Hamburg, 07.02.2019 ‒ Facebook's plan to launch its own cryptocurrency, Libra, next year created a stir both nationally and internationally. Even the CDU, Germany’s conservative party, is calling for a digital euro now. The timing, however, could not have been better: The market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies may have decreased by US$437.48 billion to US$128.78 billion after the record year of 2017, but large increases in investments into blockchain solutions have been forecast.

According to forecasts by Statista, they will grow to US$11.65 billion by 2022. Compared to 2018, this would mean an increase of 468 percent. The U.S. has been leading and will continue to lead in investments (2018: US$0.6 billion; 2022: US$4.2 billion), followed by Western Europe (2018: US$0.5 billion; 2022: US$2.9 billion).

Bitcoin is faltering – a chance for Facebook's Libra?

Facebook's entry into the market of cryptocurrencies comes at a time when Bitcoin is faltering in terms of market capitalization: Since 2015, Bitcoin's market share has gone down by 38 percent to only 53 percent. This may also be related to the fact that since 2014, an increasing number of cryptocurrencies have entered the market.

It is still unclear how Libra's launch will impact Bitcoin and its market position in the long term. In the short term, the social media company's announcement alone has led to an increase in Bitcoin's value. In any case, it is unlikely that Bitcoin will disappear completely: Not only is the first publicly traded cryptocurrency by far the most well-known of all digital currencies (71 percent of U.S. respondents have heard of Bitcoin, only 13 percent have heard of Ethereum), Bitcoin is also supported by about 92 percent of all cryptocurrency exchanges.