Assuming the Bakkt trading platform does launch in November, it should expect to get approval during the month of October. If that does occur, in my eyes that would be the start of the second leg up in the bull market. As I mentioned previously, I believe we are in a long consolidation/retracement pattern of a 2-part bull run as shown in the charts above. With signs of the floodgates potentially being opened in preparation for this run to be amplified I anticipate this next leg up could be quite quick and violent to the upside.
Signs of Massive Bull Run Coming;
1.) Bakkt approval in OCT, launch in NOV, first product is BTC physical delivery futures contracts. Huge for institutional money coming in.
2.) New simple to use exchanges are making it easier to buy a larger variety of coins. Coinbase announced a new method to "rapidly" roll out new coins onto their exchange. We could see them start adding a large amount of new coins to their platform in Q4 which could amplify the next bull run drastically. We've seen huge pumps in the past on new coins added to Coinbase. Exchanges such as Next, Circle, Ethos and Blockport are just starting to roll out their platforms making the learning curve of entering the crypto market much easier than before.
3.) Last year crypto projects pumped hard because of ICO hype, this year, quite a large number of those projects will be launching main nets in Q4 2018. We could see a second coming of pumps during this time as the value of tokens may rise due to actual platform usage rather than just pure hype alone. Vechain, Cardano, Ethos, Blockport, Theta, Substratum, Coinvest, Internxt are just some projects that come to mind that are either launching their mainnets in Q4 or will be operating at full steam.
4.) Ripple's xRapid could also help ignite that bullish fire in traders once again as the launch of that product could drastically affect ripple's upside.
5.) SEC will rule on BTC ETFs in DEC. Although if approved we probably won't see ETFs launching until probably Q1 2019... The approval itself could also add more fuel to fire if we are in the full swing of the bull run at that time.
6.) Don't forget about China. They once owned more than 60% of the crypto market. IF they get back into the market before the end of the year, this could blow the top off of the bull run. We don't know when they will eventually get back in but it does look like the government has gotten a firm hold on the crypto space within China and is imposing controls/regulations quite firmly now. I would not be surprised if they would be ready to open the doors back open sooner than later.
I look forward to seeing how the rest of 2018 plays out.