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  • Top 3 Coins to Watch This Week – Week 53

    Top 3 Coins to Watch This Week – Week 53

    We are heading towards the end of 2020 and therefore you are reading the last weekly selection of top 3 coins to watch this year. Despite the festive spirit, cryptocurrency markets and developers are not at rest. Quite the opposite – we are seeing some significant price action and even the roll-out of a few important network upgrades.

    1. Ethereum (ETH)

    Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain platform and its native asset Ether (ETH) is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Ethereum features the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which can execute Turing-complete scripts. This gives Ethereum immense flexibility, allowing users to deploy a wide variety of smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps) that operate in a fast, immutable and trustless manner.

    Buy/Sell ETH

    ETH 2.0 Deposits are Still Growing as Investors Seek another Winning Crypto Bet

    While most of the attention has been on Bitcoin this year, the second largest cryptocurrency Ether has performed a rally of much bigger proportions this year. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is +268% YTD, while Ether’s price grew by almost twice as much – ETH is currently changing hands at more than $730, which represents a growth of +464% from the $130 at the start of this year. Nevertheless, there is still much room for growth, as Ether’s price is still far away from its ATH of $1,570 achieved in January 2018. In addition, ETH is currently trading at an attractive level vs. BTC: 0.027 BTC/ETH. This is just above the price of 0.025 BTC per ETH, which is a long-term support level. These circumstances make ETH a very interesting asset for both retail and institutional investors, who will likely soon seek another coin to invest in on top of BTC.

    If we examine what is happening with the Ethereum blockchain, we can see that it is still in the process of transitioning to the PoS-enabled Ethereum 2.0. The new version, which will significantly increase the throughput of the network, has already attracted more 2 million ETH of deposits, currently worth $1.5 billion. In addition, several Layer 2 solutions, such as zkSnarks, Optimistic rollups, PoA chains/Matic/xDAI, and similar are being put in place to facilitate cheaper and faster transactions by taking them off the mainnet. Furthermore, the Ethereum community is in fierce discussions about the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559, which is going to introduce a deflationary mechanism to the Ethereum network’s native currency if passed. On top of that Ethereum has countless application possibilities in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector.

    2. Kava (KAVA)

    Developed by Kava Labs the Kava blockchain boasts with the title of the first multi-blockchain DeFi platform. Users are eligible for rewards in the form of KAVA tokens for depositing various cryptocurrencies to the protocol’s multi collateral CDP system. The Kava blockchain utilizes the Tendermint consensus and is secured by 100 validators.

    Buy/Sell KAVA

    HARD Protocol v2 Launches on December 30

    The Kava team launched their cross-chain money market called Harvest V1 on October 15. Along with the launch of the money market platform, Kava Labs also released the HARD protocol and its associated HARD governance token. Two and a half months after, the refined and improved HARD v2 is set to launch. HARD v2, which will support supplying and borrowing BTC, XRP, BNB, BUSD, USDX and LINK as well as introduce incentives for the borrowers of BTC, BNB, BUSD, LINK, USDX and XRP, will go live on December 30. The HARD governance token will also see some improvements in the form of expanded utility. Find out more about the HARD v2 in this official blog post.

    3. KardiaChain (KAI)

    KardiaChain is a public blockchain that aims to provide businesses as well as government bodies a hybrid blockchain infrastructure to build on top of. While the team believes that the blockchain technology should be accessible for everyone, they are focusing on spreading its adoption in Vietnam, where the company behind KardiaChain is based.

    Buy/Sell KAI

    KardiaChain Mainnet 1.0 Will Launch on December 29

    KardiaChain has announced that their mainnet 1.0, which will allow anyone to build dApps atop of it, will launch on December 29. The ERC-20 KAI tokens now in circulation will be burned and the team will create a token swap bridge to exchange them form mainnet KAI coins. The mainnet roll-out will also allow KAI holders to either stake their coins or delegate their KAI to other community members. More information, including the detail regarding the token swap, can be found here.

  • Where is Bitcoin going?

    Where is Bitcoin going?

    Key highlights:

    • BTC is recording new ATHs, and it is soaring rapidly
    • Institutional investors are flocking to Bitcoin, and this can bring massive capital to the BTC market
    • The recent Bitcoin price spike could be connected to FOMO and bullish sentiments among investors, not fundamental reasons

    More than ten years after Bitcoin’s launch, it’s clear that Bitcoin is here to stay and isn’t just another fad. Bitcoin has been on an enormous bull-run in the second half of 2020, and recently recorded new all-time highs. A few days ago, the king of cryptocurrencies touched an unprecedented peak of 28k.

