Bitcoin has been gaining massive retail and institutional adoption throughout the past few months, which has made its parabolic growth feel more sustainable than that seen in previous years.

Tesla, Square, MicroStrategy, and other major publicly traded companies have all added BTC to their balance sheets, which may create a frenzy amongst different companies to follow in their footsteps and do the same.

This intense buying pressure has helped create some underlying strength for the benchmark crypto from a technical perspective. One trader is now watching for further upside, noting that it is “up only” season.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading up over 5% at its current price of $47,250. This marks a massive surge from the cryptocurrency’s recent lows of under $44,000 that were set last night.

Although BTC faced a rejection at $48,000 and has been sliding lower ever since it still appears to be technically strong, and it may only be a matter of time before the crypto breaks the $50,000 level that everyone is keenly watching.

While sharing his thoughts on where Bitcoin might trend in the mid-term, one analyst explained that he is closely watching for further upside, with a key support level that must be maintained sitting at $41,000.

“BTC: Broke its range to the upside, now consolidating above it. Up only till proven otherwise continues. ‘Otherwise’ being a break back into the old range. Additional confluence due to the Tesla news being right below the range high making it even more important.”

The coming few days should shed some serious light on where Bitcoin will trend next, as its reaction to $50,000 will be vital for determining its mid-term outlook.

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HomeEducationFAQWhat Is Melon Coin? Melonport is a pretty intriguing project, mainly because it focuses on building a next-generation asset management computer. The company has been around for quite some time now, and its Melon product has seen some major developments over the past few months. There’s also the native Melon Coin to take into account. Melonport is a product focusing on building a whole new type of asset management tool. More specifically, the Melon asset management computer is currently being developed by Melonport AG, the private company responsible for building the infrastructure and raising money during the token sale. Its protocol will certainly be of great interest to a lot of people in the financial sector. Melon will be a completely autonomous system unlike anything the world of asset management has seen to date. It is being designed specifically for the purpose of cryptocurrency-related asset management. The front and back ends of this project are hosted and executed on a decentralized platform, which is rather unique as far as this business model is concerned. Additionally, the front end of Melon operates on the IPFS system, which further leverages some of the more intriguing technologies which are currently part of the overall blockchain ecosystem. The back end of the Melon protocol has its own domain chain, which is connected to Polkadot. It is quite interesting to see all of these innovative technologies come together to power these new products and services. In fact, it will seemingly be possible to run Melon from the browser directly, which will only add more convenience to this project as a whole. The Melon Chain principle connects investment managers, investors, and exchanges in a decentralized manner without relying on centralized solutions. Whether or not this will be a successful approach has yet to be determined, yet it certainly opens up a lot of new opportunities. No one will be surprised to learn Melon has its own currency, referred to as the Melon Token or Melon Coin. Its primary use is giving holders the ability to elect a technical council to help determine the future of the project’s development. Additionally, this token powers the entire protocol’s infrastructure, which heavily relies on smart contract technology. There is still a lot of work to be done on the Melon project, even though things are looking quite positive already. An audit of the protocol has been completed already, and the project continues to advance. No further specifics have been provided on the website, although it remains to be seen what the future holds. Bringing more value to Melon Coin would be a good idea, yet it remains to be seen how that might be achieved. $.post('https://themerkle.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php', {action: 'mts_view_count', id: '50385'}); rcel.id = 'rc_' + Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000); JP Buntinx is a FinTech and Bitcoin enthusiast living in Belgium. His passion for finance and technology made him one of the world's leading freelance Bitcoin writers, and he aims to achieve the same level of respect in the FinTech sector.

“The Mastercard news is huge,” the Galaxy Digital chief exec said and noted how the news went “almost unnoticed,” especially amid constant “good news” about crypto adoption, in the recent weeks. He believed that a few months ago crypto integration at Mastercard would have been “all the crypto community would focus on for the ensuing month.” 

— Mike Novogratz (@novogratz) February 11, 2021

In addition, Novogratz stressed the importance of Bank of New York Melon Corp.’s recent decision to invest in Bitcoin. After BNY Mellon’s announcement, Bitcoin reached a new high of $48,297 on 11 February.

