Baden-Wurttemberg, Stuttgart, May 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 29 May 2021 - Cryptocurrency exploded in popularity over the past few months and is the hottest new trend in the investing world. It’s possible to make a lot of money investing in cryptocurrencies, but it’s also possible to lose a lot of money. If you do choose to invest in cryptocurrency, choose your investment wisely. Right now, there are more than a thousand cryptocurrencies in the market to make choice. So, how can you make a smart decision?

A new cryptocurrency, X-TOKEN operating on Binance Smart Chain is the first token that will empower crypto traders, investors, and minorities who have no access to computers. Building decentralized BI applications and donating the usage fees will help crypto maniacs and minorities alike.

X-TOKEN is a frictionless, yield-generating contract where the tokens bought will soon be able to be spent on dApps. The protocol was launched on May 6th, 2021 through a DxSale presale. The token contract employs a static reward system—10% of every transaction is split into two parts—one part is distributed to holders, while the other 5% is used to fuel the liquidity pool on the PancakeSwap decentralized exchange. The tokens are permanently locked in the LP, effectively reducing the available supply. The token was launched with the idea of creating a community token with a self-generating income mechanism for its owner.

X-TOKEN differs from the rest of the De-Fi crowd because it has a passionate team working full time to develop a fully-fledged ecosystem of applications surrounding the token. “We aim to not only have a financially appealing cryptocurrency asset for short-term traders but a suitable long-term asset for serious long-term investors active in crypto. X-TOKEN is a yield-generating contract that rewards its holders” Company stated.

Each trade has a 10% tax whereas 5% gets distributed to holders and another 5% gets locked in liquidity to create a solid price floor. Buying X-TOKEN is easy in a few steps: Download wallet, get BNB on Binance which you can swap to X-TOKENS, Swap on XSwap, which is also their first dApp, or on PancakeSwap.io.

The team behind X-TOKEN consists of 5 members who are experts in cryptocurrency from the early stages. They are primarily developers who deal with the implementation of BI applications, which will be paid in X-TOKEN. The Team is based mostly in Germany and Latvia.

For more info, or to get in contact, please visit:

Website: project-x.finance

Telegram: https://t.me/projectX_token

Discord: nce@prdistribution.org

“For the original news story, please visit -to-empower-crypto-traders.html"

In the latest sign of peak cryptocurrency mania subsiding, a token backed by billionaire Mark Cuban crashed down to zero dollars Tuesday, joining a slew of other hyped-up cryptocurrencies that have crashed over the past month after frenzied trading drove the market to meteoric price highs this year.

A wave of panic selling Wednesday morning drove the price of Iron Titanium, a token Cuban disclosed he owned earlier this week, from a Wednesday high above $64 to less than 0.01% of a penny by Thursday morning after some of its biggest investors started selling the token at high volumes, spooking individual investors and triggering the massive selloff.

Though much more gradual, the prices of several other tokens sporting multi-billion-dollar market capitalizations have similarly crashed over the past month amid a broader crypto-market rout.

After skyrocketing to a $45 billion market cap and becoming a top 10 cryptocurrency virtually overnight last month, Internet Computer has seen its prices tumble nearly 90%.

The token drew widespread praise from analysts and institutional investors, including Polychain Capital founder Olaf Carlson-Wee, but crypto enthusiasts on Reddit have soured on the token during its plunge and blamed "elites" (or institutional investors) for dumping their coins and driving down prices.

Safemoon, another token lauded by the Reddit crowd and social media influencers including crypto-bull Dave Portnoy, has plunged as much as 70% since amassing a $6 billion market cap in mid-May.

Shiba Inu tokens drew massive fanfare for their resemblance to dogecoin, the virtual currency endorsed by billionaire Elon Musk, and though they once held a nearly $13 billion valuation, they've plummeted nearly 75% in value since a peak on May 10.

