Market updates for cryptocurrency traders are often full of surprises. Unlike the traditional stock and bond markets, crypto price changes can be exceptionally volatile. As we enter the last quarter of 2019, these markets are showing resurgent signs after a few months of consolidation and slight decline. Most analysts believe there will be a surge of trading activity in late 2019 and the first few months of 2020.

Unlike traditional markets, it's much harder to analyze the factors that cause crypto trading to fluctuate so much. For one thing, new laws in a nation can cause trading to spike or plunge in a matter of hours. Second, price levels are not tied to any one nation's economic health but to hundreds of different forms of supply and demand pressure. Here are the pertinent facts about the state of crypto investing for year-end 2019 and early 2020:

Government Regulation is a Huge Question Mark

Both the U.S. and China are in the process of deciding what types of controls should be placed on crypto trading. U.S. legislators will probably be slower to act and will probably opt for an incremental approach in any case. China's Communist government, because it is a centrally planned economy, has the power to make swift decisions about regulation.

In addition to those major markets, other nations are still catching up to the crypto economy and are apt to put at least some controls on the market as a whole. Post-Brexit UK lawmakers have already expressed an interest in settling on a national standard for crypto trading. All these legislative maneuvers can be good or bad for cryptocurrency. In one sense, government regulation often slows trading down in the short term. But once policies are in place, the investors are able to know what they're dealing with and how to trade without worrying about draconian laws popping up unexpectedly.

More Individual Investors Will Enter the Marketplace

A recent development in the crypto-trading scene is the number of individual investors. Based on recent data, more individuals are trading from their homes on a part-time or sporadic basis. Marketing studies have revealed that people are not quite sure what to make of the rise, and many of the currency's underpinnings are hard to grasp. Even so, investors are inching into crypto as big players like Bitcoin, Lite and Monero become household words. One factor that has played a role in consumer demand for is that day trading providers such as easyMarkets make it simple for anyone to trade Bitcoin and other cryptos. What was considered a strange, nearly-unknown asset just a decade ago is now a part of millions of individual portfolios.

Bitcoin Market Share Will Likely Increase

Nothing about the crypto markets is "traditional." Usually, when a new sector comes into existence, a few players dominate for a while. Later, they give way to widespread competition and end up with less market share. Fast-food, computers, cars and dozens of other consumer markets behaved that way. Not cryptocurrency. Bitcoin was the early leader with about 95 percent market share. That decreased to around 40 percent but is now moving back up. Some analysts think Bitcoin will be "the" cryptocurrency within a decade.