The 2019 year in crypto has been disastrous for altcoins with many dumping back to over 90% below their ATH. A few of them could stage a comeback in 2020.
It has been another week of declines on cryptocurrency markets, especially for altcoins, as total market capitalization tumbles back below $200 billion again in December 2019.
Markets have dumped 50% in less than six months and altcoins have taken the brunt of those losses.
Many of them are barreling back to crypto winter lows of over 90% down from their giddy peaks in early January 2018.
There are a few that could lead any recovery though and they could be the ones with strong developer teams and ongoing partnerships.
Ethereum
There is no real reason for ETH prices to be so low aside from its stickiness to big brother and general bearish market sentiment.
Ethereum has dumped below $150 this month which puts it just under 90% down from the peak.
Fundamentally, Ethereum is stronger than ever with healthy network activity, ongoing upgrades such as the imminent Istanbul upgrade, and a mushrooming decentralized finance industry.
Ethereum has more developers and a larger community than rival blockchains and has set itself up as the current standard for smart contracts.
Migration to a new consensus model and resolution of scalability issues that have long plagued the project is set for 2020 with the deployment of ETH 2.0.
DeFi continues to grow with 2.7 million ETH locked in investment platforms, according to DeFi Pulse, as Ethereum is shaping up to be the cornerstone of a decentralized financial future.
ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin recently published some impressive figures and reasoning as to why Ethereum will recover quicker than other altcoins.
#Ethereum by the Numbers:
9M+ blocks mined on @ethereum.
6 EIPs scheduled for Istanbul.
7M+ @GodsUnchained transactions.
4M+ $DAI locked in @MakerDAO.
$500M+ locked in #DeFi.
2.6M+ @trufflesuite downloads.
$2.7M+ @gitcoin platform value.BOOM. https://t.co/3Vz4RxP9jX
— Joseph Lubin (@ethereumJoseph) December 2, 2019
NEO
NEO has often been referred to as the Chinese Ethereum and the People’s Republic has been gung-ho on blockchain recently.
That is not to say that China supports any decentralized platforms that are beyond the tight grip of state control, quite the opposite in fact.
In terms of token price, NEO is practically dead with a low of $8.50 recently, down an epic 95% from its peak of $180.
There has been no negative news for the project, just general crypto bearishness at the moment.
Just like Ethereum, NEO developers are forging ahead with the project and the latest upgrade to NEO 3.0, which is being built for large scale enterprise use cases, is nearing.
The project fell out of favor to rivals such as EOS and Tron but it has taken a different path and 2020 could bring big things.
NEO is attempting to position itself as an enterprise blockchain, suitable for businesses, especially in China where the project was spawned.
For this reason, the token is likely to show solid recovery next year as China pushes ahead with its blockchain-based society.
ICON
Icon is South Korea’s version of Ethereum and NEO but with a difference.
The project already has solid governmental ties and is being used to develop blockchain-based initiatives such as decentralized passports and identity authentication services.
These developments have not been reflected in prices though as ICX has dumped back to its ICO price of around $0.12.
This is an epic plunge of 99% from its all-time high which topped $12.
A recently published updated roadmap shows that development is still ongoing and close ties to the Korean government should give this token a lift when markets start to recover.
Our November roadmap update includes additional details on our network stabilization enhancements and some VERY exciting developments with BTP
Check it out here:https://t.co/mgFsXAPe40
— ICON (@helloiconworld) November 30, 2019
There are no survivors at the moment as all altcoins are getting battered.
But the ones sticking to their roadmaps and forging ahead with partnerships are likely to be the first to recover when the time comes.
The post Why these 3 struggling altcoins are set to surge again in 2020 appeared first on Micky.