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February 03, 2021 11:19 ET | Source: Student CoinStudent Coin

Warsaw, POLAND

WARSAW, Poland, Feb. 03, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Recently, Student Coin has announced the launchpad ICO to build the platform for wide-scale tokenization. Every crisis is an opportunity for implementing new technologies that could be an answer for flaws of the traditional monetary system. COVID-19 pandemic has affected every aspect of life, including personal finances, the global economy, and education. It has also encouraged financial institutions to look for more resistant and transparent solutions that are based on tokens. Central banks are currently working on their own digital currency called CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency), while major financial institutions started recognizing Bitcoin as "digital gold".

The cryptocurrency market, however very risky, is also associated with the biggest gains of the century. Have people wondered where would people be now, if people had bought Bitcoin for $10 in 2010? People would have had almost $400,000 now, and according to some Forbes' predictions - even $3,000,000 in 2025. This may sound like a fairy tale, but it is actually based on deep fundamental analysis of the most trusted professionals. Another fact that stimulates thinking is that S&P Dow Jones will launch cryptocurrency indices in 2021, whereas Wells Fargo called Bitcoin the "best performing asset of 2020".

What is noteworthy, during the current crisis not only the cryptocurrencies are flourishing. All of the world's universities and high schools have switched to remote learning - and it seems that some of them may stay like that forever. The digital transformation and cryptocurrencies also reached the educational sector, and as it was with Facebook, it may become a ground-breaking innovation. Projects such as the Student Coin which connects the education of young people with the rapidly growing crypto market, can soon become the next unicorns.

The process of "tokenization" allows firms to perform crowdfunding without geographical barriers, decentralize the governing, or apply for fast and secure payments. Tokenization can also be helpful for individual people, as it gives the opportunity to decentralize debt, get money to run a business, or secure one's private identity. The "personal token" is a concept of a unique token for every single person, and as scientists suggest, the future economy may be based on such a solution. Student Coin is the first platform that will allow for this wide-scale tokenization enabling firms to create corporate tokens, while individuals will be able to create personal tokens. The results of such transformation can be compared to the way in which social media changed the world in the last 15 years.

The example of the Student Coin can be compared to Facebook at the beginning when these ubiquitous social media were limited only to the net of universities. Student Coin supports students at over 500 universities, closely cooperating with student organizations at Harvard University, New York University, or the London School of Economics. Currently, the project is seeking investors during its STC Launchpad, where people can support this rising net for the tokenization and purchase the core system currency – Student Coin (STC).

Every day our world is changing faster than before, creating many opportunities for technological advancements and disruptive businesses. The world based on personal tokens, as it is now based on social media, can approach very fast – and Student Coin could be its key forerunner.

Read more about Student Coin (link) Check the STC Launchpad (link)

Media contact Company: Student Coin (Student Edu Chain Sp. z o.o.) E-Mail: office@studentcoin.education Address: 03-641 Warsaw, Ewy 1 Street, Warsaw, Poland Telephone: 0048570975833 Website: https://studentcoin.org

SOURCE: Student Coin

It is well-known that more than hundreds of cryptocurrencies are thriving in the cryptocurrency market in recent years. Investors are earning interest in the highly volatile and risky venture to invest time and money in any one of the favourable cryptocurrencies. Yes, it is overwhelming for beginners to select which cryptocurrency is right for them to invest for a long period of time in the cryptocurrency market. Binance Coin is one of the hundreds that has emerged as one of the most popular digital currencies to have in a digital wallet. Binance exchange is known as the largest cryptocurrency exchange platform across the world. Let’s have an in-depth insight into the Binance Coin cryptocurrency for making a smart decision as soon as possible.

Binance Coin is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies issued by the Binance exchange and trades and is widely called as a BNB coin. Being created in July 2017 by Changpeng Zao, Binance Coin or BNB is known for running on the Ethereum blockchain with a maximum of 200 million of this cryptocurrency token. Recently, it works on its own blockchain called the Binance Chain. Investors are highly interested in this digital currency owing to its power to boost the operation of the Binance exchange with different functionalities like exchanges fees, trading fees, listing fees, and many more.

Investors have started investing through Binance Coin because it is generally used to invest in certain initial coin offerings in the list of launchpad programmes of Binance exchange and provides a seamless marketplace to deal with multiple different cryptocurrency tokens. Binance exchange is widely known for facilitating over 1.4 million transactions per second in these last few years with 2 billion of average daily volume.  Investors receive a discount in transaction fees on this Binance exchange for trading for any other cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or stable coins.

Every quarter, Binance Coin utilizes 20% of its annual profit to purchase back and burn BNB Coins to destroy those completely— BNB burning. The latest date for BNB burning is July 18, 2021, and is determined to continue this process till it will reach 50% of the total supply. This process helps the Binance exchange to retain its scarcity and the value amount in the cryptocurrency market.

Transaction Fees: Investors can receive a good amount of discount in transaction fees through the Binance exchange efficiently and effectively. It offers 25% saving on on-spot trading fees, 25% saving on margin trading fees, and 10% saving on futures trading fees.

Trading: Investors can trade the BNB Coin for any other cryptocurrency on exchange programmes by analyzing the restrictions from the Binance exchange.

Payment Mode: Customers can pay through Binance Coin when multiple merchants have started offering this digital payment mode to offer more flexibility in financial transactions.

Promoting Tourism: Binance Coin is known as a popular cryptocurrency that helps to book hotels and flights through a few websites to promote tourism in that place.

Easy Loan Payment: Investors or customers can utilize the power of Binance Coin to pay loan amounts on a few platforms as well as it allows to split bills among friends and family.

Availability of Cryptocurrencies: Binance exchange offers more than a hundred cryptocurrencies to investors including Ethereum, CyberMiles, ZCoin, and many more.

Cybersecurity: Since there is an increase in malicious cyberattacks, Binance exchange asks for two-factor authentication while registering for an account to send a special code every time an account holder wants to log in or withdraw funds.

Centralized Control: Binance Coin is known for being centralized through the control of Binance— who can and cannot be a validator on the network through a voting system.

Pressure from Regulators: Multiple regulatory bodies from different countries such as Thailand, Germany, Japan, the UK, and many more are creating pressure on Binance exchange to take it down by filing complaints against Binance.

Opportunities for Cyberattacks: Since the growth of Binance Coin and its exchange across the world, it has created ample opportunities for malicious cyberattacks.

Binance Chain: Binance Chain is a community-driven blockchain software system for developers and contributors across the world through a reliable and safe feature known as Binance DEX.

Binance Trust Wallet: Binance Trust Wallet is another top product of Binance Coin that offers a secure and decentralized digital wallet to exchange and store valuable digital assets efficiently and effectively.

Binance Research: Binance Research offers multiple institutional research reports, in-depth analysis, and data-driven meaningful insights to investors in this cryptocurrency market.

Binance Info: Binance Info is one of the top products for investors for providing a crypto-encyclopedia with an open and objective information aggregation platform for anyone to contribute any information at any time throughout the year.

Binance Charity:  Binance Charity acts as a non-profit platform that is focused on providing advancement in blockchain-enabled philanthropy as well as global sustainable development for the welfare of society on this Earth.

Binance Academy: Binance Academy is very useful for investors who are very eager to know and learn about blockchain and cryptocurrency learning resources through an open-access learning hub.

Binance Lab: Binance Lab is known for investing and empowering the decentralized web by investing in long-lasting technical teams of blockchain entrepreneurs, start-ups, and other communities through financing more than 100 industrial projects across 25 countries in more than five continents for over three years.

Binance Coin started to thrive in the cryptocurrency market since the beginning of 2021 with its price increased to 1445% between January and May for investors to take notice of it. But, as per the volatility of the market, it had a massive drop in price from the all-time record-breaking high price of US$692. But gradually, Binance Coin became stable with US$250 to form a support level from investors. In the period of July to September 2021, this cryptocurrency has shown an increase of up to 100% to attract the eyes of investors towards it. Recently in September, Binance Coin has again dropped down a bit and being constant within a range between US$300 and US$400.

The future in the cryptocurrency market is very uncertain and dynamic in nature— there can be a massive hit or a major drop in the Binance Coin price at any time. Thus, it is essential for investors to study the price chart of BNB Coin before investing in this cryptocurrency token. Multiple factors are keeping the momentum relatively low in these few days. Investors can gain indirect access to the price movements of Bitcoin by investing in this cryptocurrency token. There is a huge demand for BNB Coin as the cryptocurrency market is also thriving across the global boundary. These technical and fundamental factors can show an optimistic rise in Binance Coin in the nearby future, making it a reliable and safe cryptocurrency in the market. This can be a very popular opportunity for investors to invest valuable time and money to gain higher revenue in the nearby future.

Visit the official website of BinanceRegister with current email id or mobile numberOne can put a referral code for more efficient useReceive a notification for 2FA (two-factor authentication)Complete the account setup

Visit the official homepage of BinanceClick on the main tab of fundsSelect deposits for the first timeSelect a deposited coin or enter a code of any favourable cryptocurrencyNote down or copy the important deposit addressVisit your cryptocurrency wallet and transfer the number of that cryptocurrency to the Binance account efficientlyThis transaction will be successful in ten minutes.

That being said, Binance Coin is, indeed, thriving in the cryptocurrency market its popular cryptocurrency token across the world. It offers multiple trading apps and prizes for loyal and long-term investors. They have discovered that staking this coin proves to be very profitable at some point in time. Of course, there is a risk of exchanging Binance Coin through the Binance exchange platform such as loss of capital, and many more. But, one should have extensive research before investing in the cryptocurrency market, especially beginners.

Crypto derivatives platform Delta Exchange announced Wednesday that it has launched futures trading on Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA), giving investors a new access point to the leading altcoins.

The initial rollout of SOL and ADA call and put options will have daily maturities, with weekly and monthly maturities to be made available at a later date.

Options give owners the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a security at a specific price within a certain time window. Call and put options are used heavily in traditional markets but have become more prevalent within crypto.

Delta Exchange already provides options trading for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), Bitcashpay (BCP) and Binance Coin (BNB). As Cointelegraph reported, the derivatives exchange launched several options products in mid-2020.

The crypto derivatives market has grown exponentially this year, with traders defying regulatory warnings from global financial authorities. Cryptocurrency exchange Binance recently announced it was restricting derivatives trading for Hong Kong users amid local pressures. In the United States, officials at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have voiced their support for broader enforcement on crypto-based derivatives.

Related: Derivatives data shows Ethereum traders positioned to extend the ETH rally

After a mid-summer lull, options trading picked up significantly in August as crypto markets staged a massive rebound. By mid-August, the open interest in Bitcoin options had more than doubled from their yearly low set in late June.

Research undertaken by CoinMarketCap determined that, by December 2020, derivatives accounted for 55% of the overall cryptocurrency market. The growth of platforms like FTX, Bybit and Delta suggest derivatives may account for a larger percentage of the overall market.  

Cryptocurrency is taking the world by storm. Participation in the altcoin market has gained considerable traction. And as new exchanges compete to take advantage of the growing ferver, the options available to investors Down Under have grown dramatically.

Whether you’re basking on the shores of the Coral Coast or exploring the rugged Outback, if you want to buy crypto, you’ll need to find a reputable trading platform. This article compares the best exchanges available in Australia. 

The diverse trading platforms available to Australian consumers match the demand of the country’s residents. And while the sheer number of crypto providers can sometimes intimidate new traders, the competition among these exchanges often translates into better deals for customers.

When choosing an exchange, it pays to consider the specific feature set a platform has to offer. From state-of-the-art security to advanced trading tools, the unique attributes of a cryptocurrency exchange help define its overall user experience.

But with an expanding list of providers coming available, researching the details of each exchange can be a time-consuming process. After carefully considering the unique characteristics of the most reputable exchanges available in Australia, the top 5 trading platforms are listed here, alongside the most notable attributes of each:

With industry-leading security, Coinbase takes the protection of your assets incredibly seriously. Coinbase offers best-in-class offline storage and insures all crypto assets held by the exchange. And with Coinbase Learn, you can now earn up to $100 of BItcoin by watching educational videos related to cryptocurrency.

1 Minute Review

Coinbase is one of the Internet’s largest cryptocurrency trading platforms. From Bitcoin to Litecoin or Basic Attention Token to Chainlink, Coinbase makes it exceptionally simple to buy and sell major cryptocurrency pairs. 

You can even earn cryptocurrency rewards through Coinbase’s unique Coinbase Earn feature. More advanced traders will love the Coinbase Pro platform, which offers more order types and enhanced functionality.

Though Coinbase doesn’t offer the most affordable pricing or the lowest fees, its simple platform is easy enough for complete beginners to master in as little as a single trade.

Binance is the world’s largest crypto trading platform. And with a fantastic selection of top altcoins, Binance has become a popular exchange in Australia, too. Binance allows deposits and withdrawals of AUD on the exchange. And best of all, you can do so without fees. 

BlockFi is a global trading platform available to Australian residents. Trusted by over 1 million customers, BlockFi manages over $10 billion of assets. And with BlockFi Earn, you can start passively growing your crypto holdings immediately. BlockFi lets you earn up to 7.5% on your assets with no minimum balances.

ByBit is a fantastic platform for advanced trading. Buying, selling and trading cryptocurrencies has never been easier. And with great options for spot and derivative trades, ByBit has brought traditional finance services to the crypto world. ByBit now supports future contracts, allowing customers to use cryptocurrency as collateral.

The leading social trading platform, eToro, is now available in Australia! With commodities, cryptocurrencies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and stocks, the options for trading have grown substantially on the platform. But the best feature of eToro may be its customer support. Despite increased wait times occurring because of the COVID-19 outbreak, eToro generally responds to customer inquiries within 3 business days.

