The crypto currency market will continue to develop in 2019: this is the only 100% true statement about the future of bitcoin and altcoins. Crypto industry will influence the society more and more because blockchain will gain popularity in various areas.
Robust relationship between this technology and the crypto currency market is a sort of guarantee of their further evolution. As for the cost of digital assets, the current price dynamics sees variety of trends.
Crypto Currency Rates in 2019, Bull and Bear Dynamics In 2019
Last year was literally a bad luck for the crypto market, additionally, it was influenced by the bear trend. Bitcoin and altcoin volatility increased to such a level that it became profitable to make profit on speculations, but the investors lost a desire to make long term investments in this market. It led to capital outflow and massive resale.
The changes of 2019 are not crucial. The crypto currency rates are not dropping is rapidly as they used to do. But the rates of the leading crypto currencies remains almost the same, so the analysts think that the market will stand still.
In fact, the bear trend still dominates in the market, but 98% Bitcoin volatility drop hits at market participants intention to keep neutrality. Thus, the rate of the first crypto currency has dropped from $3746 to just $3637 since the beginning of January.
The analysts believe that it makes no sense to hope for bull run in the near future. As for other altcoins, Ethereum rate decreased to $122 and now the crypto currency is in the midst of bull and bear fight: the reasons to buy and to sell this cryptocurrency are almost equally significant. XRP attracts the bulls because of optimistic forecasts. The buyers pay a lot of attention to EOS, this means that the capitalization will grow and the rate will remain stable ($2.87).

One of the largest investment companies – Grayscale Investments – reported results of Q4, 2018.
According to the data, $2 millions weekly accrued for the leading investment product of the company – Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).
The company received about 66% of funds from institutional investors. 88% of investments were made in Bitcoin and 12% in other digital currencies.
In general, 2018 is the best year in the company’s history. According to the annual results, the company hit a record level of $359,5 million of investments. This is three times more than in 2017, during the bull market and two times more than for the previous four years (2014-2017).
Estimating this situation, the company believes that the long term investors are still optimistic, regardless to the price drop.
The most attractive product for investors is still GBTC, but Grayscale believes that the demand for other cryptocurrencies will grow in the future, too.
To recap, in March, 2018,Grayscale Investments launched four new cryptocurrency investment funds: Ethereum Investment Trust, Ripple Investment Trust, Bitcoin Cash Investment Trust and Litecoin Investment Trust.

Canadian crypto currency platform Coinsquare announced acquisition of StellarX. It is planning to obtain a license on Bermudas for it.
According to Coinsquare’s CEO and co-founder Cole Diamond, Stellar is the fastest payment network in the world which will allow to create new projects and services for crypto currency industry. He says that the company is really interested in success of the crypto currency market, and spread of the technology is a key factor.
To recap, last year, Coinsquare acquired Stellar wallet BlockEQ. The company notes that the interface and features will be modernized and the projects which belonged to StellarX would be developing according to a special roadmap.

Financial group of Barry Silbert – Digital Currency Group is one of fundamental companies of Blockchain Association. Nowadays, it is lobbying blockchain industry in Washington, Columbia.
Barry Silbert, the CEO and co-founder of Digital Currency Group and Grayscale Investments, claimed that most of digital tokens would be depreciated in the long term run, reports Cointelegraph referring to CNBC.
Giving an interview, Silbert claimed that he did not believe in most of digital tokens and that he was sure that most of them would drop to zero. He added that almost every ICO was just a way to raise money, but the tokens won’t have real life application.
The ICO market was booming in the end of 2017- beginning of 2018. Then it dropped, the prices deceased, governmental and federal regulators finished off the projects which obviously conflicted with the securities law.
To prove it, Cointelegraph refers to CoinSchedules data showing that only $291.6 million were raised with the help of the ICO last month – 19 times less than in March, last year – $5.8 billion were raised that time.
Regardless to his skeptical opinion on ICOs and crypto tokens, Silbert is very positive about bitcoin. It is reported that he is one of early investors. He believes that Bitcoin acquired the status of digital gold regardless to “bad technology”. He says that Bitcoin will become digital gold, an independent currency. It won’t belong to USA, China and etc, it’ll be an independent coin. Silbert says that sovereignty costs a lot and that’s as it should be.

tZero token cost decreased more than two times because of trading volume decrease. The representatives of security token platform have not commented on it yet, however, many of users are sure that the negative trend will persist during the following days.
tZero Drop
The total issue of tZero was about 26 million. The analysts note that several hundred users signed up for a platform after its launch, although 1000 users participated in the STO. The developers managed to raise about $134 million, but only 15% of the total number of platform’s traders joined it during three months.
tZero community is still at the mercy of the bear market. The traders don’t see any prospects of further development of the network. One of analysts is sure that many investors started supporting the project against the background of the ICO, but now they are leaving the platform.
tZero was launched in the end of the previous month.
It was reported earlier that Ethereum startup Status presented a contactless hardware wallet.

