A plethora of news outlets and websites are writing depressing news about cryptocurrency. A lot of the greed that fueled the excitement of Q4 2017 has died down and the charts are starting to look like the pulse of a cadaver. To investors, this market stagnation is giving way to the comparison of Bitcoin to Tulip Mania. Technologically speaking, a money exchanging program, like bitcoin, has its place in society. Looking at the market from only one of these perspectives can skew the idea of a flourishing economy. With that said, there are several different aspects to the crypto universe which play into perceived market health and so I’ve split this post into three categories: Price, implementation, and regulation. Here is the progress of crypto in Q3 of 2018.

Price

In a Previous post I mentioned that although the price of Bitcoin has plummeted since January of 2018,  we are still at a decent point considering the all-time highs and lows. If you look at the picture above, you will see a grey dotted line. That line is the “decent point” in price that I speak of. This leads me to believe we are in the 4th phase of the picture above; The Blow off Phase. You may see a slightly modified version of this image floating around the internet with an arrow in the awareness phase, pointing to The First Sell off/ Bear trap section saying “We are here”. I don’t believe so. That is not to say we will never see astronomical prices again but I do believe we are pass the mania phase.

We’ve been bouncing above the $6,000 range since the beginning of August. Lots of people, like Cryptosomniac, think Bitcoin has seen the bottom of its price fluctuation. He says he sees tons of opportunity for swing trading between $6,200 and $6,700. Swing trading is a trader’s best bet in the current crypto climate to maintain a decent profit.

Implementation

Since July, there has been a number of blockchain successes involving implementation into real-world applications. Gazprom, a gas company, and Russian Airline S7 are working together to control aircraft fuelling via blockchain. U. S. Customs and Border Protection is gearing up to test a shipment tracking system that utilizes the blockchain. Also, in early August, Square Cash App started to implement Bitcoin buying and selling. These are tidbits of news that show blockchain technology is not going anywhere. In fact, it’s being utilized more every day.

Regulation

Chinese legislation has taken another toll on the market resulting in WeChat and Alipay banning cryptocurrency usage on their apps. Countries like India are forming new groups within their banking system to research and better understand how to control cryptocurrency in their country. Also, a New York Judge recently gave the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission the power to ban a firm involved in bitcoin “fraud”.

There are actually a lot more articles discussing blockchain implementation than articles about more regulation. The future looks bright but we’re still playing the waiting game for true mass adoption. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t profits to be made and career opportunities to take advantage of.