1 Minute Review

eToro, headquartered in Cyprus, England and Israel, has provided forex products and other CFD derivatives to retail clients since 2007. A major eToro plus is its social trading operations, including OpenBook, which allows new clients to copy trade the platform’s best performers. Its social trading features are top notch, but eToro loses points for its lack of tradable currency pairs and underwhelming research and customer service features

When choosing among exchanges, it’s a good idea to study the differences between their classifications. Understanding what separates an exchange from a brokerage is a great place to start.

While a cryptocurrency exchange is simply a platform for buying and trading your favorite digital assets, a brokerage can search multiple exchanges for the best deals available. Choosing between the 2 options often comes down to personal taste.  

Bitcoin ATMs are yet another cryptocurrency provider Australians may encounter. With so many options available, it pays to have a basic understanding of the varying cryptocurrency services emerging.

The cryptocurrency market has shown increasing signs of volatility recently as the consequences of renewed Chinese regulation continue to play out globally. While markets have dipped on news of China’s outright ban on cryptocurrency transactions, the future for Bitcoin (BTC) and other top-tier crypto projects remains promising in Australia.

Bitcoin dominance has settled near 42%. And while the stunning performance exhibited by a number of altcoins continues to push the market forward, the downward pressure placed on Bitcoin’s price has defined recent market sentiment.

With non-fungible tokens (NFTs), smart contract platforms and decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens have rewarded investors with incredible gains this year. And as participation in the market increases, savvy investors are already looking for the next altcoin gem. The real-time prices of some of the top cryptocurrency projects currently available are shown below:

Investors are increasingly looking for reputable places to trade their crypto. But what makes one exchange better than another? And how do you choose the best platform from a growing list of available choices? 

No worries, mate. While deciding on the best exchange for your trading needs, a quick look at the following features can help narrow the field:

The most important aspect of any trading platform is undoubtedly its security. With exchange hacks and cyber attacks becoming more commonplace, choosing a secure exchange for trading your crypto is imperative. Taking note of the security features offered by the best trading platforms is a great way to protect yourself from future losses.

For many traders, the selection of popular altcoins can be a major contributing factor in the decision to sign up for an exchange. Picking a platform with a diverse set of cryptocurrencies can save you from needing to sign up for multiple exchanges later.  

Finally, the advanced tools offered by an exchange can make or break the deal for investors ready to trade. While novice traders are increasingly comfortable with mobile platforms, professional traders generally prefer desktop clients with access to order books and advanced charting. 

Australia has taken a proactive stance with their policies regarding crypto transactions. Classified as legal property, cryptocurrencies are subject to capital gains tax, and registered exchanges are free to operate within the country’s borders. 

Regulatory requirements do exist for initial coin offerings (ICOs). And exchanges have been banned from offering privacy coins like Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC) to Australian customers. 

Recently, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, discontinued its futures and options products for Australian customers. As the government continues to push for stricter regulations regarding digital assets, Aussie traders were recently given 90 days to reduce and close their positions in these products.

As part of a regulated Know Your Customer (KYC) process, exchanges in Australia must keep records on their customers. Minimum requirements depend on the level of risk a customer poses. Information maintained by an exchange includes a customer’s full name and either their date of birth or current address. 

Usually, KYC can be accomplished by uploading pictures of your identification documents during the signup process. However, there are procedures for identifying customers without conventional identification.  

Whichever exchange you choose to do business with, you’ll want to move your crypto into a wallet to take full ownership of your digital assets. The options for crypto wallets have grown considerably but are generally separated into hardware and software varieties. The following comparisons can help you decide from the best wallets available in Australia.

1 Minute Review

With 1,500,000 Ledger wallets already sold in 165 countries, the company aims at securing the new disruptive class of crypto assets. Ledger has developed a distinctive operating system called BOLOS, which it integrates to a secure chip for its line of wallets. So far, Ledger takes pride in being the only market player to provide this technology.

1 Minute Review

1 Minute Review

From centralized exchanges to DeFi swaps, the options for trading cryptocurrency in Australia have grown with the market. And, each platform carries a unique set of features for its customers to choose from. Deciding on the best exchange for your trading needs is a highly personal decision. 

No matter what your trading strategy entails, a diverse selection of crypto providers are now available to help guide your investments. The platforms listed in this article represent the most reputable and secure ways to trade your crypto. 

In a continuously evolving crypto market, it pays to keep up to date on the latest trends in blockchain technology. To stay abreast of current cryptocurrency developments, visit https://www.benzinga.com/money/crypto/. 

Methodology

Benzinga crafted a specific methodology to rank cryptocurrency exchanges and tools. We prioritized platforms based on offerings, pricing and promotions, customer service, mobile app, user experience and benefits, and security. To see a comprehensive breakdown of our methodology, please visit see our Cryptocurrency Methodology page.

Try SoFi

SoFi builds crypto products to help you buy, sell, and store your bitcoin and cryptocurrency. You can buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, Solana, Chainlink, Uniswap and other DeFi tokens instantly. For a limited time, get a $10 BTC bonus when you make your first trade of $10 or more!

In the first half of 2021 data aggregator CoinMarketCap added 2,655 new crypto assets to its database, bringing the total number of listed coins to 10,810, according to data shared with CoinDesk. 

For perspective, in 2018, during the peak of the initial coin offering (ICO) boom, CoinMarketCap listed its 2,000th asset on its website. 

This year “saw a Cambrian explosion of new crypto assets largely as a consequence of several tailwinds,” said Aaron Khoo, head of listings at CoinMarketCap, referring to the evolutionary event that took place 541 million years ago when large numbers of new organisms seemingly burst into existence.

Related: Bitcoin Upside Stalls; Lower Support at $38K-$40K

Like CoinMarketCap, two other data aggregators also added 2,000 or more new assets to their databases in 2021. Singapore-headquartered CoinGecko listed 3,064 new assets on its website while the smaller, Poland-based crypto data and research platform Coinpaprika listed 2,000 new assets. Wojciech Maciejewski, business development manager at Coinpaprika, said the platform is currently inundated with new applications for coin listings.

“We don’t have enough people to go through all the applications,” Maciejewski said. 

Representatives from CoinMarketCap, CoinGecko and Coinpaprika agree the 2021 surge in new crypto assets is driven by a combination of bullish price action, the influx of traditional financial institutions, influencers and celebrities to the space, along with the non-fungible token (NFT) boom and the rise of meme coins like dogecoin, shiba and safemoon. 

But this is not the first time the crypto space has witnessed a dramatic surge in new assets. After the initial coin offering (ICO) boom kicked off in 2017, new crypto assets poured into the market much in the same way. However, more than three-quarters of those ICOs turned out to be scams, while almost half failed to raise funds. 

Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Rallies Ahead of Senate Compromise

And if history’s any indicator, of the thousands of new crypto assets that have exploded onto the market in 2021, only a few will survive. 

“We have no data to back that but the expectation is that [the new assets] are more or less similar to the 2017 ICO round where only a handful managed to stick around after the initial craze,” Sze Jin Teh, principal product manager at CoinGecko, said in an email. 

Behind the numbers 

Between 2014 and 2021, almost 16,000 crypto assets were created, according to data from CoinGecko. 

But this number includes all coins, both active as well as inactive assets (assets attached to disrupted projects). 

For instance, according to Maciejewski, active assets on Coinpaprika account for around half of the 6,342 assets listed on the site.  

And a portion of these deactivated crypto assets were born out of the ICO boom. 

CoinGecko, for instance, recorded its monthly high for the number of new coins listed on its platform in 2017, according to data shared with CoinDesk. The platform listed 914 assets in December 2017 alone. 

According to Kristian Kho, operations lead at CoinGecko, December 2017 was the peak of the ICO craze when retail interest in crypto rose, coinciding with the all-time high bitcoin price at the time. “This was the first time we saw a rush of a new class of tokens being created to capitalize on the success of the first few trailblazers (Filecoin, Tezos, EOS and the like). We even created a dedicated ICO page to track all the ongoing ICOs back then,” Kho said.  But a majority of those tokens were short-lived. 

“Many of the projects that had raised funds simply dissolved upon exhausting their runways,” said Kho.

But Jin said even more coins have popped up this time around compared to 2017, and across multiple chains including Ethereum, Polygon and Binance Smart Chain.

“There are more and more new ideas, but also more scams that we have to inform our users of,” Maciejewski said, adding that Coinpaprika is receiving up to seven times more requests than it did in 2018. 

And these staggering numbers still don’t reflect the total amount of crypto assets floating around the internet. 

“The coins listed on CoinMarketCap represent a thin sliver (~20% approval rate) of the total number of new coin applications,” Khoo said in an email to CoinDesk.

According to Khoo, during the first half of 2021, CoinMarketCap received a whopping 10,793 applications from crypto projects and companies seeking to have their new assets listed. 

The vetting process

To face the rising numbers of crypto assets and listing applications, each listing platform has its own set of criteria for approving a new asset.

CoinMarketCap reviews an extensive list of metrics shared on its website, but according to Khoo, there is also an element of competitive benchmarking, by comparing the asset to other, similar applicants.

“Listing evaluation by CoinGecko is done holistically with a set of internal criteria used to evaluate each coin. The exact listing criteria are not disclosed to prevent manipulation by the project team,” Kho said in a written statement. 

But both platforms, along with Coinpaprika, look closely at the coin’s active trading volume and  liquidity, along with other factors including social media presence, community attitude towards the coin and the team behind the project.

According to CoinGecko’s Kho, the rise of decentralized exchanges (DEXs), where the listing is permissionless and fees are low, has made it even easier to create and market coins. This means anyone can tokenize anything, fuelling the strange new world of meme coins, Kho said. “In light of this, CoinGecko has become much stricter in listing new tokens. This is because the instances of scam coins have increased with the rise of DEXs,” Kho said. 

Currently, Coinpaprika accepts 95% of requests for assets already listed on centralized exchanges like Binance or Coinbase, discarding only incomplete applications. But when it comes to DEXs, the acceptance rate drops to around 60% or 70% because they do not typically have stable or reliable API endpoints (communication channels) due to their decentralized nature. 

Meme coin rush 

According to Kho, the highest percentage of applications received at CoinGecko are for meme coins. 

“The popularity and price increase of meme coins such as dogecoin and shiba inu coin has inspired many to come up with their own derivative meme coins in the hopes of capturing the success of the former two,” Kho said.

He added that the ease of creating a simple token allows anyone to launch a meme coin, and with it apply for listing at CoinGecko.

“In the last quarter, meme coins (especially those of the canine variety) dominated new coin applications, accounting for roughly three out of four new applications,” Khoo from CoinMarketCap said in an email to CoinDesk.

He also said that in keeping with the meteoric rise of Axie Infinity, a game partly owned and operated by its players, CoinMarketCap is witnessing a modest uptick in NFTs and gaming coins. 

But 2021’s meme coins appear to be the assets that most resemble 2017’s ICO tokens in terms of quantity and longevity. 

“Meme tokens tend to be ephemeral, and I’d say that approximately 75% of them meet a quick death if they do not go viral within the first few months,” Khoo said. 

He explained that the biggest determinants of failure are a hastily cobbled-together team looking to make a quick buck and the absence of true believers rallying around a common cause within the coins’ respective communities. 

But it’s still too early to tell the fate of the nascent crypto assets that have just joined the market, according to Kho. 

“Quantity is there but quality remains very subjective – among meme tokens and yield farms,  there are projects genuinely looking to improve the space so it probably still takes time before we are able to tell,” Kho said. 

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Blockchain technology is changing the face of everything from banking, to payments, to security. But it's the way these crypto projects, currencies and companies raise money that's attracting the most attention from startups and established companies alike. The "initial coin offering," or ICO, is rapidly reshaping the conventions, boundaries and timelines for how entrepreneurs, startups and corporations finance their endeavors. 

Let's get into it.

Going public, streamlined 

Like an initial public offering (IPO) of stock, from which its name is derived, an ICO is a way that cryptocurrency startups -- and even established manufacturing companies -- can raise money. With a somewhat circular approach to economics, crypto companies fund their enterprises by selling their own cryptocurrency, often accepting payment in other forms of cryptocurrency (most often bitcoin or Ethereum). 

This is radically different from the highly standardized, lawyer-heavy orchestrations of a traditional corporate IPO. With an IPO of company stock, investors exchange money for equity and voting rights in an established corporation. In the US, the process is underwritten by an investment bank and tightly regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

In the freewheeling world of crypto, however, there's none of this. No investment bank. Rarely equity or voting rights. Very minimal regulatory oversight (though the SEC's new task force will likely change that). And, in many cases, no corporate track record or even product. What's not to like?

Proponents argue that ICOs accelerate and democratize the venture capital process. Skeptics point out that the whole thing is crazy. Depending on your opinion of cryptocurrency, and whether it's a viable form of payment or investment, ICOs may look like an ingenious tool or transparent scam. Either way, they're a thing; according to Forbes, these types of offerings raised more than $4 billion in 2017. 

A novel idea

Mastercoin, now known as Omni Layer, was the first to hold an ICO. In 2012, J.R. Willet, the creator of Mastercoin, published an influential whitepaper suggesting the blockchain could serve as the foundation for other applications, currencies and "smart contracts." (He tells the story well.) To fund the development of his project, Willet promised to give 100 Mastercoins to anyone who sent him a bitcoin during the month of August 2013.

It worked. In the end, Willet received roughly 5,000 bitcoins -- valued at approximately $500,000 at the time and more than $50 million today -- and released about 500,000 Mastercoins. But, more significantly, he validated a new financing template for a succession of coins that would follow.