The outgoing week was marked by the launch of JP Morgan investment bank’s own stablecoin JPM Coin.
Evidently, the crypto coin itself will remain the subject matter for a long time.
One of the main topics are the prospects XRP token and the future of Ripple – an organization which is eager to create a cryptocurrency alternative to SWIFT. But JP Morgan’s tokens may destroy the plan.
Anyway, the bank’s CEO Jamie Dimon has been skeptical about bitcoin and blockchain for a long time, but now a prominent representative of Wall Street moves forward the crypto currency world. The aim is the issue in this case.

BitBetNews analysts believe that Bitcoin crypto currency is likely to start growing tomorrow, on February, 18th. There are several events pointing it out.
First of all, have a look at news background. As you know, US President Donald Trump ordered state of emergency yesterday because the Congress did not allocate money for building a wall on the borders with Mexico. Secondly, the crypto currency market has positive news background: pension funds invest in crypto currencies, JPMorgan launches its own stablecoin and etc.
In addition to fundamental analysis, take a look at bitcoin chart and analyze it. First, the same situation has already taken place and Bitcoin price started growing after that. It happened in 8-9 days after the first impulse. Secondly, you can also see something similar to the trend reversal figure.
It is expected that the next impulse will push BTC to $400-4100 and then to $5000.

Zhu Fa, the co-founder of Poolin – Chinese miming pool – made a very optimistic forecast regarding the future Bitcoin rate. In his opinion, the main crypto currency is likely to reach $738 000.
According to the entrepreneur, the bear market isn’t over yet, however, Bitcoin will increase 10-20 higher than its historical maximum during the next bull run. Unfortunately, the upcoming global increase in the crypto market may turn out to be the last.
How Much Will Bitcoin Cost?
Dozens of various forecasts regarding the future price of Bitcoin have been published in the media outlets during these latter days. They differ from the most bullish to totally bear ones. However, John McAfee’s forecast is the boldest at the moment: he says that the rate will increase $1000000.
Tim Draper has a clear goal which won’t take long to achieve: he forecasts that Bitcoin will reach $250 000 by 2022. Earlier this week, Digital Currency Group founder Barry Silbert made quite a pessimistic forecast. In his opinion, most of altcoins will drop to zero in the long term run.
According to preliminary data, Zhu Fa’s pool is responsible for 10.45% of hashrate of the main crypto currency. Fortunately, is business managed to survive through the bear market, unlike any of its competitors. Some companies even had to sell their equipment to cover the losses.
Today BTC is traded at the level of $3643. The crypto currency rate increased by 0.12% over the last 24 hours, its capitalization increased to $63.91 billion. At the moment, Bitcoin’s share in the market is about 52.6%.

Regional crypto currency launch becomes en vogue: it was reported recently that the South Korean city Gimpo would switch to its own cryptocurrency in April, 2019.
One More City Launches A Crypto Currency
KT Corporation – the largest telecommunication center in the country – will be responsible for the launch. The coin will be called K Coin, it will be tested in March, this year. If it is all right, it will be available for use in April.
K Coin will be used by retailers within the framework of Gimpo. The buyers will be able to use with the help of QR codes. If the stores want to convert the crypto currency into fiat, KT corporation will convert it for free.
The head of blockchain department of KT claimed that the new crypto currency would improve city’s economy which has had not very good results over these recent days. If business switches to a digital currency, it will give strength to the region and contribute to improvement of the situation.
The most interesting thing about it is that Gimpo is a sort of taste range. If the project succeeds, the crypto currency will be spread in the other regions. Before you know it, the entire South Korea will get rid of fiat and the entire world will follow it.