According to crypto-data website CoinMarketCap, roughly one-third of the world's 100 most valuable cryptocurrencies have plummeted at least 40% over the past month, and a dozen have crashed more than 50%. Only three have added value: Quant, Theta Fuel and Amp—small tokens (subject to extreme volatility) worth $916 million, $2.8 billion and $4.2 billion, respectively.

"I got hit like everyone else. Crazy part is I got out… [Then] Bam," Cuban tweeted late Wednesday about Iron Titanium's crash. The plunging prices exposed a flaw in the token's design that created an arbitrage opportunity, effectively allowing investors to make unlimited money by buying and selling the token, which drove prices down further. “It was a crypto vortex of money,” Fred Schebesta, the founder of fintech company Founder and an Iron Finance investor, told Coindesk. “What happened is just the worst thing that could possibly happen considering their tokenomics.” Reddit traders have also blamed lackluster designs for the plunging prices of Safemoon, Shiba Inu and other formerly lauded tokens, though their crashes have been much less severe.

Established cryptocurrencies bitcoin and ether have struggled over the past month amid regulatory concerns and peaking investor sentiment, but their prices have fared much better than most of their smaller counterparts. Bitcoin is down 11% over the past month, while ether has plunged about 28%. When the crypto market peaked in May, Oanda Senior Market Analyst Edward Moya noted traders were piling into altcoins—or bitcoin alternatives—in a sign of growing speculation. Trading volume surged at the time, consistently totaling more than $300 billion each day. Mania has since cooled, with volume down to less than a third of its peak. 

$1.6 trillion. That's the value of the cryptocurrency market, 63% of which is made up of bitcoin and ether. 

Iron Finance's Titan Token Falls to Near Zero in DeFi Panic Sell (CoinDesk) 

Musk Denies Bitcoin 'Pump And Dump'—And Says Tesla Will Resume Transactions Once This Mining Goal Is Reached (Forbes)

I'm a reporter at Forbes focusing on markets and finance. I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I double-majored in business journalism

I'm a reporter at Forbes focusing on markets and finance. I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I double-majored in business journalism and economics while working for UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School as a marketing and communications assistant. Before Forbes, I spent a summer reporting on the L.A. private sector for Los Angeles Business Journal and wrote about publicly traded North Carolina companies for NC Business News Wire. Reach out at jponciano@forbes.com. And follow me on Twitter @Jon_Ponciano

Indorse Token (CURRENCY:IND) traded down 41.3% against the U.S. dollar during the 1-day period ending at 7:00 AM ET on December 31st. During the last seven days, Indorse Token has traded up 4.6% against the U.S. dollar. Indorse Token has a total market capitalization of $158,447.27 and $97.00 worth of Indorse Token was traded on exchanges in the last day. One Indorse Token token can now be purchased for about $0.0042 or 0.00000015 BTC on exchanges.

Here’s how other cryptocurrencies have performed during the last day:

Indorse Token Profile

Indorse Token Token Trading

Indorse Token can be traded on these cryptocurrency exchanges:. It is usually not presently possible to buy alternative cryptocurrencies such as Indorse Token directly using U.S. dollars. Investors seeking to trade Indorse Token should first buy Ethereum or Bitcoin using an exchange that deals in U.S. dollars such as Coinbase, GDAX or Gemini. Investors can then use their newly-acquired Ethereum or Bitcoin to buy Indorse Token using one of the aforementioned exchanges.

As with the feverish debate around Bitcoin and its carbon footprint, there has been no shortage of discussion surrounding cryptocurrencies and the energy they consume.

But this back and forth around crypto’s environmental impact is missing a glaring point. It is important to recognize that crypto is still in its very early stages, not dissimilar to where the internet was in 2002. The entire space is going through its Amazon moment. The first decade of this cryptocurrency experiment has grown far beyond anybody’s wildest expectations. At the same time, it has allowed those of us in the industry to identify what works and what doesn’t.

For example, the proof-of-work consensus algorithms (the mathematical problems that Bitcoin miners must solve) that power the Bitcoin network do indeed require a lot of energy. But what these arguments about Bitcoin’s environmental impact obscure is that the broader crypto ecosystem is in the midst of a shift towards a cleaner, greener, more sustainable future that will result in significantly lower carbon emissions.