Read more: How bitcoin finally made me grow up and get my life together

How an ICO works

The typical ICO begins with a statement of some kind, often a white paper, that outlines the technical details, project plan, goals and budget for a project, as well as some discussion of how the coins or tokens will be distributed. (Generally, tokens are issued to represent an ownership stake in a project or decentralized autonomous organization, whereas coins usually represent ownership of a currency.)

Most ICOs fix the number of tokens or coins on offer before the sale. Investors who buy in earlier may be given preferential terms, paying a lower price per coin. But prices can fluctuate, and if more folks buy in, you could end up with fewer tokens. Some offerings have a specific fundraising goal, and may keep the price fixed throughout the offering period. Others may keep the supply fixed and adjust the price based on demand, raising as much as possible. And there are those that allow for a dynamic supply, with a new coin created whenever someone buys one. 

Many ICOs have been executed independently, managed by the issuing entity on its own website or platform. That noted, the more credible offerings are now usually facilitated by an exchange or an escrow service that can afford investors some modicum of security against scammers.

ICO insanity

Speaking of which, there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical of cryptocurrencies. But you may need to engage in some wholesale suspension of disbelief to participate in an ICO. 

Exhibit A: In 2013, Jackson Palmer created Dogecoin -- the name is a reference to a meme involving an internet-famous Shiba Inu -- in an effort to highlight the excesses of the burgeoning cryptocurrency craze. It didn't work out the way Palmer planned: Today Dogecoin has a market cap of more than half a billion dollars.

Since then, amid the explosion of ICOs -- with more than 100 in 2017 alone -- there has emerged a comical arms race of sorts, featuring increasingly absurd coin offerings with stridently satirical names. There's Useless Ethereum Token -- tagline: "Seriously, don't buy these tokens" -- and the religiously oriented Order of Ethereum, which accepts donations of Ether tokens as atonement for sins or to purchase a station as "saynt," "prophyt," or "savyor." (The group's ICO has raised just shy of $62 to date.)

Going mainstream

Dubious coins and outright scams have fueled widespread distrust of cryptocurrencies and ICOs. And yet, a steady torrent of startups and companies continue to plan and launch their own currencies using the mechanism. 

In September 2017, social network Kik raised nearly $100 million through an ICO on the Ethereum platform. And in January of this year, Kodak -- yes, Kodak -- announced its own cryptocurrency and a blockchain service designed to help compensate photographers for unlicensed uses of their photos. 

Given that the company's stock price doubled after the announcement, we're certain to see more ICOs -- not only from crypto startups but big companies trying to act cool or put a modern veneer on an antiquated brand.

Ethereum: The ICO platform of choice?

Kik's choice to launch an ICO on Ethereum wasn't arbitrary. In addition to serving as a tradable cryptocurrency in its own right, the Ethereum platform has made it relatively simple to create tokens and have an ICO. (Ethereum's own ICO, or "presale," in July 2014, raised more than 31,000 bitcoin, now worth more than $250 million. 

That it's been embraced by a number of large corporations and academic institutions hasn't hurt. But it's the Ethereum platform, with its "smart contract" protocol and extensible blockchain, that has made it the ICO launching pad of choice for dozens of cryptocurrencies, startups and projects.

There have been misfires, however. In 2015, the DAO, a "decentralized autonomous organization," raised $150 million worth of Ether -- a world record for crowdfunding. It was almost immediately hacked, losing control of more than $50 million of the proceeds. Though Ethereum administrators helped recover a portion of the money, the DAO remains a cautionary tale for both investors and startups.

Still, since then, dozens of other coins have launched successfully on Ethereum including Golem, Augur and Iconomi -- each an interesting project on its own merit -- without drama. A TechCrunch analysis shows that the platform is gaining momentum: The majority of ICOs in 2017 were launched on Ethereum, and Ether-based cryptocurrencies accounted for two-thirds of all cryptocurrency assets as of July 2017. (You can see which platforms have spawned which cryptocurrencies at mapofcoins.com.)

As with any investment -- particularly one in a nascent, evolving and unregulated marketplace -- due diligence and extreme caution should be exercised when considering participation in any ICO or purchase of cryptocurrency. Do your research, HODL and caveat emptor.

Buying and selling bitcoin, explained: A quick and dirty introduction to trading.

Bitcoin, Ethereum or Litecoin: Which is best for you?

Bitcoin (BTC) speculators have been selling at a loss, and this week presents a golden buying opportunity, analysts say.

Data shows Bitcoin’s spent output profit ratio (SOPR) flipped negative for the first time in six weeks on Wednesday.

SOPR says “buy the dip”

A classic buy signal, negative SOPR implies that sellers have been dumping BTC at a loss, and the oversold market, therefore, is ripe for longer-term hodlers to profit from cheap coins.

The last time SOPR went negative was July 20, right before Bitcoin took off to reclaim $50,000.

“Spent Output Profit Ratio went negative (green) yesterday as on-chain speculators were selling at a loss,” Philip Swift, an analyst at trading platform Decentrader, summarized to Twitter followers Thursday.

“Paints a v.similar picture to funding rates in recent months in that a lot of forced selling took place over the summer making this more of a buy-the-dip opportunity now.”“Good news” for Bitcoin bulls

As Cointelegraph reported, research has highlighted Tuesday’s BTC price dip as coming from overleveraged traders who could not withstand selling pressure from young whales.

Related: Bitcoin price in line for ‘impulsive bounce’ as Solana (SOL) leads altcoin surge

After the market cleared out those players, optimism has returned over more sustainable price gains.

For on-chain monitoring resource Whalemap, meanwhile, SOPR data likewise hints at the possibility of higher levels returning.

“SOPR around 1 in an up-trending market is good news,” staff commented on the metric’s current readings.

In private comments to Cointelegraph, the Whalemap team added that “a little bit more sideways” should first characterize the market before upside ensues.

Ether prices have enjoyed some compelling gains lately, breaking through the $3,500 level earlier today and approaching $3,800 this afternoon.

The world’s second-most valuable digital currency by market value reached $3,789.00 around 12:45 p.m. EDT, CoinDesk figures show.

At this point, it was trading at its most elevated value since May 16, additional CoinDesk data reveals.

Further, it was up more than 100% after falling to nearly $1,700 in late June.

[Ed note: Investing in cryptocoins or tokens is highly speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should be prepared to lose their entire investment.]

Several analysts weighed in on the digital asset’s recent strength, speaking to the various factors helping drive it higher.

“Ether has continued to rise for a number of reasons, creating the perfect storm for price appreciation,” said Scott Melker, a crypto investor and analyst who is the host of The Wolf Of All Streets Podcast.

“Investors and believers continue to stake their coins in advance of Ethereum 2.0, and on countless CeFi platforms for yield, dramatically reducing the supply,” he noted.

“The enactment of the London Hard Fork and EIP-1559 have created a supply side shock, with the burning of 500M in coins in the first few weeks. Eth inflation is actually less than that of BTC at the moment.”

“Further, supply is being locked in DeFi and being traded for NFTs, which are in a massive boom cycle,” he said.

Jesse Proudman, co-founder and CTO of crypto hedge fund Strix Leviathan, also weighed in, commenting on how the growing visibility of NFTs and the increasing usage of DeFi have helped fuel gains.

“Today’s ETH surge is a perfect storm of both the explosion of interest in the NFT space, and the rising usage of DeFi protocols as people look to put their crypto to work in markets that have largely been range bound for several weeks.”

Sean Rooney, head of research at Valkyrie Investments, offered a similar take.

“The explosive growth of the DeFi ecosystem is the main factor for recent price strength in ether. NFTs have taken center stage in recent months as the market begins to better understand real world use cases.”

“What started as a discussion about digital art has transformed into communities and a new economy for artists and creators using programmable tokens,” he added.

“The trajectory for DeFi and NFTs is up, along with the price of ether.”

Institutional Involvement

One factor several experts cited as helping drive ether’s upside was the growing interest of institutions.

“Ether is by far the most attractive asset for Institutional investors who are putting more and more cash into digital assets,” said Charlie Silver, CEO & Chairman of Permission.io.

“With regulatory clarity being signaled you are seeing these big moves driven by smart professional money.”

William Noble, the chief technical analyst of research platform Token Metrics, also chimed in.

“Institutional involvement in DeFi is dramatically above year-ago levels,” he stated.

“ETH is telling you that the dawn of DeFi as a mainstream tool for institutional investors is here,” said Noble.

John Iadeluca, founder & CEO of multi-strategy fund Banz Capital, also offered some perspective on this subject.

“Institutions are further embracing Ether as a long-term investment, many of which are recently now opening their eyes to staking and passive validator rewards. Ethereum 2.0 staking provides institutional investors with an uncorrelated return stream, which blends perfectly with many institutional investment portfolios.”

Technical Analysis

Some of the market experts who contributed for this article also offered technical analysis.

Jake Wujastyk, chief market analyst of TrendSpider, described today’s price increase as probably being “a simple technical breakout as the chart has been setting up for a larger move over the last several weeks.”

“On the weekly candle, there was a large volume shelf shown by using TrendSpider's volume by price tool forming. These ‘shelves’ can create a base for the price to move up off of, which is exactly what happened.”

Other market observers pointed out crucial technical levels that traders should monitor.

“Observers should watch out for the key resistance level at $4,000, as well as rising selling pressure close to Ethereum's previously attained all-time high in the $4,150-$4,200 areas,” said Iadeluca.

Melker weighed in, offering a different point of view.

“From a technical perspective, it is effectively clear skies until the previous all time high around $4,400, as long as Ethereum holds the $3,600 and $3,300 areas as support.”

Disclosure: I own some bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin, ether and EOS.

…

Yearn.finance has grown to become a notable protocol in the decentralized finance (Defi) space – owing to its commitment to simplify the crypto sector for investors. The protocol leverages automation to provide investors with an opportunity to make profits through yield farming.

To help you understand how to invest in Yearn.finance, we have prepared this comprehensive guide – where we discuss the steps involved and the best brokers to use. You’ll also understand the risks that come with investing in Yearn.finance and how to manage them.

How to invest in Yearn.finance – Choose a Broker

The cryptocurrency industry is home to several platforms where you can invest in Yearn.finance. However, before opening an account with your chosen provider, you need to explore metrics surrounding fees, regulation, payments, and customer service.

Therefore, if you’re considering investing in Yearn.finance in the US, below are the best platforms for you to consider.

– Overall Best Broker to Invest in Yearn.financeCoinbase – Beginner-Friendly Broker to Invest in Yearn.financeKraken – Great Place to Invest in Yearn.finance

The above brokers made it into this list following our strict assessment of their services in terms of security, supported markets, payment options, fee policy, and user-friendliness.

How to Invest in Yearn.finance – A Quick Guide For 2021

If you’re already familiar with the cryptocurrency space and only need a quick guide on how to invest in Yearn.finance in the US, this section is for you.

All you have to do is to follow the steps below and you’ll be able to invest in Yearn.finance in under five minutes.

– A heavily regulated broker like eToro offers you security when investing in Yearn.finance, so we’d suggest you choose this option. To get started with this broker, visit the website, sign up, and complete the registration steps.Step 2: Upload a Valid ID – Since eToro is regulated by the SEC, all users must complete a Know Your Customer (KYC) process. You can do this by providing the broker with a copy of your government-issued ID.Step 3: Deposit Funds – To invest in Yearn.finance, you must first fund your eToro account. As a US investor, the minimum deposit you have to make is $50 and you can do this through a debit/credit card or online banking for free.Step 4: Invest in Yearn.finance – This is the final stage, where you type the token’s name into the search box. When the token appears in the result tab, click ‘Trade.’ This will take you to the page where you’ll enter your stake and open your Yearn.finance trade.

These are the crucial steps to follow when investing in Yearn.finance. An advantage of using eToro is that the broker has a simple user interface – so you can navigate all these steps conveniently without making a mistake.

Where to Buy Yearn.finance – Full Broker Reviews

Choosing a broker is perhaps the most important step when you’re contemplating an investment in Yearn.finance. This is because, if you choose the wrong platform, you might end up having a sub-par experience. In the cryptocurrency industry, a bad experience goes beyond a mere feeling of dissatisfaction — it might very well cost you your hard-earned money.

To avoid a situation of this nature, we have examined the market and come up with the top brokers for you to invest in Yearn.finance. For each of these platforms, we considered how secure they are, the available payment options, listed markets, user interface, and of course — fees and commissions.

So, if you want to invest in Yearn.finance in the US, here are the platforms up for consideration.

1. eToro – Overall Best Broker to Invest in Yearn.finance

eToro tops our list as the best broker to invest in Yearn.finance for various reasons. Perhaps the most important of these reasons is that eToro offers you adequate security over your funds. The broker is regulated by the SEC and approved by FINRA, meaning there’s a verified scope of operations by which the platform operates. Additionally, outside the US, eToro is regulated by the FCA and CySEC, indicating that the broker has a global reputation for credibility in the cryptocurrency market.

Consequently, since the broker is authorized by leading financial authorities, you can make payments on the platform through your debit/credit card, which is a swift way to add funds to your account. The broker also provides you with other payment options such as ACH and e-wallets. When you use any of these methods to deposit funds into your eToro account, the broker charges you no fee. This is in addition to the fact that you only need a minimum deposit of $50 to get started.

Another thing we find impressive about eToro is that the broker seeks to make it effortless for beginners to invest in cryptocurrency. First, the broker has a friendly user interface designed – with prompts to help you navigate your way seamlessly. Furthermore, eToro grants you access to a copy trading tool through which you can leverage the experience of other traders to open positions in the market. With this tool, all you need to do is to identify the trader you want to copy and eToro will replicate their future trades in your portfolio.

