No matter where you are on Earth, you can feel the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Coronavirus has a negative impact on the industry, tourism, trade, stock markets, and of course, cryptocurrencies. In this article, we will consider how this epidemic has striked the blockchain industry and how it will affect the development of the cryptocurrency industry.
When the World Health Organization (WHO) officially announced a coronavirus pandemic, almost all investment vehicles in the world responded with a decline. The stock market has had its worst days in the past decade, with commodities, corporate debt, real estate, and even seemingly “independent” cryptocurrencies being hit.
Following traditional assets (mainly oil), the Bitcoin exchange rate plummeted immediately, driving altcoins. Although the cryptocurrency market has partially recovered from the crash on Friday 13th, small projects are not ready to take such a huge blow.
Cryptocurrency Conferences Cancelled
As soon as the epidemic hit other world powers, the first few blockchain conferences were cancelled immediately. After the Ethereum conference “infected” several prominent representatives of the cryptocurrency community, they even tabooed the entire planet in the incident. By early March, almost all blockchain conferences were cancelled/postponed until late summer/fall 2020.
Since the cryptocurrency industry has indeed been overwhelmed (important and not serious) by events over the past few years, a short break may not be useless to the community, but it is a heavy financial blow for the organizers.
Fortunately, in the modern world, there are still opportunities for virtual events. This is exactly the method chosen by the industry-leading consensus conference after the COVID-19 pandemic, rather than organizing a large crowd at a New York hotel (the epicentre of the US coronavirus).
Remote Work Becomes Commonplace
The cryptocurrency industry may be one of the significant areas for effective communication in different time zones, maintaining productivity and remote command management. Despite employees in other industries can hardly adapt to new conditions, most cryptocurrency startups can already work remotely. A good example of this are blogs in countries such as Italy, which was highly affected by the COVID-19 spread. Blogs such as the Italian news blog cripto-valuta keep publishing daily news on bitcoin and crypto-related subjects.
Raising Funds Becomes Difficult
As the ICO market has actually crashed, blockchain startups are now mainly seeking to attract venture capital. Yet, given the spread of the coronavirus and the uncertainty surrounding the global economic space, this method of attracting investment has also caused much controversy in the past few weeks. Private meetings have become beyond impossible, and investors have looked more closely at their investments than ever before.
It is unclear what influence the digital asset industry will have on the medium and long term. Currently, the cryptocurrency and stock markets need to assess the current situation and return to normal. How much time it will take is still unknown, but let’s be hopeful.
