2018 was not all bad for Bitcoin, despite the negative headlines that predicted its death. In fact, there were a handful of trends this year that were positive for Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency space at large.





First, Bitcoin’s segwit usage is up over 300% in 2018. SegWit, a controversial system for improving BTC transactions, met much resistance in 2017. But in 2018, the upward trend of SegWit adoption is clear. According to transactionfee.info, last year segwit transactions accounted for 10% of all Bitcoin transactions, and today that figure is above 42%.









Another positive trend is the increasing volume of academic papers written about Bitcoin, showing that cryptocurrency's appeal has spread far beyond speculation. Jameson Lopp recently pointed out that Google Scholar results for articles containing "Bitcoin" have grown every single year since Bitcoin’s creation, and 2018 was no exception.











Finally, Bitcoin dominance -- in terms of total cryptocurrency market cap share held by Bitcoin -- is up to roughly 53% from only 32% in January 2018, as the above chart from CoinMarketCap shows. The boom in Initial Coin Offerings, which often raise funds in Ether, bit into Bitcoin’s market dominance. The ICO bust that followed has now helped Bitcoin regain its market share.