If you also want to interact with other Yearn.finance investors, the broker has a social platform for that purpose. Interestingly, all these benefits we’ve discussed are not limited to the Yearn.finance market. eToro grants you access to more than 30 other crypto markets in which you can invest. Some of the listed markets include Litecoin, EOS, Chainlink, Cardano, Ethereum, Spark, MANA, and more. With this impressive list of tokens, diversifying your Yearn.finance investment is super easy — as you have sufficient options to choose from.

Lastly, we assessed eToro in terms of fees and commissions. Here, the broker also has a great score, as you can invest in eToro on a spread-only basis. More importantly, the broker’s crypto spreads start at just 0.75%, making it relatively tight when compared against some platforms. For example, Coinbase’s spread can exceed 2% in some cases, meaning the gap between the ‘ask’ and ‘buy’ price you have to cover will be significant.

Pros

Cons

2. Coinbase – Beginner-Friendly Broker to Invest in Yearn.finance

Perhaps a significant factor that makes Coinbase a leading broker in the US is the platform’s user interface. The cryptocurrency industry continues to witness an increase in the number of users each and every day. It’s only right that brokers make it super convenient for newbies to start their trading journey, and Coinbase does just that. Founded in 2012, the broker now has over 68 million users leveraging the platform’s user-friendly interface to access the cryptocurrency markets.

You can invest in Yearn.finance through Coinbase once you create an account. This can be done by visiting the broker’s website and providing the relevant personal information needed to sign up. Following that, you’ll need to verify your identity by uploading a valid ID. Once you’re verified, you can invest in Yearn.finance and also access other products provided by the broker – including custodial accounts, advanced trading, and a wallet. In the same manner, you also gain access to other listed markets such as Ethereum, Chainlink, XRP, Litecoin, and more.

With all these features, you might be ready to choose Coinbase as the broker to invest in Yearn.finance. However, we must inform you that the platform has a low score in terms of fees and commissions. When you invert in Yearn.finance on Coinbase with a debit or credit card, you’ll incur up to 4% of the purchase amount. Meaning, if you invest $2,000 in Yearn.finance, you’d receive just $1,920 worth. This is an issue that will affect the size of your Yearn.finance investment returns, so you have to consider this before joining Coinbase.

Pros

Cons

3. Kraken – Great Place to Invest in Yearn.finance

With more than 50 cryptocurrencies listed on Kraken, you have a wide list of options to choose from if you’re looking to diversify your Yearn.finance investment. These listed markets include both crypto-crosses and fiat-to-crypto pairs. Getting started with investing in Yearn.finance on Kraken is convenient — as you simply need to create an account and complete the KYC process. The exchange, however, notes that there will be a 72-hour withdrawal hold after your first deposit.

Additionally, the platform also charges you 0.5% when you make a deposit into your account. Although this fee is moderate and competitive, eToro offers you the same service for free. Additionally, if your 30-day trading volumes fall under $50,000, this means that you’re not a large-scale investor on Kraken. In that case, you’ll pay commissions of 0.26% per slide. Nonetheless, Kraken has a simple user interface that makes it easy for you to invest in Yearn.finance.

Lastly, when investing in Yearn.finance on Kraken, you must know that the platform doesn’t offer a secure wallet for you to store your tokens. Therefore, you’ll need an external wallet where you’d move your Yearn.finance coins. This is a stressful process, as you’ll also have to transfer the tokens back to the broker before you can sell them. Additionally, the tokens might be susceptible to hacking once the transfer process is complete. This is a major challenge concerning this platform that you should note.

Pros

Cons

How to Invest in Yearn.finance – Detailed and Explained in Full

In the earlier sections of this guide, we highlighted some quick steps through which you can invest in Yearn.finance in the US. However, that might not be sufficient if you’re new to the cryptocurrency scene. Therefore, in this section, we provide a more comprehensive walkthrough on how to invest in Yearn.finance using a regulated and low-cost crypto broker like eToro

Step 1: Create an Account to Invest in Yearn.finance

You can open an account with eToro by visiting the broker’s homepage and clicking the ‘Join Now’ button. The sign-up process will require you to choose a username and a password. Additionally. while signing up, you’ll have to provide some personal information including your full name, home address, and more.

Furthermore, to provide you a personalized experience, eToro will ask you some questions to evaluate your investment experience and determine the right trading services you need. Another standard procedure with the broker is the provision of your telephone number, where eToro will send you a PIN to verify your account.

Step2: Upload a Valid ID

As a broker regulated by the SEC, eToro must comply with KYC laws. Meaning, all users on the platform must verify their identity before they can proceed to invest in any token.

Therefore, if you haven’t provided eToro with an ID issued by the government, the broker will place certain restrictions on your account that will prevent you from investing in Yearn.finance.For this purpose, you can upload your driver’s license or passport.Furthermore, you’ll also have to provide a document that validates your home address, such as a utility bill or a bank statement.

After fulfilling these requirements, the broker will verify your account within a few minutes and you’ll be able to use your debit/credit card to invest in Yearn.finance.

Step 3: Deposit Funds into Your Account

You need to fund your account before you can proceed to invest in Yearn.finance. As an investor from the US, you simply need to add a minimum of $50 to your account.  This small minimum deposit is ideal if you are looking to invest in cryptocurrencies in a low-risk manner.

On eToro, you have different payment options to use including ACH, online banking, and debit/credit cards. The good thing here is that when you add funds to your account using any of these options, you will incur no deposit fee. We consider this impressive because, on some crypto brokers, you can be charged up to 5% when you make payments through your debit/credit card.

Step 4: Search for Yearn.finance

Here, all you have to do is to enter ‘Yearn.finance’ into the search box. You’ll get a list of options out of which you’ll find ‘YFI.’

Click to trade the ‘YFI’ option and the system will take you to the next and final stage.

Step 5: Open Your Yearn.finance Investment

Once you’re on the order page, you’ll find the relevant box for you to enter your stake. You can decide to stick with the minimum required stake, which is $25.

Once you’ve entered your stake and confirmed your details, the last thing to do is to click ‘Open Trade.’ Once you do that, the broker will execute your order and you’ll get the equivalent number of YFI tokens to the stake you entered. Since you’re investing in Yearn.finance with eToro, you can use the broker’s in-built wallet to store your tokens.

How to Sell Yearn.finance Tokens

To make a profit from your Yearn.finance investment, it’s crucial to understand how you can sell the tokens. For example, if you invest $2,000 in Yearn.finance and the token rises by 20% shortly after opening the trade, your portfolio would now be worth $2,400.

Therefore, if you want to cash out your investment, you have to know how to initiate a sell order. eToro allows you to do this swiftly and securely from within your account.

Since eToro has an in-built wallet, your tokens would are stored there.This allows you to sell the tokens in a secure manner — as you can create a direct sell order.To sell your Yearn.finance tokens, visit your portfolio on eToro.Find the ‘Sell’ button and click on it.Ensure you choose a market order so that the broker sells your tokens immediately.Within a few seconds, your cash balance will reflect the sale.

Your funds will be in your account until you decide your next step, whether to reinvest the money or to withdraw your funds.

Ways to Invest in Yearn.finance

The cryptocurrency industry has grown to exponential heights in recent years, so you can expect that there are different ways for you to invest in Yearn.finance. To get a satisfactory service, it’s important to know the relevant features that the right broker should possess.

Therefore, when assessing an investment platform for this purpose, one of the things you want to consider is security. Investing in Yearn.finance using a regulated broker means your funds enjoy some level of protection.

So, in this section of our guide, we discuss the best ways to invest in Yearn.finance.

Invest in Yearn.finance Using an Online Broker

A crucial reason for choosing a broker is that you get security over your funds. Most brokers are authorized by leading financial authorities, making them credible platforms. For example, eToro is approved by both the SEC and FINRA, meaning you get to be in the regulator’s safety net when you invest in Yearn.finance through this platform.

Being an SEC-regulated broker, eToro positions itself as a credible platform in the market.Furthermore, since eToro enjoys the approval of FINRA, this means you can make payments through your debit/credit card, which is a swift option to add funds to your account.Lastly, as a regulated broker, eToro is mandated to disclose its fee policy. Meaning, the broker cannot charge hidden fees.

Another perk of investing in YFI tokens via eToro is the in-built wallet that comes with the broker. As such, you can safely store your Yearn.finance tokens in the wallet until you are ready to cash out. In the same manner, you can sell them directly from the wallet once you’re ready to do so.

Invest in Yearn.finance Using a Cryptocurrency Exchange

Some investors find cryptocurrency exchanges appealing because some of these platforms often have a notably low fee structure. For some users, what draws them close to these exchanges is that they can trade assets anonymously since there are no KYC requirements in place. However, after a careful evaluation of these exchanges, you’d realize that the absence of regulation behind these platforms means you enjoy no protection over your funds.

This is in addition to the fact that you cannot make payments through US dollars – since the platforms aren’t recognized by relevant financial bodies. Furthermore, in order to use these platforms, you must understand how to perform crypto-to-crypto exchanges. This might be convenient for an expert in the cryptocurrency space.

But, due to the complex nature of crypto-to-crypto exchanges, a beginner might make mistakes easily — and this can adversely affect your Yearn.finance investment. This is why we would argue that a broker like eToro is your best option when investing in Yearn.finance – since you can add funds to your account with US dollars and enjoy a safe and regulated environment.

Should I Invest in Yearn.finance?

As a beginner in the cryptocurrency industry, you need to understand how to make investment decisions beyond the hype around tokens. First, you must know that the cryptocurrency space is characterized by risk. Secondly, you need to ensure you perform adequate research before investing in Yearn.finance.

However, you might not know the features to look out for when researching crypto assets, so in this section, we have discussed some of the things you might want to consider before buying YFI tokens.

High Yields

One thing that makes Yearn.finance stand out in the market is that the protocol makes it convenient for users to maximize their assets. Yearn.finance is an open-source network designed to move your assets across various pools. This is to ensure that your tokens are constantly in the highest paying pools that will offer you the most favorable returns.

Some of the yield platforms leveraged by Yearn.finance include Aave, Dydx, and Compound. When users deposit stablecoins such as USDT or DAI into Yearn.finance, the protocol converts the assets into Ytokens. These are then shuffled across different farming platforms to generate returns.

Due to this notable use case, Yearn.finance has grown significantly in the market. Therefore, this is a core element of the protocol that you might want to research — since the feature has the potential to impact the token’s value.

Multiple User-oriented Features

You might want to consider the number of features a protocol has. This is because, in most situations, the use cases of a protocol can potentially impact the value of the platform’s token in the market.

Concerning this, Yearn.finance stands out for several reasons.The first feature here is ytrade.finance – through which users can go long or short on stablecoins. This feature also provides users with up to 1,000x leverage to maximize their trades.This has attracted thousands of traders to the protocol, making it a leading trading platform in the Defi market.Another feature is yliquidate.finance. This feature operates in the form of loans through which users liquidate funds in a super-efficient manner.Additionally, the network also has yswap.exchange – which is a feature that makes it possible for users to deposit funds across different Defi protocols.Lastly, iborrow.finance is another crucial feature that Yearn.finance leverages to help users access new streams of liquidity in the cryptocurrency industry.

Essentially, all these features create notable traction around the Yearn.finance token, impacting the coin’s value in the market. So, this is an area worthy of consideration during your research of YFI.

Community Governance

An important feature many investors consider when buying a coin is the protocol’s governance structure. Being a community-governed protocol, Yearn.finance ticks this box. As is the case with most Defi platforms, the number of governance tokens you own will determine the power you have concerning the protocol’s decision-making process.

For a proposal to be considered in the Yearn.finance protocol, at least 33% of token holders must consent. This structure democratizes the protocol and ensures all stakeholders contribute to the development of the protocol.

Simplifies the Defi Space

Defi is a growing sector that continues to unfold each and every day. Meaning, there’s a lot of confusion characterizing the space, especially for beginners looking to make a profit from buying Defi tokens. To be able to maximize the Defi space, you must have a comprehensive grasp of the functionalities and relevant standards in the sector. To new investors, not knowing this can hinder how well you get to maximize the Defi ecosystem.

In response to this, Yearn.finance automates most of the processes involved in making profits from Defi, especially the art of staking your tokens in valuable pools. By making this process seamless and super easy, the protocol has positioned itself as an appealing platform for beginners looking to invest in different tokens in the most convenient way. This is a significant use case with the potential of positively impacting the Yearn.finance token in the market.

Risks of Investing in Yearn.finance

When you do your own personal research on cryptocurrency tokens, you can gain a much better understanding of the risks involved. In fact, this is one of the first things you need to understand before you choose to invest in Yearn.finance.

To guide you through this phase, we’ll discuss some of the crucial risks you need to consider before buying FYI tokens in the US.

Notable Competition in the Defi Space

A major feature of Yearn.finance is that the protocol seeks to provide users with high yields over their assets.

However, there are other platforms such as the Binance Smart Chain, with impressive yield farming applications for generating great returns for users.Additionally, instead of leveraging Yearn.finance for high yields, users can choose to deposit their assets directly into lending protocols such as Compound, Dydx, Maker, InstaDApp, and more.Although Yearn.finance automates this process, the presence of other options offering similar results creates a competitive environment for the protocol.

Therefore, this is an area you might want to research when evaluating the risk that comes with buying YFI tokens.

Market Volatility

There is also the risk that you enter the Yearn.finance market now – and the token’s price drops shortly afterward. In this case, you’re not to make any rash decision — as price fluctuation is an inherent feature of the cryptocurrency industry.

Therefore, when creating a Yearn.finance investment plan, you should contemplate the possibility of extreme price fluctuations. This will keep you on track when you witness any such occurrence.

Security over Funds

When you’re learning how to invest in Yearn.finance, you must understand the importance of choosing an investment platform that will keep your funds safe.

