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Stay updated with our hand-picked featured news, top market insights, and the most important stories from the cryptocurrency world.

  • Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 24

    Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 24

    Another week filled with red numbers has brought the total cryptocurrency market capitalization back down to $1.50 trillion, before it climbed back up to $1.62 trillion in the last few Sunday hours. While Bitcoin ended week 23 with an 8% gain over last 7 days, quite a few altcoins from the top 50 cryptocurrencies posted 10% or even greater loses. As a natural consequence of that, BTC dominance is on the rise again. However, altcoins are known to be even more volatile and risky, than the industry’s leading cryptocurrency but when the market trend switches, altcoins are usually the ones that rebound higher. Therefore, we are betting on these three promising altcoins this week.

    1. Kusama (KSM)

    Kusama is a scalable multi-chain experimental blockchain that shares many similarities with Polkadot. Both blockchains are built using Substrate framework, which allows developers to deploy their own specialized parachains on both platforms, but Kusama receives updates prior to Polkadot and therefore acts as a testing environment for Polkadot. KSM token was one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies of 2020 with more than 5.800% gain over the course of the previous year.

    Buy/Sell KSM

    Kusama Parachain Slot Auction Set to Kick Off June 15  

    The Kusama team have recently revealed the details regarding the much-anticipated Kusama parachain auction, which will determine which five parachains will get integrated with the Kusama relay chain. The first Kusama Parachain Slot auction will commence on June 15 at 12:00 GMT. If you are going to participate in the parachain auction, another important date to note is June 17, 09:00 GMT, as only bids posted prior to this point will certainly be considered in the final result. Bids posted past this point will have a linearly reducing chance of being considered. On June 22, 09:00 GMT bidding will cease and at 11:00 GMT on the same day, the winner of the First Kusama Parachain Slot auction will be announced. The winner will be determined based on the highest bid at a randomly selected point during the last five days of auction. This process will than repeat four more times, following the same schedule each week. In total, 5 Kusama parachain slots will be allocated in this auction period. Nevertheless, projects that fail to secure their own Kusama parachain, will have the opportunity to participate in the parachain action again in the near future.

    2. Tezos (XTZ)

    Tezos is a decentralized smart contract and application network that utilizes a modified version of Delegated Proof of Stake consensus mode. Tezos blockchain features an on-chain governance system allowing holders to take part in the decision-making process. Developers can suggest changes or upgrades for the Tezos protocol, and if their suggestion gets approval from the community and is implemented, developers get rewarded with XTZ tokens. What makes Tezos blockchain stand out among other similar blockchains is its efficient network upgrade process as the protocol allows major upgrades to be implemented without the requirement of a hard fork. This system allows Tezos to adopt new technologies quickly. The native cryptocurrency of the Tezos platform is the XTZ token. The blockchain launched in September 2018, following an initial coin offering (ICO) that raised $232 million in 2017.

    Buy/Sell XTZ

    Tezos is Successfully Capitalizing on the NFT Hype

    The number of active Tezos addresses has been rapidly increasing ever since March 2021, which coincides with the platform’s launch of the Tezos-based Hic et nunc NFT marketplace. Tezos appears to have successfully captured a large chunk of Ethereum’s market share when it comes to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as it offers relatively low transaction fees, which makes NFT minting and selling a lot more economical compared to Ethereum. This also made NFTs more accessible to the masses and thereby attracted many new artists and collectors, which were previously scared away by the high Ethereum fees. Tezos project recently posted that builders, creators, and users made around 1.5 million smart contract calls on the Tezos blockchain in May. Will the growing network user base and activity translate to price appreciation?

    https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcde09248-a6f4-49a0-9741-fd66684db49d_1200x692.png
    Graph showing a 30-day moving average of XTZ active addresses. This metric currently sits just below 35k active addresses. (Source: CoinMetrics)

    3. Litecoin (LTC)

    LTC is a Bitcoin fork created by former Google employee Charlie Lee in 2011. The Litecoin network has a target block time of 2 minutes 30 seconds (1/4 of Bitcoin’s 10 minutes) and a four times larger eventual total supply than Bitcoin. In addition, Litecoin utilizes a different Proof of Work consensus algorithm called Scrypt. The development process and efforts to increase the coin’s adoption are led by a Singapore-based non-profit organisation called the Litecoin Foundation. Even though Charlie Lee sold all his personal LTC holdings in December 2017, he continues to be involved in the project.

    Buy/Sell LTC

    Founder Charlie Lee Reveals Litecoin is Getting a Major Privacy Upgrade

    Litecoin creator Charli Lee recently appeared in an interview with crypto analyst Scott Melker, in which he elaborated on what the next Litecoin update will focus on. He said that the upcoming update will add more fungibility and privacy to the digital token, as these are important properties of good sound money. While these two characteristics appear uncorrelated at first glance, they are, in fact, much more intertwined than it appears. Lee explained, that while one Litecoin can be traded for another Litecoin, with both having equal value, blockchain transactions inherently provide additional information, for example, one specific coin may be held in a wallet containing 100,000 coins, and another in a wallet containing just a few coins. Lee wants to make each LTC coin indistinguishable from any other by hiding this type of information from the public ledger. He said:

    “That’s the kind of information that you want to keep private, even if you have nothing to hide. Financial privacy is important.” He proceeded to reveal that he is working on implementing the MimbleWimble privacy technology into Litecoin. Named after a Harry Potter spell that stops people from spilling secrets, MimbleWimble stops the public ledger from blabbing out three crucial and sometimes sensitive pieces of information about each transaction: the sender’s address, the receiver’s address and the number of coins sent. When implemented, MimbleWimble Extension Blocks (MWEB) will allow Litecoin users to send coins in a more private manner and Lee believes that this “is going to help Litecoin become a better form of money.” Does a better form of money translate to a more valuable (crypto)currency?

  • Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 23

    Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 23

    The total cryptocurrency market capitalization has climbed from $1.48 trillion to $1.66 trillion over the course of last week, but the cryptocurrency market is still in limbo. With no clear sentiment, markets could move in either direction or even continue trading sideways. However, several projects are seeking to benefit from the increased attention, granted to them by token airdrops and important announcements. In addition, many projects are pushing their upgrades to their respective mainnets as summer and the end of Q2 2021 is rapidly approaching.

    1. Centrifuge (CFG) and Altair (AIR)

    Centrifuge is a decentralized asset financing protocol that aims to bridge the world of DeFi (“Decentralized Finance”) and real-world assets and provide a stable source of yield uncorrelated to volatile crypto assets to DeFi investors. Businesses, on the other hand, can tokenize real-world assets and use them as collateral to access financing through Tinlake, Centrifuge’s lending dApp. The CFG token is the protocol’s native asset that provides incentive for blockchain validators and grants governance rights to its holder. Centrifuge chain operates on Polkadot, while its lending application Tinlake is built on Ethereum due to the ecosystem’s massive liquidity.

    Buy/Sell CFG

    AIR Token Airdrop to CFG Holders is Around the Corner

    The Centrifuge team recently announced the launch of Altair, their own Kusama parachain. The Altair Kusama parachain is going to have the industry-leading tech from Centrifuge chain and more, as the newest experimental features will be deployed on Altair before they go live on Centrifuge Chain. Altair plans to be one of the first parachains live on Kusama, so the Centrifuge team encourages supporters to delegate their KSM to the parachain crowdloan. If the parachain auction is successful, Altair will reward participants with 50+ AIR for each 1 KSM locked. The team notes that exact reward will per 1 KSM will depend on the price of the parachain slot and participation in the crowdloan. Another 61% of the total supply of 425,000,000 AIR tokens will be airdropped to CFG holders (1 AIR per 1 CFG) based on a snapshot taken at the Altair parachain genesis. Currently the total value locked in Centrifuge’s Tinlake dApp is $18,729,969 and the CFG token is valued at around $13.

     2. VeChain Thor (VET)

    VeChain is a project that utilizes the combination of the IoT (Internet of Things) infrastructure and blockchain technology to improve the efficiency and transparency of the existing real-world asset supply chains. The main feature VeChain offers is labeling products with RFID or QR codes, which are scanned at every step of the transportation process, granting the supply chain manager higher levels of control and more insight into the whole process. The project development and maintenance is overseen by the Singapore-based company carrying the same name, which was founded by Sunny Lu in 2015. Their enterprise-focused platform relies on two tokens: the VET token is used as a carrier of value on the network, while the VeThor Token (VTHO) is used to pay for transaction fees and the execution of smart contracts.

    Buy/Sell VET

    VeChain Thor Mainnet Upgrade to take place on June 7

    About 3 weeks ago, VeChain announced the release of the latest version of VeChain Thor, which includes code that will activate the ETH_IST VeChain hardfork. The hard fork, which already took place on the VeChain testnet, is neccessary for the VeChain network to maintain its compatibility with the latest Ethereum virtual machine (EVM). The GitHub release message of the VeChain 1.5 from May 14 raed:

    “VeChain Thor 1.5 has been released this weekend. This includes a hard fork to support ethereum Berlin compatibility. This fork will be active on testnet starting 2021-05-20! So go update your nodes if necessary!”

    As the release message also noted, the hardfork will be triggered at block #9254300 on the mainnet as well. The hardfork is now just behind the corner, as said block is estimated to be mined on Monday, 07 Jun 2021 at around 08:20:00 GMT. Node runners should upgrade their software to continue participating in the protocol’s block confirmation process.

    3. Filecoin (FIL)

    Filecoin is a decentralized file storage network based on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), a peer-to-peer file storage and sharing protocol released by Protocol Labs in 2015. The project raised $205 million worth of crypto in a 2017 ICO and finally launched its highly anticipated mainnet on October 15, 2020. FIL token, the native asset of the Filecoin blockchain, provides economic incentive to storage provides and acts as a medium of exchange among Filecoin network users.

    Buy/Sell FIL

    FIL surges by 25% as news that some BTC miners are transitioning to mining FIL started to spread like fire

    Filecoin, a decentralized equivalent of Dropbox and other cloud storage services is again attracting attention of cryptocurrency investors, and it appears that the project has harnessed the attention of Bitcoin miners as well. Following Elon Musk’s criticism of Bitcoin energy use, Filecoin has emerged as a greener and more useful alternative. Its mining is less energy-intensive compared to Bitcoin, but the miners need spare hard drive storage as FIL mining actually means providing storage space to the network. Nevertheless, Filecoin offers a promising alternative to BTC miners coming from areas with cheap hard drives and not-so-cheap electricity. Most of the FIL is currently being mined in China and countries where Bitcoin mining is forbidden. While nearly all other coins were in the red on June 3, FIL managed to surge by 25% from just above $70 to over $95 on that day. The FIL price, which is still very far from its ATH of $237 achieved on April 1, has since stabilized just below $90. The energy efficiency of the Filecoin network seems to have deemed this crypto immune to the energy consumption and environmental concern-related FUD recently spread by Musk. Could this push FIL’s valuation even higher?

  • Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 22

    Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 22

    After a period of stormy weather on the cryptocurrency markets we are now in what seems to be the calm after the storm. Most of the investors are uncertain whether the recent dip was just a bear trap, and the market will soon continue following the upward trend, or just a sneak-peak of what is about to come as we dive towards finding an even lower bottom. While the total capitalization of the cryptocurrency market managed to climb above $1.75 trillion on several occasions throughout the previous week, the total market cap only increased by mere 3.6% ($1.43 trillion at the beginning of the week as compared to $1.48 trillion on Sunday, May 30). However, the coins and tokens featured in our this week’s selection of Top 3 coins to watch are less likely to trade sideways, as mainnet deployments, upgrade rollouts and other important events put these projects in the centre of the crypto community’s attention.

    1. Binance Coin (BNB)

    Binance Coin (BNB) originally launched in 2017 as an ERC-20 token sold through an initial coin offering (ICO). In April 2019, the Binance Chain went online, and all the ERC-20 tokens were replaced with the BNB coin, which became the native cryptocurrency of the new blockchain. Binance Chain is still completely centralized, with Binance having complete control of block management. Binance users who utilize BNB to pay for trading, withdrawal and listing fees can enjoy significant discounts. While this used to be pretty much the only use case of BNB, the coin has a far greater utility now as it allows users to pay for gas fees, stake BNB, as well as participate in DeFi, liquidity pools, DEX trading and earn token airdrops from projects featured in the Binance Launchpad. Every quarter, Binance burns a portion of their BNB holdings as their goal is to cut down the maximum BNB supply from 200 million to 100 million.

    Buy/Sell BNB

    It is About Time for Another Launchpad or Launchpool Project

    As already mentioned, BNB’s use cases expand far beyond just trading fee discounts. Launchpad, for example, is Binance’s IEO platform on which they launch new projects and Binance users will get a portion of the token’s distribution amount based on their BNB holdings. Launchpool, on the other hand, is used to launch new or propel existing projects through token farming. By committing different assets to the pool (usually BNB and BUSD), users farm new tokens and get the rewards on a daily basis. The last project to be featured on Launchpad was FC Barcelona Fan Token and the token distribution concluded on April 21. Similar goes for Launchpool, the staking period to receive TLM tokens concluded on May 7. Holders are now eagerly awaiting new project so they can commit their BNB that are “sitting” in their Binance spot accounts. Judging by the historical frequency a new project should appear on Binance Launchpool every moment. The addition of a promising project to the Launchpool could even increase the BNB demand and boost BNB price, which has lately been in a rapid decline.

    The BNB price corrected heavily in the second half of May. It dropped from the coin’s ATH of $689 on May 10 to $214 on May 23 – that is a whopping 68% decrease in less than two weeks. Since then, BNB is up by 63% and is changing hands at around $350 at press time. However, due to the lack of activity on Binance Launchpool and the news that US and German authorities are investing the exchange, BNB lost #3 spot, which it claimed for a short period of time. BNB is now again on the #4 spot by market cap, behind Tether (USDT) and just $1 billion above Cardano (ADA). Will BNB manage to reclaim the #3 spot?

    2. Fetch.ai (FET)

    The Fetch.ai aims to build a scalable, open access, tokenized, decentralized machine learning network by utilizing a combination of artificial intelligence, blockchain and DAG (directed acyclic graph) data structures. The blockchain operates using useful proof-of-work (uPoW) consensus algorithm. The algorithm differentiates from the classic proof-of-work the computational power that is used to secure the ledger is used to perform useful tasks for the network’s participants.

    Buy/Sell FET

    Mainnet 2 Bridge Limit to Get Doubled on June 1

    The Fetch.ai team is transitioning from the FET ERC-20 token on Ethereum to a native FET token. Currently most exchanges offer ERC-20 FET tokens, which can be staked using Metamask, but the native FET tokens, which can be staked on Fetch.ai Mainnet 2, can already be accessed by swapping them for existing ERC-20 tokens through the token bridge. Initially, APY for Mainnet 2 staking will be above 70%. As more tokens get staked, the estimated APY will adjust. To grant a greater influx to the mainnet and higher staking capabilities, the token bridge transaction limit will be increased from 60 million FET to 120 million FET on June 1 at 14:00 UTC. This will be the cap until July 16, when we will see another limit increase to 250 million FET. If you are a FET holder or interested in staking FET, you should rea more about the transition and staking process here.

    3. XRP (XRP)

    XRP is a cryptocurrency that was launched in 2012 by Chris Larsen, Jed McCaleb and Arthur Britto. Ripple’s network uses a unique Ripple Protocol consensus algorithm (RPCA), which is neither proof-of-work nor proof-of-stake to facilitate fast and cheap transactions. The maximum supply of XRP is 100 billion coins and all the coins were created at launch. At launch 80% of the total XRP supply was given to fintech firm Opencoin, a company that was later renamed to Ripple Labs in 2015. As of today, Ripple still holds more than half of the total XRP supply. However, most of the company’s XRP holdings are locked in escrow and can only be accessed periodically. In 2020 Ripple became entangled in a lawsuit in which the U.S. SEC claims that the company sold unregistered securities. Following the lawsuit numerous regulated exchanges halted XRP trading or even delisted the coin. Ever since December 2020 the legal battle between Ripple and the SEC is one of the key factors influencing XRP price.

    Buy/Sell XRP

    Ripple CEO Reveals the Company Could Go Public After the SEC Lawsuit Is Over

    The recent developments and news from the courthouse indicate that the SEC does not have a very strong case against Ripple and that the cryptocurrency developer and issuer will likely be deemed the winner of this legal battle. Just recently news came out that the District Judge Sarah Netburn denied SEC’s access to Ripple’s legal memorandum, dealing another blow to the SEC. Some of the XRP holders and supporters, joined under #XRPArmy, are already expressing their optimism by calling for a lawsuit win and predicting that XRP will moon after that. In addition, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated that the chance of Ripple becoming a publicly traded company in the future is “very high”, which could further entice the bulls. Nevertheless, Ripple must resolve the regulatory dispute first, as the securities regulator would be the one approving Ripple’s public offering.

