In the first half of 2018, the cryptocurrency market underwent a heavy correction from the all-time high valuations recorded by the majority of coins in December and early January. If we take a look at the year-to-date performance of the cryptocurrency top 100, we can see that gainers are few and far between – at the time of writing, only 16 coins in the top 100 have increased in value since January 1, half of which have entered the market this year.

After a disappointing Q1, Q2 did not deliver either, and now cryptocurrency holders are looking at the second half of the year for a potential reversal of the negative trend. We’ve chosen five coins that have interesting developments coming up, but their performance will likely still depend on how the cryptocurrency market as a whole behaves. It is no secret that the market does not have a high degree of differentiation, and we mostly see the majority of cryptocurrencies moving in the same direction (with some making more pronounced moves than others) regardless of fundamentals.

Of course, there are always outliers, but it is quite rare to see a coin moving against the overall market trend for a prolonged period of time. As the market approaches maturity, however, we should expect more differentiation, especially if cryptocurrencies and utility tokens become increasingly adopted and used for their stated purposes instead of being largely seen as vehicles for speculation.

0x (ZRX)

Awareness about decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges is spreading, which is understandable since they are a natural fit with the ethos of decentralization that has been the driver behind the creation of Bitcoin and the emergence of the cryptocurrency and blockchain community. The 0x protocol already serves as the basis of several projects, including Paradex, Radar Relay and Ethfinex.

The goal of the 0x protocol is to facilitate peer-to-peer trading of ERC20 tokens without the need for a user to trust a third party with their funds. The matching of orders is done by relayers, who collect fees for providing their service, but they never have control over a user’s funds.

Of course, there are also the persistent rumours about a ZRX listing on Coinbase, which turned out to be at least partly true when Coinbase recently mentioned 0x as one of the five tokens they are looking into for a potential listing.

If you believe decentralized exchanges will continue to grow in importance and adoption, 0x is certainly a project worth looking at.

Binance Coin (BNB)

At the opposite end of the spectrum, we have a token issued by one of the most popular centralized exchanges in the cryptocurrency space. Functioning as a utility token that gives benefits to its holders when they are trading on Binance, BNB has actually increased in value in 2018, growing by a very impressive 61% since January 1.

Binance is currently developing a decentralized exchange called Binance Chain, and BNB will become the native token of its own blockchain (BNB is currently and ERC20 token). There’s still a lot of details left to be released to the public about this project, so we don’t yet know how exactly BNB will fit into the picture.

With their expansion to Malta, Binance is also planning to launch a fiat to crypto exchange featuring the Euro as its first supported currency, which could help them see even more volume.

Ethereum (ETH)

Right now, Ethereum is simply the undisputed king of blockchain platforms for smart contracts and decentralized applications. Of course, there are many contenders for its throne, but Ethereum’s community of developers and users are currently unmatched in its category.

Scalability has become a major concern for Ethereum, as it has become clear that the network in its current form is not fit for mass adoption – we have seen a single application, CryptoKitties, create significant problems for the network when it surged in popularity. For this reason, Ethereum developers are working on implementing sharding, which would, if executed successfully, drastically increase the throughput of the network. There is also Plasma, but that project is still in its very early stages.

From a regulatory point of view, there was a huge sigh of relief from Ethereum holders when the SEC said it will not be treating Ethereum as a security. There is still some concern, however, about how regulators around the world will tackle ICOs, which form a big part of the demand for ETH. Nevertheless, if the cryptocurrency market turns bullish, it could rekindle interest in ICOs, which would likely benefit ETH in a big way. Even though other platforms such as NEO are also becoming an attractive option for projects looking to raise funds through a token sale, Ethereum is still by far the most popular platform for this purpose.

Status (SNT)

If you expect Ethereum to perform well, it is certainly worth taking a look at Status, a project which is focused on making the Ethereum ecosystem more accessible. Status makes it possible for users to interact with decentralized applications through their mobile devices, and also features encrypted messaging and peer-to-peer payments. If Ethereum is to become widespread, it should be friendly to non-technical users and Status is working on this exact problem.

Status has recently released the beta version of their application, and the team has added support for ERC721 tokens (non-fungible tokens or collectibles).

ICON (ICX), AION (AION), Wanchain (WAN)

We’ve decided to group these three tokens ICX, AION, and WAN together because the projects behind them are all focusing on the same fundamental concept: blockchain interoperability. The three projects have also established the Blockchain Interoperability Alliance with the goal of developing standards which would allow different blockchain networks to communicate and interact with each other.

Interoperability would allow for different blockchains to be optimized for specific uses but still maintain the ability to function as part of a larger ecosystem. This could be a key feature if the adoption of blockchain solutions by enterprises and consumers accelerates in the future.