Institutional investors – excited by greater regulatory clarity – are going to drive considerable expansion of the cryptocurrency market in 2019.
This is the bold forecast by the deVere Group CEO Nigel Green, who spoke to Traders Magazine. Green said that the recent post-holiday crypto rally in Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP which have climbed recently between 3% to 12% signify change.
The bearish sentiment of the last quarter of 2018 is now, I believe, behind us, Green said. We can expect the current upswing to continue, albeit with peaks and troughs as in any financial market.
Furthermore, Green said that in 2019, the cryptocurrency market is set to radically evolve. We can expect considerable expansion of the sector largely due to inflows of institutional investors. Major corporations, financial institutions, governments and their agencies, prestigious universities, and household-name investing legends are all going to bring their institutional capital and institutional expertise to the crypto market.
Again pointing to recent price rebounds, he added that the direction of travel has already been on this upward path, but there is a growing sense that institutional investors are preparing to move off the sidelines in 2019.
The acceleration of institutional investment is likely to be driven by greater regulatory clarity. More and more global jurisdictions can be expected to join the likes of Malta, Hong Kong, Japan and Switzerland in becoming crypto-friendly from a regulatory and pro-business viewpoint, Green said.
Whilst Bitcoin, the worlds largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, will remain dominant this year, Ethereum and XRP, due to their unique characteristics and problem-solving traits, can be expected to significantly fuel the 2019 upswing, he said.
The smart contract abilities of Ethereum are already unrivalled. More and more institutional investors will be making use of these capabilities this year. Also, once Ethereum can accept outside data in its smart contract protocols, its price will rocket further, Green forecast. When it comes to XRP, hundreds of financial institutions across the world are already working with it and this is a trend that is set to continue and grow in 2019.