    Pricewise, XRP faced a heavy correction from the cycle high of $2 (April 14) to the cycle low of $0.66 (May 23). This represents a 66% correction, which is a lot more than Ethereum’s and Bitcoin’s corrections over the same time frame.

    Interestingly, XRP is the only coin apart from BCH and XLM to have never reached an ATH in the 2021 bull run. XRP ATH stands at $3.92 and dates back to Jan 4, 2018. Currently, XRP is changing hands at exactly $1.00, but it could increase if positive news keeps coming from the courthouse. In addition, users entering the market seem to love XRP due to its low nominal price in USD, low fees, and the speculative opportunity, as it could be trading at a heavily discounted price because of the lawsuit.

  • Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 21

    Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 21

    After last week’s bloodbath on the cryptocurrency market, during which we saw the total capitalization of the assets from this sector dropped to as low as $1.34 trillion we have now seemingly entered a period of recovery. As the numbers have turned green again this Monday, many have been asking themselves which are the best coins to watch (and potentially invest in as well). In this article we cover three less known and lower market cap coins that are looking to make their way up the ladder of importance. This week especially, their appreciation might be above the sector’s average, as all three projects have important events scheduled to take place this week, which puts these coins in the limelight of attention.

    1. SingularityNET (AGI)

    SingularityNET is a decentralized network of AI services. The platform allows AI developers to create, share, and monetize AI services at scale. Users can test and buy numerous AI solutions on the AI Marketplace.

    Buy/Sell AGI

    SingularityNET to Migrate from AGI tokens to AGIX through a Hard Fork   

    The SingularityNET team is dedicated to increasing the AGI token’s interoperability. There are currently 1 billion AGI tokens in circulation and all of them are Ethereum-based. However, on March 28 the project’s tokens will also be made available on Cardano. Users will be able to swap between ERC-20 tokens and Cardano-based tokens at a 1:1 ratio. To support a new blockchain, the SingularityNET blockchain will have to undergo a hard fork. The existing AGI tokens will be swapped for new AGIX tokens and the team will discontinue support for the old AGI token. Users will receive new AGIX tokens automatically (through an airdrop) based on the snapshot of their AGI balances that will be taken on May 28 at 08:00 A.M. UTC+0. Read more about the AGIX hard fork here.

    2. My Neighbor Alice (ALICE)

    My Neighbor Alice is an online multiplayer game in which users can buy and own virtual islands, collect items as well as interact and socialize with other players. ALICE is an in-game currency which can be used to purchase plots of land, in-game items and NFTs. The game aims to cater both the players who are in for the fun narrative and gameplay as well as the ones who are more serious about NFT collections and trading.

    Buy/Sell ALICE

    ALICE Staking for the Land Sale Lottery Finally Begins on May 26 

    Originally scheduled for April 27, the Land Sale Lottery on Neighbor Alice is finally set to begin. The team has announced that the virtual land sale lottery will kick off on May 26 after almost a full month delay due to necessary testing and auditing. Nevertheless, better late and polished out than early and full of vulnerabilities. To take part in the land lottery users must deposit at least 20 ALICE tokens on the lottery portal. This will allow them to register an address and start earning lottery tickets. Staking 20 ALICE will generate 20 tickets per day and each additional 1 ALICE or 20 CHR staked will bring one additional lottery ticket per day. The staking period will last for 14 days and the land plots will exist as NFTs on the Binance Smart Chain. You can find out more about the land sale lottery in the official guide.

    3. Hoard Token (HRD)

    Hoard aims to revolutionize the video gaming industry by providing a blockchain infrastructure that facilitates true ownership of in-game assets.

    Buy/Sell HRD

    Hoard Marketplace to Launch on Ethereum Mainnet on May 26

    The Hoard team has recently revealed their intention to roll-out the Hoard Marketplace on the Ethereum mainnet on May 26. Hoard Marketplace will support NFT-backed loans and NFT Staking. Users who stake their HRD-based tokens will be eligible to a portion of the platform’s fee income. Furthermore, HRD token holders will be able to provide liquidity to the HRD/ETH Uniswap pool. By staking the UNIV2 tokens on the Marketplace holders will be able to profit from both Hoard staking rewards and Uniswap’s liquidity provider rewards.

  • Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 20

    Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 20

    In the past week cryptocurrency markets faced quite a hefty correction. The bearish market, which was triggered by Elon Musk’s announcement that Tesla is halting Bitcoin payments citing environmental concerns as the reason, caused the total market capitalization to drop by a whooping $400 billion from $2.45 trillion on May 9 to $2.05 trillion on May 16. Nevertheless, some projects, such as Cardano (ADA), Kusama (KSM) and Polygon (MATIC) managed to defy the general downtrend by posting gains of over 10% in the last seven-day period. Will the bearish market continue throughout week 20? Which cryptocurrencies are the most likely to rebound or defy the general trend? We recommend you to read our this week’s top 3 coins to watch article, in which you will find a diverse selection of cryptos worth keeping an eye on this week.

    1. Bitcoin (BTC)

    Although we believe Bitcoin does not need much introduction and that all eyes would be on it even if it were not featured on our list, here is a short summary of the history and key characteristics of the first truly decentralized digital currency. The world’s pioneer cryptocurrency was launched by pseudonymous figure named Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009 and has a capped supply of 21 million coins. The decreasing miner block rewards makes the cryptocurrency scarcer with time, ensuring a deflationary nature.

