One thing’s for sure, this month will not be missed. But what happened? Why did cryptocurrencies have such a bad month in terms of value? Why are they on the rise now? Let’s discuss the journey of cryptos in this month and more particularly Bitcoin.

Disputes among the tech community

When an industry boom happens in such a short amount of time, there will be some opposition to it from the outside. But sometimes the opposition comes from the inside. This was the case for cryptocurrencies as developers started disputing about a recent software update called the hard fork. Analysts at ForexNewsNow were able to predict the Bitcoin Cash price drop way back in the middle of August this year. The October figures matched quite well, but even they couldn’t expect such a rapid slump in prices just 1 month after.

The reason of the price drop was obvious, the BCH fork that was intended to actually boost Bitcoin transaction speed and value, divided the industry into two, when developers started disagreeing on how to handle the project. The primary reasons were that some developers wanted to add some new protocols and features, while others wanted it to remain the same.

Because of the dispute, we were able to see new cryptos form in the face of Bitcoin ABC (new protocols) and BSV (Bitcoin Satoshi’s vision).

Because of the formation of these new cryptos, developers started to heavily generate them through mining. Because of the price reduction and general unprofitability of mining these days, the developers were basically working on losses, just to be able to dominate the market with their version.

Business Insider managed to have an interview with the CEO of Independent Reserve, Adrian Przelozny, who voiced similar opinions about the price drop. He also mentioned the developers themselves, who may be holding onto a significant amount of cryptocurrencies themselves. In order for them to finance their recent projects of mining these new cryptos, they “dumped most of their reserve cryptos on the market, ultimately decreasing the prices rapidly”. However, Przelozny also added that this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing as the trading volumes had gone up more than 200%, thanks to the volatility, which leads us to today’s price increase and its reasons.

Is Bitcoin back on track?

At the moment of writing this article, Bitcoin is sitting at $4,200. This is a rather large increase compared to the carnage the price suffered this week. But does this mean that Bitcoin is back as a good investment? Or is this just a small breakthrough, that will stop within days?

Well, there are several reasons to consider here. One of them is, of course, the new bullish attitude from traders that have been keeping an eye on Bitcoin and other crypto prices. Honestly, it was just a matter of time the prices would swing, everybody knew that they were just waiting for the perfect price balance. But what else could have helped Bitcoin regain its footing at least for the time being?

Back in April CNBC released an article, documenting the fact of how NASDAQ, the second largest exchange in the world, was ready for crypto ventures and support. That may have done some good to the price at that moment but as we’ve already discussed it wasn’t enough.

However, the price increase can also be attributed to NASDAQ’s newest announcements saying that it will fully support Bitcoin futures in the first quarter of 2019 if it matures enough. Seeing how that quarter is just 1 month away, many investors thought it was the perfect time to stock up on Bitcoin while it was still sitting below $4,000.

Is there hope for another increase in price?

Seeing how these big institutions are starting to get more interested in the digital currency, can definitely boost up the price of cryptos, but which ones? The most realistic listing for cryptos on Nasdaq is Bitcoin and some other highest volume ones like Ripple and Ethereum. But it doesn’t matter if only Bitcoin is listed as its price increase will definitely be followed by other cryptos as well. This is based on how the market has been reacting these few months. Many investors base the predictions with Bitcoin, even if they aren’t trading it. Having Bitcoin go up to $4,500 or even $5,000 will definitely bring other cryptos more value as well.

At this point, it is hard to say whether or not the price increase will happen, but looking at how bullish the investors are becoming and promises from Nasdaq, a price increase is definitely a large possibility. We predict a breakthrough above $4,500 in the first quarter of 2019, after all of the disputes will have settled with the developers and the “intense mining” is boiled down to a normal volume.