Reasons Bitcoin was a bear market in 2018

Bitcoin was a bear market in 2018. As we look at the prices in the cryptocurrency market, we could state that 2018 started badly for investors and traders. In January the opening price of Bitcoin was $13.794 (11.135€), with a high of $17.252 (13.927€) and low at the end of the month $9.231 (7.451€), losing more than 25% of its value. Back in December, the price of No. 1 currency was at its ATH (all-time-high), reaching almost $20.000 (16.179€), fast forward to February 5th, price dropped below $7.300 (5.893€), loss of more than 60 percent of its value in 6 weeks.

Global regulations and mass media bashing

When we speak about how mainstream media presents cryptocurrencies, we can often hear cryptos being in domain of money launderers and drug dealers. Yes, we all heard about Silk Road. We all know, there are/will be individuals on dark net who’ll try to put a stain on blockchain technology. When we touch the issue of regulations, we aren’t talking about something new. In 2018 G20 summit, two European countries, Germany and France will propose cryptocurrency regulation

Sheldon Corey, the President of Worlds Financial Centre and Arges Inc. says, “Government critics will be given plenty of airtime in the mainstream media, as they focus on the anonymity of digital currencies and the bad actors using them to commit money laundering, terrorism, and fraud. These are painful issues that need to be addressed, to bring more stability and credibility to the industry. The good news is that the debate will lead to greater general awareness and adoption, and probably a decent recovery after the G20 goes home.”

South Korean exchanges from ban to self-regulation

The South Korean government announced that it plans to regulate cryptocurrency trades by law, but uplifting ban which influenced to the latest market crash. More than 200.000 Koreans backed a petition against the (excessive) regulation of virtual currency. By now, Korean cryptocurrency exchange platforms started to self regulate. They formed an Korean Blockchain Association (KBA) which is set to make a huge difference in the country’s cryptocurrency industry.

Facebook banning all ads for Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies

The social network is banning all crypto-related ads, as it attemps to crack down on scammers and frauders. ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) are a largly unregulated method for company fundraising and Facebook has put down the foot with new rule:

“prohibits financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency.”

Hacked exchanges

More and more exchanges getting hacked. The recent hacking of one of Japan’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, CoinCheck, raised a lot of dust. About 260.000 users who lost NEM deposits will get compensated. But theft of $534 million worth of NEM coin is due to negligent in the storage of mentioned tokens. CoinCheck stored them online rather then offline, however, they weren’t using multi-signature wallet. But according to Bitnation’s CFO, Dr. John Mathews ACA, the hacking has had “minimal” impact on the crypto trading, compared to Mt. Gox hack in 2014:

“The $500M Coincheck hack had little impact on the wider crypto markets, demonstrating the increasing diversification and maturity of the ecosystem, compared to the $460M Mt. Gox hack in 2014, which precipitated a multi-year bear market.” he says.