A lot of things have changed in the world of cryptocurrency these past few years. In fact, the past two years alone have shaken things up quite a bit. It is hard to believe people could have bought Bitcoin at US$258.62 two years ago today. Even more astonishing is how Dogecoin was still a top currency at that time. It is evident things are slowly heading in the right direction. The bigger question is how we will reflect on today’s numbers in two years from now.
Money has poured into cryptocurrency at a nearly alarming rate lately. All currencies go up in value, virtually every other day now. Things were quite different not that long ago, though. In August of 2015, Bitcoin was worth US$258.62. Today, that same Bitcoin is worth US$4,328.47. An immense growth that hasn’t gone by unnoticed by any means It is impossible to predict what price we will see two years from now, though. If this rate of growth keeps up, big things will happen by 2019. A Bitcoin price of around US$10,000 would not be out of the question then.
Things Change Quickly in the World of Cryptocurrency
However, other currencies in the 2015 top 10 have had similar results. With the exception of BanxShares – which is now defunct – all of the top currencies back then still exist. They have all grown in value as well, albeit with variable results. Dogecoin was the sixth largest cryptocurrency by market cap two years ago. That is almost impossible to comprehend in 2017, as Dogecoin is still a big joke in most people’s opinions. Bytecoin and BitShares are no longer in the top 10 either these days, but that was only to be expected.
Ripple, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Dash have all seen massive growth has past two years. Ripple’s market cap almost grew by 3,000%, which is pretty astonishing. Litecoin’s value has gone from US$4 to US$41.27, which is a more than respectable growth as well. Dash has gone from being worth under US$3 to a value of around US$230 this year. A major gain for a currency that most people still ignore to this very day. Ethereum is the big winner in all of this, though. Its market cap went from under US$100m to around US$27bn in just two years. We have lived through a major part of cryptocurrency history so far, that much is evident.
The bigger question is how things will evolve from here on out. So far, that remains pretty difficult to determine. It is certainly possible we will see similar growth rates in the years to come. Whether or not that will be within two years, is hard to predict or guesstimate at this time. The momentum clearly favors all cryptocurrencies, to say the least. A lot of money remains to be made, especially once people stop selling currencies at bottom prices for minuscule margins. This is not the last growth spurt we see in cryptocurrency, that much is obvious.
Header image courtesy of Shutterstock
