#### As long as you haven't been living under a rock, you'd know that coins are down across the board. 
From the December high, most coins are down at least 50%, which has investors worried and skeptics saying, "I told you so." But fear not, this down trend is actually a good thing for the whole industry, I'm going to do my best to explain why.

![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZA5E5RvP3jpYEEZV3hwodac9T63ykyaEkaaVnHNSJHMm/image.png)

The above graphic shows the total market cap for all crypto currency over the last 15 months. At the beginning of 2017, the entire industry had a market cap of roughly 17 Billion USD. Over the course of the year, with so many coins coming into the sphere and the media picking up the hype, the industry peaked at just over 800 billion USD or just shy of 50X its 2017 starting value. Now it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that this growth is unsustainable and as such a correction is in order. Even with the bear market we've witnessed in 2018, as of this writing, the crypto market is still up roughly 18X from the beginning of 2017, something that any traditional investor would ogle at. The problem with crypto is that a day in the crypto universe can be like a month in traditional investing. With the daily ups and downs, the public reaction to movement has a tendency to blow things out of proportion. 

With the rise of crypto this last 365 days you have seen a new group of investors enter the market, the "Holy shit, I can make 10 times my yearly salary in a month", investors. These investors are likely new to investing in general and have a habit of overreacting to both good and bad news. Hysteria is never a good thing and with this new type of investor it creates an even more volatile market. With the downtrend that has come over the sphere of late, we are seeing some of these investors pull out and head back to the casinos, testing their luck at the slot machines. 

![bitcoin market cap.PNG](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZ5Gvk5FY1kwH2mzpQpR4NAGoCnbykm482b8bNyB7Sm7A/bitcoin%20market%20cap.PNG)

#### As you can see from the chart above, Bitcoin is up substantially from the beginning of 2017. With investors getting over 1000% ROI from January of last year, nothing to complain about. 
If you had been smart enough to invest $1000 into Steem on January 1st 2017 your investment would now be worth about $12,500, something that most investors would take in a heart beat. So while the last few months have seen most coins retrace a lot from their all time highs, almost every coin is still up a significant amount from the beginning of 2017.

So the next time your anti-crypto uncle says "I knew this crypto currency thing was too good to be true", remind him that crypto still offers the greatest potential for significant gains in the future and then send him to the steemit login page so he can create an account

![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmTmyp9K4Rr1kxo35PKjTGp789zfQYAvoGZaeucRPKdfPv/image.png)

The amazing thing about crypto currency is that it spans the globe, it never sleeps, it takes out the middleman that society has come to loathe and it offers a new form of economy, one in which the individual is able to break away from the chains that governments have had us bound in for centuries. It is going to be an up and down ride for the foreseeable future. Just make sure you have your seat belt on and you don't overreact to to the daily swings.

### How to Capitalize on the Downtrend.
If you are on Steemit and trying to make a few extra bucks or make a living, the best thing you can do right now is buy some extra steem. If you spend any amount of time writing or interacting with others on the platform, you owe it to yourself to invest more than just your time. Reaching 500SP enables your voting slider and gives you a little more recognition on the platform. If you had tried to purchase 500 steem 3 months ago, it would have cost you about $3000. Now you can get 500 Steem for under $1000. Please please please do yourself a huge favor, don't go out to the bar for a few weekends, stop spending your money on fast food for a few months, don't buy that Starbucks Latte, invest in your future here with us, you wont regret it.
 

<center>https://media.giphy.com/media/RgxAkfVQWwkjS/giphy.gif</center>

So, while this GIF might be an accurate portrayal of the past few months in the crypto sphere, it is anything but accurate when looked at with a more macro view. Keep a steady head and a positive mindset and you will succeed in the cryto sphere. Till next time.

<center>![name gif.gif](https://steemitimages.com/DQmQJUCGwBwcLD2cwXsh95FJ43w3aC7hjZYPbQKdtDAsnZj/name%20gif.gif)</center>