The unprecedented and unimaginable growth of Cryptocurrency has kept everyone on the edge of their seats in the latter part of the year 2017. However, at the beginning of 2018, we witnessed a massive downfall of the digital asset, solidifying the predictions of data analysts who forecasted that such ‘waves of market growth are usually followed by a similar wave of market decline’.

Perhaps, this could be seen as the very nature of market dynamics which has led to over 50 percent depreciation in the values of most of the cryptocurrencies across the market. As per the first quarter report on Cryptocurrency published by UTB, the downfall was so bad that it only left a small amount of cryptocurrencies in the growth stage, all the others were hit by a huge wave of decline, wherein the worst receivers were Cardano, Ripple, and of course, Bitcoin that lost almost 66.05 percent of its value.

Even though some of the cryptocurrencies have actually managed to raise their value, including VeChain and Tron, situations are apparently in a worse position than they were previously. Last year, banking institutions were actually considering the acceptance of Bitcoins and Ripple, and trends of Bitcoin in the casino industry, too, were in a position of more stable growth in the past.

At present, however, the world has been divided into three categories:

1. People who are rejoicing that their prediction on crypto downfall has come to light.
2. People who are suffering the loss said downfall.
3. Optimistic speculators, who have actually found some probable factors that can lead to yet another, and this time more permanent at the very least, boom of the industry.

One person from the third category is Bill Barhydt, CEO of the Silicon Valley-based Cryptocurrency business –Abra. In an interview with Business Insider, Barhydt revealed some of his findings from his discussions with people of high net-worth and hedge funds. He stated that the very volatile nature of the Cryptocurrency makes it very opportune for the big investors, and once the big institutions start entering the market it will become bigger than perhaps even the Internet.

In this growth, factors like the reduced transaction cost (that came down from $55 in 2017 to $1 in April 2018) will also play a major role, bringing Cryptocurrency much closer to its proposed destination of becoming a currency system even.

Barhydt has also included the greater participation from regulators, who at present are trying to demolish the cryptocurrency market plagued with scams and hackers, as yet another factor for hope. He stated that involvement of regulators will only work to make the market more stable, encouraging the anticipated move from institutional investors.

He says that “We’re getting closer and closer to real clarity in the West that it’s OK putting half a percent of your assets into crypto.”  This half a percent of investments from big institutions will mean hundreds of millions of dollars, an amount enough to set things on the run again. Following the same point of consideration, Barhydt also reveals that at present there is “zero large-scale institutional money from west in Crypto right now” and “Once a large sizable chunk of Western institutional money starts to come in – watch out.”

He says that “Institutional interest is now starting to grow regardless of the Google trends.” Once the investments start to come in, it will be like opening the floodgates, which he predicts is “going to happen this year.”

Resources:

https://usethebitcoin.com/cryptocurrency-trends-in-q1-2018/

https://www.businessinsider.in/All-hell-will-break-loose-The-crypto-market-will-boom-again-in-2018-according-to-the-CEO-of-American-Express-backed-startup-Abra/articleshow/63505648.cms