However, gold advocate Peter Schiff recently criticized Novogratz and said that the Galaxy Digital’s founder couldn’t see a “substantive difference” between Bitcoin and Dogecoin, a comment that Novogratz and most Bitcoin maxis did not pay heed to. 

Litecoin, IOTA, Waves Price Analysis: 13 February

Celebs sending cryptos to the moon? Lohan endorses Bitcoin, while Elon Musk buys Dogecoin for son

Alisha is a full-time journalist at AMBCrypto. Her interests lie in blockchain technology, crypto-crimes, and market developments in Africa and the United States

Crypto’s mainstream debut, which Mike Novogratz, in particular, has been waiting for, has finally arrived. In his tweet, Novogratz specifically mentioned payment company MasterCard’s decision to allow merchants the choice to receive payments in cryptocurrency, in Q4 2021.

“The Mastercard news is huge,” the Galaxy Digital chief exec said and noted how the news went “almost unnoticed,” especially amid constant “good news” about crypto adoption, in the recent weeks. He believed that a few months ago crypto integration at Mastercard would have been “all the crypto community would focus on for the ensuing month.” 

— Mike Novogratz (@novogratz) February 11, 2021

In addition, Novogratz stressed the importance of Bank of New York Melon Corp.’s recent decision to invest in Bitcoin. After BNY Mellon’s announcement, Bitcoin reached a new high of $48,297 on 11 February.

Stating that “the age of crypto” has begun, the chief exec said that now there was no room for any doubt that the “institutional herd was coming” to invest and adopt cryptocurrencies. 

In the past, Novogratz declared that Bitcoin was an “institutional product” and that the Rubicon in the asset’s adoption had been crossed. He also defended Bitcoin after the President of European Central Bank called the crypto a “highly speculative asset” and that it was used to conduct money laundering. 

However, gold advocate Peter Schiff recently criticized Novogratz and said that the Galaxy Digital’s founder couldn’t see a “substantive difference” between Bitcoin and Dogecoin, a comment that Novogratz and most Bitcoin maxis did not pay heed to. 

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Prominent Bitcoiner Max Keiser has shared an article by British media outlet Express.co.uk about a financial expert's recommendation regarding London introducing crypto regulations to allow its financial companies to benefit from Bitcoin after Brexit.

Since Brexit took place two weeks ago and the U.K. is no longer part of the European Union, the U.K. government is looking for ways for the country to prosper outside of the EU.

Financial expert Professor David McMillan from the University of Stirling believes that Bitcoin could become the leverage that would allow London to remain in a leading position as a global financial capital.

Last week, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab stated that financial companies from the EU will hardly challenge London's position as the global capital of finance, even if they "nick a bit of business here and there from the city."

Even though, in January, Amsterdam outperformed London as the biggest share trading center, Raab reckons that it is financial hubs beyond the EU that will be rivaling London's status quo.

In particular, it is likely to be New York, Tokyo and other major financial capitals.

David McMillan believes that embracing Bitcoin and other digital assets may take London, as a financial center, to a new level.

This could include developing and regulating new financial products that allow investors to positively engage with climate change finance and cryptocurrencies.

Meanwhile, as reported by U.Today over the weekend, two U.S. banking giants have taken an interest in the flagship cryptocurrency.

Morgan Stanley's $150 billion unit, Counterpoint Global, is reportedly looking into an opportunity to make a bet on Bitcoin. This information was cited by Bloomberg, which referred to anonymous sources familiar with the matter.

Aside from that, America's oldest bank, BNY Melon, will soon hold and transfer cryptocurrencies, treating them like any other asset class.

Mastercard announced on the 11th (local time) that it plans to include some cryptocurrencies in its payment system.

New York Melon Bank also announced that it has created a new business unit that helps customers issue and hold digital assets such as Bitcoin.

Wall Street’s large financial institutions have successively recognized cryptocurrency.

Earlier, Tesla also bought Bitcoin worth 1.5 billion dollars (about 1,672.6 billion won) on the 8th. In addition, it announced that it will use Bitcoin for electric vehicle payments.

As good news is pouring out every day, bitcoin is hitting record highs every day, surpassing 48,000 dollars on the 11th.

As even Wall Street financial institutions jump into the cryptocurrency market, there is a prospect that cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin will increase further in the future.