    Buy/Sell BTC

    BTC Dominance is Dropping but Fundamentals Remain Strong

    One tweet form Elon Musk sent BTC down from $54.7k to under $45k, and the whole market with it. The immediate and undisputed effect that the Musk’s tweet had on BTC price, is best seen from this price chart:

    BTC is down by over 20% over the last week, and with BTC depreciation, the BTC dominance continues to drop. While Bitcoin dominance stood at over 70% at the beginning of the year, the percentage has been dropping steadily over the last few months, indicating that more money has been flowing to altcoins as compared to Bitcoin. Currently, the BTC dominance is just over 40%, but several analysts are convinced we are headed towards the low 30s, an all-time low BTC dominance.

    Despite the drop in the BTC’s price and with it, its share in the total cryptocurrency market cap, Bitcoin fundamentals are still firm and there is a strong case that BTC can still pump to 6-digit territory. First and foremost, BTC holdings on exchanges are still dropping, indicating investors are not interested in selling or trading their BTC. These so-called strong hands or long-term holders comprise mostly of institutions and whales (holding over 1000 BTC) are additionally accumulating precious BTC. While after the Musk’s tweet, inflows on exchanges started piling up the trend has soon reversed and there was a net BTC outflow from exchanges. In addition, the recent price dump “reset” the NVT chart values. When the NVT Ratio (Network Value to Transactions Ratio) is high, it indicates that its network valuation is outstripping the value being transmitted on its payment network. In other words, Bitcoin’s valuation now better corresponds with the total value its network transmits.

    To conclude, a 30% correction from ATH price is healthy and even something that should be expected, especially considering how fast we moved up, as every exponential move needs an accumulation break. Perhaps this one is the one we need to move to 100k.

    2. Dogecoin (DOGE)

    The cryptocurrency Dogecoin was introduced as a joke in December 2013 by Billy Markus. Markus built the cryptocurrency project around the Shiba Inu doge meme that went viral in 2013 and the Dogecoin even uses the Doge meme as its official logo. Surprisingly, the currency took off. Even more, it developed a relatively large community on social platforms such as Reddit, which used Dogecoin to tip other members of the community and for performing similar micro-transactions. The Dogecoin community also raised funds to sponsor their own NASCAR racer for a few races and pay for a physical gold Dogecoin to be delivered to the moon via crowdfunding.

    Buy/Sell DOGE

    What are Elon’s plans for DOGE? Will we see DOGE exceed $1 soon?

    Dogecoin’s price is, much like Bitcoin’s, but to an even greater extend, affected by Elon Musk’s twitter activity. Pumps of 20% or more are not uncommon when Elon tweets about DOGE, so considering the frequency and timing of Elon’s tweets, it is definitely a coin to watch. For example, Musk asked his Twitter followers whether Tesla should start accepting DOGE payments on May 11, resulting in a minor DOGE pump. On May 14, he tweeted that he is “working with Doge devs to improve system transaction efficiency.” According to Tradingview, the total Dogecoin market capitalization increased by $10 billion following the May 14 tweet. But Musk’s influence goes both ways! When the CEO of Tesla appeared on SNL last weekend, DOGE dropped from around 70 cents to under 50 cents. The reason – Musk called Dogecoin “a hustle” and failed to promote the coin as many holders expected him to do.

    What does Elon have in store for this week? Will he help push the coin to the storied $1 mark? While many cryptocurrency investors hate Musk for making the whole crypto sector look like a joke, he has without a doubt became one of the most influential sources of crypto indices. The bottom line is that the price of DOGE depends on other factors than the general crypto market sentiment and could end up the week in the green, even if the whole sector is on its way down. All it takes is a couple of tweets from some influential entrepreneur. Nevertheless, Dogecoin, which is currently changing hands at around $0.50, would have to double its price to reach $1.

     3. Polygon (MATIC)

    Polygon, previously known as Matic Network is an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution that aims to provides major scalability improvements. The Polygon protocol plans to deliver supersonic speeds and throughput by utilizing a modified version of Plasma. Its Layer 2 solution consists of several simultaneously run Proof-of-Stake sidechains that regularly push the data to Ethereum, creating network checkpoints.

    Buy/Sell MATIC

    MATIC trading launches on Kraken on May 17

    Major cryptocurrency exchange Kraken revealed on May 14 that it will list MATIC along with two other cryptocurrencies. Trading of assets will commence on Monday, May 17, at approximately 15:30 UTC. In addition, Polygon is pushing forward with continued development of its Layer 2 protocol. Considering this, a Mumbai testnet upgrade will kick off at block number 13996000. Both events listed above might provide a short-term boost to the MATIC token valuation, but the project’s long-term perspective is also looking good as Polygon’s Layer 2 solution is currently one of the most perfected Ethereum scalability solutions available. With average Ethereum transaction fee often exceeding $20, Layer 2 solutions are of high importance. This is likely going to stay that way at least until Ethereum 2.0 is fully deployed. MATIC also boasts with outstanding past price performance. The token, which is currently trading at exactly $1.50 is up by 45% in the last 7 days, 250% in the last month and 7,300% in the last year.

  • Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 19

    Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 19

    Several cryptocurrency projects are pushing forward with continued development and feature deployment as we make our way towards the middle of Q2 2021. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization rose from $2.26 to $2.45 trillion throughout the past week, indicating that the sector is still in a bullish period. But you should be cautious despite the positive market sentiment as the cryptocurrency markets are known to be highly volatile. While it is difficult to predict in which way the market will move, we aim to select the most promising and interesting coins to follow (or invest into if you wish) in the following week and list them in our weekly Top Coins to Watch article. Here is this week’s top trio.

