Michael Novogratz, a well-known cryptocurrency enthusiast and founder of the Galaxy Digital investment bank, believes that large institutional investors will start investing in the cryptocurrency industry next year.
CFO and co-founder of Blocktower Capital investment company Ari Paul said that although people say that blockchain is not Bitcoin, he believes that the real turning point will come when people realize that Bitcoin is more than blockchain, and it can create a new wave of using cryptocurrencies in real life.
"Bitcoin blockchain is first generation technology with limited throughput and features.
BTC can be used on other protocols and networks. The Lightning Network is a layer 2 protocol that allows for numerous fast and cheap BTC transfers that settle to and are secured by the Bitcoin network. People may also use sidechains, drivechains, and other L2 or L3 solutions.
Dan Morehead, the founder and head of Pantera Capital, an American investment company, stressed that he no longer worries about the future of the blockchain technology, as he did during the fall of the market in 2014 and 2015.
"I think the underlying fundamentals are much much stronger than they were in the 2014-15 crypto winter," Morehead expressed his opinion in an interview with former Forbes editor Laura Shin.
The popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance is trying to enable every inhabitant of the planet to buy new rapidly developing assets. The first such initiative — the launch of a crypto-fiat unit in Uganda last October — was not particularly successful and raised a number of questions, but the second was much more convincing.
This week, Binance introduced a new trading platform on the island of Jersey, through which residents of the European island will be able to buy Bitcoins for euros and pounds. The new site based on the infrastructure of Binance, but framed as a separate company.
BitPay, one of the largest payment blockchain providers in the world, announced a new record reached in 2018. The company processed payments in the amount of more than $ 1 billion and again showed record income.
In addition, Dish Networks, HackerOne, and the Ohio State Government have joined the payment network. The B2B division showed record numbers and grew by 255%, as many law firms, data centers and manufacturers in the IT industry connected to bitcoin reception.
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of trading volume, launched a new exchange on the island of Jersey, a British self-governing dependency. On Wednesday, the company announced that thanks to the new exchange, users will be able to trade Bitcoin and Ethereum against the British pound and euro in Europe and the UK.
"Binance selected Jersey for its highly developed digital infrastructure, robust regulatory framework, and world-class financial services sector," said Wei Zhou, chief financial officer of the exchange.
Serbian startup accelerator Decenter reported that the Google Ads contextual advertising service blocked all advertisements containing the word "Ethereum".
Such blocking began on January 8, 2019. According to Decenter, only ads with the word "Ethereum" got under the blocking; all other words from the field of cryptocurrencies, including "Bitcoin", "ICO" and "EOS", were not blocked. At the same time, an advertisement with the word "Ethereum" is blocked with the wording "This advertiser has not been approved to place an advertisement in your location."
Despite yesterday's volatility in cryptocurrency markets and a noticeable drop in the price of Bitcoin, well-known digital currency critic Jeffrey Gundlach said that in the near future the price of the first cryptocurrency will reach $ 5,000.
In an interview with CNBC Channel, Gundlach, who is the head of DoubleLine, which manages assets of $ 200 billion, noted that risky investors could make easy profits if they turn to Bitcoin trading.
During the session of questions and answers on the Reddit portal, the founders of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange - brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss predicted that in the future the capitalization of the cryptocurrency market would exceed $ 7 trillion.
According to the twins, the evolution of technology in the future will change the trade, financial system, Internet and cash. They stressed that the process would not be easy and perhaps not very successful, but the brothers believe that technological revolutions will create new rules and this will lead to success.
With the advent of the New Year, a large number of forecasts regarding cryptocurrency rates appeared. Last year, many forecasts did not take into account the "bearish" trend, which dominated the market throughout 2018 and led to a fall in Bitcoin price by more than 80%. The beginning of this year was marked by the forecast rate of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, published by the independent agency Weiss Ratings.
According to the Weiss Ratings forecast, 2019 foreshadows the growth of Bitcoin popularity. The international rating agency expects that more and more people will consider cryptocurrency as a store of value, and Bitcoin will finally become stronger in its status of digital gold.