    BTC passed the peak of 2017, and appears to be headed to $30,000 next. Due to the pandemic, many investors poured their money to BTC because Federal Reserve decreased the interest rate to near zero and accelerated their money printing. These measures reduce the dollar’s value, and many investors are changing their greenbacks to other assets like Bitcoin, gold and stocks. The first cryptocurrency of the world has a fixed supply, and is created according to a strict schedule enforced by code. Gradually, people are realizing BTC’s potential, which creates more demand for the cryptocurrency.

    Reputable investors are flocking to BTC

    Another reason for Bitcoin’s growth is the presence of big-name investors. This provides more legitimacy to BTC, leading other institutions and investors to become interested as well. Today, we see reputable companies like BlackRock in the space, and giants like PayPal and Square accept have also warmed up to Bitcoin. When a reputable investor comes enters a chain effect, as other investors seek to imitate their moves.

    After Bitcoin reached new all-time highs, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Coinbase, announced that it plans to go public. This is yet another factor that’s legitimizing cryptocurrency even further.

    Fear of missing out is another reason for the recent bull run

    As with any bull run, the Bitcoin price spike is also influenced by fear of missing out or FOMO and positive sentiment among investors. There are many enthusiasts in the crypto space, and they continuously promote this new technology.

    Cryptocurrencies can spike in price for seemingly absurd reasons – the recent statements about Dogecoin by famous entrepreneur Elon Musk are an evident example of this. Dogecoin, which was created as a parody of »serious« cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, jumped in price by around 20% after Elon Musk mentioned it on his Twitter account.

    Although many people are adopting Bitcoin and we can find it in many portfolios, investors should still be cautious about this asset. BTC is notoriously volatile, and its price can drop suddenly with seemingly no obvious reason. BTC can have price corrections that are sharp and violent, leading to panic in the market.

    On the other side, Bitcoin has proved itself during the last decade. It is the best investment of the previous decade and outperformed S&P 500 and the vast majority of stocks. People who have invested in Bitcoin in the beginning days now have enormous wealth.

    BTC has its own risks, the most obvious being its price volatility. Every investor has to be prepared for sharp corrections and unexpected events that can throw a wrench even in the most careful investment strategies. Cryptocurrency investment has its risks, just like investing in other assets.

  • Ethereum Price Analysis – ETH Creates Fresh 2020 Highs Above $700 After 31-Month Wait

    Ethereum Price Analysis – ETH Creates Fresh 2020 Highs Above $700 After 31-Month Wait

    Key Highlights:

    • Ethereum saw a further 10.45% price hike today as the cryptocurrency hits the $730 level.
    • The coin has now seen a substantial 35% price hike over the past month of trading and created a fresh 2020 high today at $738.
    • Against Bitcoin, Ethereum rebounded from the ₿0.024 support yesterday and is now trading at ₿0.0268.

    Ethereum price at the time of writing: $733
    ETH Resistance Levels: $738, $750, $761, $775, $790
    ETH Support levels: $711, $700, $688, $675, $650

    Etheruem set a fresh 2020 high today, around $738, after seeing a 35% price hike over the past month of trading. The coin had set the previous 2020 high toward mid-December but failed to break the resistance at $675 (bearish .786 Fib Retracement). From there, ETH dropped back into the $580 support where it rebounded last week. Yesterday, ETH managed to break the $675 resistance to reach as high as $688 by the time the candle closed.

    Buy/Sell Ethereum

    ETH continued further above $700 today to reach as high as $738.

    There are many reasons why Ethereum is surging in December. The Bitcoin price boom is one of the primary drivers. However, with Ethereum reversing against Bitcoin, some additional reasons are helping Ethereum.

    One of the main reasons is that Etheereum has already started the migration from ETH 1 to ETH 2. The upgrade will shift the consensus mechanism from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake, increasing scalability, performance, and security. So far, a total of 2.1 million ETH have been deposited into the eth2 staking contract to secure the Eth2 blockchain. This is around $1.53 billion worth of ETH deposited.

