One Year of Bitcoin Journey From Its All-Time High to the 2018 Low

December 17, 2017, exactly one year ago, Bitcoin - still the world’s largest cryptocurrency - attained its all-time high of $20,000 while making a huge name for itself in the global financial sector. Certainly, since then, Bitcoin has been the central topic of discussion among the global financial institutions - either government or private.

Last year at the same time, two major futures and derivatives exchanges - CME and CBOE launched the first global Bitcoin Futures contracts in the market. In fact, the news of their launch in November 2017 was itself the reason behind Bitcoin’s surge to all-time-high of $20,000.

However, the journey for Bitcoin investors since the last year has been quite a rocky ride. Throughout the year the price of Bitcoin has been making new lows with each passing month. At this time, Bitcoin is trading at its 2018-low around $3300 with a market cap of $57 billion. The signs of weakness are pretty imminent and the chances of recovery before the year end looks pretty slims.

Bitcoin - A Falling Knife for 2018

There are several reasons behind the price drop of Bitcoin this year. This includes ongoing issues relating to scalability, the changing regulatory scenario across the globe, falling confidence among retail investors due to multiple exchange hacks and other illicit activities, etc.

Multiple exchange hacks reported this year have made investors lose millions of dollars of their funds creating a situation of panic and unhappiness among investors. This has not only affect Bitcoin investors, but rather crypto investors in general. Although the exchanges and other crypto platforms are working towards introducing better storage solutions, the progress seems slow. Here a look at some of the reasons so far affecting Bitcoin and the crypto market in general.

• Much recently SEC Chairman Jay Clayton made it clear that the crypto exchanges lack proper surveillance tools to handle illicit activities of market manipulation and abuse. Thus he said that the crypto market is not ready for any Bitcoin derivative products at the moment. Market manipulation is one of the major reasons cited by the SEC behind its reason to hold back on approving the Bitcoin ETF.
• Global regulatory bodies and financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been seen taking a few measures. Looking to multiple exchange hacks regulatory bodies have considered it necessary to intervene in the crypto market to protect investors’ interests. However, each country is approaching regulatory measures as per the local laws and hence the global crypto market has yet to get clarity. The lack of regulatory clarity is also one of the major reasons behind less investor participation.
  
  Institutions like the IMF have acknowledged the fact the cryptocurrencies can’t be ignored and have a role to play in the global economy. However, it has been stressing upon a collective regulatory effort since the beginning of the year. Much recently, the G20 agreed to have a common taxation structure for cryptocurrencies, globally.
• Institutional participation remains a key to bring more maturity in this extremely volatile cryptocurrency market. Financial institutions like KPMG and regulatory bodies like the CFTC have stressed upon these issues in the past. In the last few months, there have been some reports of institutions warming up to the idea of cryptocurrencies.

Big names like Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Nasdaq, and Fidelity Investments are making their entry in the Q1 of 2019 with crypto trading and other services deemed for retail as well as institutional investors. Probably we might see a Bitcoin price recovery after their actual launch.

On a concessionary note we can say that this year has been about regulations and setting up the right infrastructure in the crypto space. Many analysts call the regulatory intervention good for the long-term health of the crypto market as it will help to bring legitimacy and security while alleviating uncertainty and notoriety from the crypto space.