Do you remember the most important events that have taken place in the field of blockchain and cryptocurrencies since the previous one? We will tell you!
Bitcoin skyrocketing
The previous bitcoin halving took place on July 9, 2016 — a little less than 4 years ago. It’s hard to believe, but one BTC was worth $657.61 at that time. At the end of 2016, the value of the coin fluctuated around $1000, and on December 17, 2017 soared to more than $20 thousand, marking the beginning of a new era — the era of cryptocurrencies. Since then digital finance began to receive much more attention. By the way, experts call halving 2016 one of the main reasons for the incredible growth of Bitcoin.
The launching of the largest cryptocurrency exchange
Yes, Binance did not exist 4 years ago, as well as its founder Changpeng Zhao was far from appearing on the cover of Forbes. Binance was launched in mid-2017, two weeks after the completion of the ICO, during which they managed to raise $15 million. In six months, Binance reached an average daily trading volume of $11 billion and became one of the leading companies in the field of blockchain and crypto.
The emergence of Bitcoin Cash
In 2016, some cryptocurrencies from the Top 10 Coinmarketcap also didn’t exist! For example, Bitcoin Cash appeared as a result of a controversial hard fork, by breaking away from the main Bitcoin network in summer of 2017. This event served as a catalyst for the emergence of a large number of other bitcoin forks. Bitcoin Cash was not the first, but it definitely became the most important and memorable hard fork of the №1 cryptocurrency.
The ICO boom
Against the record prices of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, a new way of entering the crypto market — ICO, or “initial coin offering” started to gain momentum rapidly in 2017. The amount of funds raised during tokensales exceeded tens of billions of dollars by the spring of 2018. The EOS ICO remains the largest one to this day. The ICO was conducted over 11 months, during which more than $4 billion was raised. At the moment, EOS cryptocurrency is still in the top 10 of the CoinMarketCap rating. It should be reminded, that the ICO boom was also the time of emergence of a large number of scam projects. Only 14% of the companies, which conducted the initial coin offering, have created real products.
A growth of the cryptocurrencies mining industry
Obviously, the cryptocurrency boom had also affected the bitcoin mining industry. In total, bitcoin miners earned $5.26 billion in 2018. In 2019 — $ 5 billion. Meanwhile, their income remains high — in April 2020, according to The Block analyst Larry Chermak, the profit was worth $412.5 million, which is 8% more than a month ago! It is obvious that today mining remains a profitable way to make money on cryptocurrencies, and can become even more profitable soon. According to some experts, the Bitcoin price can increase again, as it was after the Halvings of 2012 and 2016.