“Whatever your opinion on cryptocurrency, it is true that digital payments are expanding the base,” said Raj Damodharan, who leads the digital asset division of Mastercard. “The price of cryptocurrency will rise further in the future.” did.

However, there are warnings that it is a representative bubble in the asset market due to the global ultra-low interest rate phenomenon. Skeptics are voicing that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin will be recorded as one of the biggest bubbles in history.

In an interview with CNBC in the United States, one expert told CNBC, “The key to the banking system is to keep your assets safe, but cryptocurrency is not responsible for any lost or stolen assets.” I will.”

Update: Melonport raised almost $3 million in its first token sale. It hit its cap of 227,000 ETH within 10 minutes, attesting to the popularity of the protocol and the momentum its team has built. Tokens will be available for trading in four weeks.The open-source Melon protocol will enable distributed digital asset management on the Ethereum blockchain. Anyone can set up, manage, and invest in digital assets. Performance is easily demonstrated and audited. You can invest in other portfolios or have others invest in yours. The core software will support tradingmultiple tokens through a single interface, while add-on modules will open features like price feeds, risk calculation, and KYC compliance.In traditional finance, hedge fundsmanage assets smartly on behalf of others. However, the fledgling crypto-finance industry lacks the technological infrastructure to keep performances auditable, secure, and as frictionless as possible. To solve this, they have created the Melon protocol.Migrating hedge funds to a blockchain also brings many benefits to the hedge fund industry itself. These include the following and broadly amount to lowering the barrier of entry for hedge fund management:This could help a fund-management industry emerge for existing crypto-assets and support existing traders who are migrating traditional assets to blockchain tokens.The protocol will be useful for managing ones own funds too.A live working version on Ethereum is expected in late 2017 or early 2018. The Melon protocol will consist of a core software, which provides the basic tools for portfolio managers, and a set of modules, which provide advanced features such as price feed, volatility calculations, etc. Token inflation will compensate developers for creating these modules, which fall into five categories of difficulty. Each category will be eligible for a different share of inflation, although the exact inflation rate hasnt been determined.Melon tokens (MLN) will be used to pay the usage fee for the platform. Any trading will require a small amount of Melon tokens, similar to per-trade tax. High-frequency trading would consume a high amount of tokens, while low-frequency trading would consume a smaller amount.This tax will go into one or a set of smart contracts. Stakeholders, who will be identified in future governance planning, will be able to vote on how to spend them.The tokens will initially exist on the Ethereum blockchain, and when Melon launches, will support trading all tokens on Ethereum. When a multi-chain platform, such as Cosmos and Polkadot, has been finalized, this may change. One of Melons ambitions is to support both public and permissioned blockchains; this may require migrating platforms.A maximum of 1.25 million MLN will be created to support this crowdsale and a future one to support additional phases of work. 500,000 are available during this crowdsale. 150,000 slated founders, advisors, and corporate partners will be locked and non-tradable for two years or until Melon is fully deployed. 100,000 tradable tokens will be created for the Melonport company to use. 500,000 will be kept in reserve for a future crowdsale.The price was set at 2.2 MLN/ETH, setting a cap on the raise of 227000 ETH, roughly $2.9 million with ETH price at $12.8.The sale is not open to US citizens. Crowdsale participants must digitally sign a statement that they are not a US citizen. MLN will be tradeable four weeks afterthe sale. Interested US participants could buy them on the secondary market.At time of writing, Melonport has developed the core software, an initial set of modules, and a simple user-friendly portal to the protocol. It is live on the Ethereum testnet. Melon has confirmed various partnerships for beta testing: CoinFund, Token Market, Cryptodex, and more.This year (2017) will involve refining the core software, building more modules, finalizing partnerships, and several audits. They intend to launch later this year or early next.In February 2018, after the launch of the live version, the team will focus on the governance model and multi-chain connectivity. The current plan is for the growing fund of MLN transaction taxes to fund solutions to these two challenges.Melonport is the company developing Melon. It currently consists of two co-founders and several advisors.