    1. Chainlink (LINK)

    Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network (DON) that provides data and price oracles, which act as a reliable feed of information for some smart contracts. Chainlink’s cryptocurrency price and real-world data oracles have seen numerous implementations and their popularity is still increasing. Their oracle service is one of the most reliable and trustworthy services available and the connection with smart contracts is end-to-end secured, leaving very little space for the manipulation of the execution of smart contracts. The platform ensures quality data by incentivising providers of good data feeds. On the other hand, nodes that submit bad data will be punished by losing some of their staked LINK tokens. The project launched in 2017, when it also raised $32 million of funding through an ICO.

    Buy/Sell LINK

    Chainlink allows the most complex smart contracts

    According to YouTuber Tyler Swope also known as Chico Crypto, Chainlink is one of the most promising tokens around. With countless protocol application possibilities this DON has plenty of room to grow. While Chainlink already offers rather complex smart contracts the complexity and utility is going to further increase with Chainlink 2.0, which aims to bring several technical advancements including hybrid smart contracts and scaling solutions. Developers will also focus on increasing the confidentiality, security, and order fairness, as well as simplifying dApp development by abstracting away complexity. In addition, Swope believes that LINK should be the main meme cryptocurrency as it has far greater utility and just as tight-knit meme community. Although it is difficult for people who are not part of the Chainlink subculture to understand their art (memes), Chainlink has a major advantage over Dogecoin, the current meme coin – smart contracts. In fact, using Chainlink’s oracles, people can create dynamic NFTs, making it possible to pay people in customizable, modifiable collectable tokens, perhaps even “memes” in the future.

    From technical perspective, LINK just broke a multi-year resistance line, which overlapped with the psychological resistance level placed at $50. While LINK is currently trading just below $51, it undoubtedly has the potential to double on that price in the remainder of the year.

    2. Dogecoin (DOGE)

    The cryptocurrency Dogecoin was introduced as a joke in December 2013 by Billy Markus. Markus built the cryptocurrency project around the Shiba Inu doge meme that went viral in 2013 and the Dogecoin even uses the Doge meme as its official logo. Surprisingly, the currency took off. Even more, it developed a relatively large community on social platforms such as Reddit, which used Dogecoin to tip other members of the community and for performing similar micro-transactions. The Dogecoin community also raised funds to sponsor their own NASCAR racer for a few races and pay for a physical gold Dogecoin to be delivered to the moon via crowdfunding.

    Buy/Sell DOGE

    Dogecoin Drops 30% After Elon Musk Called it a “Hustle”

    Although the currency is regarded as a joke by more serious investors, Dogecoin is currently the 4th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization as the total valuation of almost 130 billion coins in circulation exceeding $75 billion. Nevertheless, DOGE traded even higher before Elon Must, jokingly referred to as the “Dogefather” because of his frequent public endorsement of this particular crypto, appeared on Saturday Night Live (SNL) show. The ATH price of $0.73 was reached on May 8, right before the show as many expected Elon to shill DOGE to millions of Americans on live TV. However, Elon ended up calling Bitcoin a “hustle” in a funny financial commentary causing DOGE to plunge 30% as Musk failed to deliver a more appealing presentation of what Dogecoin really is.

    Nevertheless, we must admit that SNL is a comedy show and Musk even broke his character when he said that the $1 bill is just “sort of real”. In addition, Dogecoin still has a strong community that aims to push DOGE above $1. And with recent developments DOGE and USD parity seems to be within the reach. But be warned, 28% of the circulating DOGE supply is owned by one single investor. This whale better have strong hands, or the Doge ship will sink deep. Either way, it will be interesting to see how DOGE will perform in the coming days and whether it will continue its journey towards the moon.

    3. Swipe (SXP)

    Swipe is a crypto debit card issuer that allows its users to easily spent their cryptocurrencies for everyday purchases. The Swipe Token is the platform’s utility token and the gas and fuel to the Swipe Wallet and Swipe Card.

    Buy/Sell SXP

    The First Initial Wallet Offering (IWO) is coming to Swipe Ignition Soon

    The Swipe team has revealed that they will soon be conducting the first ever Initial Wallet Offering (IWO) on Swipe Ignition platform. The project that will claim the title of the first token sale on Ignition is a yet-unnamed NFT project running on both Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain (BSC). Users will only be able to participate in the IWO with SXP and 50% of all SXP contributed will be burned. Given that the project will run on BSC, Binance is likely to endorse the project. If the IWO attracts plenty of investors it could significantly raise the demand for SXP as well as diminishing the supply, granting favourable conditions for SXP appreciation. The date of token listing remains to be announced. More information regarding the IWO will be posted on May 12.

  • CoinCheckup Is Now Better Than Ever – Here’s What’s New!

    CoinCheckup Is Now Better Than Ever – Here’s What’s New!

    With many coins in the market currently posting their all-time highs, it’s a great time to be a cryptocurrency fan. If you’re reading this, CoinCheckup is probably your platform of choice for keeping up with all the action in the cryptocurrency market, and we couldn’t be happier to have you on board.

    At CoinCheckup, we’ve been working hard all year to give you the best experience possible, and we’re excited to share some of the progress we’ve made recently. We’ve made a bunch of small changes under the hood to improve the performance of the site and our charts, which should translate to faster loading times overall – we hope you’re feeling the improvement already!

    What’s new?

    The first milestone we’d like to highlight is more on the symbolic side, but it highlights both the progress of CoinCheckup and the growth of the crypto market overall:

    CoinCheckup now tracks more than 10,000 cryptocurrencies!

    Now, let’s check out some of the useful features that we’ve added to CoinCheckup and that we would like to invite you to explore.

