Forecast for Major Cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Rip and Monero for 2018

Bitcoin’s daily “Olympic” records are destroying the boldest analytical forecasts. The leader of the crypto market is pulling other coins with it, and most analysts agree that investors and speculators will continue to make money on this asset in 2018.

This makes it reasonable to get access to the market as soon as possible in order to start earning on the cryptocurrency exchange. In this regard, let us consider the prospects for the development of the main instruments cryptocurrency trading in anticipation of the coming year.

Bitcoin 2018

The main cryptocurrency, which is at the peak of popularity at the moment and will remain as a “crypto-star” in the near future. However, the maximum capitalization and incredible growth rate of bitcoin (BTC) come together with high volatility and poor predictability.

At the beginning of the year, the economic community was debating whether bitcoin would reach the $10,000 mark, and the night before this article was written its rate peeked over $18,000, but had corrected to $16,000 by the morning.

In his recent trading forecasts, the analyst AMarkets Artem Deyev focuses on some of the points that foreshadow the growth of this asset at the turn of 2017 and 2018.

1. leading position in terms of capitalization, which has almost reached $300 billion.
2. The launch of bitcoin futures trading on major U.S. exchanges in December (SWOE and SME).
3. The possible infusion of investment from the derivatives market, which holds more than $630 trillion. Even a small investment from this side would seriously increase the capitalization of the coin.

These points are highly likely to continue provoking Bitcoin’s rise against the USD at the beginning of the year, and its top line is difficult to determine. If predictions with the inclusion of large investment funds are confirmed, its value could reach $100,000 or higher.

There is also a potential counterbalance to this phenomenon. Already in the spring, the upward trend may be replaced by a cryptocrisis, in the case of bankruptcy of a large number of ICO projectsBut the likelihood of such an outcome is not great.

Ethereum 2018

The number two cryptocurrency on the digital money market is considered to be Ether (Etherium, ETH). A relatively young but bold representative of virtual coins shows intensive growth rates, being a more stable and certain asset.

Unlike its main competitor, Ether has a useful practical function in the financial world – organizing transactions by banks and companies. This feature makes it possible to make clearer predictions of the variation of quotations in the future.

We have identified three main factors that could contribute to the growth of this cryptocurrency in 2018:

• In 2017, the Enterprise Etherium Alliance was formed, consisting of several high-tech corporations investing in the development of the Etherium platform, which had a positive effect on the capitalization of the coins;
• Ether production technology is not limited to miners, which flattens the volatility curve noticeably;
• ether could be used by banks and large corporations for secure transactions (a number of companies have already moved to this platform to make payments, others are testing the technology; the growing interest in the practical side of ether will attract a number of strong investors in the currency).

Etherium’s annual rate of appreciation suggests an allowable value of the cryptocurrency next year of up to $1000 by modest projections.

Ripple 2018

This cryptocurrency is very attractive to buy because of its relatively low value ($0.24 by the end of the year) and positive prospects. The reason is practical: Ripple was created using payment gateway technology, which can be used by banks as a transaction system.

This Ripple Coin feature has attracted investment from some big companies, to the tune of $9,000,000, which has raised the capitalization volume to fourth place.

In addition, the developers of Ripple not so long ago launched a service to trade precious metals.

This asset continues systematic development in its practical specialization, attracting new partners, which is regarded as a solid base for continued growth against the dollar. Experts predict a rise in quotations to $1 in 2018.

Litecoin 2018

The LightCoin system is called “silver” in the cryptocurrency market. It is one of the seven most capitalized digital coins ($5.3 billion), and its main purpose remains investment use for long-term investments and trading. In addition, Litecoin allows for online purchases.

In favor of LightCoin’s future uptrend are the following:

• high growth rate in 2017 from $4 to $100;
• a strong correlation with the rate of Bitcoin on the exchange, which so far has a positive outlook;
• a convenient tool for secure transactions, which can attract large investments.

Analysts are predicting a rise in LTC quotations to $160 in the next six months.

Monero 2018

Manero has rapidly become one of the ten most captialized cryptocurrencies in a short period of time. Its main advantage is the ideal level of transaction privacy relative to other market participants.

This fact provides Monero a steadily growing demand, and a proportional increase in quotations. Analysts suggest that if the uptrend continues, this asset will become one of the top five cryptocurrencies by capitalization.

The growth of the Monero cryptocurrency in 2018 could be affected by :

• increasing popularity of cryptocurrency as a means of payment by large companies (in particular Apple and AlphaBay);
• even more optimized security and anonymity of payments by the developers.

In early fall, analysts predicted a $200 milestone for this virtual currency by the end of the year, but at the time of writing it has reached $261.

Thus, in 2018, the growth of all key participants in the cryptocurrency market is predicted, which bodes well for traders and investors’ prospects of earning on this asset. It should be noted that the recommendations given in the article cannot be considered as trading instructions, because the cryptocurrency market is extremely volatile and depends on many unaccounted factors.