What will crypto-currencies bring in 2018?

2017 was full of gains in crypto-currencies and many investors who stepped into crypto-trading made massive profits. Based on that we expect very interesting things in 2018.

We believe that the volatility of the crypto-currency market will increase even more in 2018, as the rapid capitalization growth of late 2017 will attract even more retail investors, with institutional investors likely to join the party.

Over the medium-term we can expect the crypto-currency market to grow exponentially for at least the next 5–7 years, mostly thanks to the high adoption rate of cryptocurrencies, just like what we saw with mobile phones and the internet. The advantages the blockchain provides, like the ease of cross-border transactions, low transaction costs and security are huge, and we estimate that the number of bitcoin wallets alone will double next year to 40 million wallets.

Max Kaiser is predicting that bitcoin will be worth $100.000 in the coming years, which is not even the most optimistic prediction.

Moreover, the institutional investors, from hedge funds to family offices and VCs, and high-net-worth individuals are getting more and more serious about crypto. Some central banks, for example in Russia and Japan, are planning to issue a state-backed cryptocurrency that will be fungible against BTC and the leading cryptos. Many other countries are also considering plans for launching digital currencies in 2018.

2018 will see a wave of ICO investments

In 2017 holding an ICO event has become a viable alternative to VC funding. An average ICO raised $15 million, meaning that blockchain startups could raise as much through crowdfunding as a mainstream startup from VCs during Series A or B. By the end of 2017, total ICO funding exceeded $5 billion with top-10 projects raising between $100M-$250M from a single ICO event. Therefore it’s no surprise that since June 2017, the monthly number of ICOs has increased from 40 to 200 projects.

We believe that in 2018 ICOs will remain a very attractive option for raising money, so the number of token sales will continue to grow. On the other hand the increasing number of ICO projects will struggle to raise funds as the competition for investors’ attention intensifies.

We also estimate that the amount of money raised by successful projects will increase in line with the growth of the total crypto market.