Any smart investor understands the importance of choosing a credible platform, as the cryptocurrency industry has witnessed many cases of fund mismanagement or founders walking away with client capital.This is why we argue that a regulated broker is your best option when deciding on a platform where you can invest in Yearn.finance.

For instance, a broker like eToro is regulated by the SEC. Meaning, when you invest in Yearn.finance in the US through this broker, you can rest assured you’re using a credible platform.

Managing the Risk of a Yearn.finance Investment

Although you cannot completely avoid risks when investing in Yearn.finance, you can mitigate them. Here are some of the popular strategies for you to leverage.

As a Yearn.finance investor, doing your own personal research is how you can gain more insights into the token.This way, you’d understand the coin’s historical data. Meaning, you can make an informed decision when buying Yearn.finance.Additionally, you can invest small amounts at regular intervals. In the investment industry, this is referred to as dollar-cost averaging.You might also consider investing in other tokens alongside Yearn.finance.This essentially means you’re diversifying your portfolio, which is an effective strategy to absorb price shocks in the market. With a broker like eToro, you have more than 30 other tokens for this purpose.

More importantly, eToro has an in-built wallet for you to store your Yearn.finance tokens safely. This feature saves you from the risk that comes with transferring your tokens to an external wallet – which will require you to safeguard your own private keys.

How Much Does it Cost to Invest in Yearn.finance?

As we’ve earlier established in this How to Invest in Yearn.finance Guide, the fee policy of the broker you’re choosing is an important consideration.

Therefore, you should consider a broker like eToro – where you can invest in Yearn.finance on a spread-only basis.On eToro, the spread is tight — as this starts from 0.75%.This is unlike other platforms in this space, where the spread might shoot over 2-3%.Furthermore, eToro allows you to add funds to your account for free. This eliminates deposit fees which would have added to the overall investment cost.

From the above, it’s clear that brokers with tight spreads are cost-effective. This is why eToro stands out among other cryptocurrency investment platforms in the market. Additionally, eToro is mandated to keep its trading conditions fair, meaning you’re charged no hidden fees when investing in Yearn.finance.

How to Invest in Yearn.finance – Conclusion

Every cryptocurrency investment decision requires due diligence. So, when you’re contemplating buying Yearn.finance, you must understand the right broker to use and the risks to consider. In this How to Invest in Yearn.finance Guide, we have covered all these factors and more.

Beyond indicating why eToro is your best option to invest in Yearn.finance, we have walked you through the steps involved in buying the token with this broker. As a low-cost and heavily regulated broker with a simple user interface, you can safely invest in Yearn.finance on eToro in under five minutes.

FAQs

The crypto market is bouncing alongside equities Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve announced monetary policy in the U.S. is about to become a lot tighter.

While bitcoin and ether are trading 1% higher over the past 24 hours, prominent alternative cryptocurrencies like ADA, SOL and LUNA are up between 6% and 25%.

AVAX, the native token of the Avalanche open-source platform, added 24% to hit a record of $79.58, according to data from Messari.

Altcoins are outperforming bitcoin on the way up after they took a relatively bigger hit during the sell-off earlier this week. The price action highlights bitcoin’s long-held status as a crypto market haven, given its higher market cap. The cryptocurrency’s price is a lot more stable than the prices of most altcoins.

“The added volatility of a lesser known coin makes it much more risky, and so they tend to fall a lot harder when things are moving down and rise much sharper on the way up,” said Mati Greenspan, CEO of Quantum Economics.

S&P 500 e-mini futures also traded in positive territory, adding as much as 0.5%.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday said it will prepare the ground to possibly start phasing out some of the stimulus program support that it has given during the pandemic.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell also said that the central bank’s quantitative-easing (QE) program will likely conclude by mid-2022. Low interest rates and QE in the U.S. add to bitcoin’s appeal as an inflation hedge, according to Matthew Lam, a research analyst at Aspen Digital.

“We believe BTC continues to gain institutional appeal as a hedging asset and the end of QE next year is not likely to become a major driver of BTC price,” Lam said.

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New Delhi: The year 2021 has been the year of ups and downs for cryptocurrencies. As the crypto market saw a major gain in the first half of the year it also saw some heavy dumping during this time. But it can be said that the craze for the coins has been kept on increasing.

Gainst like Apple, Google, Tesla, Samsung, Facebook, and Paypal are ready to get into the market as they all have announced their long-term strategic plans related to cryptocurrencies.

Who would have thought that Bitcoin will touch the $62,000 mark? and altcoins like ETH, DOGE, and SHIB will attract tons of investors to the market.

As we all know that there are 2 two sides to every market and crypto has its too. The Crypto market is very volatile where you can witness large swings or a sudden fall with no notice and this the reason that people find it very risky.

The Crypto market is still under a recovery phase as it has seen multiple dumps in the past few months. Bulls are trying to take full control of the market and if you are ready to invest for the long term then here are the coins you should consider before they just shoot up.

BITCOIN (BTC)

BTC is the world’s most famous and largest cryptocurrency. Satoshi Nakamoto, who is still anonymous, created BTC in 2009. It is a decentralized digital currency that can be sent from one to another by using a peer-to-peer BTC network without any intermediaries.

It has a supply of 21 million maximum coins and till now more than 18 million have already been mined.

ETHERIUM (ETH)

ETH is the 2nd-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and the next generation of blockchain technology that has grabbed eyeballs of the investors. ETH is one of the top contenders for the best cryptocurrencies to buy list for the long term.

Vitalik Buterin and 7 others created Etherium in 2014 and it is one of the largest platforms for decentralized applications also known as DApps. ETH has a bright future and it is expected that it will continue to shine.

CHAINLINK (LINK)

LINK is among the best coins to invest in this year as this project still arouses the interest of retail and institutional investors alike. Chainlink expands the capabilities of smart contracts by enabling access to real-world data and off-chain computation while maintaining the security and reliability guarantees inherent to blockchain technology.

Cardano (ADA)

Cardano is a research-based cryptocurrency made by engineers, mathematicians, and cryptography experts. Charles Hoskinson who is one of the five initial founding members of Ethereum cofounded this project.

ADA aims to be the world’s financial operating system similar to Ethereum as well as providing solutions for chain interoperability. As of now, Cardano has a market capitalization of $69 billion and it costs $2.07

Litecoin (LTC)

Launched in 2011, Litecoin was among the first coins to follow Bitcoin. It has also been referred to as “silver to Bitcoin’s gold.” Created by Charlie Lee, an MIT graduate and former Google engineer, the coin is based on an open-source global payment network, controlled by any central authority.

LTC is like BTC in many ways as it has a faster block generation rate providing faster transaction confirmation time. As of now, LTC has a market capitalization of $12.1 billion and tokes in now worth $180 taking it to the top 5 crypto in the world.

DOGECOIN (DOGE)

The coin which was just started as a meme cryptocurrency has come a long way. 2021 has been a turnaround year for DOGE. The coin saw an increase of 15,000% which makes it one of the hot cryptocurrencies to buy.

Dogecoin is a direct source of encouragement for all the altcoins who are still trying to prove their existence in the market. Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk’s boost has given a huge push to the token.

DOGE hit a massive rally to touch the $0.74 mark in mid-April which made it surpass Twitter and Ford Motors in market cap.

Uniswap (UNI)

Uniswap empowers developers, liquidity providers and traders to participate in a financial marketplace that is open and accessible to all.

Polygon

Polygon is a protocol and a framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks. Aggregating scalable solutions on Ethereum supporting a multi-chain Ethereum ecosystem.

EOS

EOSIO is a highly performant open-source blockchain platform, built to support and operate safe, compliant, and predictable digital infrastructures

IOTA

IOTA has fundamentally reengineered distributed ledger technology, enabling secure exchange of both value and data, without any fees.

After 12 years of existence, it’s about time that crypto gets the recognition it deserves. Step by step, blockchain technology has made its way to public institutions after it conquered vendors and business enthusiasts. 

With all the issues that came with bank services, no wonder people are so hyped over the idea of crypto payments — which provide users with data and financial security.

Tokenization, in particular, got its spotlight due to all the solutions it offers in terms of fair payments, loans and votes. 

And to bring crypto one step forward, a dedicated team has developed one of the most intriguing utility tokens that will forever change the way we see crypto — the STC token, available in its initial coin offering since Feb. 1.

What is an STC token?

STC is the core utility token of the Student Coin blockchain project that makes the creation of personalized tokens without strong technical knowledge possible.

Having an account on the platform allows you to create:

Personal tokens: unique assets tied to a single account.Startup tokens: assets that help you take a step forward to your dreams.Corporate tokens: unique assets dedicated to a single company.DeFi tokens: assets that allow you to perform various bank activities without the intervention of third parties.NFT Tokens: transferable tokens that make it possible to switch between platforms. 

All these tokens are valued based on the STC Token, and they can be used for exchanges, trades and crowdfunding. 

Why is the STC token special?

What makes the STC token superior to other tokens is its focus on the most important people in the world’s economy — students. 

They are the next generation of employees, which will mark the success of current and future companies. To give people the chance to better education, there’s a need to make university programs more accessible. 

But it’s not that easy. Reducing tuition fees will lead to a lower budget to afford qualitative researchers, teachers, programs, international collaborations and so on. 

Until now, the solution has been bank loans. However, with our unpredictable economy, people have lost trust in banking services. And who can blame them?

Therefore, Student Coin’s team created a solution that decentralizes student loans — crowdfunding with personal tokens.

How does it work?

The future student creates their personal token. This token is put on the Student Coin market. The STC holders purchase the tokens until the student receives the money needed for tuition. After the student graduates and finds a job, a part of their salary will be locked to pay the loan. The STC holders receive a cyclical profit payment for their involvement. 

This project is sustained by over 500 top universities worldwide, including Harvard University, the University of Manchester and the University of Copenhagen.

This is a simple way for students to get the funds they need to achieve their dreams; at least, that’s the main focus, but this process can also be done for visionary entrepreneurs. 

And that’s not the only reason why Student Coin stands out. Holding STC tokens give users the chance to vote in the project’s development and even sign petitions if they’re needed. It’s an entire ecosystem created to give people what they need and raise the utility of cryptocurrencies.

How can you buy STC tokens?

To get your STC tokens as soon as possible, make sure you don’t miss the Student Coin Launchpad ICO, available until April 30. 

Although it started just 68 days ago, the team already raised $30.6 million worth of STC tokens and completed 113 phases.

Every phase finished has had a hard cap of $750,000, and the price increased by 1% with every reload. 

Who is behind Student Coin?

Student coin is backed by a dedicated team of 44 people from 12 different countries, ready to expand crypto usability and create solutions for the world’s needs. Among them, you can find the former CTO of IBM for Europe, for example, or the president of the Harvard University Club of Poland.

By the end of 2021, the team plans to have developed and implemented STC Exchange, STC Terminal and even an STC App (on the Google Play and App Store), alongside listing the token on major crypto exchanges. 

When J.R. Willett unveiled ‘The Second Bitcoin White Paper’ – the first whitepaper that introduced the concept of initial coin offering (ICO) in January 2012, no one really paid any attention.

It wasn’t until 2017, where the little crazy idea of a Seattle-based software developer gave birth to the ICO craze that took the world by surprise with its outstanding crowdfunding performance.

However, the ICO trend had spiralled out of control by hype and became a speculative bubble that popped in mid-December 2017. While the marvellous achievement of ICO was short-lived, its fundamental concept has become the backbone of the crypto financing environment. From the genius of ICO, three prominent crypto fundraising mechanisms were born: STO, IEO and IDO.

The SEC-approved benefit of Security Token Offering (STO) makes it attractive for projects to launch an ICO without legal ramification. By having a cryptocurrency exchange to research the projects, Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) gained traction and interest of retail investors as a safer alternative. Meanwhile, Initial DEX Offering (IDO) is a new concept born out of the recent DeFi craze where anyone can launch a token through a decentralized exchange with the advantages of instant liquidity, instant trading and cheaper listing cost. 

Recently, a new type of offering called Initial NFT Offering (INO) is gathering more interest among crypto retailers. This comes after the innovation of non-fungible tokens (NFT) that received support from big companies like NBA and Capcom as well as well-known entrepreneurs like Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Gary Vaynerchuk of VaynerX. 

However, the innovation of crypto crowdfunding does not stop here. A crypto project called Torum has created a modified version of INO with DeFi-infused elements for its upcoming public sale and named it Initial Staking NFT Offering (ISNO).

Initial Staking NFT Offering or ISNO is a new crypto funding innovation that involves offering a set of limited edition stake-able NFTs for sale. 

Unique from the other conventional INOs, the digital artworks received from ISNO can be staked to unlock a set of rewards or benefits in a project ecosystem. Aside from the inherent supply scarcity, the perks of holding the stake-able NFT can take place in many forms, including an autographed physical artwork from the original creator, integrated equipment in a gaming platform or even the farming reward multiplier that is proposed by Torum.

In the era of utility innovation, the crypto industry is constantly looking for meaningful use cases to speed up the crypto adoption pace, including NFT.

ISNO might just be the answer to that.

Torum is a social media platform that is specially designed for worldwide cryptocurrency users. Using social media as a foundation, the project is now expanding its ecosystem to the DeFi and NFT spaces. 

The new ecosystem will include Torum NFT Marketplace that integrates XTM, the native token of Torum and Torum Finance, a DeFi platform that will be used to organize the ISNO event.

Yi Feng Go, CEO of Torum says: “As I was researching DeFi and NFT, I couldn’t help but think that there must be some creative ways to incorporate the both of them. Then, the public sale idea hit me like a truck.”

The Torum’s ISNO event will start on May 10, 2021 with a total of 363 limited edition NFTs up for sale.

Organized on Torum Finance, there will be 5 different NFT tiers available for purchase, starting from $200 to $16,200. The digital artwork of each tier represents the 5 ecosystem eras of Torum, namely Genesis, Exorsus, Crescentia, Maturitas, and Concordia.