This can be seen with the launch of Ethereum 2.0 and the move from a proof of work (PoW) consensus to a proof of stake model (PoS). PoW refers to the decentralized system that powers the Bitcoin network, with the model requiring huge amounts of energy to validate transactions and mint new tokens. But PoS allows miners to mine and validate block transactions based on the amount of coins that they hold.

Because PoS demands significantly lower hardware requirements than PoW, the energy needed to facilitate secure transactions will only continue to fall in the future. Some forecasting models show that Ethereum 2.0’s PoS model will be 99% more energy efficient than PoW models.

We are already seeing the results of what we can expect from PoS, with the Ethereum network consuming almost 100 Twh less than the Bitcoin network. Ethereum is hardly alone in this consensus revolution, with ascendant, next-generation blockchains like Cardano, Polkadot, EOS and Cosmos each implementing their own versions of PoS.

But even if we put aside these developments and focus strictly on the assertion that crypto is a threat to the planet, it is important to distinguish the sources of energy that crypto miners use, with data indicating that most of the electricity used for crypto mining comes from renewable sources.

Research from the University of Cambridge shows that the renewable share of these energy mining pools is as high as 78%. Although there are exceptions depending upon which region of the world you’re focusing on, hydroelectric power, in particular, is rapidly emerging as the de facto power source for crypto-mining operations.

Another factor to consider is that crypto miners are increasingly using excess electricity that would otherwise go to waste. The emergence of crypto mining farms has soaked up extra capacity and prevented the waste of unused renewable energy.

It is also important to note that the traditional international financial system requires significantly more energy than the Bitcoin network. All of the disparate parts that make up the whole of the global banking network – banking data centres, card network data centres, ATMs and bank branches – use a lot of energy. In fact, the traditional financial sector provides financing for some of the most environmentally damaging projects on Earth.

If we’re really looking for an ecologically destructive force, we should focus on gold mining. After all, this is an industrial sector that is heavily dependent upon fossil fuels. Even the industry’s main lobbying arm, the World Gold Council, has acknowledged the metal’s huge carbon footprint, highlighting in a recent report that the industry's emissions need to fall by 80% over the next 30 years in order to meet the Paris Climate Agreement targets.

So if we acknowledge that traditional finance and mining account for a significantly larger share of greenhouse gas emissions than crypto, the question we should be asking ourselves is how crypto and blockchain can actually lead the way and become a positive, transformative force for the energy sector, slashing operating costs and opening up a new window of transparency.

Use cases are not hard to find. Blockchain projects have already been deployed in a range of different fields, from wholesale electricity distribution and peer-to-peer energy trading to electricity data management and commodity trading.

One area that is particularly ripe for disruption is the global supply chain, in particualr the energy sector. Amidst this transition between polluting fossil fuels and a clean, renewable future, we should be looking for ways to mitigate and streamline the processes involved in extracting and transporting energy. Blockchain provides us with a platform that provides real time speed and efficiency, not to mention traceability and transparency.

The World Economic Forum has joined forces with more than 100 organizations and 20 governments to accelerate the deployment of blockchain for supply chains – responsibly, securely and inclusively.

The multistakeholder team, represents large shippers, supply chain providers and governments – including Maersk, Hitachi, Mercy Corps, Korea Customs Service, Llamasoft and Ports of Los Angeles, Oakland, Valencia and Rotterdam.

The group will co-design an open-source toolkit to guide supply chain decision-makers towards utilizing blockchain to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of the technology.

The World Economic Forum’s project, Redesigning Trust: Blockchain for Supply Chains, is part of our Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Blockchain and Digital Assets.

Companies globally can join our efforts to streamline new and complex technologies like blockchain, helping to revolutionize sectors and ecosystems and build trust globally. Click here to find out more.

