Participants of the international press conference "World Trends and Crypto Currency Outlooks in 2018", organized by the CryptoBazar Fund, talked about what awaits bitcoin and its counterparts in the coming year.
According to them, in the future the course of the most popular crypto currency in the world - bitcoin - will play a fall and from the beginning of next year will again grow. Its value can reach at least $ 50,000 by the end of 2018, although much depends on the legislative regulation of the crypto-currency market in individual countries, experts believe.
Founder of CryptoBazar Fund (Russian ICO platform), Oleg Ivanov, said that interest in crypto-currencies is due to the possibility not to overpay for cash transactions. The phenomenal growth of ICO around the world is due to the deterioration of the conditions for the use of traditional instruments for investment - low profitability, volatility, opacity, entry barriers and defaults. 
"The main reason for the explosive growth of ICO is that the classical method of attracting money (IPO) is more suitable for large businesses. At the same time, ICO is a unique investment tool that combines the possibilities of crowd-funding and the stock market, "Ivanov said.
Co-founder of CryptoBazar Fund Andrey Yudin also noted that the boom of ICO development began this spring. Six months ago, about 5 new ICO projects were launched in Russia, now this figure has risen to 200.
Executive Director of Sberbank CIB Sergey Polikanov, who also attended the conference, said that crypto-economy should be legalized in Russia. "There are instructions of the President of Russia to develop normative documents by July 1, 2018. Once such activities are legalized, it will allow law enforcement agencies to fully work. Now it's still a gray zone, "Polikanov said.