The world of cryptocurrencies is growing by leaps and bounds. Estimates from the Cambridge Center for Financial Alternatives (CCAF), as of April 2017, there were 5.8 million active cryptocurrencies, concentrated in 11.5 million wallets.
At that time it was believed that an average person has two wallets, with which it is possible to infer that there are between 2.9 million and 2.8 million cryptocurrency users.
Thanks to the trust that these digital assets. these figures have radically changed. Right now, according to Statista, there are more than 8,400 cryptocurrencies around the world, although there are few that truly stand out at the moment for their value and the market that they already have around them.
Bitcoin is the main cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization as it reaches a figure, which until mid-February, stood at 914.578 million dollars (mdd), a figure that prominently surpasses the rest of the cryptocurrencies present on the graph. For example, in the second position is Ethereum, whose capitalization is around 206.00 million dollars.
The figures are simply surprising and draw even more attention if we consider that there is a great debate around cryptocurrencies. And it is that while some large businessmen affirm that these assets are the future of the financial sector and commerce, certain analysts assure that the volatility of the currency and that it has little legal support is reason enough to despise the potential that in various senses they offer cryptocurrencies.
At this point, it is fair to recognize that the little and almost zero regulation around these cryptocurrencies has slowed their expansion in the world, an aspect in which, although they are already working, still has a long way to go.
The truth is that although there are many items to cover the advances in regulation that have occurred around cryptocurrencies are beginning to be more and more evident and, in this sense, the last country to join the conversation has been Germany.
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And it is that now in the German market an initiative has been released that allows the investment of cryptocurrencies to institutional funds.
This means that pension-related funds, for example, could invest in cryptocurrencies, with a single condition: That the investment is not more than 20 percent of their total resources.
Although the restriction may seem aggressive to many, the truth is that the investment at stake is not less.
Financial consultancy Oliver Wyman, for example, They have said to Bloomberg that your investment in cryptocurrencies will be well below the allowed limit; However, it is estimated that the funds managed by institutions of this type reach 1.8 trillion euros, so 20 percent is, without a doubt, a not inconsiderable amount.
Although for now it is impossible to know if the volatility of cryptocurrencies will be a fundamental piece to reject investment in these assets, the truth is that this type of laws and regulations would have an impact on the price of these virtual currencies in the short and medium term.