We’re seeing this unfold in the real world. Major Indian steel conglomerate Tata Steel is partnering with HSBC to experiment with smart contracts on the blockchain, exporting raw materials around the globe while cutting contract settlement times from a matter of weeks to a matter of days. Imagine all of the energy saved in the process.

Meanwhile, the Carbon Utility Token (CUT) is an example of a growing class of green assets designed in large part to help corporations manage their carbon allowances. The sale of each CUT token goes towards investments in carbon capture and carbon offsetting programs, representing a tangible step towards carbon neutrality in the crypto ecosystem. As more and more corporations begin to add Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to their balance sheets, it’s good to know that CUT provides an avenue to completely offset the carbon footprint behind each coin.

While there are certainly challenges ahead, crypto and blockchain have the potential to lead us towards a much greener planet, with the discussion surrounding crypto and energy stimulating us to hasten our transition to clean energy sources while providing us with the tools to do so.

MarketWatch has highlighted these products and services because we think readers will find them useful. We may earn a commission if you buy products through our links, but our recommendations are independent of any compensation that we may receive.

It’s been a hot year for cryptocurrencies, and 2021 isn’t even halfway over. The total value of cryptocurrencies briefly surpassed $2.5 trillion in May as a plethora of new investors jumped in, and now approximately 14% of American adults own cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrencies are digital assets that are exchanged online on exchanges like Coinbase (the largest U.S. crypto exchange) and Gemini or via online brokers like Robinhood and SoFi Invest. Cryptocurrencies are hardly new. Bitcoin, the first and largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was created in 2009 and has been followed by more than 7,700 others. You may have also heard of ethereum, tether, or even dogecoin, which began as a joke and now sits among the 10 largest cryptocurrencies.

While some people are investing purely to speculate, others look at cryptos as a way to store value or hedge against inflation. Here’s how to invest in crypto now, whether you should get into it, and what to know before you do.

While investing in cryptocurrencies has gone mainstream, it’s not an option at many traditional online brokers — yet.  Here are a few brokers that allow you to directly hold cryptocurrencies alongside other assets like stocks and bonds, but fees vary and it’s key to do your homework:

TD Ameritrade, Interactive Brokers, and Charles Schwab offer bitcoin futures trading.

If your broker doesn’t offer cryptocurrencies, you might consider signing up for an account with a crypto exchange, such as one of the following:

Not all cryptocurrencies are created alike, and each token has unique characteristics that help dictate its price swings. That’s why it’s important to learn as much as possible about a specific token before investing, including why it was created (what problem it’s trying to solve) and by whom (the governance structure), recommends Chris Kuiper, vice president of equity research at CFRA Research.

“The more you understand it, the more you’re going to approach investing in the ‘right’ way,” Kuiper says. For example, he likens bitcoin to “gold 2.0” because the digital coin has a finite supply and is seen by some as a way to store value and hedge against inflation — characteristics that don’t apply to ethereum, for example. (Note that this bitcoin-is-the-new-gold take is certainly not shared by everyone, as this MarketWatch column reveals). 

Cryptocurrencies fall under the umbrella of alternative assets (like commodities or real estate) because they offer a way to diversify your portfolio and have a low correlation to other assets, like stocks and bonds, Kuiper notes. But cryptocurrencies are volatile, and because trading occurs 24/7, 365 days a year, that allows traders to react immediately to news — or even tweets. Indeed, this year, tweets from Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, caused crypto prices to both jump and slump.

“Look, this is the Wild West, so you have to be ready for it,” Kuiper says. While bitcoin has experienced average annualized returns in excess of 200%, that’s come with huge price slumps, he adds. “You need to embrace the volatility if you want those gains.” 

If you are ready to invest in crypto, here are a few of your options: Coinbase, Gemini, eToro, Robinhood and SoFi Invest.

Investing in crypto is not for everyone. Those who do dive in should remember this: Given the extreme volatility, moderation is key, notes Matt Schwartz, senior advisor and a certified financial planner with Great Waters Financial. Just as you shouldn’t invest all of your money in one asset — like a stock or bond — cryptocurrencies should have a limited impact on the risk-reward dynamics of your overall portfolio, he adds.

