affected limit, onMonacoin, Vertcoin, Zencash, Litecoin Cash, is Bitcoin Gold in the course of the year.
While some projects have learned from experience and gone beyond, others are still struggling with how to protect themselves from future events.
The hacks were not limited to the blockchain. In 2018 cryptographic exchanges recorded more serious hacks. Some of interested exchanges include Coincheck, Coinsecure, BitGrail, Coinrail, Bithumb and Bancor.
According to the Wall Street Journal, hackers stole over $ 800 million in the cryptic space in 2018. This, of course, forced the ecosystem to become smarter and tougher with security.
Facebook and Google Ban and Unban
At the beginning of the year 2018, Facebook issued a ban on cryptocurrency ads on its platform due to the fear that users will be scammed. This is important, as the platform hosts over 2 billion users from all over the world.
Google followed in June 2018, prohibiting cryptocurrency ads on all their platforms. This was a blow to many real cryptography projects that were looking for advertising at the time.
However, towards the end of the year, both companies have reversed their position on cryptographic advertising.
Facebook reversed its encrypted advertising ban updating their policy. Now, cryptographic advertisements will be evaluated by Facebook to ensure the legitimacy of the project before it can run on the platform.
Google also has has reversed the ban is reviewed its policy on cryptocurrencies.
These bans have painted a negative outlook for cryptocurrencies, giving the public the impression that the industry is illegal. The inversion of the prohibitions marks a growing legitimacy for the encrypted market.
Bitcoin Cash Civil War
One of the most profound events in the cryptography market in 2018 was the Bitcoin Cash rigid fork which took place on 15 November 2018.
The first fork of BCH successfully took place at the beginning of the year. However, there was no consensus on the issue of the second fork, which led to a division of the cryptocurrency into Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin ABC.
Both cryptocurrencies resulting from the division suffered heavy losses from the war that followed. There was also a battle over who would keep the original BCH ticker symbol.
In the end, Bitcoin Cash ABC was able to claim the BCH ticker symbol while Bitcoin Cash SV now uses the BSV symbol.
The immediate impact of this war was a drastic reduction in trust in the cryptographic projects involved. It also contributed to the further fall in prices that affected the entire crypto market in November.
The Rise of Stablecoins
With cryptic prices coming down in 2018, investors have started looking for ways to protect themselves from falling prices.
The stablecoin widely known in 2017 was Tether USD. However, they were disputes on the fact that the currency was really supported 1: 1 with the US dollar.
Several stablecoin projects were born on the market, leveraging bankruptcy confidence in the USD. Many of them were cryptographic exchange projects.
The stablecoins that launched in 2018 includes LBXPeg (of London Block Exchange), Paxos Standard (of Paxos Trust Company), Gemini Dollar (of Gemini Trust Company), USD Coin (of Circle Internet Financial Limited) and Candy (of Bank of Mongolia).
Growing institutional interests and bitcoin ETFs
Institutional investors acquired interest in the cryptographic space in 2018.
Loyalty investments announced which has a mining operation that makes money for the company.
Thus, they expressed further interest in the cryptocurrencies of launching Fidelity Digital Asset Services in October 2018 to provide custody and cryptocurrency trading services to institutional clients. The service is set to start operations in the first quarter of 2019.
Another important milestone in institutional adoption is Bakkt. Bakkt is a new digital asset platform from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), which is also supported by Microsoft and Starbucks.
Bakkt is announced be a regulated term exchange for Bitcoin. The launch of Bakkt was postponed in 2018, e currently set for launching at the end of January 2019.
Also, 9 questions of ETFs on Bitcoin were rejected from the SEC in 2018 and a petition of the Winklevoss twins their initial rejection of Bitcoin's ETF was denied.
However, this did not discourage other attempts to make the cryptocurrencies more attractive.
In August 2018, the SEC has delayed their decision on another Bitcoin ETF of VanEck and SolidX (in collaboration with CBOE). This decision will be taken in February 2019.
Conclusion
2018 was a dramatic year for cryptocurrencies. Some cryptographic projects have lost momentum and have been strangled by bear markets over the course of the year, while new ones have been born.
Overall, the sector still remains standing – a significant milestone, like the The Bitcoin whitepaper is 10 years old in October 2018. The blockchain revolution has really come a long way.
Furthermore, there are several bullish signals for the near future.
For example, there is the launch of Bakkt and the approval of Bitcoin's ETF is scheduled for the first quarter of 2019. However, their effect on the market may not take over until the third quarter of 2019.
We can also look forward to developments from the first 10 cryptocurrencies as well as various other projects in the market. There are trends that could dictate the state of the market in 2019. However, given the nascent and volatile space, the market could react differently.
While 2018 was predominantly bearish (except for fundamental developments), 2019 requires cautious optimism.
