Bitcoin, as of December 2020, has experienced a steady rise to reach new all-time highs, breaking through $20,000 per BTC, but it was not always so steady.
To get a sense of just how troubling the market had been, just look to 2018: Heading into 2018, Bitcoin traded for close to $13,500 after reaching an all-time high of $19,783.06 in December of 2017. It subsequently dropped as low as $3,400, a loss of about three-quarters of its value—and other digital currencies weren't faring much better at the time. Ethereum (ETH), for example, fell from an early-year high of $1,300 to just $91 by December 2018 before rallying back to over $450 by the end of 2020.
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum have indeed proven resilient. Investor interest, both retail and institutional, in digital currencies has risen dramatically in recent months. Many early investors who were eager to make gains from the "cryptocurrency craze" have since moved on to other ventures, leaving a smaller group of stalwart HODL-ers behind. But there are still reasons to believe that the cryptocurrency industry has some fight in it left.
Investors are again asking: how high digital coins could fly? And Bitcoin indeed has risen back to all-time highs as of December 2020, reaching over $23,625 and Ethereum to nearly $700.
Now, looking into the end of 2020 into 2022 ,the better question might be how this space will adapt in order to survive.
Although trade figures for individual investors are down in many cases, institutions are climbing on board in a significant way for the first time. Institutional investors allow for significantly larger trading volumes than most individual investors, meaning that even if fewer trading partners are transacting in the digital currency space, the industry can still sustain itself.
There are several potential developments projected to take place in 2020 and 2022 that could significantly impact institutional participation in the digital currency market. If crypto is floated on the Nasdaq or a similar exchange, for example, it will immediately get a boost in reputation—and likely, value.
