TradingView general manager explains how the current crypto bull market is unlike 2017

He thinks he’s spotted a key differentiator, and old school crypto enthusiasts will likely agree.

The cryptocurrency space has undergone a number of bull and bear markets since its inception in 2009. The crypto bull run in 2017 was one of the biggest years for the industry, hosting soaring digital asset prices and growth.

Blockchain markets look much different today than they did three years ago, however, based on regulation, adoption, and other factors. How will crypto’s current macro uptrend differ from 2017? Asset dispersion is a key differentiator, according to Pierce Crosby, general manager of asset charting platform TradingView. 

“The key here is to be looking at the distribution of accounts, i.e. the total number of accounts holding a given crypto asset,” Crosby told Cointelegraph, adding:

“In 2017, there was a disproportionate weighting in very few accounts, whereas now, the number of accounts has grown tremendously. Coinbase alone now reports having 30M accounts.”

Coinbase currently boasts over 35 million users on its platform, up from 11.7 million in October 2017, according to numbers from CNBC reporting. 

“Additionally, I think people should consider the institutional ownership percentage, which is typically a strong ‘support’ factor for price,” Crosby said. Crypto now garners greater interest from large mainstream players. Jack Dorsey’s Square and business intelligence outfit Microstrategy are just two examples of fresh Bitcoin buying power stepping up to the plate in 2020.

Crosby noted technology as another differentiator between the current bull market and 2017. “There are now thousands of applications built on top of one of the various blockchains in the ecosystem, these also play a key role in stabilizing price drips,” he said. The decentralized finance boom this year serves as one such example of advancement.

Bitcoin recently broke its all-time price high, shooting past its previous record of $19,892, set in 2017.

Bitcoin has largely shown price strength in 2020, although COVID-19 concerns sent the asset tumbling down to $3,600 in March. Since then, Bitcoin and the overall crypto market have trended upward amid a year which has also hosted a United States presidential election.

“Generally, we see a shift in sentiment and focus during the last year of the current US administration,” Crosby explained. “Things kicked into high gear once the pandemic hit, both as a result of the downturn in Bitcoin’s price, but also due to the increase in an overly dovish monetary policy across the globe.”

The U.S. has printed massive amounts of dollars in 2020 while also keeping interest rates low.