Great Expectations Of The Crypto Space In 2019 And Beyond

2018 has finally ended, and a lot of crypto investors around the world couldn't be happier about it. While the year was nowhere near as successful as 2017, many have still found a way to be optimistic regarding the last year's losses.

Billionaire Mike Novogratz, who is known for being bullish on Bitcoin, and crypto in general, even retweeted a unique way of looking at 2018:

this is clever…. https://t.co/ioY54aUnu3

— Michael Novogratz (@novogratz) January 2, 2019

However, while damaging when it comes to crypto prices, 2018 also set some pretty good foundations for the future of crypto development and progress towards the mainstream usage.

Bakkt is one of the projects that the entire crypto community is looking forward to. As many are aware, the launch of the Bitcoin exchange was expected in late 2018, but it got delayed and is now scheduled to occur in January 2019. The project has secured over $182 million in funding, and it received support from some of the most influential firms, including Starbucks, Microsoft, Galaxy Digital, and others.

The exchange will focus on physically delivered Bitcoin futures contracts, and it is expected to attract institutional investors to the crypto space. Although it appears that it still hasn't received launch permission from the CFTC — which is why some experts expect another delay in launch — many are still confident that the permit will arrive in due time.

Many would say that Bitcoin ETF applications were one of the things that marked 2018. However, the US SEC never felt that it was the right time to approve such requests. The way crypto community feels about Bitcoin ETFs is complicated, and most people either love the idea for its potential or hate the thing it represents.

However, the final decision is on the SEC to make, and one application especially — by VanEck/SolidX — is believed to have decent chances of gaining the approval. As mentioned, the SEC has always denied such requests in the past, which is why the entire crypto community is holding its breath, awaiting the end of February, when the decision is finally going to arrive, after several delays. While many are skeptical even now, believing that the SEC will not approve it, others believe that there is still a chance and that the regulators would have denied it already if they didn't think there is something worth taking a second look.

It is no secret that crypto regulations in most parts of the world are currently more than underwhelming. In fact, in most places, they do not even exist, while in others they require serious work in order to be able to regulate the space properly. Some countries, such as South Korea and Japan, have actually managed to come up with some decent solutions.

Others, like the US, are struggling to do the same even now. However, many in the crypto community believe that 2019 will be the year when regulators will successfully regulate the space, or at least make some important steps towards achieving it in the near future.

Ethereum needs no introduction, as it is likely the second most important coin in the history of crypto. It even managed to return to its place of the second largest coin by market cap, taking it back from XRP as soon as the new year began. A lot of investors have taken this as a sign that the new year will be more crypto-friendly, although this remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, ETH is expected to go through several hard forks, the most important of which is Constantinople, scheduled to arrive on January 16th, or even earlier. This particular hard fork is expected to improve the speed, capacity, and security of the ETH network, which is why many are looking forward to it, despite the potential for harsh consequences.

While Bitcoin is still the most dominant coin, Ethereum's potential should definitely not be overlooked.

Security Token Offerings, or STOs, are expected to be somewhat of spiritual successors to ICOs. Of course, ICOs proved to be a wrong solution, as we have witnessed in 2018. As all bad solutions, this trend also died down pretty quickly, although not before causing quite a lot of damage.

Still, the community learned a valuable lesson, and it now believes that STOs are the future of fundraising in the crypto world of 2019. STOs have a higher potential than ICOs, and they have already resolved some problems associated with coin offerings.

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