This year, 2018 was quite a turbulent year for the crypto world, it was bedeviled with a lot scam ICOs, hard forks, restrictions by some countries, financial giants and social media giants. However in the midst of this, some strange events took place that I believe will pedestal cryptocurrencies especially the stablecoins to do well next year, 2019.
1. Facebook and Google accepts crypto ads
Facebook all of a sudden started accepting crypto-related online advertisements in June after previously placing a ban on them earlier in the year. Google followed suit in October after disallowing all crypto-related advertising in June.
Is there something that these social media giants are not telling us?
2. Bakkt - The talk of the town
In August when Intercontinental Exchange (the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange), announced the launch of Bakkt, with the help of technology partner Microsoft. Bakkt, the new digital asset platform became the talk of the town as a result of the announcement. The emergence of Bakkt with its main offering of a regulated futures exchange, is expected to pave the way for Bitcoin ETFs to get approved.
3. SEC rejects proposals for future-based cryptocurrency
The future of futures-based cryptocurrency ETF (pun not intended) remains uncertain after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) refused two application proposals from the Winklevoss twins in July and nine others from three individual firms: GraniteShares, Direxion, and ProShares the following month. Another important futures-based crypto – VanEck/SolidX in partnership with CBOE is awaiting a decision in February next year.
4. Rapid Emergence of Stablecoins
A lot of Stablecoins emerged this year, with notable releases throughout 2018:
- DAI (ETH-backed ERC-20) – launched by MakerDAO
- Paxos Standard (PAX – USD-backed) – launched by the Paxos Trust Company
- Gemini Dollar (GUSD – USD-backed ERC-20) – launched by Gemini Trust Company
- USD Coin (USDC – USD-backed ERC-20) – launched by Circle Internet Financial Ltd
- LBXPeg (GBP-backed ERC-621 token) – released by the London Block Exchange (LBX)
Facebook is also reportedly developing its own stablecoin for WhatsApp transfers, pegged to the U.S. dollar.
I guess some folks are tired of how volatile the non stablecoins are
5. Fidelity Digital Services Emerges
Fidelity Investment, one of the largest asset management firms in the world announced the launch of a separate company in October, Fidelity Digital Asset Services, to provide cryptocurrency custody and trading services for institutional clients.
6. Tenth anniversary of Bitcoin's white paper
On October 31 marked the 10th anniversary of Bitcoin’s white paper – “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”, written by an anonymous person or a group of people under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
Cryptocurrency has come to stay, what do you think?
7. Bitcoin Cash goes through a hard fork
Bitcoin Cash underwent a hard fork on November 15, resulting in two different currencies, BCHSV and BCHABC. Following a “hash war” and a long dispute over names, the industry finally seems to be settling on attributing the BCH ticker to the ABC chain and BSV to the Bitcoin Cash SV chain.
8. Nasdaq to launch regulated Bitcoin Futures
Nasdaq, the world’s second largest stock exchange, in late November announced a partnership with VanEck to launch regulated and surveilled bitcoin futures in Q1 2019.
Is there any future in Bitcoin futures?
9. ICOs giving way for STOs
Throughout the year, most ICOs started failing to hit their targets, fading away with regulatory clampdowns from SEC, which made room for a new and compliant asset class: Security Token Offering (STO). Some of the most important recent news surrounding STOs:
- Overstock's tZero concluded one of the first STOs on a decentralized public network after raising $134M;
- Binance partnered with Malta Stock Exchange to launch a security tokens trading platform.
10. The Bear out runs the Bull
It’s been a wild ride for cryptocurrencies this year, right after the 2017 December rush (due to FOMO), the Bitcoin and Ethereum price pump came to a halt towards the end of January. The last 12 months saw the first bear market (price dump) since 2014, with BTC/USD suffering a 70.42% loss and ETH/USD losing 79.04%.