This blog post is a draft outline showing how the Melon protocol ecosystem should behave with regard to its participants assuming rational economic agents within the Melon ecosystem.This post will also touch on how the design of the protocol architecture currently under development shall work to insure that those incentives remain aligned to the goal of the continued success of the ecosystem.Melonport: The legal entity that has and continues to conceptualize and develop the Melon protocol. The Melon protocol seeks to build an open source protocol based on Ethereum smart-contracts that enables users (hereinafter also participants) to set up, manage and invest in digital asset management strategies in a way that reduces barriers to entry, minimizes the requirements for trust while maximizes transparency (“Melon protocol”).Suppliers: a set of individuals or entities who link their existing products to the Melon protocol ecosystem (module developers) or alternatively develop products specifically for the Melon protocol ecosystem. Within this subgroup we identify two types of ecosystem players:Token holders: a set of individuals or entities who own the Melon tokens. These can be loosely categorised into two subsets:Managers: a set of individuals or entities that set up and manage their own Melon fund using the Melon protocol.Investors: a set of individuals or entities that participate/invest directly into funds (or funds of funds) which are built by Managers using the Melon protocol.At the very top of the design architecture, we have the owners of the protocol, the Melon token holders. The Melon protocol as a software infrastructure, is (through an implemented set of rules) designed to provide protection to investors in Melon funds.Token holders are represented by the crypto Melon token .There are two types of functionality within the Melon protocol ecosystem.When investors want to interact/invest in a Melon fund, they participate by using Melon tokens. A user would have to send Melon token to the Melon fund contract. In return, the Melon fund contract would create new shares in the fund and send the proportionate number of shares in the fund back to the investor. The fund tokens would represent the underlying assets being held in the Melon fund contract. These assets are redeemable at any time by the investor.In terms of usage functionality of the Melon token, transaction (licensing) fees will initially be set at zero with the possibility for token holders and investors to later (once there is widespread adoption) introduce them.This means that Managers shall be in a position to use the Melon protocol completely free of charge, but would need to use the Melon token to withdraw rewards. A more in depth blog on rewards is planned for the coming weeks.Voting on Melon Council Members: We are currently working on establishing an appropriate structure to set up a Melon council elected by Melon token holders. The Melon council will represent the community in decisions regarding the future development of the Melon protocol as well as the allocation of funds reserved for supporting projects that form part of the Melon ecosystem:A. Technical Functionality: After Melonport deploys v1.0 of the Melon protocol, the Melon council Members can vote to add and remove versions of the protocol.Anyone can propose a new technical design to add or remove new versions of the protocol. Elected Melon council Members will decide on whether new versions are added or not. This may include decisions around deployment onto additional blockchains, i.e. the multichain solution.Once a version of Melon is deployed (e.g. v1.2.3), every new fund that is created corresponds to that version until the next version is released (e.g v1.2.4).Whenever a vault contract (we have previously referred to this as a core) is deployed along with its own set of modules, this is considered to be a fund. Vaults belonging to a removed version do not get deleted, rather they get decommissioned. Meaning they will be made unable to perform any managing (trading of assets) activity — rendering any investments in it virtually useless. Investors can at anytime redeem their funds even from a decommissioned vault.B. Economic Functionality: Council members will have to vote on allocation of funds raised from contributions in the second token generation event. Thereby, the goal of the Melon council is toMany of you have asked for more guidance around inflation over the last months. We are still considering this as a way to further incentivise developers but believe that it does not need to be as high as originally intended. We can now firmly say that it will be no higher than 10% per annum and could be as low as zero.Here we consider the conflicts between the four main groups of economic agents. There are two groups “Token holders” and “Ecosystem players” which consist of two sub-groups. We will assume for now that the conflicts within the sub-groups can be resolved and show this at the end.We assume that all economic agents within the ecosystem will act as selfish agents trying to maximize their utility in their way of using the Melon protocol. This means agents are not viewed as being good (honest) or bad (corrupt); all parties are simply assumed to be rational, motivated by some utility function. However, it may not always be the case that rational behavior holds and there is no way to guarantee it. The only thing one can do, is try to design governance in a way that will best manage all economic agents.When considering the types of conflicts below, we have also added a weighting number (score 1–3 — with 1 being a mild conflict which is easily resolvable with minimal economic consequences, 3 being serious conflict with big consequences and not easily resolved).Within suppliers, we noted earlier that there are two sub-groups: Module developers/ Module operators” . Before our analysis is complete, we should also consider the conflicts within these two sub-groups.If we tally up the total number of attacks against each economic agentFrom the above table, we conclude that fund “Investors” are the most vulnerable group with the most at stake. A possible solution is that the technical governance power could be split between token holders and investors in a pre-agreed proportion but this would be difficult to manage. However, we believe if the Melon protocol becomes successful — Investors themselves will be incentivised to acquire Melon tokens in order to have a say in the future design and usage functionality. Additionally, since Melon council Members are voted in by the Melon token Holders which can recall their election at any time — we believe there to be a strong alignment of interests between the Melon council Members and how the Melon protocol develops and protects its Investors.In conclusion, the above should give an idea in the direction our development is headed towards. Of course, we are not able to set any of these decisions in stone. We will aim to be as consistent and coherent as we can, subject to feedback and new information garnered from the continual open-development process of Melon. Over the next weeks you will also hear a lot more from us in terms of development updates, and we hope to share with you our thinking process and challenges in order to keep our Melon community as up to date and knowledgeable as possible.Subjects we plan to touch on in coming weeks include:Please email us if there is a subject not listed below that you would like to hear more about.We will soon be unveiling “Satellite” — a way to register and vote on the quality, security and importance of modules.Rewards describe the way Managers get compensated for their efforts in managing a Melon fund.A way to invest/redeem. This is a way to invest or redeem shares in a fund to gain exposure. Upon investment, new shares are created — on redemption, they are destroyed.Measures put in place to limit Manager’s activities. A blog post will follow in coming weeks to outline Melonport’s initial risk management design.A more detailed description of the Melon protocol governance, the Melon council Members and the Melon council Fund.Chairman & CTO at Melonport. Reto is a blockchain developer with background in mathematics from ETH Zurich. He started developing Ethereum smart contracts immediately after their launch in 2015. He worked as a smart-contract developer at Brainbot Technologies (which is building the high-speed Raiden Network) and is host of Zurich’s Blockchain Hacklab. Before this Reto developed a profitable trading algorithm for sport betting exchanges in C++.*** Please note some changes and updates have been made to this blog since original publicationCEO & Founder. Mona is a former star-trader at Goldman Sachs, promoted to Vice President by the age of 26 and made the “top 30 under 30” list in Trader Magazine in 2008 and Forbes Magazine in 2011 after profitably trading the 2008 and 2011 crashes. Moved to Geneva-based macro fund Jabre Capital in 2011, before deciding in 2014 that the future of finance lay in blockchain technology. She studied Economics & Statistics at the University College London.From a quick cheer to a standing ovation, clap to show how much you enjoyed this story.A Blog Detailing the Endeavours of Those Building the Melon Protocol: Blockchain Software for Digital Asset Management

