Anyone who has kept an eye on cryptocurrency will acknowledge 2017 has been a good year. In fact, all major currencies saw a major value increase. The total cryptocurrency market cap also grew from just over US$40bn to around US$100bn in a few months. Keeping up this trend is much easier said than done, though. It will be quite interesting to see what will happen in the second half of 2017.
Bullish momentum is always difficult to sustain over the course of several years. Markets are mainly dominated by speculators and people looking for quick profits. This is especially true in the world of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Despite this speculation, all major cryptocurrencies are doing quite well.Bitcoin surpassed US$3,000 for a few minutes, which is a major feat. Ripple’s XRP and Litecoin have also had very good runs in the first half of the year. Ethereum started out quite strong but is undergoing a major correction as we speak.
A Crucial Time Ahead for Cryptocurrency as a Whole
A large part of these value increases can be attributed to the Asian market. Previously, China used to dominate Bitcoin trading for several years. That has come to change this year, with Japan and Korea taking over. Whether or not this demand can be sustained over the next six months, remains to be seen. Japan is still warming up to cryptocurrency, thus things look quite good on that front. Korea’s largest exchange was allegedly hacked this week, which doesn’t bode well.
Moreover, there is still a lot of negative pressure on all markets as well. Bitcoin, for example, can very well see a chain split in a few weeks from now. Ethereum clearly has scaling issues, which need to be addressed. Litecoin is firing on all cylinders as of late, that much is evident. Then again, the whole ecosystem will need more fresh capital to keep the ball rolling. It will heavily depend on whether or not governments decide to introduce regulation of some sorts in the coming months.
The second half of 2017 will be very interesting for cryptocurrency, to say the least. Many people feel Ethereum will overtake Bitcoin, but that looks less and less likely every single day. Ripple is still a bit of a dark horse, as it has shown some interesting developments throughout the year. This has positively affected the XRP price as well.All of these top currencies serve different purposes, and they can all succeed together. The bigger question is whether or not there is a demand for all of these currencies.