The buildup to the 2017 peak in cryptocurrency prices intoxicated business owners and investors around the world. The momentum was so great that new businesses popped up every second of the day, all hoping to cash in on the first great crypto gold rush.
As 2018 rolled round, the long crypto winter soon froze out the hopes of many. Although the long trough proved too much for some, when prices rose again, the landscape looked very different. Initial coin offerings had largely been declared irrelevant and stablecoins from massive international companies gradually came to dominate a once-diverse industry.