    The transition to ETH2 will also provide new hope for the next DeFi boom. With DeFi Devs knowing that Ethereum can finally handle the extra load on the blockchain, they are more likely to choose ETH to deploy their dApps.

    In addition to ETH2, there is also the incoming EIP-1559, which will establish the market rate for block inclusion for transactions. It will also burn the majority of ETH in the transaction fees, leading to Ethereum becoming deflationary in the future.

    Institutional investors have primarily driven the Bitcoin price boom. They are seeking a method to hedge their cash reserves against inflation of the US Dollar. Satisfied with their gains, it is likely that these institutions will look elsewhere to find further gains and look for another coin to invest in. ETH is most likely to be the prime candidate – especially when we consider that the CME will create an ETH Futures market in Feb 2021. 

    Lastly, BTC has already created fresh ATHs. This is likely to cause retail investors to look away as they might deem it too risky to invest in BTC at these prices. On the other hand, ETH is still down by around 57% from its previous ATH price – providing room for significant growth ahead.

    Let us continue to take a look at the markets and see where they might be heading.

    Ethereum Price Analysis

    What has been going on?

    Looking at the daily chart above, ETH rebounded from the support at $580 (.618 Fib) and has finally penetrated above the $700 level today. Previously, it struggled to break the $675 resistance – provided by a bearish .786 Fib Retracement level. Today, the price surge allowed ETH to climb above $700 and create a fresh 2020 high at around $738.

    Ethereum price short term prediction: Bullish

    Ethereum is most certainly bullish right now. The coin would need to drop beneath the $540 level to turn neutral again, and it would have to continue further beneath $400 to be in danger of turning bearish.

    If the sellers push lower, the first level of support lies at $711. This is followed by support at $700, $688, $675, and $640 (.382 Fib). Additional support is then expected at $630 (June 2018 Highs), $610 (.5 Fib), and $580 (.5 Fib).

    Where Is The Resistance Toward The Upside?

    On the other side, the first level of resistance is expected at $738. This is followed by resistance at $750 (bearish .886 Fib Retracement), $761, $775, and $790 (1.272 Fib Extension). Above this, resistance lies at $800, $818 (1.414 Fib Extension), $840, and $857 (1.618 Fib Extension).

    What has been going on?

    Against Bitcoin, we can see that ETH dropped beneath the November lows this week and continued to plummet until support was found at ₿0.024 yesterday. The buyers managed to rebound from this level of support to reach ₿0.026 by the closing time yesterday.

    Today, Ethereum continued higher to reach the current ₿0.0268 resistance – provided by a bearish .382 Fibonacci Retracement level.

    Ethereum price short term prediction: Neutral

    With the break back above ₿0.025, Ethereum can be considered as neutral again. It would need to fall back beneath ₿0.024 to turn bearish. On the other side, it would have to break beyond ₿0.03 to start to turn bullish again in the short term.

    If the sellers do cause ETH to head lower again, the first level of strong support lies at ₿0.026. Beneath this, support is located at ₿0.0253, ₿0.025, and ₿0.0245 (.786 Fib). Added support is found at ₿0.024, ₿0.0235, ₿0.023, and ₿0.0226.

    Where Is The Resistance Toward The Upside?

    On the other side, if the buyers can break the resistance at ₿0.0269 (bearish .382 Fib), the first level of higher resistance lies at ₿0.0278 (Feb 2020 Highs). Above this, resistance lies at ₿0.0282 (bearish .5 Fib), ₿0.029, and ₿0.0295 (bearish .618 Fib).

    Buy/Sell Ethereum

    Keep up to date with the latest ETH price predictions here.

  • 5 Reasons to Invest in Cryptocurrency in 2021

    5 Reasons to Invest in Cryptocurrency in 2021

    Introduction

    The year 2020 has shown the full power of the digital industry amidst the COVID 19 pandemics. The most recent market analysis shows the drop of USD at its lowest rate in the last 32 months, dozens of low-cost airlines declared bankruptcy, while tourism and restaurant businesses are facing the verge of collapse as the “new normal” takes its toll.

    It’s safe to assume that 2021 will be a turbulent year, which means it’s not going to be easy to predict a safe investment. However, in this article, we are going to let you in on five reasons why you should consider investing in Cryptocurrency.

