5 min read · Feb 17, 2018
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Today a phoenix is born as the market cap of cryptocurrencies has hit $500B for the first time since the major crashes of January 2018. This comes on the tail of BTC breaking through the $10,000 barrier as support appears to grow for cryptos in general now that the hype of blanket bans and other negative media has died down.
Bitcoin had dropped down to about $6,000 on Feb 6th before turning the corner on the downwards trend. It rose to sit in-between $8k-$9k for a few days before pushing up through the $10k barrier on Feb 16th. This breakthrough was short lived as the same day it fell back down to under $10k, however the support for BTC would not die down and soon pushed it back up again where it now sits at almost $11k.
Since the start of the major crashes and overall poor performance in January, there have been over 100 new tokens/coins added to Coinmarketcap.com. Trading volume is still sitting at over $21B, just under 5% of total market cap. There has also been no slowing down to the number of ICOs being released. In fact, the ones that are coming out are better thought out, presented and are bringing in more funds than last year.
This last week is more proof that the storm has passed as predicted in my previous article. There are so many factors on which the crash has been riding on that indicate it is temporary and is due time to be on the rise again.
At this point now we can start asking questions about if BTC will keep pushing past its previous peak around $20k? There are still the bold predictions of it reaching $50k this year and even some saying $100k. Even though these are hard to believe for some critics, even should a small part of the predictions prove true it will put the crypto world in great stead.
This pivotal move for cryptocurrencies to rise again from the ashes gives rise for Ethereum to potentially take on the crypto giant BTC. Ethereum is sitting just under 20% of the total market cap and BTC is sitting at 36%. Together they still control over 50% of the whole market. Compare this to 2 months ago where ETH was only 14% of market cap and BTC was holding over a massive 55%. Bitcoin has lost over 1/3 of its holding power on the market in this time. The adoption of the lightning network will prove pivotal in it holding on to the lead of market share, and this should become clearer in the next few months.
Other key considerations will be how each country decides to regulate cryptocurrencies, how the major banks and institutes react to this new wave and the real world application of each of these new projects that are released every week. Bringing crypto to the public is the next step in making this world a common place for the everyday investor.
Positive Projects
I will leave you with this positive note, one of the biggest problems with cryptocurrency in the past was the real world application and real world asset integration/backing. Both these hurdles are being tackled head on by many groups. Cryptics, OLXA, EBCoin & TERNIO are just some of the new projects that tackle these issues. Below is a brief description of each project and a link to their site/ICO/Airdrop.
Cryptics aims to provide transparency and easy advice on crypto assets, in addition to this they screen more than 100k data sources incl. social media, crypto market influencer and top traders to provide market forecasts for crypto trading on multiple exchanges.
OLXA Coins are designed to become Crypto-Assets that combine the Blockchain Cryptocurrency with the real World Assets through Crowd-Projects. Beside the undergoing projects in launching products and services for OLXA Users such as OLXA Visa Card, Letter of Credit, i-advertising and Crypto E-shop.
The EBCoin project seeks to improve the inconvenient tax refund process for travelers around the world. With low fees and ease of use, EBCoin allows users to obtain their tax refund for international purchases while travelling instantly without the worry of keeping receipts, currency exchanges and waiting in lines.
TERNIO is a crypto currency aiming to change the way we transact with publishers, work with advertisers, and verify users. It will allow for instant publisher payment fraud prevention by its transparent blockchain used for payments and security. On a side note, Ternio are having a massive airdrop right now which is giving away 100,000 tokens every day to 20 people randomly. This is approximately $10,000-$16,000 worth every single day at the ICO price!
Mappo has been investing and trading in fiat currencies since 2013. He has recently moved into the crypto world spreading his portfolio over long term coin investments, ICOs and day trading.