“If you have 2%-5% of your portfolio allocated to any asset class, that isn’t going to move the needle on your overall portfolio that much,” Schwartz says, adding that the exact allocation is unique to each investor. “It’s important to think about your own situation and how it may or may not help you accomplish your goals.” 

Some investing pros say that if you do want to dive into crypto, a smart way to do it may be through dollar-cost averaging, which simply means investing a fixed amount at regular intervals. And be sure to consult an accountant about the tax implications of trading (it can get pricey).

Finally, be mindful of how investment decisions affect you. “Don’t take on so much risk that you can’t sleep at night,” Kuiper says. “But the opposite is true: If you’re constantly watching bitcoin because you have 0% invested and you’re watching it go up, you probably need to buy a little of it for peace of mind.”

If you are ready to invest in crypto, here are a few of your options: Coinbase, Gemini, eToro, Robinhood and SoFi m>About the author: Anna-Louise Jackson is a financial journalist with more than a decade of writing and editing experience. She was a reporter for Bloomberg News, covering the U.S. economy, U.S. stock market, and corporate finance. Her work has also appeared in/on NerdWallet, CNBC, The Associated Press, USA Today, Forbes, Fortune, and Money. 

Reported by Nina Bambysheva, Michael del Castillo and Steven Ehrlich

The meteoric rise of bitcoin - from $10,000 since last year’s list to an all-time high of $65,000 this April –  and other major cryptocurrencies over the past few months secured a record eight spots on this year’s Fintech 50 list for blockchain and cryptocurrency focused companies. The ensuing wave of institutional adoption also brought hordes of capital to crypto startups, giving birth to new crypto unicorns (companies with a $1 billion plus valuation) and signaling a ‘coming of age’ for the industry.

First-time members include crypto lending platform BlockFi, which scored a $350 million investment, the third largest venture round ever among crypto startups, in March at a whopping $3 billion valuation, and Paxos, a blockchain infrastructure company best known as the partner for PayPal PYPL and Venmo’s crypto brokerage services, providing access to bitcoin, ether and a handful of other major cryptocurrencies to more than 350 million customers. 

Other debutants include leading cryptocurrency custodians Anchorage and Fireblocks. As more corporations and institutional investors awoke to the crypto disruption and engaged in amassing sizable bitcoin positions, crypto custody services saw a massive spike in interest. In January, Anchorage became one of the first crypto-native firms to be granted a conditional national trust bank charter by the Comptroller of the Currency, while Fireblocks saw a 2023% growth over the previous year, having transferred over half a trillion dollars in digital assets since launch in 2019. 

Amid the novel non-fungible token (NFT) frenzy, San-Francisco-based Alchemy emerged as a new breed of fintech leaders. Alchemy’s technology powers just about every major NFT platform, including OpenSea, Nifty Gateway, and NBA Top Shot, connecting users to the Ethereum blockchain, on which most non-fungible tokens, or digital collectibles, are built. 

But the veterans are still going strong. Cryptocurrency investigation and compliance company Chainalysis, previously included in the 2018 and 2020 iterations of the Fintech 50 list, achieved a unicorn status in November after closing a $100 million Series C financing round. Chainalysis could be dubbed as “the guardian of crypto” as it is helping government agencies in 50 countries analyze blockchain data to investigate illicit transactions and ensure compliance with anti-money laundering regulations. 

One notable graduate of the list is Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, which shook the industry and public markets with its April 14 Nasdaq debut – the largest direct listing in history. At one point during the opening day, Coinbase’s market cap exceeded $100 billion, setting a high bar for crypto startups still eyeing a public offering. Two of this year’s members, Kraken and Gemini (also cryptocurrency exchanges), have discussed going public in the future. 

