What’s Next For Altcoins in 2019?

While we have analysed the various arguments for and against the possibility of an impending Bitcoin bull run, few have stopped to wonder what is next for altcoins in 2019.

Few can guarantee that we have truly escaped the crypto winter that plagued almost the whole of 2018 but many believe that Bitcoin’s trend is currently at an upswing.

What about altcoins then? We have had little talk about what the future holds for altcoins so far and in this article, we consider what the future holds in store for them.

What Are Altcoins?

While our guide to altcoins can explain the details of what they are and how they work, here, for the benefit of this article, let us quickly define what altcoins are.

We know that just about ten years ago, Bitcoin was launched as the first viable cryptocurrency of the world. It has seen a lot of ups and downs since then and has indeed come a long way in terms of its popularity, credibility and brand legacy.

However, Bitcoin has contended with a significant number of issues such as scalability, speed, centralization concerns and many more. To tackle these issues, altcoins come to the picture.

Cryptocurrencies that are not Bitcoin are known as altcoins. They are often forks of the Bitcoin Core Client itself (Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash etc. for example) and they attempt to improve upon the failings of Bitcoin while retaining its legacy and other successful elements.

You May Also Read- Tokens, Coins and Altcoins: Differences Explained

Future of Altcoins in 2019: What Do The Trends Say?

Recently, at the beginning of this new year, data sourced from CoinLib, the cryptocurrency price tracker revealed that the dominance of Bitcoin had fallen lower than 50%.

What’s intriguing about this is that this was the second time in a 30-day period that we were seeing such a drop.

What does this data entail for altcoins?

If you take a look at past trends, then you will observe that most of the bullish rallies in altcoin have been preceded by a sharp drop in Bitcoin’s dominance. This would imply a strong possibility of altcoins faring exceedingly well this year.

Usually what happens is that altcoins rise when people start selling Bitcoin off or converting them into fiat. That seems to be the possibility in the near future.

You May Also Read- How to Sell Your Bitcoins?

In early 2017, we saw altcoins enjoy an unprecedented rally that coincided with an over-50% fall in Bitcoin’s dominance.

Even during the dream run of the crypto market in 2017, when Bitcoin itself surged to a price point close to $20000, the altcoin bull run was accompanied by a 30% drop in Bitcoin dominance.

Factors That Could Propel Altcoins To A Brighter Future This Year

The following factors can potentially ring in a bright and prosperous year for altcoins. Let’s find out what they may be.

1. Focus on Ethereum

With the Constantinople Hard Fork, Ethereum is looking at a really crucial point in its overall timeline and this has gained it a great deal of increased attention for the same.

This increased attention could potentially have a positive bearing on the future of altcoins as many of them are essentially ERC-20 tokens built using the Ethereum network standard.

2. Increased Popularity of DApps:

Decentralized applications or dApps have become increasingly popular over the last few quarters and many of the platforms hosting them have their own allied altcoins.

Naturally, the heightened popularity can potentially boost the adoption and subsequently, prices of these coins.