2017 was the year of the boom. Everything went up and fundamentals were only a bonus. Almost all gaming markets went way up, along with almost everything else in the world. 2018 is not likely to repeat this by a long shot. Here is what we are likely to see this year and what should be done about it.

Cryptocurrency Craze Will Calm, Culling Coins and the Cocky

First and foremost, when economic historians look back at 2017, it will be labeled the year of the cryptocurrency craze, first and foremost. The advance completely blew away any other in recorded human financial history since tulip bulbs. From January 2 to December 19, 2017, the total market cap for all cryptocurrencies traded went up from $18.5 billion to $642 billion. That’s an absolute inflow of $623 billion.

For true believers this heralds the dawn of a new monetary age. Maybe it does, eventually, but it probably won’t take root in 2018. In order for that to happen people have to start using digital currencies as bona fide money in retail transactions, not as speculative holdings where they can log in to their wallets and count their paper gains in fiat. The vast majority of people who bought into the rally have no intention of using any of their digital currencies as money, and even the most ardent bitcoin investors still count their holdings in terms of fiat currencies. What this incredible rally really signifies is that there is a lot of loose money out there looking for something to fall on. It found something and it fell.