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The Bitcoin struggles continue in 2019.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have failed to recover their peaks reached in this period last year. The retail craze has certainly vanished as the entire market capitalization has fallen by 85% in a year, according to Coinmarketcap.com.
Investors had been waiting for greater institutional adoption this year and the launch of a series of future bitcoins. Both the Intercontinental Exchange, ICE (the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange) and Nasdaq plan to launch bitcoin futures this year, despite the current bear market.
So far, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates bitcoins, has approved two crypto futures products – one from the Chicago Board Options Exchange and another from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. However, the president of the SEC, Jay Clayton, said in November that he must see better surveillance of custody solutions before he feels "at ease" by allowing an encrypted exchange fund, or ETF, to come onto the market.
CLOCK: The cryptic mania ended in 2018 with a groan