Kraken, the leading cryptocurrency exchange and trading platform has added a new blockchain asset to its existing cryptocurrency offering. The platform has announced the new development in its latest blog post.According to the blog, Kraken began supporting the trade of Melon (MLN) cryptocurrency as soon as it went live at 11 AM (UTC) on March 15, 2017. The release of Melon cryptotoken follows the recent successful crowdsale of MelonPort blockchain platform that successfully raised about $6.5 million. The MelonPort ICO concluded within 10 minutes of launch, hitting the target of 227,000 ETH.MelonPort is one of the latest blockchain based smart contract platforms. The open source MelonPort protocol is purpose-built for managing digital assets over Ethereum blockchain platform. The modular Melon protocol is not only transparent but also flexible to allow expansion. The platform aims to reduce the costs as well as the time required to manage assets.Kraken currently supports two MLN trading pairs — MLN/BTC and MLN/ETH. The exchange platform has also announced the possibility of including margin trading option for Melon cryptotokens in the near future.The MelonPort community members who received the digital currency as a part of the crowdsale can deposit the Melon tokens in their Kraken account by generating a new MLN address. Once the tokens are deposited, users can visit the trading platform and start trading it against bitcoin and Ethereum.The MelonPort platform has set a maximum cap of 1.25 million MLN tokens out of which 599,400 tokens, including the 499,400 sold to the community and another 100,000 being used by the company are currently tradable. Eventually, rest of the tokens will become available in the market once the second round of ICO and the applicable moratorium on the 150,000 tokens assigned the founders expires.The competition in the blockchain applications and smart contracts sector is heating up. The emergence of many blockchain platforms has got developers striving to outperform each other. It will ultimately prove helpful when it comes to innovation.However, it will be a different story when it comes to widespread adoption as standardization of smart contracts protocols will take plenty of time. Until then, investors and traders can look forward to making profits by trading and hedging the tokens against each other.Image Source: ts-melon-tokens/Source: crypto-platforms-melon-tokens/This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. baseUrl = "https://widgets.cryptocompare.com/"; var scripts = document.getElementsByTagName("script"