    Crypto value and trade is on a rise

    Bitcoin reached a staggering value of $22k in December of 2020, and Ethereum also got higher than ever before at the same time. According to a Coindesk report, the value of the most popular blockchain currency will continue to grow based on the current market situation which shows that there are no major sales above the top market price. On the other side, there’s a thick wall of sell orders for $20k and lower.

    Since the owners are not yet willing to sell their Bitcoins at the highest rate, it’s safe to assume that the price will rise even higher in the coming months, which makes cryptocurrency a great investment opportunity.

    Digitalized market

    Social distancing measures and global lockdown forced business owners to further digitize their operations. For most small businesses, it’s more affordable to go digital than to invest in additional equipment needed to comply with health preservation instructions. Consumers are also more willing to get their goods and services online than risking their health by going to a crowded store.

    In an article published by Financialit, it’s shown that cryptocurrency payments are becoming more and more available in virtually every industry. Faster transactions, lower fees, and the higher security aspect are among the main reasons why people are turning towards crypto payments, and global brands are adapting to this trend.

    Online gambling is shifting towards crypto

    The online gambling industry is one of the largest cryptocurrency transactions arena, especially nowadays when going to a brick-and-mortar casino venue is all but impossible with so many of them closed and those who have reopened had to make considerable changes in terms of capacity and offer. Credit card payments are not the best option for online gambling, mainly because of high fees and slow transaction process. Besides, gambling is prohibited in many countries, so players prefer avoiding leaving any digital footprint.

    Cryptocurrency gambling platforms provide anonymity, fast transactions, and low fees, all of which are advantages that high rollers, as well as recreational gamblers, are more than happy to take. As the gambling industry is not going anywhere soon, it would seem like a good idea to invest your funds in crypto.

    Cryptocurrencies are independent

    There’s an old saying that when a CEO of a large company sneezes the stocks go down. The same volatility principle goes for almost any asset on the market that’s tied to a company or a government. COVID 19 pandemic has caused turmoil across the world which made international trade challenging, to say the least. Since the year ahead of us is going to bring even more turbulence, one should look for a stable asset to invest in.

    Cryptocurrency prices are not dictated by any institution, and there’s no public knowledge of any methods to rig the value of Bitcoin or any other blockchain currency. Therefore, the price of these types of assets are regulated internally, which means it’s affected by trade volume, the number of miners, the size of the award for each verified transaction, and the time it takes to mine a cryptocurrency.

    Security aspects

    As the global market moved online, cybercrime is flourishing according to most recent statistics. The threats are real for both desktop and mobile users, making every online transaction a risk. With cryptocurrency, you can rest assured that your funds are safe as you can store your assets offline or using some of many secured wallets. Furthermore, cryptocurrency transactions are safe and anonymous, which keeps your financial activities under the scope of anyone who would take advantage of it.

    Conclusion

    These were just a few of many reasons why the cryptocurrency market is an interesting investment playfield in the near future. However, the smartest investment is the one you can afford to lose, so don’t think of blockchain as a golden goose, stay informed, and keep the market situation closely to know where you stand.

  • SpiderVPN and SpiderDAO: The next generation of internet privacy and security tools

    SpiderVPN and SpiderDAO: The next generation of internet privacy and security tools

    With more people than ever working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the market for Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) saw its largest ever increase of ~27% in 2020 according to a report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. For privacy-conscious internet users, it’s clear that a good VPN is worth paying for.

    For some, it’s even a bit more than that. A new project called SpiderVPN has taken a more decentralized approach to VPN services by offering users a VPN router which not only improves their own privacy, but also enables them to get paid for renting out their bandwidth in order to help other internet users get high-performance VPN service as well.

    This unique value proposition has caught on fast, enabling the network of VPN routers to expand and continuously improve the performance of the VPN network as it does so. Now, the team behind SpiderVPN is preparing to launch a novel DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) that can be robust and resilient against the adversity often faced by privacy-focused organizations in the Digital Age.

    Adding to that, we have learned that CEO Nathan Varty will be a recipient of a Web3 grant to support further development of the project. That serves as further proof that the decentralized VPN network and the new DAO governance model can play important roles in the advancement and adoption of decentralized protocols globally.

    A New DAO Governance Model

    Decentralized Autonomous Organizations are an innovative governance structure that enables communities to self-organize such that they can collectively own and manage resources without a centralized authority or hierarchy, whilst maintaining accountability, agility, and transparency in their decision-making processes. 

