Does the market have you down, both literally and figuratively? Looking at the value of your portfolio over this past year may have been hazardous to your health, but keeping track of the positive developments should’ve given you many reasons to be optimistic and even excited about the future of the cryptocurrency market.
Here at Bethereum, we are genuinely excited about the future. This week we will launch our biggest and most advanced sports betting competition ever, we’re getting closer to the launch of our platform for the world to experience, and we’ve been noticing that the cryptocurrency world is continuing to evolve and grow despite what may be left in your Ether wallet.
Here are 5 reasons we’re excited about the future of the cryptocurrency market.
Corporate Investment
One positive movement that’s impossible to overlook is the large, no, massive corporations trying to get their share of the market and benefit from its success. When even JP Morgan, whose CEO Jamie Dimon once said he doesn’t “really give a shit about Bitcoin,” is getting involved, you know that institutions actually believe in the future of cryptocurrency despite what they have said in the past.
According to Forbes contributor Jonathan Chester, “there are behind-the-scenes signals showing the strength of the novel cryptocurrency incumbents.” He mentions investment funds being created in the space and the rise of Coinbase and Binance, who have both made $1B in the past two years.
If that’s not enough to get you excited, just look at the world’s largest social network — Facebook. Facebook is allegedly nearing potentially launching their own cryptocurrency. Whether you love or hate Facebook and what they will mean to the industry, it’s a positive sign that they acknowledge and are investing heavily in the potential of cryptocurrency.
History Repeats — Dotcom Bubble Comparison
If you were following the stock market in the late 1990’s like I was as a young hopeful day trader, you saw the rise and fall of “Dotcom’s.” Seemingly any company with “dotcom” attached to their name became successful (on the stock market) overnight.
That “bubble” popped, and many companies went out of business because they were more focused on making money for their shareholders than building an amazing company. However, many of the companies that did focus on their core offerings and providing the best products and services for their customers are still around today.
Amazon, eBay, Google, Yahoo!, and many others are still alive two decades after the fall of “dotcom’s” began. The current state of the cryptocurrency market feels very, very similar. Although the entire market has taken a hit, the companies and coins that are able to survive and provide better products and services for their customers will not only survive, but grow stronger than ever before as a result. We believe that we can accomplish just that.
ETH Hard Fork — Constantinople
One of the largest and most important blockchains in the world of cryptocurrency just got better. The Ethereum blockchain, which Bethereum and more than a thousand other commercial applications utilize, made several recent improvements through the Constantinople hard fork. The hard fork is a step closer to a new consensus algorithm — proof-of-stake, which will reward those who are holding amounts of Ethereum in wallets connected to the blockchain.
Highlights, according to an overview of the hard fork by Coin Gecko, include “optimal smart contract execution, reduced mining rewards, and ‘Difficult Bomb’ delay.” The upgrades include a better, more efficient method for processing information, efficient scaling, and optimizing large-scale code executions for smart contracts.
With a market cap near $15B and over 1,100 decentralized applications structured around the cryptocurrency, Ethereum’s success improves the entire market. These changes bring new hope and excitement to cryptocurrencies.
Read more on the recent hard fork here.
BTC Futures
What’s going on behind the scenes can shed light on the sentiment towards and potential for a cryptocurrency. Although the price of Bitcoin is still a fraction of where it was a year ago (over $12,000 on 3/5/18), the market for Bitcoin futures appears to be at an all-time high.
CME Group established a Bitcoin future in December of 2017, allowing companies to “bet” on the future price of Bitcoin. According to an article based on an internal email sent from a CME representative, a record was set for the number of contracts traded with 18,338. The amount of the contracts was equivalent to $360M, or 91,690 Bitcoin. The email also confirmed the rise in institutional interest in cryptocurrency, stating, “Institutional interest has gradually risen.”
Market Gaining Momentum
While the market hasn’t recovered from several significant drops over the past year and a half, cryptocurrencies have stabilized in price and many, including Ethereum, have risen over the past three months. As the market continues to regain momentum, more people, company, and organizations will begin to show interest or return to the market.
We are seeing a lot of promising signs that cryptocurrency is growing and will be a large part of our future. However, Bethereum is not relying solely on the cryptocurrency market as a business. We want our betting solution to become independently successful, and believe we are on the right path to accomplish that goal.
Bethereum is an award-winning blockchain social betting platform. Learn more at Bethereum.com.