According to the founder and CEO of Kraken, Jesse Powell, the cryptocurrency market will hit a valuation of $1 trillion in 2018. He said he expects to see an "acceleration" of the growth in the cryptocurrency market, despite the recent sharp pullback. He alluded to the number of students graduating from cryptocurrency programmes at university and stated that he expects things to continue "exponentially" from there. And when asked whether he felt cryptocurrencies could hit the $1 trillion mark in 2018, he nodded in agreement. At present, the market cap of all cryptocurrencies sits at approximately $417 billion, as data from CoinMarketCap shows. In early January, it spiked to an all-time high of over $800 billion before undergoing a sharp drop as many chose to sell off their crypto coins.Traders have been showing signs of caution as government officials in India and South Korea have increased the level of their rhetoric against the use of virtual currencies. The fear is that regulatory moves may start to be put in place in these large markets that could do serious damage to the growth of cryptocurrencies as a whole. Furthermore, there have been very recent instances wherein a trio of top European Union regulators issued stark warnings to consumers regarding the risks that are inherent in the purchasing of cryptocurrencies. Nonetheless, cryptocurrency supporters have mostly shown great enthusiasm and positivity after a big hearing on cryptocurrencies which was held by the United States Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee in the second week of February 2018. It seems that cryptocurrencies are very adaptable to any changes to the climate in which they exist, and their decentralised nature affords them powers to grow in spite of resistance from powerful institutions. Trends of the next few months will start to reveal signs as to whether Powell's prediction that cryptocurrencies will hit $1 trillion this year will come to pass.