    There are several prominent DAOs in the cryptocurrency world today, including Maker, Aragon, and Decred. However, the concept is still quite nascent, and we are still learning about ways that DAO structures can be improved. In particular, there are some issues with today’s DAOs:

    • Plutocracies: proof of stake-based systems give voting rights proportionally to tokens owned, enabling just one or a few “whales” to have significant influence over decision making.
    • “Dark DAOs”: entities that use smart contracts and market manipulation to undermine trust in voting systems and eventually take control of them.

    SpiderDAO is introducing a dual-governance model that addresses these issues. To cast a vote in the SpiderDAO governance system, users will need a high-performance SpiderConnect Router connected to the Spider Virtual Private Network, as well as some SPDR tokens staked. Each router gives its owner one vote in the network. Meanwhile, safeguards are in place to prevent individuals from hoarding routers in order to gain more voting rights, preventing the formation of plutocracies.

    In addition to their voting rights, the SpiderConnect Routers will automatically be integrated with the decentralized SpiderVPN (dVPN) service, enabling owners to use the internet with anonymity and enhanced security, plus a host of other premium features including network monitoring, IP filtering / blocking, kill switch control, geo filtering for gamers, Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), and ad blocking techniques.  

    Meanwhile, funding for the SpiderDAO will be accumulated in SpiderVault, where it can be used for improving the greater Spider ecosystem as voted on by the DAO members. 2% of all proceeds generated by services of the DAO, such as SpiderVPN, will automatically go to the Vault. 

    Utility of the SPDR ERC-20 Token

    On top of voting rights in the SpiderDAO governance system, SPDR tokens will also provide access to the SpiderDashboard, which has the following features:

    • The SpiderMarket for buying and selling bandwidth 
    • The SpiderDAO governance system
    • Hardware management
    • VPN rewards
    • Liquidity mining
    • A wallet for sending and receiving tokens
    • Access to more future products

    60% of the SPDR token supply will initially be designated for liquidity mining. Users who stake LP tokens (liquidity provider tokens such as UNI-V2 on Uniswap and BAL on Balancer) in the SPDR/ETH and SPDR/USDC liquidity mining pools will thus be able to unlock more of the token supply the longer they remain active in the liquidity mining program.

    Importantly, SpiderDAO is introducing a Liquidity as Utility (LAU) model which allows users to simultaneously participate both in liquidity mining and in the DAO governance, differentiating it from other liquidity mining programs which typically don’t allow for tokens to be staked elsewhere while in the liquidity mining pools. 

    The SPDR Token & Earning Rewards 

    While SpiderVPN continues to grow and more people earn revenue with their routers, the SPDR Token has also started out well. It was the first token ever on Polkastarter, a DEX built for cross-chain token pools and auctions, with a 200k SPDR Token Liquidity Pool on Polkastarter selling out in the first 20 seconds and a 500% price increase in the first day of trading.

    Meanwhile, liquidity miners are earning an astonishing 800% APY (annual percentage yield) through the LAU model at the time of writing, which is sure to attract more attention in the coming months. 

    Strategic Sale Details

    The SPDR Token Strategic Sale started on December 15th. Tokens are sold at a price of $0.02 USD, with a total available supply of 100,000,000 tokens.For more details about the SpiderDAO and SPDR, visit the official website: https://spiderdao.io/

  • XENO starts VIP NFT trading service and collaborates with contemporary artist Hiro Yamagata

    XENO starts VIP NFT trading service and collaborates with contemporary artist Hiro Yamagata

    Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 24th December, 2020, // ChainWire //

    The XENO NFT Hub (https://xno.live) will provide a crypto-powered digital items and collectables trading platform allowing users to create, buy, and sell NFTs. Additionally it will support auction based listings, governance and voting mechanisms, trade history tracking, user rating and other advanced features.

    As a first step towards its fully comprehensive service, XENO NFT Hub launched a recent VIP service to select users and early adopters in December 2020 with plans for a full Public Beta to open in June 2021. 

    “NFTs are extremely flexible in their usage, from digital event tickets to artwork, and while NFTs have a very wide spectrum of uses and categories XENO will initially focus its partnership efforts and its own item curation on three primary areas: gaming, sports & entertainment, and collectibles.”, said XENO NFT Hub president Anthony Di Franco.