But fintech is no longer just a tale of corporate success. Cryptocurrency lenders and exchanges are slowly giving way to the new hot shot of the class - decentralized finance (DeFi). An umbrella term for blockchain-based applications and protocols aiming to replace traditional financial intermediaries like banks and brokerages, DeFi skyrocketed in popularity and market capitalization over the past 12 months – from just over $1 billion in locked value in June 2020 to the current $67.9 billion. The largest among DeFi platforms are lending and borrowing protocols, such as Aave and MakerDAO, and decentralized exchanges like Uniswap and SushiSwap – all built on Ethereum. DeFi’s rise contributed to the surge of ether, Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency, which hit an all-time high of over $4,000 earlier in May. Although ineligible for the Fintech 50 list because of their composition, they deserve recognition for their success and ingenuity.

Alchemy

Headquarters: San Francisco, CA 

Sometimes called an Amazon Web Services for crypto, the company’s user interface lets non-coders write and read info on a blockchain. Alchemy provides the service for free to some clients, but charges $49 a month and up to others. Users include traditional organizations like PwC and UNICEF and crypto players like Dapper Labs, creator of the Flow blockchain. 

Funding: $96 million from Coatue, Addition and Pantera and individual investors such as Charles Schwab, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, Jay Z and Will Smith. 

Latest valuation: $505 million

Bona fides: Despite having just 22 employees, its infrastructure has been used for $30 billion in transactions and has been key to the NFT explosion. 

Cofounders: CEO Nikil Viswanathan 33 and CTO  Joseph Lau, 31

Anchorage

Headquarters: San Francisco, CA 

Regulated custodian offering institutions lending, trading, financing and staking of crypto. In January, Anchorage, a South Dakota trust company, became among the first crypto-native firms to be granted a conditional national trust bank charter by the Comptroller of the Currency.

Funding: $137 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Blockchain Capital, the sovereign wealth fund for the Singapore state government and others

Latest valuation: $520 million, according to Pitchbook

Bona fides:  Working with partner (and investor) Visa V , served as custodian for first stablecoin payment on the Visa network 

Cofounders: CEO Nathan McCauley, 35 and President Diogo Monica, 35

BlockFi

Headquarters: Jersey City, NJ

Fashioning itself as a crypto wealth manager, BlockFi offers its 300,000 account holders crypto-collateralized loans at interest rates as low as 4.5% and up to 8.6% annual return on their crypto holdings via interest-bearing accounts. The four-year old startup is also preparing to launch a bitcoin-reward credit card.

Funding: $504 million from Tiger Global Management, Susquehanna Government Products, Pomp Investments and others

Latest valuation: $3 billion

Bona fides: Over the past year, assets under management have grown from $1 billion to $20 billion, while monthly revenues have jumped from $1 million to more than $45 million and its workforce has expanded from 75 to 500. 

Cofounders: CEO Zac Prince, 34, and SVP of operations Flori Marquez, 29, a member of the 2021 Forbes 30 under 30 list

Chainalysis:

Headquarters: New York City

This blockchain analysis pioneer with 200-plus employees helps governments and businesses in 50 countries analyze blockchain data to investigate illicit transactions and ensure compliance with anti-money laundering and know-your-customer regulations. 

Funding: $266 million from Addition, Accel, Benchmark and others

Latest valuation: $2 billion

Bona fides: Has 350 clients including the IRS, Gemini, Barclays and Square SQ .

Cofounders: CEO Michael Gronager, 50; Chief Strategy Officer Jonathan Levin, 31; and  former CTO Jan Moller, 49

Fireblocks:

Headquarters: New York City 

This cryptocurrency institutional custody startup is already helping more than 250 clients, including BNY Mellon, Revolut and other banks, fintechs, exchanges and hedge funds store and transfer a wide variety of digital assets. It both serves as a custodian and helps larger institutions establish in-house custody services.  

Funding: $179 million from Coatue, Ribbit, Silicon Valley Bank and others

Latest valuation: $700 million

Bona fides: Has already transferred nearly $700 billion in digital assets since launching, reflecting a 2023% increase over the previous year.