Released at 5 different prices, the NFTs issued under ISNO can each be burned to unlock a specific amount of XTM locked in the token and comes with a permanent staking multiplier ranging from 1.05x to 1.25x. With only 363 digital artworks up for grabs, the success of Torum’s ISNO event will once again spur a new wave of blockchain innovations.

For more information, visit torum.com

New Delhi: Crypto world has flourished in 2021 and top coins are still attracting new investors. The first half of 2021 has seen a major gain in the crypto market and the craze for the coins is still increasing. Giants like Apple, Google, Tesla, Samsung, Facebook, and Paypal recently showed their interest in cryptocurrencies and have planned to include them in their long-term strategic plans.

if you are still waiting for the right time to enter the market then this may be your last chance to do so. The Crypto market is recovering well after a huge dump in the past few days. The good news for the investors is that Bulls are trying to take full control of the market.

Here are the top alternatives to Bitcoin where you can invest.:

VeChain: $0.1493

VeChain believes that blockchain technology is one of the foundations for the next generation of information technology, alongside emerging technologies such as AR, VR, AI, IoT, 5G and more. With the technology’s immutable and tamper-proof characteristics, blockchain, as an infrastructural technology, is uniquely positioned to enable unprecedented value and data-transfer among a wide set of users in a trust-less manner, boosting the efficiency and authenticity of information transfer itself.

Cardano (ADA): $2.92

Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain platform: the first to be founded on peer-reviewed research and developed through evidence-based methods. It combines pioneering technologies to provide unparalleled security and sustainability to decentralized applications, systems, and societies.

Dogecoin: $0.2949

Dogecoin is one of those cryptocurrencies that had a good run in the first half of 2021. The coin which was just made to make fun of Bitcoin has achieved so much till now. It is still not even close to the BTC but still, it managed to rise from more than $1 billion to $47 billion in early January.

Uniswap (UNI): $29.09

Uniswap empowers developers, liquidity providers and traders to participate in a financial marketplace that is open and accessible to all.

Ethereum: $3,900.82

Ethereum is a technology that lets you send cryptocurrency to anyone for a small fee. It also powers applications that everyone can use and no one can take down.

Chainlink: $30.51

Chainlink decentralized oracle networks provide tamper-proof inputs, outputs, and computations to support advanced smart contracts on any blockchain.

Monero: $305.86

Monero was launched in April 2014. It was a fair, pre-announced launch of the CryptoNote reference code. There was no premine or instamine, and no portion of the block reward goes to development.

Polygon: $1.62

Polygon is a protocol and a framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks. Aggregating scalable solutions on Ethereum supporting a multi-chain Ethereum ecosystem.

EOS: $5.63

EOSIO is a highly performant open-source blockchain platform, built to support and operate safe, compliant, and predictable digital infrastructures

IOTA: $1.59

IOTA has fundamentally reengineered distributed ledger technology, enabling secure exchange of both value and data, without any fees.

BitTorrent: $0.004823

BTT is a TRC-10 utility token based on the blockchain that powers features of the most popular decentralized protocols and applications in the world. DApps powered by BTT include BitTorrent Speed, BitTorrent File System, DLive, and others in the pipeline.

Ethereum Classic: $69.51

Ethereum Classic provides a permissionless way to manage digital assets without the need for intermediaries, such as banks and other institutions.

For tech startups hungry for capital, an initial coin offering seems to offer a dream: It lets them raise millions of dollars online with just an idea for a product or service to be delivered in the future. For investors, the allure is the ability to invest any amount very early on in startups whose cryptocurrency could soar in value. Such is the attraction of ICOs that the first quarter saw a record 152 offerings hit the market, raising $4.83 billion — already bigger than last year’s tally of $3.9 billion, according to Coinschedule.

An initial coin offering lets a young company raise money — in addition to venture capital, angel investors and others — by selling tokens that can come in the form of its own cryptocurrency. In return, investors from Main Street to Wall Street get free or discounted products and other perks once the startup actually launches the business. Investors can also sell or trade these cryptocurrencies for other tokens in crypto exchanges. But unlike crowdfunding, ICOs typically are global, most leverage blockchain and their investors typically seek a return on their investment through sales of tokens.

Since they are so new, ICOs operate with little, if any, regulatory purview. But that’s about to change. With such big sums being raised and the danger of scams proliferating, regulators are seeking ways to create the right framework for supervision, according to the recent Wharton Reg@Tech conference, where key government officials, cryptocurrency entrepreneurs, academics and lawyers met to discuss avenues for regulation. The conference was hosted by The Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research.

“Enforcement is generally seen by regulators as an important challenge,” said Kevin Werbach, Wharton professor of legal studies and business ethics and one of the forum’s main organizers. Regulators’ viewpoints range from “creating completely new regulations for token offerings to stating that traditional securities rules can apply without any changes,” he said.

The Wharton conference, which was by invitation only and included a private session for just regulators from around the world, gave authorities the opportunity to compare notes informally, Werbach added. “We asked the regulators where they see gaps in existing legal frameworks.” He said there also was discussion about the prospects for self-regulation, although it’s too early to say whether authorities were in favor of it or not.

According to a pre-conference survey of participants, regulators believe the most valuable thing the private sector could do to address the governments’ concerns would be to make sure they comply with existing rules. Authorities also want startups to engage in active discussions with regulators as well as establish standards and improve transparency. As for entrepreneurs, they want regulators to be more clear about how they can avoid legal action.

Regulation Is Not Easy

The regulators’ goal is to protect consumers and preserve the stability of the markets while continuing to foster innovation. But crafting ICO and cryptocurrency regulations is harder than it looks, according to discussions by conference participants. For one, the blockchain is a decentralized ledger system that makes monitoring tougher because it lacks a central body to be held to account.

Also, since these offerings have a global reach because they’re conducted online, they pit government authorities against each other. For example, if a startup is incorporated in the U.S. but its founders and top management team live and work in Hong Kong, which country has jurisdiction over the business?

Even within a country, there’s a question of competing jurisdictions as well. When a startup sells tokens in an ICO that can be exchanged for future products, is it selling a security since investors can hope to make money if the token goes up in value? That means securities laws kick in to be enforced by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

But what if the exchangeable tokens are commodities? Then the lead regulator is the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). FinCEN, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, has also weighed in. It said a company with a virtual currency trading platform is a money transmitter and thus must comply with related rules.

No matter, the SEC has charged ahead. In recent months, it has stepped up its scrutiny of ICOs by issuing dozens of subpoenas, according to The Wall Street Journal. SEC chairman Jay Clayton has said that cryptocurrency and ICO markets have “substantially less investor protection” than traditional securities markets, with “correspondingly greater opportunities for fraud and manipulation.”

In January, the SEC halted the ICO of AriseBank, calling it “allegedly fraudulent.” AriseBank described itself as a decentralized bank and sold its AriseCoin cryptocurrency as tokens to investors to be used on future products and services. At one point, it also claimed that its accounts were FDIC insured.

“There are points of commonality across global regulators. They all are striving to protect their citizens from nefarious schemes. They all want to promote capital formation and job creation, and they all want market integrity.”–Rick Levin

Global Regulators Coordinate

Despite overlapping jurisdictions, regulators globally are collaborating just like they do on other cross-border issues like money laundering. The key is to find common ground first and then customize for local needs. “There are points of commonality across global regulators,” Rick Levin, chairman of the fintech and regulation practice at law firm Polsinelli, told Knowledge@Wharton. “They all are striving to protect their citizens from nefarious schemes. They all want to promote capital formation and job creation, and they all want market integrity. So harmonization is something that can be strived towards … but also there’s an appreciation that each country has separate lawmaking bodies.”

Kavita Jain, director of emerging regulatory issues at the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), added that regulators want to be helpful. “As regulators, we want to support innovation because it provides consumers access to better, cheaper, faster services — sometimes access to services they may not have had in the past,” she said in an interview. “It also has the potential to create efficiencies in the marketplace, but it has to be done within the guardrails of investor protection and market integrity. … We’re trying to maintain that balance.”

But Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at Coin Center, said the industry’s view on regulation is mixed. “Some people think the government’s taking a somewhat too draconian or conflicting approach that has been too hard for the industry to parse,” he said in a Knowledge@Wharton interview. Others believe the industry has to “grow up and deal with it. This is regulation just like any other regulation.” His opinion is that regulators have a mixed report card. The SEC, which he said has been labeled as being heavy handed on the industry, actually is “very sensible” by doing enforcements on a case-by-case basis.

In contrast, China and South Korea have banned ICOs outright. Van Valkenburgh said such a “sweeping, aggressive” approach is premature, especially when dealing with a fast-changing technology. “If the environment changes … maybe you [would] have missed out on a lot of potential innovation.” By being “somewhat obstructionary,” China could be ceding blockchain innovation to nations like Singapore, Japan and the West. In his view, Singapore’s pro-innovation policy is working out well for ICOs and cryptocurrencies. “I wish we had such a clear path in the U.S., but it also means a clear path for bad policy as well.”

Approach for Regulators

When developing rules for cryptocurrencies and ICOs, regulators must ask themselves three questions: What is the goal? Who is the target of the regulation? What is the method of enforcement? For example, the objective could be consumer protection, according to a European researcher. Other goals could be anti-money laundering or counter-terrorism. But when it comes to choosing the entity to be regulated, it is not that easy. “The blockchain is a transnational, multijurisdictional peer-to-peer network. There are many actors, established in many places.”

The researcher calls these targets “regulatory access points” — bodies that are more practical for government authorities to regulate in the crypto and ICO ecosystem. For instance, one access point is the internet service provider (ISP). “They are in a position to comply with regulators,” she said. They also can determine which networks are connected to the blockchain, look deep into blockchain packets or applications, and they can sometimes distinguish between lawful and illegal activity. Indeed, most bitcoin nodes are hosted on only 13 ISPs. “Even though we see blockchain as decentralized, there’s a way to centralize it.”

“As regulators, we want to support innovation because it provides consumers access to better, cheaper, faster services — sometimes access to services they may not have had in the past.”–Kavita Jain

Another regulatory target could be miners. They are companies that validate blocks on the blockchain in return for compensation, usually in the form of cryptocurrency. To validate blocks, they perform complex calculations that use a lot of electricity. “When they are gathered in large mining pools, [we can] locate them through electricity consumption,” the researcher said. They can be located because the electric utility might be run by the state. However, regulators risk unsettling the entire blockchain network and cause miners to flee to another country. Also, miners cannot distinguish between legal and unlawful activity, she said.

Authorities also could target intermediaries, such as cryptoasset exchanges, search engines, social networks and hardware manufacturers. With search engines, regulators could force them to stop listings that seem fraudulent. Social networks could be compelled to reject cryptocurrency or ICO ads. Hardware makers could be required to install “backdoors” into the system that regulators could access. The U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Act of 2016 allows such action, according to the researcher.

To be sure, there are drawbacks to targeting intermediaries as well. For example, South Korea has shifted anti-money laundering (AML) duties to banks from cryptoasset exchanges, the researcher said. “What does that mean from a competition and innovation perspective?” And then one could also argue the opposite: By removing AML compliance from crypto intermediaries, they are free to focus on innovation.

Target Exchanges

Coin Center’s Valkenburgh thinks cryptoasset exchanges are the “logical” targets for regulation. “Those exchanges will always be centralized,” he said. “We might see a decentralization of crypto to crypto exchanges, but if there are dollars involved, there will be a chokepoint, if you will. I think that is a sensible place to do your AML regulation, to do your investor protection regulation.” Also, the exchanges would be easier to keep track of than the many startups. “It’s going to be whack-a-mole to a certain extent.”

“It’s going to be whack-a-mole to a certain extent.”–Peter Van Valkenburgh

Monitoring the exchanges also is preferable to targeting the actual tech protocol or platform, such as regulating software development or network architecture of bitcoin or the Ethereum blockchain platform, said Valkenburgh. “Those plans would inevitably backfire. Alternative networks would appear, people would switch to those without backdoors, or that were not compromised in any way.” What’s more is that “these networks are made to avoid centralized control so it would be difficult to implement any meaningful policy through that layer,” he added.

Similar disadvantages arise if authorities go after software developers, who could be required to program in “kill switches” or encryption “backdoors” for governments to use, the researcher said. If they balk at such regulation, developers could move to more friendly jurisdictions or work anonymously. Another wrinkle: Not all regulators like the idea of a “backdoor.” She said the EU Security Commissioner believes it would weaken the overall security of the network within a blockchain context.

How about targeting the end users? For example, China has banned ICOs and encourages citizens to report on those who break the law. But the disadvantage is that the public might not understand what they are doing nor have the capacity to comprehend complex legislation, the researcher said. Also, the impact of shifting norms is an issue. “If a lot of people use it, it becomes much harder for regulators to enforce it,” she said.

Instead of targeting a body to regulate, government could consider getting involved in decentralized networks. For example, they could participate in blockchain governance, software development, mining or running nodes. Also, they could create blockchains specifically designed to comply with regulatory constraints, or endorse projects that do so, the researcher said.

However, one conference participant argued that in a “world of decentralized applications … you have to go after the internet itself because there’s nowhere else.” Indeed, it is quite possible for intermediaries to continue to disappear, another participant said. “With decentralized exchanges, more anonymous cryptocurrencies are coming online. At which point you have to go to the end users or the infrastructure itself” — or the ISP.

One lawyer noted that regulators have been thinking about the blockchain in terms of its being a technology rather than viewing it through an industry lens. “Blockchain tokens can represent anything,” he said. “They can be my health care records. In the U.S., it will have regulatory implications.” Another lawyer said that the difficulty is that a decentralized system by its nature wants to avoid the law. “They provide an alternative,” he said. But is the decentralized system better than the rule of law? “This is like an open question. Is this something we should protect or ensure it develops? Or regulate and fight it?”

