Not sure I'd trade Ethereum back for Bitcoin this year but the other assets possibly although there's still value in some of those alternatives from a long term perspective so it's really up to whether you think Bitcoin will outperform them in the time period you plan to have them in your portfolio

Nothing is a sure fire bet as there are many factors that can change the value of the assets you choose one of the biggest being regulatory changes so just stick with the top two or three cryptocurrencies only for a set and forget type of portfolio and you should be right for the medium to long term

It's been exchanging places with XRP for a short while now and just slid back down to 3rd place most likely on concerns over the hard fork but that shouldn't phase investors too much as the value should begin to normalize not long afterward regardless of any volatility surrounding the upgrade event

The fundraising landscape is constantly changing so you won't see as many ICO's launched during the current "winter" phase as you did from late 2017 to early 2018 until further regulatory clarification arrives globally and more confidence is restored, and most of the projects that lost a lot of their value were not legitimate offerings or represented viable long term propositions but in future this is going to improve

There is not a real lot that can be done as the current demand for more speculative types of assets simply isn't as great as it was a year ago, which has resulted in less liquidity and more potential for volatility so you basically need to change your investment strategy if you're not gaining any benefits from it at present or just be patient and make smart buys if there's dips and then sell once the market goes up again

Ethereum's popularity among users and investors alike is largely because it enjoys brand dominance in the smart contract space and although it isn't that easy to develop for yet future upgrades will make this easier and help it to maintain a leading position in the market so it's certainly not lacking in any potential

Trade volumes are separate from market cap figures and are typically determined by how much a specific asset was traded on exchanges globally in the last 24 hours

A recent audit purports that Tether (USDT) has enough USD reserves to cover its total supply so it should be relatively trustworthy to use, but if you're unsure there's several other options available such as USD Coin (USDC) and Gemini Dollar (GUSD) which are supported by the top exchanges

Coinmarketcap is only an index it doesn't hold any users funds like an exchange so I'm not sure what you mean by 'safe' and it does have methods in place to ensure accurate reporting of trade volumes and provides as comprehensive an overview of the market as possible however, there are other handy resources such as coingecko, coincheckup, cointelligence and tradingview that you might find useful depending on what sort of data you require

There will most likely be quite a few cryptocurrencies of various types once the technology matures and more use cases are explored and that's not including the tokenized asset area which will become a huge industry in the near future as more businesses and enterprises adopt these innovations

These are important principles to keep in mind if you're trading for short to medium term profits but there's no guarantee that there will be a bull run however, strong indicators that underlying fundamentals are in good shape combined with promising developments should almost certainly result in a moderate appreciation market wide from next year

The cryptocurrency market is a little different from traditional markets so for newcomers its highly advisable to equip yourself with as much knowledge as possible before you start to put together a portfolio if you're seeking to invest into this space and never pay too much attention to the heavily manipulated mainstream media or generic hype you might find in most groups and forums

If there are any that have unique technology or a good chance of achieving a decent level of adoption it might be ideal even in this current climate where crowdsales have taken a downturn in popularity due to many not even having a viable product that has any real use case so make sure you avoid any of these

Anytime it gets cheap in comparison to Bitcoin it becomes a decent value proposition even though the market has not been performing that well if you're focused on what you can gain in future as the platform develops further and not immediately on what you might benefit from today

You're right its best to focus on what projects can offer in terms of future potential such as usability, adoption or dividends if you're investing for the long term as these will likely increase in value as the market matures whereas a lot of others won't regardless of how cheap they are price wise

Bitcoin has been through a few bubble scenarios to date not just the most recent one and it still is a technology that's in its early stages so there's plenty of room for it to improve and grow from here and it should be able to maintain its own coveted niche even if it doesn't become the #1 most popular cryptocurrency used in the future for payments

If you invested when the market was at $5,000 or lower you shouldn't panic not even if you're invested a little above that as you can easily lower your entry price by buying incrementally if it gets cheaper or just HODL for the long term as there'll be plenty to benefit from when things improve

Dumping can be done by any individual or group who invested or received rewards as a promoter or advisor if there's no lockup period and anyone who bought a large allocation at a sizable discount is going to have a big impact on the price if they liquidate as soon as a secondary market opens in order to make profits

Ethereum has an innovative enough platform not to be superseded that easily and also has brand dominance in the smart contract space and you may notice that a lot of competing platforms aren't immune to hackers or scammers either

You are right it is advantageous to be entering the market when it's declined by 80% or more as you're likely to benefit when it bounces back because even a modest increase is substantially more than you'd usually gain elsewhere in traditional markets just stick to the top ranked assets for now and invest wisely

Not all crowdsales require bounty campaigns but they are an invaluable marketing tool especially when project teams who require this type of promotion don't have to pay for it in advance if their offering isn't successful which is why they usually rely on this convenient form of advertising to reach their target audience