    He also added “This does not mean we will prohibit other types of NFTs from our ecosystem However, it simply means that XENO’s efforts as a company will be targeted into these verticals initially as a cohesive business approach.”

    Development and Procurement Lead, Gabby Dizon explained, “Despite our initial focus, we found ourselves with a unique opportunity to host some of the works of Mr. Hiro Yamagata. We are collaborating with Japanese artist Hiro Yamagata to enshrine some of his artwork into NFTs.”

    Mr. Yamagata has been considered by many as one of the most famous silkscreen artists because of the use of vivid colors in his pieces. However, he has also been known more recently for his contemporary works using laser and hologram technology. He is recognized as a pioneer of contemporary laser art. Some of his most famous works include, ‘Dreams of Disney’ and ‘Restoring of Mercedes-Benz’.

    “Now through the power of blockchain and its application in NFT technology, Mr. Yamagata’s works are immortalized into an immutable public ledger. That is a very powerful thing for both artists and art collectors alike”, Mr. Di Franco added.

    One of the most important factors in the art world is provenance and the history and context of both the artist and the artwork itself. Now through the use of blockchain, there is a complete and fully transparent history of the artwork’s lifespan starting at the artist and ending at current owner. NFTs bring unprecedented ownership and historical accuracy with guarantees that cannot be provided elsewhere.

    “The NFT market is still young, but many like Mr. Yamagata, have expressed interest in using this new medium to reach a new market and bring value to their existing clients. There is a growing movement of individuals and businesses that have a purchasing appetite for these unique digital assets”, continued Mr Dizon.

    XENO’s VIP service commenced with Mr Yamagata’s (and other digital items) listed in auction and direct sale formats with great success and positive feedback from users. It is looking to roll out a wider Closed Beta in the near future while ramping up for a full Public Beta launch on its own network in June 2021.
     

    Contacts

    Head of Promotion

    • Kate Wilson
    • XENO Holdings Limited
    • pr@xno.exchange
  • The Chronology of DeFi Since Inception until 2020

    The Chronology of DeFi Since Inception until 2020

    Anton Chashchin, Commercial Director at CEX.IO Loan

    Decentralised finance or DeFi was already present in 2015 when Maker Foundation launched a decentralised lending platform under the name Maker DAO. But DeFi did not shape up until 2018. In early 2018, Uniswap was already a functioning service, and Compound was launched in 2018. But even then DeFi was not nearly as popular as it became in 2020.

    Money-lending protocols

    Maker DAO, being the first decentralised money-lending platform, was the niche leader in 2018 when its MKR governance token reached over $1 billion in market capitalisation on 20th January 2018. But then it dropped quickly, being driven down by the global downfall of the cryptocurrency market. Later, Compound rose to prominence and took the lead over decentralised money-lending services until January 2020.

    Then Aave launched the alpha version of its Aave v1 platform, which saw a rapid liquidity growth in a short while. The breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic left an imprint on the rising popularity of DeFi money-lending services because of the passive income they generated.

    Then Compound issued its mineable COMP governance token, and it quickly increased the profits of Compound liquidity providers because it quickly grew in price, letting people gain from the token’s increasing price along with the constant passive income they had from the liquidity they had locked in the protocol. The platform quickly saw a humongous liquidity inflow totaling $1 billion, while the COMP token grew from $62 to $372 from 18th July to 21st July 2020. That was the starting point of the DeFi boom. Aave followed suit and launched its own governance token AAVE. Its price grew rapidly along with the growing liquidity in Aave protocol.

    Then Balancer was launched – another DeFi money-lending protocol, forming the three dominant species in the DeFi money-lending space. The project offered a similar profitability model to that of his older rivals, issuing its token BAL in the amount of 25 million. The token’s price reached a high of $37 on 30th August but got cheaper in autumn, falling to the $9 – $17 zone in September – November 2020. Contrastively, AAVE consistently grew into autumn and winter, reaching multiple all-time-highs, with the last one at over $95 being registered on 19th December 2020.

    There was also yearn.finance, whose YFI governance token saw an incredible growth of around 124,400% from 18th July to 19th September. The token’s astronomical price growth owed to the fact that its founder Andre Cronje, who single-handedly developed the platform, did not hold any investment rounds. The platform is centred around money borrowing and lending and its governance token, allowing the lenders to earn on their locked value and the token’s price growth.

