Cryptocurrencies, especially those found in the top 20 have been battered throughout 2018. With big names like Bitcoin, Ethereum and LiteCoin suffering huge losses to the extent of dropping double digits, and for some; daily.

As prices of these assets keep dwindling while younger assets continue to steal the headlines, one cannot but wonder what the future holds for these greats in the crypto space.

By market capitalization (not value of asset), all the cryptocurrencies are down by different percentages, except for VeChain (VEN) which has gained around 128% since January 1; starting the year with $636,456,000 and now holds $1,522,140,000, the reason why CNBC referred to the digital asset as the only survivor of this year’s cryptocurrency slaughter.

However, the price of VEN has been badly hit in 2018. VeChain started the year trading at $2.3 apiece and rose a high of $8.28 by January 23, 2018. Since then it has been a story of decline. As at press time, the digital asset is trading at $2.3 apiece.

How Did VeChain (VEN) Manage to Keep Its Market Cap Up?

VeChain was one of the few cryptocurrencies not affected by the huge market sell-off and regulatory crackdowns on digital assets that hit most the market in 2018, by no means a small feat.

To get a picture of the scale of the severity of the loss suffered by digital currencies in 2018, for the top 3 by market cap, Bitcoin is down by 45%, Ethereum by 41% and Ripple by 75%.

So the question remains, how did VeChain keep its market cap alive through the market slaughter.

The answer may be hidden in VeChain’s unique price incentive structure for investors, and the number of good relationship ties developed with companies. VeChain grants more voting rights as well as greater rewards to investors holding large amounts of VEN.

VeChain Introduces Distributed Data Vending

Data Vending allows a data provider (an owner) to exchange private data with data consumers under a protected system that uniquely adapts to every case of data sharing. With Distributed Data Vending, VeChain aims at enabling data providers to use existing blockchain as infrastructure to securely list and apply for regulations and the compliance needed.

The data consumers, on the other hand, retrieve the secure data from the blockchain by means of purchase. The VeChain Distributed Data Vending protocol is already being developed in-house and will be released for upcoming dApps and coin issuance.

What is the Next Big Thing for VeChain (VEN)?

Without a doubt, the next major event for VeChain is the launch of the VeChain Main Net. The launch has been slated for June 30, 2018. On the road to the Main Net Launch, VeChain would be hosting a Blockchain Night Live of March 31, 2018, and the Consensus 2018 on May 14, 2018.

The New VeChain Thor (VET) would be part of the Main Net release in June, and THOR coins would be generated and used thereafter.

VeChain Foundation would be extending its tentacles into Decentralized applications (Dapp) technology similar to that of Ethereum’s and two different tokens will be featured on the VeChainThor platform: Thor Power (THOR) and the VeChain Token (VET).