2017: The Year Crypto Became a New Asset Class

2017 has been a watershed year for crypto assets.

The combined market cap rocketed from $15 billion in January to over $600 billion by year's end. And in doing so, crypto assets crossed another kind of threshold, transforming from something easily dismissed to something hard to ignore.

The multiple-thousand percent price appreciation has been accompanied by trade volumes well over $1 billion since May, continued low correlations to other assets and sharpe ratios that compare favorably despite high volatility. Unsurprisingly, this is now attracting the interest of new market participants, retail and institutional alike.

The spectrum of new investors ranges broadly — tech-savvy teenagers, busy mothers thinking about how to invest their savings, individuals disenchanted by central institutions, high-net worth professionals, nimble family offices, financial advisors on behalf of clients, and even sophisticated hedge funds and institutions. People are taking note of the returns, headlines in the media and stories of new millionaires being minted overnight.

But they are also emboldened by low correlations, bitcoin’s eight-year track record of security, technical developments around protocols and an emerging ecosystem of companies working on crypto assets.

To be sure, crypto assets are still in an early, immature, evolving stage of their existence.

But this year was a milestone. As we head into the new year and take stock of 2017, I think we’ll regard it as the year that crypto assets officially became a new mainstream asset class, one with a distinct set of opportunities and challenges.

I think 2018 will be great year for ICO's also...