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken begins trading in Melon tokens (MLN)Kraken will be supporting trading in: MLN/XBT (melon-bitcoin) and MLN/ETH (melon-ether). By Ian Allison Updated March 16, 2017 07:46 GMT Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken will begin trading in Melon tokens (MLN) shortly after Melon goes live today (March 15 at 11am UTC).Melon provides a blockchain-based protocol for a new breed of hedge funds where the prospectus and investment parameters are enforced by smart contracts on Ethereum. The project is run by former Goldman trader Mona El Isa, CTO Reto Trinkler, and counts Ethereum's Dr Gavin Wood as an advisor. Melonport, the company behind Melon, had a very successful Initial Coin Offering (ICO), hitting its target of 227,000 ETH, currently worth about $6.5million, within 10 minutes.Kraken will be supporting trading in: MLN/XBT (melon-bitcoin) and MLN/ETH (melon-ether)."We are working to possibly offer MLN margin trading later stay tuned!" said Kraken in a statement.A maximum of 1.25 million MLN tokens will be created before the deployment of the final version of Melon (expected to take about two years).A total of 600,000 MLN will be tradeable immediately (500,000 from the ICO and 100,000 assigned for the Melonport company to use). Another 650,000 will become tradeable later (500,000 reserved for a future crowdsale and 150,000 assigned to founders, advisors, and corporate partners that will be locked and non-tradable for two years or until Melon is fully deployed.To deposit MLN in a Kraken account, go to Funding > Deposit > MLN and click "Generate New Address." Then send MLN to this deposit address with any Ethereum wallet or client that supports tokens, like Parity or Mist. MLN will also be available on Kraken's new trade platform; more details here.More from IBTimes UK Ethereum: Melonport fills its CHF2.5m token issuance in under three minutes Parity pushes new Ethereum testnet 'Kovan' after spam attacks Gavin Wood collaborates on Melon - a 'hedge fund' manager for crypto portfolios This article was first published on March 15, 2017

Kraken, the leading cryptocurrency exchange and trading platform has added a new blockchain asset to its existing cryptocurrency offering. The platform has announced the new development in its latest blog post. According to the blog, Kraken began supporting the trade of Melon (MLN) cryptocurrency as soon as it went live at 11 AM (UTC) on March 15, 2017. The release of Melon cryptotoken follows the recent successful crowdsale of MelonPort blockchain platform that successfully raised about $6.5 million. The MelonPort ICO concluded within 10 minutes of launch, hitting the target of 227,000 ETH. MelonPort is one of the latest blockchain based smart contract platforms. The open source MelonPort protocol is purpose-built for managing digital assets over Ethereum blockchain platform. The modular Melon protocol is not only transparent but also flexible to allow expansion. The platform aims to reduce the costs as well as the time required to manage assets. Kraken currently supports two MLN trading pairs — MLN/BTC and MLN/ETH. The exchange platform has also announced the possibility of including margin trading option for Melon cryptotokens in the near future. The MelonPort community members who received the digital currency as a part of the crowdsale can deposit the Melon tokens in their Kraken account by generating a new MLN address. Once the tokens are deposited, users can visit the trading platform and start trading it against bitcoin and Ethereum. The MelonPort platform has set a maximum cap of 1.25 million MLN tokens out of which 599,400 tokens, including the 499,400 sold to the community and another 100,000 being used by the company are currently tradable. Eventually, rest of the tokens will become available in the market once the second round of ICO and the applicable moratorium on the 150,000 tokens assigned the founders expires. The competition in the blockchain applications and smart contracts sector is heating up. The emergence of many blockchain platforms has got developers striving to outperform each other. It will ultimately prove helpful when it comes to innovation. However, it will be a different story when it comes to widespread adoption as standardization of smart contracts protocols will take plenty of time. Until then, investors and traders can look forward to making profits by trading and hedging the tokens against each other.