Cofounders: CEO Michael Shaulov, 38 and CTO Idan Ofrat, 39

Gemini:

One of the earliest crypto exchanges, it has grown to 350 employees and now conducts some $30 billion in transactions annually. As a licensed and regulated New York trust company, it’s well positioned for growing institutional adoption of crypto. Recently expanded into non-fungible tokens with the purchase of Nifty Gateway, now the largest NFT exchange. 

Latest valuation: $5 billion

Bona fides: As of late March, Nifty Gateway had sold $132 million of the $188 million worth of such work bought by collectors

Cofounders: CEO Tyler Winklevoss, 39 and president Cameron Winklevoss, 39, twins made famous for early legal battle with Mark Zuckerberg over the idea for Facebook. 

Kraken

Headquarters: San Francisco, California 

Second largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S. by transaction volume. Became the first U.S. cryptocurrency firm to receive a banking charter, obtaining a Special Purpose Depository Institution license in Wyoming, and plans to open Kraken Bank and provide accounts to current clients  this fall. Also operates reference rate and index provider, CF Benchmarks, which is used to display prices or price derivatives and indexes by Bloomberg, CME Group CME , and Nasdaq, among others.

Funding: $32 million. Also, undisclosed private equity round in April 2021

Latest valuation: Shares are trading in private markets at an implied $20 billion valuation 

Bona fides: Processed more than $230 billion in trading volume as of May 3. Average daily derivatives volume of $690 million 

Cofounder and CEO: Jesse Powell, a Cal State philosophy major whose first venture helped online gamers manage in-game currencies

Paxos

Founded (as itBit) way back in 2012, the blockchain infrastructure provider has quietly built a backbone for Paypal and Venmo’s crypto brokerage services that allows their customers to buy, hold and sell bitcoin, ethereum and a few other cryptocurrencies directly from their accounts. Additionally, Societe Generale, Credit Suisse and Nomura Instinet use Paxos’ blockchain-based service to settle trades directly with each other, without the traditional intermediary, the National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC)

Funding: $537 million from PayPal Ventures, Declaration Partners and others

Latest valuation: $2.4 billion

Bona fides: More than 100 institutional clients 

Cofounders: CEO Charles Cascarilla, 44 (a former Goldman Sachs financial analyst) and CEO Asia Rich Teo, 41

I report on cryptocurrencies and emerging use cases of blockchain. Born and raised in Russia, I graduated from NYU Abu Dhabi with a degree in economics and Columbia

I report on cryptocurrencies and emerging use cases of blockchain. Born and raised in Russia, I graduated from NYU Abu Dhabi with a degree in economics and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where I focused on data and business reporting. 

What do Vladimir Putin and Burger King have in common? 

For starters, they both have a cryptocurrency named after them. Actually, PutinCoin and Whoppercoin might be the only thing they have in common. But their namesake cryptocurrencies are among the thousands of different virtual currencies making up a growing marketplace grabbing investors’ attention.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum have a growing track record of holding and increasing in value over time, though recent dips have wracked the market, while lesser-known cryptos are considered much more speculative and unpredictable. And while PutinCoin and Whoppercoin belong to a category of cryptocurrencies marked more for their absurdity than their potential as either an investment or cryptocurrency, they show just how unique different types of cryptocurrencies can be.

Here’s Where to Start:10 Most Popular CryptocurrenciesDecentralized FinanceDigital GoldDigital Cash or Internet MoneySoftware Platforms Stablecoin or Digital FiatMemecoins, and Other Strange Cryptocurrencies

In general, cryptocurrencies can be grouped by utility: What is the purpose of the cryptocurrency? What is its value proposition? What is it for?

“They all have different utilities, they all have different founders who have different visions for where that cryptocurrency is going,” says Mike Uehlein, founder and financial planner of WealthU advisors. Uehlein regularly talks to clients about investing in cryptocurrency. 

