Bitcoin had a very difficult year. Since December 2017, Bitcoin started to fall without being able to recover part of its price. At that time, Bitcoin (BTC) was growing at very high rates and everyone expected the popular virtual currency to keep growing even further.

During January, Bitcoin experienced a strong price increase, when most of the altcoins were also growing and reaching all-time highs. At that time, Bitcoin touched $17,000, a 15% decline from its all-time high, but marking the highest price during 2018.

After being traded around $17,000, Bitcoin plummetted, until February 6, when it was traded under $7,000 for the first time this year. However, during the first 10 days of March, Bitcoin had a good performance, operating between $9,000 and $11,000. But ultimately, the asset kept falling reaching new lows in 2018 close to $6,500.

In May, the market seemed to be recovering testing $10,000. Nevertheless, Bitcoin was not able to surpass this price, and once it tested it, it fell again down to $6,200 in July. Since that moment, the price of the most popular virtual currency operated relatively stable until November.

Since August until November 14, Bitcoin operated in a tight range close to $6,200 and $6,600 with a few days trying lower and higher points. On November 14, Bitcoin and other virtual currencies plummetted. The most popular virtual currency reached $3,250, the lowest price this year.

During this year, several important events marked the most popular cryptocurrency in the market. For example, in March, Bitcoin Private (BTCP) a fork of Bitcoin was released, allowing individuals to process private transactions using technology from ZClassic (ZCL).

Back in October, the Chinee court ruled that Bitcoin is still protected as private property and that it has economic values under the country’s laws. At the same time, Ohio became the first US state to allow citizens to pay taxes using Bitcoin. Other states could now take a similar decision.

During 2018, several Bitcoin ETF proposals have been rejected by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). However, this can change in 2019 if the regulatory agency decides to approve the first Bitcoin ETF.

2019 will be an important year since regulatory agencies could play an important role in generating a better space for virtual currencies and blockchain technology. Investors will also feel more protected if clear regulations are established on the matter.

Some of the things that investors are waiting are the launching of the Bakkt platform and the approval of a Bitcoin ETF. If that happens, the market could see a new bull run that would help Bitcoin recover part of its price lost. At the time of writing this article, Bitcoin is being traded around $3,925 and it has a market capitalization of $68.53 billion.

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