The year was a period of real triumph not only for the flagship coin, but also for all digital assets in general - everyone's attention was riveted to them, they transformed the well-established and familiar understanding of calculations, expanding the scope of financial reality to unprecedented sizes. The result of this hype was that the capitalization of bitcoin in 2017 increased by as much as 20 times, and the entire crypto market - by 34 times. Traders, investors and ordinary people realized that the crypto market is rich and diverse, there are many prospects on it, and not all of them rest solely on bitcoin. The popularity of altcoins was also growing by leaps and bounds, and the word "crypt" sounded just everywhere.
It was in 2017 that the bitcoin exchange rate for the first time overcame the most important psychological mark of $ 1,000. In April 2017, Japan, in contrast to the United States and China, which refused to recognize cryptocurrencies, legalized them and equated them with ordinary money. It is still difficult to fully assess what kind of impetus this has become for the growth of investor interest in digital assets. The results fully manifested themselves already in May - this month was marked by an unprecedented increase in the exchange rate of many currencies. That is, not only bitcoin, but also many altcoins shot up rapidly. For example, the cost of Stellar Lumens has increased 8 times, LuckChain - 10 times, and Bytecoin and Reddcoin - 11 times. At the same time, the total capitalization of altcoins in its amount for the first time outstripped bitcoin.
Then Ethereum became the triumphant of June and July. Ether skyrocketed from $50 to $400, and its capitalization increased from $4.5 billion to $37.1 billion. And to this day, it is this cryptocurrency that reliably holds the second step of the pedestal of the crypto market.
The autumn of 2017 turned out to be very difficult for cryptocurrencies, and this was mainly due to the decisions of the Chinese government, which first banned the attraction of investment funds by ICO, and then announced its intention to close cryptocurrency exchanges on its territory. Given that China has always been one of the key players in the crypto market, such news caused the inevitable collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange rates. However, these difficulties turned out to be temporary, and soon, in December, events occurred that opened a new chapter in the history of the crypto industry and overshadowed all the autumn scandals and vicissitudes.
So, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and then the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) introduced bitcoin futures. In other words, they made bitcoin trading available to classic stock investors, introducing it into another important plane of the global financial system.
So, 2017 was the year of a real breakthrough for the entire cryptocurrency reality. Despite the fact that the market experienced not only rapid growth during this period, but also deafening falls, the main result was a powerful increase in interest in it, which resulted, in particular, in the opening of the largest Binance crypto exchange. From that moment to this day, it remains obvious that the rise in demand and popularity of cryptocurrencies has begun, continues and obviously will never end.