    New sections to help you stay updated with the cryptocurrency market

    We’ve added two new sections to CoinCheckup that will help you stay up to date with the latest trends in the cryptocurrency market. The new coins section lets you stay updated with cryptocurrencies that we’ve just added to CoinCheckup. We also added the popular coins section, which lets you see which cryptocurrencies are the most popular among other CoinCheckup users – it’s a nice way to keep your finger on the pulse of the crypto market and see which coins everyone is buzzing about.

    The other two new sections are top losers and top gainers, where you can see which cryptocurrencies were the best and worst performers in the last 24 hours. Whether you’re looking to buy the dip or ride a bullish wave, these two sections can help you find interesting opportunities in the market.

    Improved coin pages, conversions and exchange rates

    If you go to any of the coin-specific pages on CoinCheckup, for example https://coincheckup.com/coins/bitcoin, you can now see more data including price predictions, performance statistics, markets and news. Hopefully, this will help you keep up with the cryptocurrencies that you care the most about!

    CoinCheckup now also features a helpful new feature that will come in handy to many cryptocurrency enthusiasts. On our convert section, you can now easily see the exchange rates between different cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies.  We have also improved the global section, which gives you interesting insights into the big-picture trends in the cryptocurrency market. Here, you can track the total cryptocurrency market capitalization and volume, Bitcoin dominance, the best performers in the market, etc.

    Thank you for using CoinCheckup and we’re looking forward to delivering even more improvements in the coming weeks and months. Good luck on your crypto journey!

  • Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 18

    Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 18

    The cryptocurrency markets have been recovering from last weekend’s dip throughout Week 17. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization, which currently stands at above $2.25 trillion, rose by more than 20% in the last week and continues to climb higher. In this article we list two coins and one token that are believed to see continued growth throughout this week as well. As usually, the reasoning for such claims can be found in the projects’ continued development, important announcements, deployment of new features or other events positively influencing the market sentiment.

    1. Ethereum (ETH)

    Ethereum is an open-source distributed blockchain that pioneered smart contract functionality. It operates as a decentralized virtual machine which can execute scripts. The smart contracts operate in a fast, immutable and trust less manner, while the speeds and capabilities of the Ethereum blockchain are going to further increase when Ethereum 2.0 is fully launched. Ethereum’s native asset Ether (ETH) is currently the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Although it can also be used as a currency for transactions between different nodes, it is more commonly used to execute smart contracts. The Ethereum blockchain also hosts a number of ERC20 tokens with different utilities – these include Exchange tokens (BNB, OKB, HT, UNI), DeFi tokens (LINK, MKR, COMP, SNX, ZRX…) and several stablecoins such as USDC, DAI, TUSD, and USDT.

    Buy/Sell ETH

    ETH sets new ATHs – It is only a Matter of Time before it Breaks $3,000

    The very bullish sentiment that is currently present among Ethereum investors is likely a reflection of a successful competition of the Berlin hard fork and also expectation of the London upgrade, a more controversial hard fork that is going to implement changes to how Ethereum fees are calculated. Because of the recent launch of Polygon Layer 2 solution, Ethereum mainnet is less congested and transaction fees are already significantly lower already before the implementation of EIP 1559. Furthermore, Ethereum developers launcehed the first Ethereum 2.0 testnet on May 1. The testnet environment called “Steklo” (Slavic word for glass), which is available on three Ethereum 1.0 clients (Besu, Geth and Nethermind) and four Ethereum 2.0 clients (Teku, Prysm, Lighthouse and Nimbus) marks a very important milestone in the migration to Ethereum 2.0.

    All these factors combined resulted in the fact that Ethereum is currently outperforming Bitcoin. ETH, which is up by almost 30% in past 7 days is currently trading just below $3,000, so the surge past this resistance level seems inevitable. In addition, ETH recently breached through an important resistance level versus Bitcoin and is currently still trading for more than 0.05 BTC per ETH. Additionally, Ethereum 2.0 staking has hit another round milestone. According to data provided by CryptoQuant, more than 4 million ETH coins, worth over $11 billion in total, have been staked on Ethereum 2.0. Furthermore, institutional interest for the world’s second largest cryptocurrency is also on the rise. Despite ETH’s amazing climb, former hedge fund manager turned entrepreneur and crypto veteran Raoul Pal sees it even higher:

    2. Tezos (XTZ)

    Launched in September 2018, following an initial coin offering that raised $232 million in 2017, Tezos is a decentralized smart contract and application network that utilizes a modified version of Delegated Proof of Stake consensus model. Tezos blockchain features an on-chain governance system allowing holders to take part in the decision-making process. Developers can suggest changes or upgrades for the Tezos protocol, and if their suggestion gets approval from the community and is implemented, developers get rewarded with XTZ tokens. What makes Tezos blockchain stand out among other similar blockchains is its efficient network upgrade process as the protocol allows major upgrades to be implemented without the requirement of a hard fork. This system allows Tezos to adopt new technologies quickly. The native cryptocurrency of the Tezos platform is the XTZ token.

    Buy/Sell XTZ

    XTZ is Entering the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) space

    Still very popular non-fungible tokens are coming to Tezos. Even though, the Tezos-based NFT marketplace called Kalamint is still in beta, the first community-owned NFT platform for Tezos has attracted quite some attention. Kalamint will let users create/mint NFTs native to Tezos at a fraction of the cost compared to marketplaces on Ethereum, while of course also supporting NFT buying and selling. The team behind this Tezos NFT marketplace promises to make the process of NFT creation as seamless as possible, which will allow artists to better focus on creation. In addition, the Tezos developer community still running a testnet, which is piloting a new type of consensus algorithm called Tenderbake. This revolutionary and unique consensus algorithm theoretically allows the blockchain to achieve block times of 1 second or lower. A brief look in the near past reveals that Tezos launched its own domain service called Tezos Domains on April 21 and a Tezos blockchain-based identity oracle TezID on April 1. Tezos saw nearly 6000 new smart contract deployments in April, which is almost 10 times as much compared to the month before. The network also surpassed a milestone of 1 million smart contract calls in April.

