Many industry leaders agree that Bitcoin can only go up from here. Mike Novogratz isn’t the only crypto-bull who thinks Bitcoin will have another massive run in 2018. Predictions for a $50,000 Bitcoin don’t even seem so bullish anymore. CEO of Outlier Ventures, Jamie Burke, believes the a bull this year will be more powerful than last, propelling the entire crypto market cap to at least $1 trillion.
Formal regulation is here
As countries begin to have regulation talks, many nations are already seeing how beneficial DLT (distributed ledger technology) is, and even CFTC chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo admits that we all owe this innovation to Bitcoin.
The regulators are increasingly making it clear that they don’t want to stifle innovation and instead want to crack down on the bad guys and fraudsters who are trying to take advantage of people’s interest in cryptocurrencies.
And the chairman also brought up another good point: his nieces and nephews are genuinely interested in cryptocurrencies.
Many senators on the floor agreed that the younger generations have embraced decentralized technologies in a serious way. This, if anything, should prove that as time goes on, more and more money will be invested in decentralized technologies.
CFTC Chairman Giancarlo opens with a story of his 3 college-aged kids who are enthusiastic about #Crypto as most #millenials are. He advocated that we embrace #CryptoCurrency. Great stuff! We can thank his kids for that one. #PayWithLitecoin
— Łitecoindad ? (@litecoindad) February 6, 2018
Centralization hindering decentralization
At this point, the biggest thing stopping decentralization is centralization. Banks are putting up a big pushback recently, many of which are banning credit cards from being used on exchanges to buy cryptocurrencies.
Just like the transition from fossil fuels to renewables has been a back and forth (with gas companies playing both sides), banks will be hedging their success through slowly, but surely investing in cryptocurrencies.
But many “millennial apps” are fighting back with alternatives. Robinhood will be opening its doors very soon to allowing purchases of Ethereum and Bitcoin.
There are already well over 1 million people in line to early access to the app, many of who are crypto newcomers.
But the most exciting part of all will be the rise of the “utility token,” and the launch of DEXs, or decentralized exchanges. 2018 will be the year that crypto sees a lot of decentralized practices get put to real use.
Utility Tokens, BaaS and DEXs
Utility tokens have real utility — these are tokens that have a clear message of what their purpose will be in their function. Many coins that debuted this past year have a very vague purpose — the idea behind the project sounds great, but the coin attached is just an excuse for the company to raise money. The function isn’t actually anything.
While BaaS (Blockchain as a System) tokens like Ethereum, Cardano and Nxt offer a platform for blockchain projects to be built on, utility tokens will offer direct services for the platforms built on the blockchain. AGI, for example, is a utility token of SingularityNET.
SingularityNET is a decentralized marketplace to buy and sell artificial intelligence. The token AGI will be the way users buy and sell AGI. This realization of what is and is not a utility token will bring a lot of market cap to the right places in crypto.
And speaking of decentralized marketplaces — decentralized exchanges (DEXs) will help the crypto community wean off of centralized services, like banks and the exchanges that most traders use today. DEXs will make the user 100% in control of their own money at all times, eliminating many of the middlemen currently used in the centralized world.
The Upcoming 2018 Bull-Run
Thomas Glucksmann, head of business development at Gatecoin exchange to CNBC:
“Increasing regulatory recognition of cryptocurrency exchanges, the entrance of institutional capital and major technology developments will contribute to the market’s rebound and push cryptocurrency prices to all new highs this year. [There] is no reason why we couldn’t see bitcoin pushing $50,000 by December.”
With the only holdbacks being regulations and big banks, the hardest part seems to already be over and crypto has too much to look forward to this year for the price to not hit higher than ever.
