Weiss Ratings 2019 Crypto Market Forecast: BTC will hit a new high, Ripple will rise, and forked coins will disappear...

All investors should realize that the disaster in 2018 was limited to market prices, and technological development made huge leaps in 2018.

2017 was a great year full of opportunities for cryptocurrency investors, 2018 was a disaster. So, what about 2019?

Before we give an answer, all investors should realize that 2018 was a disaster for the cryptocurrency industry, only in terms of falling market prices. In terms of technological development in the cryptocurrency industry, great progress was made in 2018, for example:

1. Hashgraph is an innovative approach that takes us beyond blockchain;

2. HoloChain, also based on a non-blockchain approach, was introduced to the world;

3. Bitcoin launched the Lightning Network to help speed up transactions;

4. The EOS mainnet was launched, quickly gaining attention, and its usage rate continued to grow;

......

Investors are finally realizing that most tokens cannot provide protection for their assets, which is a positive change for the further healthy development of the industry.

We see this as progress, not a disaster.

For the 2019 forecast, our predictions are mainly based on two models:

1. Our cycle model helps us estimate the timeline of major market trends;

2. Our rating model can identify the most powerful combination of risk, return, technical and acceptance factors.

Each model is driven by tens of thousands of data points analyzed weekly. Together, they support seven predictions for 2019 and beyond…

▷ Prediction 1: Bitcoin will be used by more people for value preservation

The storage cost of Bitcoin is almost zero. The transfer of Bitcoin is also very efficient. Bitcoin is very secure and cannot be confiscated by the government.

No other asset can possess all of the characteristics of Bitcoin. Therefore, other assets cannot compete with Bitcoin in terms of storage and value preservation.

Conclusion: Bitcoin is becoming the veritable digital gold.

▷ Prediction 2: Bitcoin price will rise again, heading for a new high

As of 2015, Bitcoin has experienced four bear markets, with prices falling by more than 70%.

Every time there are so-called experts who proclaim that "Bitcoin is dead", but every time Bitcoin is reborn from the ashes and starts a new round of bull market, the average return rate from the bottom to the highest peak is as high as 6,300%.

Last year, we witnessed the fifth bear market of Bitcoin, which greatly hit the market confidence. However, many people do not realize that it was the decline in the price of Bitcoin last year that eliminated most speculators and malicious actors in the market. At the same time, staunch supporters never gave up and even bought more Bitcoin.

Distributed ledger technology continues to develop, addressing many of the shortcomings of first-generation cryptocurrencies.

All of the above have laid the foundation for a new round of bull market.

Conclusion: Just like the previous bear markets, Bitcoin will rise again in 2019 and set new all-time highs.

▷ Prediction 3: Some altcoins may rise rapidly from obscurity

The so-called altcoins are a general term for all cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin. Some altcoins have relatively low visibility and liquidity. However, some altcoins with outstanding technology may become more popular. Their prices will eventually return to new highs, even reaching 20 times the new highs.

▷ Prediction 4: Some cryptocurrencies will establish a new type of Internet

Blockchains such as EOS, ADA, Holochain, etc. are all committed to creating Internet 3.0 - a more secure and sustainable network. There may be a large number of similar competitors in the market in the future. Most of them will fail, but the potential value is endless. Once the Internet 3.0 is successfully created, the market value of these currencies will be trillions of dollars.

▷ Prediction 5: Some cryptocurrencies will disrupt the banking world

Bitcoin aims to become a new type of digital payment network, but has never achieved this goal.

However, both Ripple’s XRP and Stellar are looking to take up this challenge, as they have the potential to disrupt financial markets, remittances, wire transfers and more.

In particular, XRP aims to subvert the global bank payment network SWIFT. Once it successfully seizes SWIFT's market share or even replaces it, XRP's market value is likely to make a big leap and eventually become the world's number one cryptocurrency.

▷ Prediction 6: Some Bitcoin hard forks will gradually disappear

Many cryptocurrencies will disappear for the simple reason that they simply have no innovation. This includes the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap, such as BCH, Bitcoin SV, and Litecoin. They all have no innovative applications and will eventually disappear.

Some Bitcoin forks (such as Bitcoin Cash and BSV) we believe are effectively useless.

▷ Prediction 7: New cryptocurrencies will quickly enter the top 10 at a rocket-like speed

Although other new concept cryptocurrencies such as Holochain and Hedera Hashgraph are not very popular now, they have the potential to enter the top 10 in terms of market capitalization. These non-blockchain distributed ledger projects can become the basis of the new trust layer of the Internet, so the value of their tokens may rise faster than other blockchain project competitors.