As the cryptocurrency markets continue to grow with every passing day - a number of companies are tapping the crypto-markets with great enthusiasm. This has attracted a large number of firms - and names such as Kodak, Atari, Telegram and LINE are all jumping into the crypto-business. However, finance firms are the most serious players in this game. A number of investment funds, hedge funds and the like have opened up over the past few months - and if reports are to be believed, many more are going to start off over the year.

A recently conducted Reuters Survey indicates that at least 56 finance firms are expected to enter the cryptocurrency markets over the course of the year! This is an interesting statistic because this survey covered 400 Finance firms, and almost one out of every five of these companies is planning to tap into the cryptocurrency markets. 

Interestingly, 70% of those who said ‘yes’ to this survey are about to get into the business over the next six months! This is a massively positive response from the firms - which also coincides with the recent rise in the cryptocurrency prices. 

Over the past few months, a number of firms have been entering the cryptocurrency markets. A recent report showed that the number of cryptocurrency hedge funds doubled in four months from November to February - at last count, there were 226 cryptocurrency hedge funds in the markets - however, this number went through some ups and downs - but as of this writing, the number of hedge funds are likely to be more than what they were in February.

There has been a lot of excitement surrounding these kinds of investments - as evident by everyone from experienced businessmen to young students getting into the markets. Industry giants such as Coinbase - as well as student efforts - there are practically all types of players in the markets. On another interesting note, Coinbase has just hired a CFO for their business - their first CFO, possibly hinting at a rigorous expansion in their finance related operations. 

It has long been believed that institutional investors will drive the markets forward this year. After the cryptocurrency boom of late 2017 - a large number of people started entering the markets. However, the first quarter of 2017 was very disappointing. April has finally begun a recovery process - but most currencies are still down by about 50% from their all-time high. However, this confidence which has been shown by the finance firms will help the markets recover even faster. 

As of this writing, the price of Bitcoins stands over $9200 - the highest it has been in almost a month-long period. By several estimates, it is expected that the price of Bitcoins might even rise to $100,000! While speculating the long-term prices is always questionable - it is now being expected that the entire cryptocurrency markets will perform better than they did last year - possibly even hitting the $1 Trillion market cap!