News Bulletin — June 2021
Latest News in the Cryptocurrency and Investment World
Market overview
The question on everyone’s lips is, are we in a bear market, a dip or are we undergoing a correction along an upward trajectory? It is too early to say if we are in a bear market, the average length of a bear market is 289 days or 10 months, although the crypto winter lasted a few years. The naysayers seem to be getting more coverage than the optimists with price forecasts of bitcoin as low as $16,000. Gone are the days of the $100,000 bitcoin price predictions. We believe we have seen a correction and whilst bitcoin may drop some more the medium term trend is up. However we see the narrative slowly changing from a Bitcoin focused one to altcoins. Already bitcoin’s dominance is down to 41%, that has further to go. Whilst you can count on many more dips caused by growing pains this market is here to stay.
The important thing is we must take profits when we can and be more discerning in what we invest in. Investing in the latest batch of memecoins is not recommended. The winners have still not been decided. It is highly likely that in five years time bitcoin will no longer be the most valuable cryptocurrency and other chains will have taken over from Ethereum or at least be offering a viable alternative. The winners will be the ones which embrace mainstream adoption choosing to focus on easy to understand user interfaces. The average Joe is scared away by DEXs and the various DeFi apps doing the rounds. This will change as technology advances and as developers start listening to marketeers rather than the other way round.
The winners will be the projects that embrace the mass market. When aunt Polly can find her way round Uniswap without pulling out her hair that will be a strong indicator we have arrived. But in the meantime this is a great time to search for the projects that will make that breakthrough. They are still out there.
Market wisdom
We must remember that the market dip has made this a buyers market. With an abundance of cryptocurrencies to choose from we don’t have to invest in the first project we stumble across and we definitely don’t have to accept the crazy valuations inherent in the tokenomics of many a cryptocurrency. Project teams who have structured their tokenomics as liberally as a drunk counting money will receive their comeuppance, just make sure you are not holding their tokens when that time comes.
Trending
Polygon (MATIC) bucks the downward trend
As the market was plummeting over the last few weeks there was one stand out performer — Polygon. Its price entered the market dip at around $0.81 and increased to a high of $2.62. Whilst Bitcoin continues to suffer at the hands of Elon Musk’s attention seeking utterances Polygon was on the receiving end of praise from among others, Mark Cuban, who announced he had bought into the project and was a big supporter.
MATIC is the cryptocurrency that powers the Polygon network which provides a framework for building and connecting blockchains that are supported by Ethereum technology. It aims to provide a cheaper, more secure and streamlined solution for transactions conducted on the Ethereum blockchain. The network provides a side chain to the main Ethereum blockchain.
The Internet Computer (ICP) — Where the heck did that come from?
They claim to have reinvented the internet. Until May 10th 2021 the average crypto investor hadn’t even heard of ICP, four days later they had sped past most of the old guard and became the fourth most valuable cryptocurrency in the world. From nothing to nearly $90 billion, that figure is now down to some $10 billion. So what is the fuss all about? Here is how the team at ICP describes themselves:
“The Internet Computer is a blockchain project by the DFINITY Foundation which plans to extend the functionality of the public internet from a network that connects billions of people (via TCP/IP protocols) to a public compute platform that empowers millions of developers and entrepreneurs (via ICP protocol). The aim is to provide a revolutionary new way to build mass-market open internet services, pan-industry platforms, secure enterprise systems and websites, and DeFi, all without the need for legacy IT such as centralized cloud computing services, databases, and firewalls.”
Not exactly plain English but I think we get the point. This isn’t an overnight sensation with the project being under development for five years, attracting many of the top tier VCs such as Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital. Whilst the founder announced, “We want people to abandon traditional IT and move all systems and services to smart contracts”, others were less optimistic calling ICP, ‘Centralized crap’.
Latest new issue trends
The influx of new cryptocurrencies continues unabated. Most of these are Binance Smart Chain based tokens or BEP-20 tokens. And unfortunately the majority of these are total crap. Whilst there may be an opportunity to make a fast buck from getting in early and exiting with some fancy footwork in general, few of these can be described as cryptocurrencies with fundamentals. This influx generally consists of various types of memecoins including a noticeable abundance of memecoins focused on charitable causes, different forms of lotteries, staking and no shortage of porn coins.
