2018 Crypto Roundup

By cryptocompare.com

• Facebook resumed accepting cryptocurrency-related online advertising in June after previously banning them earlier in the year. Google followed suit in October after disallowing all crypto-related advertising in June.
• The new digital asset platform Bakkt became the talk of the town in August when Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), announced its planned launch, with the help of technology partner Microsoft. The emergence of Bakkt with its main offering of a regulated futures exchange, is expected to pave the way for Bitcoin ETFs to get approved.
• The way ahead for a futures-based cryptocurrency ETF remains unclear after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected two application proposals from the Winklevoss twins in July and nine others from three individual firms: ProShares, Direxion, and GraniteShares the following month. Another important crypto ETF – VanEck/SolidX in partnership with CBOE is awaiting a decision in February next year.
• Stablecoins dominated headlines this year, with notable releases throughout 2018: DAI (ETH-backed ERC-20) – launched by MakerDAO, LBXPeg (GBP-backed ERC-621 token) – released by the London Block Exchange (LBX), Candy - Mongolia’s first stablecoin, Paxos Standard(PAX – USD-backed) – launched by the Paxos Trust Company, Gemini Dollar (GUSD – USD-backed ERC-20) – launched by Gemini Trust Company, USD Coin (USDC – USD-backed ERC-20) – launched by Circle Internet Financial Ltd. Facebook is also reportedly developing its own stablecoin for WhatsApp transfers, pegged to the U.S. dollar.
• Fidelity Investment, one of the largest asset management firms in the world announced the launch of a separate company in October, Fidelity Digital Asset Services, to provide cryptocurrency custody and trading services for institutional clients. 
• On October 31, we celebrated the 10th anniversary of Bitcoin’s white paper – “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”, written by an anonymous person or a group of people under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
• Bitcoin Cash underwent a hard fork on November 15, resulting in two different currencies, BCHSV and BCHABC. Following a “hash war” and a long dispute over names, the industry finally seems to be settling on attributing the BCH ticker to the ABC chain and BSV to the Bitcoin Cash SV chain. 
• Nasdaq, the world’s second largest stock exchange, announced a partnership with VanEck in late November to launch regulated and surveilled bitcoin futures in Q1 2019. CryptoCompare will provide data for the new futures contracts in partnership with VanEck’s subsidiary MVIS (MV Index Solutions). 
• Throughout the year, ICOs started failing to hit their targets, fading away with regulatory clampdowns from SEC, making room for a new and compliant asset class: Security Token Offering (STO). Some of the most important recent news surrounding STOs: Overstock's tZero concluded one of the first STOs on a decentralized public network after raising $134M; Binance partnered with Malta Stock Exchange to launch a security tokens trading platform. 
• It’s been a wild ride for cryptocurrencies this year. After the 2017 December rush, the Bitcoin and Ethereum price came to a halt towards the end of January. The last 12 months saw the first bear market since 2014, with BTC/USD suffering a 70.42% loss and ETH/USD losing 79.04%.