By 
As we start another year in crypto, let’s take a look at the state of crypto market exactly a year ago.
Woah! Clearly, crypto space has come a long way in just one year. The entire market cap shot up from $15 billion in January to over $600 billion by year’s end. In doing so, crypto assets have transformed into some that we can’t ignore.
As of now, there are 32 cryptocurrencies whose market cap is over $1 billion. Just 12 months ago, there was only one. Could this number go up to 50 or even 100 in 2018? There’s definitely a possibility, but you never know with this market.
After Christmas, Bitcoin price has been trading sideways in the range $13,000 – $15,000. At the time of writing, the cryptocurrency is trading at $13,277, posting a market cap of $222 billion.
Notably, Bitcoin dominance has considerably gone down in the past two weeks. This could possibly pave the way for altcoins. The last time it happened altcoin market cap boomed and Ethereum came close to surpass Bitcoin’s market cap. But, the “flippening” did not happen.
Ripple continues to demonstrate a valuation significantly larger than Ethereum. Over the past few weeks, we have seen some notable changes in the top tier coins. For instance, Cardano’s preposterous rise to $18 billion market cap.
While it is difficult to justify the market valuation of most of the cryptocurrencies in the market, it has become worrisome that the combined market valuation of alternative cryptocurrencies has surpassed Bitcoin’s. Compare that to Bitcoin’s 90% dominance in January 2017.
That being said, several analysts are still very optimistic in Bitcoin achieving a trillion dollar market cap by the end of 2018, given its network effect and the adoption by financial institutions. Lighting network would play a significant role in that process. Although, there is a lot of bearish pressure on Bitcoin. This pullback could take the price below $11,000 in the short term.
Further, Bitcoin still remains as the only cryptocurrency with full support from major financial institutions building options trading, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and custodian platforms for retail traders.
So what can we expect Bitcoin to do in 2018? Many analysts believe 2018 will be a breakout year for bitcoin, with a 14-fold return. The cryptocurrency will be eyeing that $1 trillion market cap! Reasons, you ask?
Here’s what Joseph Young, a renowned Bitcoin analyst, outlined:
1. Nasdaq Bitcoin Futures
2. NYSE Bitcoin ETFs
3. Cboe Bitcoin ETFs
4. Scaling / Lower Fees
5. More Adoption Due to ↑
6. Many Billion of Institutional Money Coming to Bitcoin / Crypto
Top 3 Influencers of 2017
Instead of top stories, let’s look at who were the top 3 Bitcoin/Crypto/Blockchain influencers of 2017. Some of the information has been taken from recent interviews conducted by Coinbase.
1. Naval Ravikant @Naval
Naval has been one of the most influential voices in this industry. His belief in Blockchain goes beyond cryptocurrencies. His proudest accomplishments of 2017 is a 37-part tweetstorm about blockchains, networks and markets – almost in the same breath as his business activities.
“I’d been thinking about the problem for a while. I went to sleep, woke up in the middle of the night, 3 or 4 a.m, and I just regurgitated that entire thing on Twitter,” he says.
The thread begins with a bold prediction: “Blockchains will replace networks with markets.” Then it laid out a sweeping view of human history, in which money, religion, corporations, roads and electricity – all different kinds of networks – as more people join one, the more valuable it becomes to all participants.
He sums up the tweetstorm by saying:
“It’s nonsensical to have a blockchain controlled by a sovereign, a corporation, an elite, or a mob. Blockchain-based market networks will replace existing networks. Slowly, then suddenly. In one thing, then in many things. Ultimately, the nation-state is just a network (of networks).”
2. Charlie Lee @SatoshiLite
The man is affectionately known as “Satoshi lite”, is the creator of what some consider as the true competitor of Bitcoin – Litecoin. As Charlie himself puts it, Litecoin is the silver to Bitcoin’s gold.
He’s been known to publicly tweet what he feels about the market. Sometimes it works in his favor, sometimes not so much. For instance, before the Chinese government made that news public of shutting down Bitcoin exchanges, Lee’s statement led to a stir that some believe pushed down the Bitcoin price.
“I was telling the truth, but the truth caused the market to correct. People found out the truth from me first, and they sold,” he says. “A lot of people got hurt.”
In a shocker, two weeks ago, Lee sold all his Litecoin holding citing “a conflict of interest”. Announcing on Reddit, Lee said:
“Over the past year, I try to stay away from price related tweets, but it’s hard because price is such an important aspect of Litecoin growth. And whenever I tweet about Litecoin price or even just good or bads news, I get accused of doing it for personal benefit.”
Lee continues to work on Litecoin and vows to bring it back to its all time high.
3. Roger Ver @RogerKver
Love him. Hate him. But you can’t ignore him.
Roger (aka Bitcoin Jesus) is the guy behind Bitcoin Cash – the most controversial Bitcoin fork ever. He’s probably the guy who got Jihan Wu (owner of largest Bitcoin mining pool, Bitmain), John McAfee and others on board to go ahead with the fork.
Roger was one of the earliest adopters of Bitcoin. He not only invested in it, but he also invested in Bitcoin based startups back in 2012.
Off late, Roger has been spending a lot of energy in promoting BCH and he gets extremely upset if some calls it BCash. So much so that he’d go so far to show you a finger because according to him Bitcoin Cash is the real Bitcoin.
His reasoning:
“The reason there is so much hostility from Bitcoin Core towards Bitcoin Cash is because Core knows they have stolen the name but are advocating a completely different system than what was originally described by Satoshi.
Bitcoin Cash is Bitcoin”
PS: Thank you all so much for your continuous support and feedback to BitcoinPrice.com. Just like Bitcoin, we have also come a long way this year. Our subscriber count is at an all-time high! xD
We truly appreciate you reading our newsletter. Remember, sharing is caring. Please tell your friends about Bitcoin Daily: localhost/daily.
Wish you a very happy new year 🙂