The End of the Bitcoin (BTC) and Crypto Winter Is Here

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If 2018 was the ‘crypto winter’, 2019 is set to be the ‘crypto spring’ as the market is finally bouncing back. According to our latest report by cryptocurrency OTC trading brokerage HiveEx.com, the crypto winter has refused to let sentiment die, with innovation, funding, new launches and trading continuing to grow the market.

The HiveEx Cryptocurrency Landscape Report explores what happened in 2018 and the start of 2019. Let’s take a look at the key statistics of 2018.

2018 Cryptocurrency Statistics

We saw cryptocurrencies take a dramatic fall in 2018, opening with a total market capitalization on January 1 at $612.93 billion and closing the year off at $130.54 billion – a decline of 78.70%. The highest peak of market cap was on January 8, reaching $833.44 billion, and the lowest point was on December 16, when we saw market cap hit $102.09 billion.

Bitcoin (BTC) price dropped, leading overall market performance to fall by 72.60% in 2018. It started the year off at $13,657.23 per BTC and fell to $3,742.70 by the year’s end, according to the report.

Interestingly, more Bitcoin was estimated to have traded at the close of the year compared to the year’s open, which gave way to its increase in cryptocurrency market share dominance. The report estimates that 1.25 million bitcoins were traded on December 31, 2018 compared to 753.531 traded on January 1 – that’s 65.30% more. From this demand, Bitcoin’s strength grew its market share by 33.84% to 51.69% by December 31.

Even when taking into account wash trading in CoinMarketCap volumes, it still represents very real growth, which is significant for a bear market.

Despite the dip in value across the market, the initial coin offering (ICO) market was hot in 2018, with $7.85 billion raised collectively, according to data sourced from icodata.io. This is a 26.08% lift from the total raised in 2017 ($6.23 billion).

Top 10 Cryptocurrencies in 2018

The list of top 10 coins changed significantly by the end of 2018, except for the top 4 coins holding their forts: Bitcoin (BTC), XRP, Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Four new coins entered the top 10 including EOS (EOS) in fifth place, Tether (USDT) in seventh place, Bitcoin SV (BSV) in ninth place, and TRON (TRX) in 10th.

2019 – January 1 to May 9 Cryptocurrency Statistics

Following a chilling 2018, 2019 is looking up, with market cap rising 50.54% and trading volume also up, over three-fold (227.95%) to May 9. The year opened on January 1 with a market value of $125.71 billion and by May 9 it almost doubled to $189.24 billion.

Bitcoin’s dominance has continued to climb this year, rising by 9.58% to 56.86% on May 9. BTC value grew by 58.70% to $6,099.75 on May 9, 24-hour while trading volume more than tripled to $15.80 billion.

The report calculated the number of BTC traded in the 24 hours on January 1, 2019 compared to May 9, 2019, which also grew significantly by 130.26%. There were an estimated 1.13 million coins traded on January 1 while there were 2.59 million coins traded on May 9.

The growth of the cryptocurrency market shows no signs of slowing down. As more ways to use blockchain technology and digital assets come into fruition, there’s more innovation and more acceptance that this market is here to stay. Already in 2019 we’ve seen Bitcoin outperform traditional assets according to Binance Research, with BTC returning above 50% compared to crude oil (33%), tech stocks (24%), US real estate and US stocks (both at 18%).

While this super volatile market should be treated with caution due to it being high risk, it’s worth diving into the numbers and getting a solid understanding of the opportunities and the risks.