A little over ten years ago, one of the most important whitepapers in the history of the financial industry was released. Written by a man- or a lady- or men- or ladies- under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto[1] and born out of the horror that was left on the world by the financial crisis of 2008, the Bitcoin manifesto introduced the world to a potentially new form of transactions.
The notion of cryptocurrencies[2] brought various advantages over the traditional fiat money. However, chief amongst these advantages would be decentralization; an ability for the currency to function and be used without being censored or monitored by a third party (in this case, financial regulators and banking institutions).
We take a look back at 2017; the year which has been seen by many as the most pivotal in the short- but highly eventful- history of cryptocurrencies.
The major bullish run started in the summer of 2017, as the price of crypto pushed past every milestone with ease. By May, bitcoin had gone over $2,000 for the first time; then it went past $3,000 some days later.
But the volatility never stopped. Some days, it lost $300 in an hour. By September, the price of bitcoin had gone over an all-time high $5,000. Despite the blanket ban on crypto trading in China and the crackdown on ICOs[3], bitcoin was able to surpass a record high price of $10,000 and beyond.
August down to December 2017: The Rise of the Crypto Bubble
In general, cryptocurrencies had their prices peak by the middle of 2017. Led by Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies began to move from being on the outskirts of the financial industry to getting into the mainstream world economy. It wasn’t
