People said the same thing at the start of 2018 and there have been high hopes for a lot of people. And we're aware now that what many expected didn't happen. Actually a lot lost money. We can't really tell for sure because we may end up like those that got rekt this year.
I for one am 100% unsurprised this year turned out like it has so far. You don't get a year like 2017 without paying a heavy price as a followup. I am very surprised it hasn't fallen further and harder.
My guess is 2019 won't be all that much to write home about. We may get some rises but they're not going to be all that eye catching. There are still absolute shitcoins with insanely high market caps that have no business doing so. Then again I've given up trying to apply logic to the whole thing.