1. Cryptocurrency Regulations - the first, and the most important step.
2. Market consolidation
3. The partial hookup of Crypto and Fintech
4. The total capitalization of all crypto assets has grown. During the last year total Cryptocurrency Market Cap grew by 54%, namely $126 - $194 bln.
5. Bitcoin capitalization has doubled
6. ICOs are almost dead - Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) as a new and better alternative.
What to expect from 2020?
Regulations will continue: The year will start with 5AMLD - Starting from January 10, 2020, the Fifth Anti Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD) takes effect. I have already outlined a more detailed overview of this regulation in my previous article. Check it for more information;).
The crypto industry will gradually become “wider” and even more specialized - this year predicts the creation of unique products related to the gaming industry and others. Game developers and enthusiasts are increasingly exploring what blockchain can do for their gaming systems and how they can incorporate cryptographic assets into. According to Paul Veradittakit’s prediction for Coindesk gaming will likely boom in 2020 because of important developments in high-performance tools that allow games to run on previously-rate-limiting blockchain technologies, better architected smart contracts, second-layer solutions, and abstracted infrastructure/digital asset storage that makes it easy for game developers to build digital assets into the gameplay and character experience. Hopefully, we’ll see something mainstream on a platform like Steam or Twitch that really puts the power of blockchain in the context of the average gamer.
Despite the fact of crypto being popular for quite a long time, there is still a problem of “how to start” for newbies because most people find Trading hard and complicated process. The trend of “crypto for new users” have already started forming, and will definitely continue developing this year. Since Crypto and Fintech Markets become almost united, this will certainly lead to a jump in new users from the classical financial market.
Best practices for new users:
- Knowledge: many platforms do now provide full supportive instructions of how to register, create the personal wallet, Deposit and even make first operations - Thank God now Crypto won’t seem so mysterious any more!
- Useful unique features: due to colossal competition in the market, developers are forced to create unique conditions in order to interest new customers and keep the old ones.
- Analytics and etc.: best developers provide users with information about the last market changes.
- The ability to place different types of orders: different traders use different options depending on the outcome they are aiming at. The details of the order types are outlined in my "The Most Useful Instruments on The Crypto Market" article.
- Repeat practices of successful traders: both new and already existing projects understand that each trader has different opportunities and, unfortunately, not everyone can trade at the pro-trader level, but all users would like to receive the corresponding profit, of course. So, why not to share your money with PRO (Social Trading in other words)?
What about me, I am a huge fan of Social and Copy Trading. Why? It has a mass of pros and just little cons, probably I will do an analytical study and make an additional article regarding this option soon because it is worth to study this question better.
In 2019 many popular coins started the tradition of supporting several protocols. Doing this developer expand Deposit and Withdrawal Options for their coins. For example, Tether (USDT) - one of the most popular stablecoins support both ERC20 and TRC20 standards.
Identity verification - for most platforms verification will become mandatory due to regulations.
Proof of Life - Bitcoin will continue showing recovery signs.
Everybody is waiting for Bitcoin Halving. Historically first two halvings had an extremely positive effect on Bitcoin’s price and most BTC-holders hope it would repeat. But, unfortunately, any past events can not guarantee future positive results.
Still not in crypto? Wonder how to choose a safe and convenient crypto platform? Here is a small instruction, I always insist on six important steps before creating an account: