2018- The Year of the Crypto's (If it can beat the banks)

In the world of cryptocurrency, 2018 has already been huge- as predicted. It hasn't even been a week into the new year and many previously unknown cryptocurrencies have sprung into light and the majority of the 'already' popular coins have also made large gains. As more and more fiat is going into crypto the market cap is over $1,000,000,000,000 AUD and will continue to rise.

The rapid rise of Ripple (XRP) took the cryptocurrency world by storm as it zoomed past Etheruem and Bitcoin Cash and into 2nd place, also hitting an all time high of $4.79 AUD (Coinspot price). Not even a month ago were people referring to Ripple as "Cripple" and "R.I.P.PLE" as its price was actually stable and lurking around the $0.30-$0.35 range for a few weeks, which is a very long time in the crypto world and many impatient investors sold and XRP was called RIP by many. After the new year, XRP exploded and by the 4th of January, had made many people rich.

Tron (TRX) also made huge gains and reached a huge $0.43 AUD which now currently sits at 9th place after soaring from just $0.05 to $0.43 in just a matter of hours, making investors thousands of dollars and creating over night millionaires.
Stellar Lumens (XLM) also hit a new all time high at $1.23 AUD and surged in growth and market cap.

XRP, TRX and XLM all proved that a very large total supply does not mean a very low priced coin as they all soared.

But the real coin of the first week of 2018 has to go to Cardano (ADA). The Cardano blockchain platform is said to be more advanced than any other protocol developed at this time. Cardano is currently in 5th place in market cap and currently is at $1.30 AUD. In the last week, ADA has more than doubled its price and had its all time high at $1.83 AUD just days ago. Cardano is predicted to have huge potential and growth is expected, it is definitely one to keep an eye on for 2018.

There also many other coins and tokens which have made huge gains in just 2018 already and will likely have a big year ahead, some honourable mentions include LISK, Verge, Reddcoin, Siacoin, Digibyte, Bytecoin, NEM and even Dogecoin. All have made large percentage returns in the new year already.

If 2018 really is the year of the crypto, there is one challenge that will stand in the way- beating the banks. For my fellow Aussie investors, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has banned all deposits for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, not allowing their customers to buy or send money into an exchange. The CBA stated that it is 'fraud' and it will deny deposits into 'Bitcoin and other fraudulent related activity.' The other 3 'big banks' of Australia have not made any restrictions on cryptocurrency and bitcoin as of yet and hopefully it stays that way. The CBA is also the only big 4 Australian bank that did not test and use the RIPPLE technology and it is now public what their stance is on cryptocurrencies and the adoption of new technology that can change not just banking but the world forever. National Australia Bank, Westpac and ANZ bank have all been testing and utilising the Ripple technology for faster and cheaper transactions. Despite Ripple being centralised, this is a good sign that these 3 banks are somewhat supporting cryptocurrency and their use of Ripple means they most likely won't restrict their customers from depositing into crypto exchanges as they use crypto themselves.

Cryptocurrency is set up for a huge year in 2018 and the first week has given us just a taste of what is to come. There will be huge gains to be made for all and the market cap will continue to rise as more and more every day people will put their money into cryptocurrency in 2018.