    Decentralised Exchanges

    In the early 2018, decentralised exchanges (DEXes) were getting launched, but they did not have a big audience at that time due to low liquidity volumes and lower operational capacities compared to centralised exchanges. The first successful one was Kyber Network. Its liquidity grew consistently but slowly. Integrations with other projects helped to grow trading volumes on its DEX.

    Uniswap was the first decentralised exchange of the second generation – DEX 2.0. Uniswap made a good user interface and saw a quick growth of trading volumes on its DEX, biting off some of Kyber Network’s volumes.

    As decentralised exchanges grew in number, their growing popularity giving rise to new competitive projects in the field, so-called DEX volume aggregators started to appear. They combined liquidity from different DEXes in one place, letting traders trade derivatives and assets with relatively low liquidity on DEXes with higher volumes in one place. The first such project was 1inch exchange, another one – Paraswap. They both positively affected the whole DEX space, rapidly driving DEX trading volumes to historical records.

    Synthetic Assets

    Synthetic assets were the third big thing in the DeFi space. Synthetic assets are derivatives like contracts for difference that can be created for any asset. Synthetic assets in the DeFi space are created using a single digital token that is pegged to an underlying asset. Such tokens represent the liquidity locked in synthetic protocols; depending on the liquidity locked in the protocol, people can use this liquidity to create synthetic assets to buy underlying assets for certain amounts of respective tokens.

    Synthetix is the largest project in synthetic assets in the DeFi space. From a user’s perspective, it is a decentralised exchange for derivatives. Synthetix was launched in September 2017 under the name of Havven with a token sale that let Synthetix Foundation raise $30 million by selling 60 million HAV tokens to investors. It was rebranded into Synthetix in 2018, changing the ticker of their token for SNX. The SNX token’s market capitalisation reached a peak of $879 million on 1st September 2020 in the first wave of 2020’s DeFi market surge.

    The second big project in the space of decentralised synthetic assets is UMA. It features its own UMA governance token, which reached a peak of $1.485 of market capitalisation on 1st September 2020. As of December 2020, the UMA token capitalisation has decreased to around $500 million.

    Wrapped Bitcoin

    Wrapped BTC and Ren project were another idea that maximized liquidity in DeFi protocols. They both created protocols for locking of BTC on Ethereum’s network, which made it possible to use BTC to raise liquidity on decentralised exchanges and money-lending protocols like Compound, Maker and Aave. Coupled with Bitcoin’s immense growth after the start of the recovery after the big fall in March, it was a great time for DeFi to benefit from Bitcoin’s growth. And the sharp price growth that this market saw in September and November must largely come from BTC’s price growth.

    Conclusion

    The DeFi space took several years to shape up, and the efforts came to fruition in 2020. The sector’s rise may also be the first signal for high-net-worth individual and institutional investors to tap into the novel industry’s high-return potentials in 2021 and further.

    There is still some undiscovered technological potential in the DeFi space: DAOs and the insurance can be the next big things in DeFi. And the established technologies must have room for further advancements. Therefore, DeFi may keep on driving technological evolution of the crypto space in 2021, while creating new excellent opportunities for extremely profitable investment.

  • Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 52

    Top 3 Coins to Watch – Week 52

    As we move through the final month of the year, several cryptocurrency projects are moving ahead with continued development. Nevertheless, this week’s selection is topped by Bitcoin, which ended Week 51 with an amazing ATH price of above $24,000.

    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

    Bitcoin Ended the amazing Week 51 with an ATH of over $24,000

    The reason why all eyes are on Bitcoin is its amazing price performance from last week, when the largest crypto finally broke from the sub-$20,000. The crossing of this psychological, as well as major resistance level caused the price to skyrocket to above $23,000 in just a bit more than one day. Even though Bitcoin is now trading sideways again, many traders and analysts claim that the leading digital asset is still in the price discovery process. In addition, the institutional interest is not dying off yet. Quite the opposite actually as MicroStrategy recently revealed that it bought additional 29,646 BTC for $650 million at an average price of $21,925 per coin, increasing their total stake in Bitcoin to over $1 billion:

    Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk did not remain silent regarding the Bitcoin’s price movement. He posted a Tweet in his notoriously funny style:

    Interestingly, the Musk’s image sparked a conversation with the MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, in which the later tried to convinced Musk to allocate some of the Tesla’s assets to Bitcoin and do its “shareholders a $100 billion favour”. Clearly, Musk was very interested as he replied asking:

    “Are such large transactions even possible?” to which Saylor stated that he is prepared to share more advice offline.”

