Crypto Could Take 10+ Years to Regain 2017 High, But Then Will Be Mature: Cardano Founder

Crypto markets might need more than a decade to regain 2017's price highs, but the industry will a "Dramatically different ecosystem at that point," according to top altcoin Cardano's founder, Charles Hoskinson.

The industry expert made his comments in an interview with Cointelegraph at the Crypto Finance Conference, Jan. 17.

Hoskinson compared crypto's major growth spurt in 2017 with Amazon's performance during the dot-com bubble.

According to Hoskinson, crypto as an industry could experience a similar growth pattern.

Another key point for the evolution of cryptocurrencies is to attract institutional investors, Hoskinson said.

Wall Street is constantly waiting for new assets to invest in, he claimed, and crypto developers have to present a reasonable roadmap to achieve greater adoption.

"Institutional investors are pretty picky. They're very intelligent investors, but then they also require an ecosystem of sophisticated trading strategies and tools They need derivatives, they need options, they need to get a short sell, and if our markets can get these things, what will happen is that you'll no longer see this massive volatility."

Institutional adoption has been a major topic of discussion in the crypto sphere this past year.

Mike Novogratz, an ex-Goldman Sachs partner and founder of crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital, said in October that institutional demand will bring Bitcoin to new highs in Q1 or Q2 2019.

A recent study published by the Global Blockchain Business Council shows that the vast majority of senior business executives are not committed to crypto and blockchain in particular.