It’s no secret that Bitcoin has been in a roller coaster this 2018. Though it had a good run in April, it is showing indications that it could go below $8,000 soon.
Bitcoin started the year at around $14,000. It had a good run in 2017 ending up with almost $20,000 in mid-December. However, it isn’t just Bitcoin that is down. The entire cryptocurrency market is also down. You have Ethereum that started the year at $755 is now trading at $736.
However, not all cryptocurrencies are down. EOS, for instance, which is the fifth largest cryptocurrency by market cap today is up from $8.77 during the start of the year to $14.56.
Drops by $9 billion
If you will look at the numbers, the entire crypto market has dropped $9 billion in the last 24 hours right after increasing by $30 billion in valuation from $370 billion to $400 billion.
One of the things that made the entire crypto market drop is due to the regulatory changes that happened in different parts of the globe. In fact, Central Banks have banned cryptocurrency trading in some countries. China in September 2017 declared a blanket ban on ICOs and crypto activities.
However, it is also worth mentioning that there are some things that gave Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto market a good bullish run for the month of April. Institutional investors became interested in entering the crypto market sending positive signals towards investors.
However, things weren’t looking good lately considering the changes that Japan wants to implement on its cryptocurrency exchanges. In an attempt to prevent hacking, its new rules even forced Kraken to no longer operate in Japan.
Bright Future for Cryptos?
But when it comes to the future of cryptocurrencies, it seems that 2018 is still up in the air. Goldman Sachs is ready to become the first regulated financial institution that would offer clients the opportunity to trade Bitcoin futures via New York desks. This is due to the fact that banks and clients saying good things about the crypto market.
If you will ask Matthew Newton, who is a cryptocurrency analyst, he mentioned that “This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to cryptocurrencies over the last 18 months”. He added that “Any forward looking financial institution needs to understand this technology and accept its enormous potential”.
Despite the limited capability of the trading desk, in the beginning, this is a positive sign not only for Bitcoin but also for the rest of the other cryptocurrencies.
Banks are also looking to adapt blockchain technology in order to provide faster transactions to its customers.
Despite the difference in opinion among prominent figures in both economics and technology, it seems that price swings are expected from the cryptocurrency world. As of now, it is too early to call whether or not the price is still going to slide down.
You have to take note of the fact that there will also be the 2018 Consensus Conference in Manhattan from May 14 to 16. This would include roughly around 7,000 cryptocurrency proponents. Experts such as Tom Lee suggest that based on the past four events, BTC price could drive from anywhere between 10{4ede17fdd9b4ce8121d01fc4b54913fe84f8215aace504cc657695cefb5329ff} to 70{4ede17fdd9b4ce8121d01fc4b54913fe84f8215aace504cc657695cefb5329ff}.
