Did you know that after the launch of Bitcoin on January 3, 2009, it took another two years for other cryptoassets such as Litecoin, Namecoin, SwiftCoin, and a handful of other altcoins to join the digital assets world? Additionally, though it is the second largest cryptoasset by market capitalization, Ethereum only entered into the cryptoverse in 2015. Since then, more and more newcomers have entered the space.
According to a Quartz report, the global cryptoasset market was valued at less than $9 billion two years ago (precisely $8,806,930,000 on May 23, 2016), with less than 700 active cryptoassets listed on the market at the time. Fast forward to late 2017, when the exponential rise in the price of Bitcoin fueled a massive increase in the value of all altcoins, invariably catapulting the total market cap of all cryptoassets to more than $400 billion on December 11, as seen on CoinMarketCap.
Although, since the beginning of 2018, it hasn’t been a smooth sailing journey for Bitcoin and other cryptoassets due to regulatory uncertainties and other factors, the digital currency market still boasts a total capitalization of nearly $300 billion. Presently, there are more than 1,500 unique cryptoassets disrupting the global economy and attracting pent-up interests from the media, governments, central banks, investors, and regulators.
Interestingly, the proliferation of cryptoassets into the global economy has proved a hard pill to swallow for some observers, and the nascent asset class has attracted strong condemnation from several billionaire critics, as well as highly respected Nobel laureates in recent times. Berkshire Hathaway’s vice chairman, Charlie Munger, said in February 2018 that Bitcoin was nothing but a “Noxious Poison,” and that the government ought to crush it entirely. The 93-year-old billionaire’s comment didn’t come as a surprise to the crypto community, considering the fact that his “boss,” Warren Buffet, is also a staunch hater of Bitcoin. “We don’t own any [bitcoin]; we’re not short any. We’ll never have a position in them,” Buffet said back in January, adding, “What’s going on [with bitcoin] definitely will come to a bad ending.”