Dogecoin makes it to CoinBase
Dogecoin finally achieved the status of a serious coin when the leading crypto exchange Coinbase listed it. That led to the price increasing by 25% in 24 hours.
The hunt for moonshots
We have been on a quest to find new sources of moonshots for you over the month. We started our search by delving into Binance Smart Chain, moving swiftly on to newly listed cryptocurrencies, and then our latest, Crypto Moonshots on the Polygon Ecosystem. We even took a small detour into memecoins. You can view our various Moonshot reports below:
- Cryptomoonshots on the Binance Smart Chain
- Crypto Moonshots on Cosmos
- Crypto Moonshots on Polkadot
- Newbie Crypto Moonshots — Finding the next Dogecoin
- Crypto Moonshots on the Polygon Ecosystem
Five cryptocurrencies worth buying whilst the market slump continues
When the market experiences a correction like the one we are all at the mercy of right now you will hear many a commentator telling you that when there is blood on the streets this is the best time to buy. But the $1 quadrillion question is… What should we be buying? What looks great value and what should still be avoided by a 10 foot long barge pole? Read our latest report which answers that question. Read article here
Discussion
Shenanigans continue at Tether
Despite the New York District Attorney turning the screws on Tether and demanding regular reporting of its reserves Tether continues to produce the bare minimum. But that lack of regard for their obligations to investors hasn’t dented its dominance. It is ranked number 4 and has a market value of over $60 billion. In the trustless economy there is no place for operators like Tether and it is only a matter of time before regulators come down hard on them. That time is some way off yet, but you may want to start looking at better stable coin alternatives.
Staking
When your father looked at you in the eyes and uttered the words, ‘If it looks too good to be true, it is’, the feeling of humiliation and failure was probably overpowering as you tried to quickly figure out how you were duped into investing your childhood savings into a get rich scheme you saw on the internet.
In the world of cryptocurrency we seem afraid to ask the obvious questions. Our blind loyalty and belief sometimes clouds our judgement. If a property investment was offering annual fixed returns of 40% our first call would be to the police. But somehow we think that a cryptocurrency platform that offers a fixed annual return of 40% is not only sustantainible but its native currency deserves a value of $32 billion. I am of course talking about HEX who offer a 40% APY if you buy a crypto equivalent of a certificate of deposit.
Nexo isn’t the only one offering eye catching returns, the DEX Pancakeswap are offering around 0.25% per day and Polywhale 850% APY. Are we saying these are scams? Of course not. But we are saying to be very careful. When a new memecoin project appears on the scene and allows you to stake their currency for a 30% return you have to think to yourself where is this return coming from and are you able to sell your crypto asset to realize this return? Some of these newer staking memecoins are bound to be scams. If you are tempted by these oversize returns go with the projects with big volume and don’t commit to tie your money up for years where there is a large penalty for early withdrawal.
New from Inside Track
We have been busy finding you great content presented by leaders in their field. Our Inside Track library now numbers some 20 odd podcasts from crypto influencers talking about subjects as diverse as memecoins to taxation including DeFi, decentralized exchanges and IDOs. You name it, we cover it. Take a look at our current library here.
Our latest addition to our library over the last month include the following topics:
- Crypto and Taxation
- Get Protocol — Blockchain based ticketing
- PlotX — Prediction markets
- Memecoins — a general overview with an interview with a memecoin founder
Some other great projects you may be interested in include Yield App, NewsCrypto and Handshake.
These are bite sized discussions so don’t worry about having to set aside a whole afternoon…
Finally…
Telegram
We are slowly building our Telegram channel which we would love for you to join. We have been fighting off the scammers and the spam with a vengeance and have built a small but loyal community who share great investment ideas. We would like to invite you to join us here where you will receive regular updates and get to see opportunities early.
Thank you for reading and for your continued support!
Team CryptoQuestion
Essential Risk Warnings
- We do not own any of the cryptocurrencies which we discuss.
- Our publications do not represent financial advice.
- Discussion of a particular cryptocurrency does not constitute a recommendation to buy.
- Always do your own research.
- Seek independent financial advice.
- Only invest what you can afford to lose.
- Remember cryptocurrencies and in particular smaller cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile. You could lose 100% of your investment.
Not Financial Advice
This article does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to buy in any way. Always do your own research and never invest more than you can afford to lose. Investing in cryptocurrencies is high risk, and you could lose 100% of your investment. The article should be treated as supplementary information to add to your existing knowledge.