Whatever the approach, it behooves regulators to make sure they don’t over-police. One industry participant said that a federal pre-emption of state laws would be helpful. He said there are 53 states and territories that regulate money transfers and licensing of exchanges. “It’s ridiculous and absurd — that’s a high compliance burden,” he added. Getting to the 53rd background check and money transmission license will have “no effect on your likelihood of protecting consumers or not. It’s just red tape.”

How Many ICOs Are Scams?

Consumer protection is high on the list of regulators’ goals in overseeing the industry. Concerns are rising, especially since ICOs have exploded in popularity seemingly from nothing. Indeed, the cryptocurrency craze has been compared to the Dutch tulip bubble in the 17th century. But are most ICOs really scams?

Based on one academic’s research, at least 5% of ICOs are frauds and scams, and the figure could go as high as 25%.

One academic from a leading university examined around 1,500 ICOs and 1,800 tokens from 2011 to 2018. Based on his research, he said that at least 5% are frauds and scams, and the figure could go as high as 25%. Some red flags: There is no white paper explaining the business model, or if one exists, it is less technical than others, less polished and not professionally edited. The startup accepts credit cards and launched a website shortly before the offering with scant information about its founders.

Fraudulent ICOs also tend to engage in bad practices such as “bounty” programs, where they ask the community to talk up their ICO online and in social media in exchange for rewards. They also don’t have an escrow account — a place to park investors’ money until the offering is completed, after which funds are distributed to the startup in stages. Also, it’s not a good sign if the startup doesn’t have a codebase for the public to see.

What investors also don’t seem to reward are startups with ICO advisors. Their presence means the startup’s ICO is more likely to be listed on an exchange, perhaps due to the advisor’s connections, but the offering is not likely to do well, the academic said. “There is a cottage industry of advisors on ICOs,” he said. “They jump from ICO to ICO.”

The good news is that the market seems to be able to discern good from bad actors, the academic said. More capital flows to startups whose white papers are more technical and which exhibit best practices like vesting and escrow. Those that do not promote dividend payouts and bounty programs get more money than those that do. Also, startups led by a team with more credentials and tech expertise are favored by investors.

“The most reassuring part of that is many of those you can spot with some major red flags,” the academic said. “They are not as sophisticated yet.” But of course, the danger is that as their expertise grows, so could their ability to dupe the public.

For Personal use:

El Salvador has made global headlines with its president's controversial introduction of Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender — a move that has sparked dissent from many citizens and was met with skepticism by the International Monetary Fund. A new survey suggests that despite these developments, most El Salvadoreans still know little about the veteran cryptocurrency and even less about its smaller-market cap counterparts.

Research conducted by the São Paulo-based agency Sherlock Communications suggests that 54% of Salvadoran respondents chose ‘none’ when asked which cryptocurrency they knew best out of a list of five leading coins.

While 40% chose Bitcoin over the other listed cryptos — Ether (ETH), Bitcoin, Dogecoin (DOGE) and EOS — the survey did not seek to probe the level or depth of the knowledge these respondents have of the coin. In correspondence with Cointelegraph, Patrick O’Neill, director of Sherlock Communications, commented:

“The data we collected from El Salvador made it very clear to us that there are very high levels of confusion regarding cryptocurrency, surprisingly as this may seem, given the circumstance.”

Answers to the survey’s other questions support this picture, with 46% of respondents choosing “none” when asked, “What would make you confident to invest in cryptocurrencies?” Eighteen percent answered that proper regulation would help them to make the leap, with a similar figure (16%) responding that access to more reliable and user-friendly platforms would make the difference. 

Asked whether or not a local economic crisis would make them more or less likely to trust crypto, 35% answered “less likely,” and 28% responded that a fiscal downturn would make them “much less likely” to invest in the asset class. Twenty-four percent held the opposite view, saying that an economic downturn would make them more interested in crypto. Again, however, more respondents — 41% — said that a poor economic climate would make no difference to their relationship with crypto.

Rather than outright hostility or enthusiasm, a plurality of the survey’s respondents – 42% – said that recognizing Bitcoin as legal tender was neither a good nor a bad idea. Out of the remaining respondents, 31% in total had a more or less negative view of the move, and 29% more or less positive.

Related: El Salvador acts on Bitcoin price dip and buys 150 BTC

Neutrality or indifference was again marked in answers to a question regarding the state of crypto in the country, now and in the future. Thirty-two percen had no opinion on the matter, with the next largest share of responses identifying with the answer, “It’s a subject that has no future here.” 

In recent coverage of citizens' resistance to the government's new Bitcoin law, one resident told reporters that: “We don’t know the currency. We don’t know where it comes from. We don’t know if it’s going to bring us profit or loss. We don’t know anything."

 What is Cardano (ADA)?

Cardano (ADA) is known to be a third-gen blockchain that is available to the overall population alongside being a dApp advancement platform. Third-gen cryptocurrencies will in general take in examples from first and second-gen cryptocurrencies and enhance upon their constraints.

Cardano can use new advancements done throughout the years including, security, sustainability, and multiple layer architectures to develop versatility. Cardano is said to be the first blockchain platform to have acquired worldwide media consideration by including a companion investigated research plan into its core standards.

In September 2017, Cardano made a grand entrance in the market. The venture’s Founder’s Jeremy Wood and Charles Hoskinson both dealt with the Ethereum project beforehand. But the group split from Ethereum citing contrasts in objectives.

Cardano earned a quick continuing in the crypto space because of its advancements in language and VM plan. These increments were an immediate reaction to issues experienced in the Ethereum network. The platform separated itself from the opposition and started working with educators from colleges across the world to join the peer-audited scholarly investigation into its plan.

To raise finances an ICO was performed. Somewhere around $62 million were secured from a worldwide audience of investors. The assets went to the extension of the ADA environment.

Cardano effectively attempts to tackle some of the issues faced during the adoption of blockchain on a large scale. Cardano seeks to reign issues such as scalability, interoperability, and sustainability, through the development of design principles and engineering best practices.

In its initial days, Cardano could deal with something like 10 transactions per second. But recently Hoskinson delivered a paper clarifying another scaling answer for the network – Hydra. Hydra is a Layer 2 scaling arrangement that uses state diverts to handle exchanges off-chain. Utilizing this innovation, Cardano can measure more than 1,000,000 transactions per second.

Cardano endeavors to acquaint norms into the market with empower interoperability across networks. These frameworks incorporate blockchain administration models, framework upgrade protocols, and capabilities. At present, the platform has principles for overseeing privacy, security, and decentralization.

Ouroboros is a new consensus mechanism of Cardano. Ouroboros is a chain-based PoS protocol and it relies on randomly chosen leaders to approve blocks. Just like other blockchains, the node that adds the next block receives a reward for its efforts.

One of the benefits of Cardano is that it’s an eco-friendly cryptocurrency. For better understanding, here’s how much energy Cardano, Bitcoin, and Ethereum are estimated to use per year:

Cardano: 6-gigawatt hours

Bitcoin: 130 terawatt-hours

Ethereum: 50 terawatt-hours

Healthcare: Cardano’s blockchain can validate pharmaceutical products to avoid the danger of purchasing counterfeit medications.

Finance: Cardano can be utilized in developing nations as a record of individuals’ identities and to show their reliability.

Agriculture: Blockchain innovation can give dependable inventory network following to farmers, hauliers, and shippers.

The peer-review process of Cardano means it is the type of cryptocurrency with slow and steady developments. The benefit of Cardano’s methodology is that peer review catches security issues that could somehow prompt more difficult issues later.

Very much like Bitcoin, Cardano has fixed stock. It has a maximum inventory of 45 billion ADA, and there are right now around 32 billion ADA available for use. That by itself doesn’t ensure the cost will go up. However, assuming Cardano takes off in popularity, the limited supply could assist with expanding demand.

Cardano’s makers have an adoration for names. Each progression of the platform’s improvement guide is named after a renowned artist, author, or PC researcher. ADA, Cardano’s local token, takes its name from Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron and a nineteenth-century mathematician. Many trust Lovelace’s reasoning established the frameworks for cutting-edge computing.

Bitcoin and Ethereum’s (ETH) energy utilization has been at the center of attention as of late after Elon Musk said Tesla would suspend Bitcoin buys because of environmental concerns. Bitcoin utilizes about a similar measure of energy as the Netherlands every year. Ethereum’s utilization is less than half of Bitcoin’s, but it’s still the equivalent of a smaller nation like Portugal.

Conversely, Cardano is environment-friendly crypto, which burns through with regards to a similar measure of energy as 600 U.S. homes every year. Ethereum has a redesign in progress which would cut its utilization by 99.95%. Be that as it may, Cardano’s green certifications have been prepared from the beginning.

There are numerous ways blockchain could affect lives. One of Cardano’s establishing standards was to tackle genuine issues, like financial accessibility. It has had a group situated in Ethiopia for quite a while, voyaging and constructing associations with governments and services across the landmass. Its new leader manages the Ethiopian Ministry of Education is its greatest undertaking yet.

This association utilizes the Cardano platform to make computerized IDs for 5 million understudies. It will give every understudy a protected and sealed academic record that stays with them forever. As they move into the labor force or school, that ID will assist them with demonstrating their academic credentials.

It’s hard to discuss crypto without getting specialized rapidly. Cardano utilizes a layered blockchain to follow exchanges and store data. Blockchain records resemble exceptionally refined data sets constructed utilizing interconnected squares. Cardano’s layers mean it’s ready to deal with exchanges quicker than numerous other digital currencies. Indeed, it will be quicker than Visa’s handling capacities of 65,000 exchanges each second (TPS).

Cardano has a subsequent layer considered Hydra that sits on top of the current blockchain. It’s a bit like the express checkout at the supermarket. The essential blockchain handles individuals coming in to do their colossal month-to-month shop, while Hydra handles the speedy shops of 10 things or less. Each express checkout till resembles a handling pool that is known as a Hydra head. Each head can measure up to 1,000 TPS. So 1,000 Hydra heads would have the option to handle 1 million TPS.

In contrast to the mythological beast, when you shut down one head, it doesn’t bring forth two more. Notwithstanding, every client who interfaces with the organization will create 10 heads. So the more individuals utilizing the organization, the handling power it has.

Cardano was established by Charles Hoskinson, who also co-founded Ethereum yet left after a conflict on how it ought to be run. From the start, Hoskinson (who is something of a crypto superstar) has not settled to do things another way. Each progression of the stage’s advancement has been peer-surveyed as the specialists assembled this new blockchain without any preparation. That is the reason ADA has been in the main 10 coins by market capitalization since it was dispatched in 2015.

Before you sign on to your digital currency trade and spend your hard-earned money on Cardano, remember that it still has a long way to go. For instance, Ethereum as of now has smart contracts fully operational, while Cardano desires to dispatch them in near future.

Smart contracts are self-executing bits of code that let clients set conditions on payments. For instance, you will get 5 ADA if you give that person a copy of your e-book. They are at the core of numerous blockchain applications, which is the reason around 2,800 applications as of now utilize Ethereum’s organization. As per the state of the DApps, that is about 80% of the application market.

It’s early days for all digital currencies, and for investors, it very well may be hard to isolate publicity from substance. Cardano adopted the gradual strategy, which implies it has an exceptionally strong stage yet missed the main mover advantage. It desires to carry out shrewd agreement ability not long from now, and that will be a significant trial of its innovation. Watch this space intently.

In conclusion, the Cardano cryptocurrency is currently going through an all-time high and is expected to surge to a greater extent in near future.

ICO is an acronym that needs to be known by anyone who wants to venture into the crypto world. This stands for Initial Coin Offering, and it is the most common way in which cryptocurrencies are created. Most of the cryptocurrencies that are making rounds and being traded today started as ICOs. The inception of an ICO for any cryptocurrency begins with just an idea by an individual or group of people who intend to build a token or coin. A token or coin could represent a lot of things. This could range from an asset, unit of value, or even utility that goes onto a blockchain. The brains behind this token or coin can then proceed to create an ICO. It is important that every ICO owner properly outlines the coin’s purpose and offers precise information to convince their target market that it will succeed and has prospects of being very useful.

In a situation where this goes as planned and works out as it should, that is the point where the general public can decide if they think the project has potential and is worth investing in. In this case, anyone may purchase the project’s first utility token. By purchasing these tokens, they participate in the project at hand and acquire a piece of ownership. An ICO must have a fundraising target to begin the project, and once that target has been reached, the project may begin. People who purchase these tokens have hopes that the coin will experience growth and eventually be worth more in the future when the project actually begins.

What Do I Need To Know About ICOs?

Considering what is stated above, you can understand the meaning of ICOs and their vital role in cryptocurrencies. The information helps answer the very common question, what is an ICO in crypto? We could say beyond reasonable doubt that creating ICOs seems like a great system to raise capital for certain upcoming projects. However, many ICOs have grown to have a bad reputation due to previous scams and technical issues. Furthermore, it is undeniable that some ICOs have been enormously successful, but it is also important to recognize the signs of a risky project. A couple of things that should be considered and properly looked into include:

White Paper

This is the first step that anyone researching an ICO is to carry out. A vague or poorly written and improperly planned white paper may be the clearest sign that the project is not fully looked into, lacks proper planning, and has the potentials of crashing. Therefore, it is extremely important to investigate the team and any business partnerships.

An experienced team will have a stronger chance of navigating the challenges of a competitive business environment. It is essential to thoroughly read and analyze and assimilate the white paper of a prospective investment because this document outlines the aims and strategies of that project and all it entails in detail. Some projects might have stratospheric ideas but are void of a practical approach for achieving those goals. Others may lack crucial details that leave you wondering whether the project is truly feasible or it is the sham that it looks like.

