Bitnewstoday Recalls: TOP 5 Events Which Shook The Crypto World In 2018

2018 gradually becomes the history and will be remembered as a not-so-pleasant period for crypto enthusiasts. However, it was full of events, unfortunately, rather negative than positive. Bitnewstoday decided to make a brief recall and sum up what events shook the crypto industry and the community. So, which of them are worth to be a part of the history and be written into the cryptocurrency chronicles? We decided to create our TOP of five major events which happened in 2018.

#5. TON — the mysterious ICO private sale

Oops, the Durov brothers did it again: they managed to attract public attention with their Telegram Open Network (TON) and the Gram token in their peculiar, mysterious way. TON created a lot of buzz in the first half of the year. The initial coin offering has been conducted for quite a closed party — only the accredited investors from the United States were allowed to participate. The two rounds of private pre-sale collected approximately $1.7 bln, with no public sales at all.

The project is shrouded in a mist of rumors and assumptions, but it is known for sure that the Durovs have reported to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). TON is out of the information field for a while, but everyone is looking forward to its triumphant comeback.

#4. The launch of El Petro national cryptocurrency

Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, was not eager to keep any privacy of Petro, on the contrary. Moreover, he tried to hype and attract maximum attention to the launch of the first-of-its-kind state cryptocurrency. Indeed, Petro succeeded in attention: it was discussed in the US government, by Russian politics, and among a lot of people in the blockchain community. Opinions on El Petro were quite controversial, but there is one fact: the project managed to collect $ 5 bln. However, there is a doubt that this will help Venezuela to solve the protracted financial and political crisis, but in the end, it is a precedent. State cryptocurrency projects have been talked about everywhere ever since — in Russia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and many other countries worldwide.

#3. Coincheck Exchange Hack Attack

In total, the whole past year turned out to be extremely unpleasant from security vulnerability point of view. The Coincheck cryptocurrency exchange hack attack struck at the very start of 2018. On January 26, it became known that the company suffered huge losses due to the theft. Currently, Coincheck remains the leader in terms of losses: according to analysts, the equivalent of almost $533 million in different cryptos has been stolen during the attack. This event echoed throughout the market: some coins have lost much in capitalization and reputation, and FSA, the Japanese regulator, turned to the strict approach and imposed new rules on the crypto exchanges. Such measures, in turn, led to the closures.

#2. Bitcoin Cash vs Bitcoin SV

The crypto world was shocked by this confrontation, and a lot of well-known blockchain enthusiasts were involved in the conflict. Experts believe that the overwhelming controversy and scandals regarding Bitcoin Cash have hit the reputation of the entire crypto market severely. Two odious leaders, Craig Wright and Roger Ver, disputed about the future of cryptocurrency and started a real war for power inside the network. Due to a personal conflict, an avalanche-like drop in the price of BCH proceeded after the hard fork, Bitcoin SV (Satoshi Vision). The outbreak of conflict showed the instability of the whole sphere, where agreements and rules sometimes don’t work as they should. The initial plans for BCH were to recover the network, but according to most crypto enthusiasts, in the end, it became a “poison” for the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem.

#1. Crypto market cap downfall: minus $700 bln

There is absolutely no doubt that, the most important and long-lasting event of 2018 was the fall of the cryptocurrencies prices. Everybody was waiting for many months for it to stop. After an extremely volatile January, when no one could predict the price of Bitcoin precisely, the market players understood that the hype was over, and the time has come to sum up everything that’s left. Either cryptocurrency experts or traditional market players argued about the reasons for such a decline. The year was full of prophecies and growth predictions. However, only by the end of December, it became clear that no miracle would take place. However, the crypto enthusiasts are not discouraged: mostly, they predict recovery of the cryptocurrency market in 2019, and this inspires only optimism for the future.

So, please stay with us and follow the global digital economy events with Bitnewstoday!

Image courtesy of Crypto On Click