    Pricewise, XTZ has been flying under the radar lately. While many other altcoins with a similar mission are trading at their ATH prices, XTZ is changing hands at over -50% compared to ATH price of $ 12.26 achieved during the great crypto market bull run of 2017. Given the project’s recent rapid development, we could see XTZ advance towards its recent highs. You can find more Tezos news here.

    3. Uniswap (UNI) 

    UNI is the governance token of the automated market maker (AMM) protocol Uniswap. UNI tokens are ERC-20 tokens that allow holders to decide on the future of Uniswap by voting on proposals. Uniswap – the platform, which facilitates quick swaps between various Ethereum-based tokens, has recently been struggling to keep its users and market share because of high fees on Ethereum. The project is aiming to confidently reclaim the pole position with the launch of Uniswap V3.

    Buy/Sell UNI

    Much Anticipated Uniswap V3 Goes Live on May 5

    UNI is up by 28% in the last week as investors are in high anticipation of the launch of the new and improved AMM protocol Uniswap V3. The new version of the protocol will feature multiple fee tiers, an enhanced set of range orders, advanced oracles, and debut Non-Fungible Token (NFT) liquidity. A full presentation of the features that are going to roll out with Uniswap V3 on May 5 is neatly summed up in this Twitter thread. Most importantly, the Concentrated Liquidity and Active Liquidity features are going to give Liquidity Providers (LPs) a lot more control over their assets in the Uniswap’s liquidity UNI token, which is currently trading at around $43, is slowly nearing in on its ATH of $43.73 achieved on April 29. The token, which recently hit $1B worth of monthly trading volume is likely to continue to appreciate in terms of value and importance even after V3 deployment, which will also bring enhanced UNI token functionality. In addition, trading volumes on Uniswap could pick up again as Ethereum fees drop lower and L2 solutions get integrated. Everything seem like UNI is poised to cross $50 by the end of May.

  • Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 17

    Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 17

    As we move through Q2, a number of projects are moving ahead with continued development, and this week’s choices are set to benefit from significant updates and announcements that should strengthen their market positions and benefit their communities. The news should also result in increased amounts of attention to each respective currency over the coming weeks.

    1. My Neighbor Alice (ALICE)

    My Neighbor Alice is a multiplayer builder game developed on the DAO Maker platform. Users are able to buy and own virtual islands, collect and build exciting items and meet new friends through the game. The game aims to combine a fun narrative for regular players that want to enjoy the gameplay an ecosystem developed for players who want to collect and trade NFT’s.

    Buy/Sell ALICE

    Why My Neighbor Alice? First Ever Land Sale Staking Begins on April 27

    My Neighbor Alice allows players to buy and own virtual islands, and staking for the first batch of plots will begin on April 27. The plots will be on the Nature’s Rest Island, require ALICE and/or CHR holders to stake their tokens to become eligible to purchase a plot of land, and a lottery draw will take place on May 12th, with 927 plots up for grabs. In order to be eligible for a plot, you need to have a lottery ticket with winning tickets being drawn at random. The original cost per plot is 50 ALICE with an early discount of 60% bringing the cost down to 20 ALICE. Staking will run from April 27 at 12:00 PM UTC to May 11 at 12:00 PM UTC, and the minimum staking amount is 1 ALICE token or 20 CHR. You can found out everything about the staking program, lottery, and land sale here.

    2. Qtum (QTUM)

    Qtum is designed for powering decentralized mobile apps as well as integrating with other blockchains. The technology borrows elements from both Bitcoin and Ethereum, including the Ethereum Virtual Machine which is used to execute smart contracts, and Qtum is the product of an Asian development team who are based in Singapore.

    Buy/Sell QTUM

    Why Qtum? Mainnet Fast Lane Hardfork on April 30

    Qtum founder Patrick Dai has confirmed the Mainnet Fast Lane Network Upgrade scheduled to take place on April 30. The v0.20.2 Hard Fork will be a mandatory network update before block 845000, and will update the Qtum EVM to include Ethereum Istanbul and Muir Glacier upgrades dates including EIP 152, EIP 1108, EIP 1344, EIP 1884, EIP 2028, EIP 2200, and EIP 2384.The update will also implement QIP 26, and reduce block times to 32 seconds as well as improve the GUI wallet start-up time and overall responsiveness when dealing with large wallets. The Fast Lane hard fork will allow Qtum to transition into a Proof of Stake smart contract platform that supports a variety of DeFi operations, and you can find the official release notes here.

    3. E-Radix (EXRD)

    E-RADIX is a layer 1 protocol that was designed specifically to serve DeFi (Decentralized Finance) networks.

    Why E-Radix?  Betanet Network Launch on April 28

    The Radix DLT team has announced the launch of their Betanet network on April 28. The Betanet will operate ahead of the Olympia mainnet and allow the team to offer and test out features such as the Beta Olympia desktop wallet, Beta Olympia explorer website, Beta Olympia full node/validator node software and CLI (command line interface), and the betanet token faucet website. Community members will be able to use and test the Radix desktop wallet, operate a full node, and operate a validator node, and Radix the team have outlined all the benefits and ways to get involved in this blog post.

    Buy/Sell EXRD

    How did the coins perform last week?

    The seven day period led to poor results across the market; and EGLD fell by 14% and is currently trading at around $153. TFUEL dropped by 15%, and is currently trading at $0.26, and XTZ fell by 17% over the week, and is currently trading at $4.65. Over the course of the week, the market moved from an overall valuation of $1.98T to $1.86T.