Ripple-s CEO Brad Garlinghouse claims that it makes no sense for major financial organizations to launch their own crypto currencies.
He expressed his point of view against the background of news of development of a new crypto asset by the largest financial banking holding JP Morgan. According to the blcokchain department chief officer of the company, this approach will allow to get rid of outdated operation making methods and will help to accelerate transaction speed itself.
At his turn, Ripple CEO suggested two scenarios of implementation of crypto assets into banking industry. As the first one states, all the banks will get rid of their competitive, geographical and political differences, come to agreement regarding the usage of a single digital token, complying with its rules and regulating it. But, according to the second one (which is more likely to come true in opinion of Ripple CEO), the banks not included in the first group will release their own digital assets with their own rules.

However, according to Brad Garlinghouse, the best solution is to use XRP cryptocurrency which acts as an independent token.

Bitcoin may drop to $3000 or even $1500claims the CEO of BKCM investment company Brian Kelly.
According to the businessman, the pressure on the crypto market will increase. The risks will increase as well, and it is highly possible that the main crypto currency will drop below $3000.
Kelly says that it is also possible that Bitcoin will drop to $1500. In this case, the altcoins will decrease, too, as a result, Ethereum will cheapen to $50.
However, the investor asks to avoid panic. He says that the sales gradually get stale, creating prerequisites for growth renewal. Additionally, Bitcoin is 50% undervalued at the moment.

The crypto market remained to stay stable until the weekend came – most of crypto currency rates have not changed over the week. The capitalization stands still.
Litecoin seemed to be promising, it managed to increase by a couple of presents this week. Bitcoin still remains above $3600. Ethereum is relatively stable and is traded at the level of $120, this may be considered as a positive sign at the moment.
Litecoin made a mark by the end of the week – the crypto currency increased by 2.7%. Most likely, the local anti trend formed against the background of news regarding integration of private transactions. EOS is ranked second in terms of profitability (1.1%). The other TOP-10 coins increased by 0.5-1% in average, although they have decreased a little in the morning on Sunday.
Ethereum is still ranked second in terms of market capitalization, but Ripple по капитализации всё ещё удерживает Эфириум, но Ripple XRP snaps at its hills – the gap between the two crypto currencies reduced to $450 million.
At press time, only 3 altcoins out of TOP-100 increased considerably: Aelf, Holo and MOAC. The first increased by 12%, the second – by 11% and the third increased by 9.3%.
The total cryptocurrency market capitalization is still above $121 billion. It has not changed over the last 24 hours, this is the first sign of flat. Low volatility period may end soon.

The cost of Vitalik Buterin’s crypto currency exceeded $137. It was $104 on February, 6th. Several factors could influence altcoin rate at the same time.
On Monday, February, 18th, average Ethereum rate exceeded $138 and then decreased insignificantly. At the moment, the coin is traded at the level of $137, it increased by 11% over the last 24 hours and its trading volume increased by 43% to $4.9 billlion. Its rate was $104 on February, 6th, but it has increased by 33% over the last 12 days.
Next week, on February, 27th, Constantinople hardfork will be activated, as a result, blockchain won’t be split, new tokens won’t appear. Initially, it should have taken place in Autumn, last year, but it was postponed several times because of revealed vulnerabilities.
One more bug because of which the hardfork could be postponed one more time was revealed in mid-February, but the team decided that the bug was not that dangerous.

A decentralized crypto currency platform Nash intended to become the main competitor of Binance exchange will be launched this year. Announcement was made on Twitter.
The trading platform will be based on NEO blockchain. The developer team is planning to present a trading platform which will let the users to make immediate and safe transactions.
The app users will access the same features which the clients of centralized banking platforms have access to. Nash developers call for fixing the bugs before the launch of a test version.
It is said in the Twitter account that the exchange is planning to launch a promo action: the winners will get $100 000 worth of Bitcoin.
It is planned to launch the platform on March, 31st. Nash exchange is designed to solve the problem of centralized platforms in the crypto industry.
Nash is an updated version of Neon platform, its users used NEX platform. Nash users can use this digital asset, too.

The most popular crypto currency in the world – Bitcoin – increased in price. On February,18th, Bitcoin rate remains above $3500, according to Coinmarketcap.com data.
Thus, Bitcoin increased by 2,22% and is traded at the level of $3631.
The other crypto currencies are traded in the green.
Ethereum rate increased by 10,69% and now it is traded at the level of $136.
XRP increased by 2,07% and is traded at the level of $0,3.
Litecoin increased by 1,03%. The token is traded at the level of $44.
EOS increased by 3,11% and now one token costs $2,91.
Crypto currency market capitalization is $125 billion at the moment. Bitcoin share is 52.5%.
To recap, earlier, Bitcoin is traded at the level of $3631.