    Judging by the supply and demand disbalance, Bitcoin could be prepping for an even more exciting 2021 and several crypto experts expect BTC to reach $100k by the end of this year. And when BTC moves, the whole crypto market moves.

    2. 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 project’s utility token.

    Buy/Sell SXP

    Swipe Visa Cards Began Shipping in the U.S.  

    Swipe finally began shipping the highly anticipated physical Swipe Visa Cards to all U.S. virtual cardholders on December 22. In addition, the Swipe team is making significant progress at the Canadian market. The crypto card issuer already rolled out support for the Canadian Dollar on the Swipe Wallet and made everything ready to launch its service in Canada. Interested Canadians will be able to pre-order their cards soon. As per the EEA region, its citizens could recently take part in a Swipe and Binance Holiday Promotion, in which the partnered companies distributed up to 100,000 SXP in rewards to users who completed two rookie tasks – purchased at least 150 EUR worth of crypto and made at least one Binance Card transaction.

    3. Stratis (STRAX)

    Stratis is a blockchain environment and a cryptocurrency for enterprise users. With a focus on the financial industry, the project aims to offer its customers an easy way to build blockchain-based solutions. Stratis supports the native C# programming language, which is already widely used, and therefore acts as a simple bridge to blockchain technology.

    Buy/Sell STRAX

    The InterFlux Protocol Release on December 22

    The Stratis team recently released an update, which features the InterFlux Protocol. InterFlux is a protocol that facilitates the communication between public and private blockchain solutions while acting as a Layer-2 Scaling solution for Ethereum deployments at the same time. The solution, which incorporates support for the Ethereum network as well as the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain, will make it much easier for the Stratis platform to integrate with pre-existing blockchains. The integration of the Ethereum Layer 2 solution will also expand its usability to the DeFi sector and allow for non-fungible tokens (NFT) to be used and management on Stratis blockchain. More information regarding InterFlux protocol can be found in the official feature announcement.

  • Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Warns that Investing in Bitcoin and Crypto Comes With Risk

    Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Warns that Investing in Bitcoin and Crypto Comes With Risk

    Key highlights: 

    • Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong reminded users that investing in Bitcoin and crypto is not without risk and danger
    • Armstrong states the risks of Bitcoin and crypto are higher than what we see with traditional assets
    • Armstrong pointed to the volatility of digital assets as something that should be considered

    Coinbase CEO reminds users that investing in crypto comes with risks

    Recently, the price of Bitcoin has increased sharply, and BTC is currently traded at historically high prices. Currently, Bitcoin’s all-time high is above $24,000, and the move above $20,000 was met with euphoria in the cryptocurrency community. 

    Amid the enormous gains that BTC has recorded this year, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong warned about the risks of investing in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. He expressed his satisfaction with institutional investors’ presence in the crypto space, but he believes that crypto is still not risk-free. 

    Armstrong pointed to the bubble of BTC in 2017. The price of BTC climbed from $1,000 to around $20,000 that year. He believes investors should pay attention to the aggressive volatilities of this category of assets, as prices can dramatically change upwards or downwards within a very short period of time.

    Coinbase is looking to go public, recently announcing that it filed a confidential S-1 with the SEC. The crypto exchange’s most recent funding round was a Series E in 2018, in which Coinbase raised $300 million at a valuation of $8 billion.

    The volatility of Bitcoin

    The BTC price started the year at around $7,000, and reached below $4,000 in March when the pandemic affected practically every market on the planet. However, Bitcoin staged a significant recovery and rose above $10,000 in July. After that, Bitcoin continued its growth, and now we are experiencing new ATHs. 

    The main reason for Bitcoin’s growth in recent months is the presence of institutional investors in the market. While Bitcoin was viewed with heavy skepticism in the past, more and more institutions are now considering it seriously as a potential haven against inflation.

    The crypto community is understandably excited about Bitcoin’s new peaks, and there is also plenty of speculation on whether alternative cryptocurrencies or »altcoins« will soon follow Bitcoin’s lead.   With Bitcoin now in uncharted territory, nothing is off the table and we could see some very exciting action in the cryptocurrency markets next year.