Five Reasons to Be Bullish About Bitcoin, Ethereum and the Future of Crypto

The cryptocurrency market recently experienced a bearish run driven by a range of factors including Mt Gox "Tokyo Whale" sell-offs, delayed institutional investor participation, and regulatory pressure.

One of the primary barriers to mainstream consumer adoption is arguably the separation between cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies - crypto debit cards provide a solution to this issue, but have become less widely-used subsequent to the early 2018 culling of Visa-backed crypto cards.

Scalability remains a pivotal issue in the development of cryptocurrencies - the current transaction capacity of Ethereum and Bitcoin is still far from payment platforms such as Visa or PayPal.

The underlying technology that drives cryptocurrencies is beginning to capture the attention of enterprise organizations.

The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance has recently released a new Enterprise Ethereum Architecture stack that standardizes the specifications of enterprise Ethereum solutions, streamlining the process of creating private Ethereum blockchains.

The regulatory debate that surrounds cryptocurrencies is a frequent cause of volatility within the cryptocurrency market - regulatory authorities around are still scrambling to establish a functional framework for the regulation of cryptocurrencies despite ongoing research, G20 Summits, and closed-door meetings.

The US SEC has recently hinted toward a clear separation between tokens sold during initial coin offerings and those that function strictly as utility tokens, and appears to be considering the exemption of cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum from strict regulatory action.

More recently, the US DOJ has taken an active role in the investigation of price manipulation in cryptocurrency markets, while countries such as South Korea move to legalize and regulate initial coin offerings.

With the St. Louis Federal Reserve likening Bitcoin to "Regular money" and NASDAQ CEO Adena Friedman stating that the exchange would consider adding cryptocurrencies alongside traditional securities, it's clear that positive regulatory action is just around the corner.

The initial coin offering ecosystem has become a double-edged sword for cryptocurrencies in general, simultaneously increasing overall awareness of cryptocurrencies and the digital asset market while providing a platform for fraudsters in what is a largely unregulated environment.