Bitcoin, a blockchain-based payment and settlement system, has lost more than 80% of its market cap to the 2018 crash but it is still holding relevance for its potential adoption as a store of value – just like Gold. The valuation of Ethereum, a decentralized supercomputer, is down more than 85% but its smart contracts technology could still be utilized at a larger scale, providing that the project innovates.

There are also dozens of similar examples, ranging from XRP to IOTA, which are building real-world blockchain solutions, entering partnerships with the mainstream financial giants, and what not.The projects are not inflating as a standalone idea, but there is also an infrastructure of human resources and users being created around it. The year 2018 saw a growth in people working inside the crypto space, 2.5 times more than the much-hyped 2017. The year also witnessed the number of crypto users almost doubling from 17 million to 35 million. Technological issues got debated and resolved because of active community development. Institutional players set up their offices inside the crypto space to build solutions for the industrial expansion and its potential adoption among consumers and investors alike.
Crypto expects to recover, much less wildly after the end of every bear cycle. The technical solution it brings, mainly for the commercial space, intends to stay with both improvements and setbacks in hindsight. The question about whether or not a cryptocurrency asset would one-day be worth millions of dollars cannot yield a correct answer. In the end, the investors – both retail and institutionalized – will line up after projects which they believe would bring innovation to the internet-of-value space.
What happens after a great crypto depression? Well, the market doesn’t repeat its mistakes and recovers more organically than before. Only, it takes more time to regain its glory.