DeFi cryptos are now a force to reckon with, especially since the era of the worst pandemic known to man came to play.

It’s important to note that DeFi-related assets are gaining traction, as data feeds from Defipulse revealed that Defi based crypto market value had risen from $1 billion in June to  $10.71 billion, at the time this report was written, showing an astronomical gain of 1071%.

READ: Crypto: Why investors are rushing to DeFi assets

Why investors are flocking to DeFI cryptos

Several DeFi crypto assets have had their share of the spotlight in recent times, with cryptos such as Chainlink, Compound, YAM, UniSwap, Cream finance, and Melon gaining investors’ capital inflows.

As a credit to blockchain technology, the contract codes cannot be terminated or manipulated by any entity, and are executed with specific conditions.

READ: Guinness Nigeria finding it hard to refinance its loans due to dollar scarcity

What DeFi means: Defi means “decentralized finance.” By definition, it’s a crypto ecosystem made up of financial apps designed on leading blockchain platforms.

Olumide Adesina is a France-born Nigerian. He is a Certified Investment Trader, with more than 15 years of working expertise in Investment trading and Financial market reporting.He is a Member of the Chartered Financial Analyst Society. Follow Olumide on Twitter @tokunboadesina or email [email protected]

Analysts and senior executives at the crypto intelligence firm Messari are revealing the crypto assets that make up their portfolios heading into 2021.

In a 134-page report dubbed Crypto Thesis for 2021, Messari founder and chief executive Ryan Selkis says he likes his exposure to Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Zcash (ZEC), and Litecoin (LTC) via Grayscale.

He is also holding next-generation payment network Terra (LUNA), decentralized storage marketplace Siacoin (SIA), Ethereum-based DApp management platform Aragon (ANT), crypto-specific insurance protocol Nexus Mutual (NXM), and inter-blockchain liquidity project Ren (REN).

Meanwhile, senior research analyst Ryan Watkins is big on decentralized finance (DeFi) assets and governance innovation. He holds Ethereum, Terra, and Aragon. Additionally, Watkins is long on blockchain agnostic project THORChain (RUNE), DeFi yield aggregator yearn.finance (YFI), peer-to-peer lending platform CREAM, Internet of Things startup Helium (HNT), governance token lending platform Powerpool (CVP), and next-generation decentralized staking network Rocket Pool (RPL).

Wilson Withiam, also a senior research analyst, is invested in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Helium, THORChain, and Rocket Pool. He’s also holding decentralized exchange Uniswap (UNI), cross-blockchain protocol Polkadot (DOT), and Polkadot’s experimental network Kusama (KSM).

Intel analyst Aidan Mott is a fan of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Powerpool. He’s also a holder of Ren tokenized Zcash renZEC, options trading platform Hegic, blockchain gaming platform Xaya (CHI), decentralized autonomous organization yield farming aggregator yAxis (YAX), and Ethereum-based decentralized game Axie Infinity (AXS), which Mott refers to as “Cryptokitties meets Tamagotchi.”

Research analyst Mason Nystrom is a big believer in Andre Cronje’s projects as he’s long on Uniswap and yearn.finance. He also likes Bitcoin, Ethereum, Aragon, Axie Infinity, Helium, and community-owned marketplaces such as Rarible (RARI) and Audius (AUDIO).

Senior research analyst Jack Purdy is also a holder of Bitcoin, Ethereum, yearn.finance, Hegic, and Helium. He’s also interested in DeFi interoperability project Alpha Finance (ALPHA), and decentralized derivatives exchange Perpetual Protocol (PERP).

The last Messari team member to divulge his crypto holdings market intelligence vice president Eric Turner. He’s currently invested in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash, yearn.finance, Powerpool, and THORChain. Turner holds decentralized on-chain asset management protocol Melon (MLN) as well.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/camilkuo