Although a good white paper is not a guarantee that the ICO will be a success, an incomplete, hastily written, problematic, and improperly planned one can be a sign of trouble to come. Glaring issues with spelling, formatting, or grammar can also be considered red flags. Conversely, if you’re preparing a white paper for your own ICO, it is important to expect investors to pore over every detail.

Evaluate The Quality Of The Code

It is a major red flag if a project has no working code before an ICO, or even if they do, it isn’t open source. If you are privileged to have even a little bit of programming experience and have the ability to read a code, you should do so when evaluating an ICO. You can understand a lot about a project and its developers by properly studying and analyzing their code.

Learn From VC-investors

Many venture capital investors make their living on investments, which gives them the right to be the pickiest contributors. They are very careful about examining everything about the project with just one very particular thing in mind: how much profit will this investment result in? Aside from everything involved, there is behavioral science involved here: a consensus in the VC world is that it’s never good for a startup to receive too much money very quickly, as they will be compelled to spend the funds just because they’re available.

Everyone has the right to launch an ICO due to its ease and lack of regulation in most countries. This means that as long as you can get the tech set up, you are totally free to try and get your currency funded by people who are interested in your plan because they dim it feasible. Since there is no proper regulation, it simply means there is nothing stopping anyone from doing all the work to make you believe they have a great idea and then end up absconding with the money without actually implementing the plan.

Before investing your money, you should ensure that you do proper research and take your homework seriously because ICOs are barely regulated. Therefore, you need to be way more careful than you would be when investing in an IPO. Read the white paper properly,  research the team members, and make sure they have a history in cryptocurrency.

With the volume of newly launched tokens growing by the day, Coinfluence has introduced a revolutionary platform to offer a holistic influencer-driven exposure to tokens that deserve and need it.

15th July, 2021, Talinn, Estonia: The crypto industry has a unique marketing environment – being a cutting-edge industry, traditional (even digital-traditional) marketing strategies have proven to be ineffective at capturing the attention and interest of today’s crypto consumers. Heavy users of social media, the younger crowd relies more on word of mouth than ads or news. According to recent research, the influencer market will reach nearly $14 billion this year, and it is no wonder that this shift in paradigm will be felt in the crypto sphere.

Take the example of Elon’s Musk’s infamous support for Dogecoin. The latest tweet recovered the 10% drop it witnessed a day earlier. One tweet can be the difference between the life and death of the next breakthrough in the digital asset space. Such is the power of influencers in crypto.

Coinfluence: The Crypto Influencer Platform of the Future

Coinfluence solves the crypto influencer marketing problem by connecting upcoming projects with a wealth of high-level influencers. The outcome is an environment where projects get access to high-quality social media influencers that can attract the right crowd and increase the chances of a successful launch while the influencers get to be a part of the next breakthrough in crypto, creating fantastic win-win situations. And of course, a good project doesn’t necessarily translate into a successful one if it remains under the radar. Access to a wide range of influencers means that it will get the right exposure, putting it on the map where it truly belongs.

Coinfluence achieves this with a tight-knit set of strategies. First, any project that wishes to be listed must go through a stringent quality check that is based on a multitude of factors, allowing only thoroughly vetted projects to be listed. This creates a cleaner and better option for investors, whilst protecting the market from scams, rug pulls, and bad actors.

At the centre of this whole ecosystem is the CFLU token, designed to assist projects and influencers to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. Approved projects get to hold their token sales through the launchpad, where the community can acquire their tokens using CFLU. Each transaction gets taxed, with the amount being distributed for liquidity, staking rewards and marketing. At the same time, the deflationary token model should push the CFLU price upwards.

CFLU Token Sale Event

Driving the economics behind Confluence’s ecosystem is the Binance Smart Chain-based BEP-20 compliant CFLU token. Based on the principles of deflation, there  are a total of 1 billion CFLU, of which 650 million are already available in the currently ongoing token sale. The event is phase-based, with each of the 100 successful phases making the CFLU progressively more expensive (currently phase 1 has a price of 0.0056 USD per 1 CFLU).

Out of the 650 million CFLU, 100 million have been set aside for financing the platform developers. To give confidence to projects, influencers and users of CFLU, a vesting schedule will allow the team access to 20% of the funds, with the rest being released periodically. This ensures that rugpulls are guaranteed against.

An innovative tax system is also a unique approach, by which 10% of all transactions are deducted, with 4% going to the liquidity pools, 4% to token holders and 2% for marketing and expansion. Along with this, every 10th transaction in the first 1000 transactions will receive 5000 bonus tokens as a reward. Visit the Coinfluence ICO platform to get your CFLU tokens today.

The Present and the Future

The Coinfluence concept materialized at the start of 2021.. Alongside this, the Coinfluence team has achieved onboarding a large number of influencers and it has set a target of 100,000 top influencers under its Enrolment Program. Coinfluence is also building towards global collaborations and getting CFLU listed on major exchanges, to provide increased liquidity and access for the everyday user to the CFLU ecosystem. Confluence is also looking to list CFLU on major coin monitoring platforms such as CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko, plus portfolio tracker Blockfolio, to raise awareness and increase information transparency.

Further down the road, Coinfluence will be launching its mobile app for access on the go. Confluence will be also roll out their own launchpad, giving projects a one-stop solution to top influencers and the many intricacies involved in project setup and launch, all at the same time. Finally, Coinfluence will create its own news platform, the Coinfluence News Network to inform its users and the public on the latest happenings in the industry.

Visit the Coinfluence ICO platform to get your CFLU tokens today.

Connect via Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCoinfluence Join the official Telegram group: https://t.me/coinfluence Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecoinfluence/ Catch Coinfluence on Reddit: a Contact

Contact Email: Harshita@coinfluence.org

Originally posted at: https://coinrule.com/blog/ruben/team/ethereum-price-prediction-2030/ on Thu, 23 Sep 2021 15:55:23 +0000

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Am I too late?  That’s what every new crypto investor is wondering in 2021 after a spectacular bull market that pushed the price of many coins higher by more than 10x in less than one year. To better answer this question, first, we need to understand where the price of cryptocurrencies could go. In particular, we will try to formulate an Ethereum price prediction for the next ten years.

Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap after Bitcoin. With impressive community backing and exceptional blockchain technology, Ethereum’s future looks bright. The idea of Ethereum was introduced back in 2013 by Vitalik Buterin. Along with his co-founders, including Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson and Consensys founder Joe Lubin, Buterin launched a crowdfunding campaign in 2014 when they sold the native token of Ethereum through an ICO (Initial Coin Offering). By the end of the ICO, Ethereum’s team had collected about 17 million US dollars.

Since 2014, the value of the Ethereum network has grown to over $300 billion. While other protocols try to replace Ethereum , it is still one of the most robust and most popular blockchain Smart Contract platforms. Its value comes mainly from the hundreds of different applications that run on top of it. If you’re interested in this crypto platform and want to know about Ethereum price prediction by 2030, this article is for you.

Current Environment

DeFi projects on Ethereum have gathered billions in ‘Total Value Locked’ (TVL) and the interest of institutional investors. People choose the Ethereum network to build on and invest in because of its strong community and the many practical use-cases. Decentralised finance applications built on the Ethereum blockchain allow users to borrow funds, lend funds, provide liquidity as market-makers, stake, send, pay and even buy insurance, all in a privacy-friendly, fully decentralised way. DeFi projects have removed the need for intermediary parties such as brokers and banks on many transactions and allow users to earn passive income in many different ways.

DeFi projects are an incredible bullish catalyst that has helped drive the growth in Ethereum’s price. The platform currently hosts well over 200,000 ERC tokens and powers numerous other types of cryptocurrencies across DeFi alone. 

Despite the rise of competing Smart Contract Blockchains such as Solana or Avalanche, Ethereum’s ecosystem today is still synonymous with decentralised finance. Many would argue that because of the platform’s strong community, running of thousands of Smart Contracts and annual transactions in the trillions of dollars, Ethereum has intrinsic value. In May 2021, Ethereum’s price increased by a staggering 180 percent when a bull run commenced. It reached its all-time high value, which was $4,174 per coin. 

Future Scenarios

The future scenarios of Ethereum are also promising because of the current and upcoming development plans. 

Ethereum 2.0

The developers behind Ethereum are working on the platform’s second generation known as Ethereum 2.0. It is to be released soon, and it aims to solve the problems that the platform is currently facing, which are:

Transaction scalability Sustainability Disk space

The upgrade will change the consensus mechanism of the platform from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake and, at a later stage, also introduce sharding technology. Currently, the Ethereum Blockchain can only manage to complete around 30 transactions per second. With the current high usage, gas costs have also been going through the roof. It’s said that Ethereum 2.0 will be able to complete a whopping 100,000 transactions per second. With these points in mind, there have been predictions  that the coin can reach $10,000 US dollars by 2025.

Ethereum 2.0 is already being accompanied by so-called Layer Two scaling solutions for Ethereum. Platforms like Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, Fantom, Starkware and others use technologies like Sidechains, Roll-ups and Zero-Knowledge Proofs to allow fast and cheap transactions that are still tied to the Ethereum ecosystem or blockchain. These technologies either use ‘shared security’ benefitting from Ethereum’s many nodes or use their node infrastructure, as in the case of Polygon, to validate transactions. 

DeFi Adoption

If you don’t already know, institutions worldwide are entering the DeFi world and adopting decentralised protocols because of their many benefits. According to Yahoo Finance , the decentralised finance industry has grown by 20 times in only 11 months. Total Value Locked has multiplied by eight times since early 2020 to over $80bn today, according to DeFi Pulse. It has attracted tens of millions of individual users across the globe as well as leading financial organisations. As of the first quarter of 2021, multiple world-famous companies such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Citigroup, HSBC, Barclays, JP Morgan, SBI Holdings, Signature Bank, and more are working on blockchain-related projects. Meanwhile, VISA is using the Ethereum blockchain to settle transactions in the USDC Stablecoin. 

Private organisations and some government institutes are also adopting digital currencies and blockchain technology because of the opportunities they bring to the table. 

Twenty-three international and government bodies, including the European Central Bank, Japan, Singapore, France, and Australia, have already launched their pilot projects. The European Investment Bank used the Ethereum Blockchain to issue bonds.  The government of 13 countries across the globe, including Hong Kong, China, and Brazil, are in the middle of development.  The government of 24 countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, are performing research work actively for Central Bank Digital Currencies. 

While governments might opt to use their own Blockchain technology instead of relying on Ethereum, the broader message is that the technology is being adopted. The rising tide could lift all boats even further.

Corporates Allocating Reserve Funds in Ethereum

Ethereum has also started appearing on the balance sheets of many companies, just like Bitcoin. Other than corporate reserves, companies are also using Ethereum cryptocurrency as their working capital. Earlier this year, the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) Group launched ETH Futures, which offers tools to mitigate the risk of volatility for institutional traders. Besides that, a social media and software application, Meitu, also listed on Hong Kong’s stock exchange, disclosed that it had purchased about $22 million worth of Ether coins. 

Some companies have also integrated Ether-based apps, which only shows the emergence of the platform. Ethereum continues to impact tractional businesses and organisations. The appearance of Ether on the balance sheets of companies will increase as more and more companies have started using decentralised applications. The many teams and developers working on Ethereum continuously add improvements to the cryptocurrency to facilitate digital processes. It’ll eventually add another layer to Ethereum’s value proposition.

In simple words, Ethereum has become a technology play as well as a store of value. These are some of the main reasons institutional investors are becoming increasingly interested in this decentralised platform.

ETH as a Legal Tender

The adoption of the most popular cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, in Central America, is rising. Panama has introduced a bill to legalise Ethereum and Bitcoin, and there are about 111 different states in the world where the law recognises Ethereum. For example, a Chinese court has declared  Ethereum as legal property by saying that it has an economic value. El Salvador has recently introduced Bitcoin as a legal tender, although the price of both Ethereum and Bitcoin plunged dramatically on the same day of the announcement. 

ETH price prediction

Predicting the future price of a cryptocurrency is always tricky. Ethereum price growth over the years has been following the increase in the activity of the network closely. You can gauge the activity in terms of transactions and active addresses.

In particular, a very similar rate of growth applies both to active addresses and the ETH price.

Once you identify one of the main drivers for price growth, it becomes easier to predict the price in 2030. The following chart shows two scenarios.

The first assumes a slowing growth over the years. Active addresses have grown by 50% every year since 2018. The conservative Ethereum price prediction assumes that the growth slows by 25% every year until 2030. That places the price of Ethereum somewhere around $20,000.

On the other hand, a more optimistic Ethereum price prediction would assume a growth more in line with the adoption rate of the Internet between 2000 and 2010. The calculation assumes a growth of 50% until 2025 and 30% until 2030. That would place the price north of $50,000.

As you can see, the Ethereum Blockchain has unprecedented potential. These are not even the most bullish price predictions for Ethereum. Forty-two senior experts and cryptocurrency specialists  estimated that the price of Ethereum could reach a staggering $71,000 by the end of 2030. 

Whatever the price of Ethereum will be in 2030, investing in Ethereum and in cryptocurrencies in general still represent an exciting opportunity with asymmetrical risk like no other assets. The potentials return still more than compensates for the volatility and the downside risk.  

The ride is still long. Invest safely!

DISCLAIMER

I am not an analyst or investment advisor. Everything that I provide here site is purely for guidance, informational and educational purposes. All information contained in my post should be independently verified and confirmed. I can’t be found accountable for any loss or damage whatsoever caused in reliance upon such information. Please be aware of the risks involved with trading cryptocurrencies.

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