Juniper Research claims crypto market about to implode (spoiler alert: they’re wrong)

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Juniper Research has released a report that predicts utter doom and gloom for the cryptocurrency industry. The report, ”The Future of Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin & Altcoin Trends & Challenges 2018-2023,” claims that the entire cryptocurrency market is ready to implode. Fortunately, it’s not the first time Juniper has been wrong.

According to the research company, the drop in the level of transaction volumes is an indication that the market is on a crash course for destruction. There’s no denying that the volumes are down—BTC has dropped from 360,000 late last year to 230,000 in September. Transaction values are down, as well, with BTC falling from $3.7 billion to under $670 million.

Based on this, and activity during the first half of the 2018 third quarter, “Juniper estimates a further 47 percent quarter-on-quarter drop in transaction values.” This doesn’t bode well for cryptocurrencies—on the surface.

What Juniper fails to take into account is that the markets are actually becoming more stabilized. The introduction of regulations and self-governing bodies around the world are helping to solidify cryptocurrency’s position in a global economic world. The current volumes are a reflection of a maturing of the ecosystem, not of an impending downfall. The days of meteoric climbs like what BTC saw last year are in the past, and this is a positive for the markets.

There has been a significant amount of resources and energy invested into stabilizing the cryptocurrency industry and those efforts are paying off. Fluctuations in prices are much more limited than they once were and more financial institutions around the world are warming up to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. If there were any indication that the industry was on the brink of disaster, there wouldn’t be the advances we see today.

Juniper’s insight has to be taken with a mere grain of salt. After all, this is the same company that predicted Tesla would be selling 17 million cars by 2020. In a report it issued on Tesla in March 2016, it stated, “Tesla, an OEM solely manufacturing electric vehicles, scored highly with strong sales, superior mileage range and firm commitment to their Tesla Supercharge scheme. Whilst BMW and Nissan have witnessed high sales, their electric vehicle capabilities lag behind Tesla.”

Out of the top ranked electric cars today, Tesla isn’t even among the top seven. In fact, Nissan’s LEAF is the top-selling car according to a report by CarMax from this past June. Another Carmax report from August that ranked the top hybrids doesn’t include Tesla among the top 10. Tesla has only sold barely 200,000 cars in the U.S.—a long way from the 17 million expected by Juniper.