10 Most Popular Cryptocurrencies

There are thousands of cryptocurrencies, most with very little value and unclear potential. Many advisors recommend investors stick to Bitcoin and Ethereum — if any — and pass on the smaller cryptos. 

Leading cryptocurrency news outlet CoinDesk maintains a Coindesk 20 list of the most popular cryptocurrencies currently being bought and sold. This list includes cryptocurrency assets and networks by their most common names. Some, like Bitcoin (BTC), have one name for both the blockchain network and the cryptocurrency. Others, like Ethereum, are named for the broader blockchain network, but have a different name for their associated native cryptocurrency (Ether, or ETC, in the case of Ethereum).

Updated quarterly, the list ranks cryptocurrencies based on dollar volume and other data from third-party cryptocurrency exchanges, where people can buy and sell different iswapPolkadotUSD Coin

Note: This top 10 list was last updated — using the Coindesk 20 — on May 26, 2021. 

Bitcoin

As the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC) is also the most popular and highly valued, despite high volatility over the course of its history. Bitcoin was initially created to be used as a digital payment system, but experts say it is still too volatile to be used for that.Ethereum

Ether (ETH) is the cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network, an open-source blockchain upon which developers can build apps and other cryptocurrencies. It’s also the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, behind Bitcoin. Ether’s value has risen sharply since its creation in 2013, to nearly $3,000 for one token as of late May, but still lags well behind Bitcoin’s value of nearly $40,000 per coin. 

XRP

XRP is the cryptocurrency of the Ripple digital payment network. Built for digital payments, XRP touts itself as a faster and more efficient way to power global payments. Ripple and XRP also allow for third-party development on other uses for XRP.

Tether

Tether (USDT) is a fiat currency tied to the U.S. dollar. This keeps its value more stable, allowing Tether to present itself as a stable cryptocurrency alternative to cash deposits and withdrawals. Amid high volatility with other cryptocurrencies, Tether’s value hovers around $1 on account of its tie to the U.S. dollar.

Cardano

Cardano (ADA) uses a technology called Ouroboros, a peer-reviewed blockchain protocol. It describes itself as a more secure and scalable way to maintain decentralization.

Stellar

Stellar’s native cryptocurrency is the Lumen (XLM). Stellar is designed as an “open network for storing and moving money” that allows people to create, send, and trade digital money. It’s designed to sell and trade all digital monies, not just Stellar’s own associated cryptocurrency, the Lumen — although you’ll need to own some Lumen to make transactions.

Chainlink

Chainlink (LINK) uses “real-world data and off-chain computation while maintaining security and reliability,” according to its website.

Uniswap

Uniswap (UNI) is a decentralized crypto exchange that operates on Ethereum’s blockchain. Its developers promise to get rid of unnecessary intermediaries, which it says gives users more control.

Polkadot

Polkadot (DOT) says its mission includes allowing different blockchains to exchange information and transactions with one another. Its website plays up data and identity security and users being in control.

USD Coin

USD Coin (USDC) describes itself as “the world’s digital dollar.” Created by a global financial firm called Circle, USDC is the result of work that has been invested in by Goldman Sachs, Baidu, and IDG Capital, among others. USD Coin is tied to the U.S. Dollar, which makes its price much more stable than other cryptocurrencies. That stability lends itself more toward digital payments, while other cryptocurrencies have more potential to increase in value as investments (along with more risk of losing value, of course).

Bitcoin Cash 

Bitcoin Cash is a peer-to-peer electronic cash system, which was the original intention of Bitcoin. The currency allows you to send money anywhere for very low fees.

While each of these top cryptocurrencies is unique in its own way, they all tie into an underlying principle called  decentralized finance (DeFi). 

Decentralized Finance 

In its simplest terms, decentralized finance refers to financial activities conducted without the involvement of a traditional bank. 

Think about all of the activities in which you’d normally use a bank or some other financial institution — getting a loan, insurance, investing, even using a credit card. “All of these [activities] are traditional-finance based and have intermediary companies,” says Ollie Leech, learn editor at CoinDesk. “Now people are creating these products in a completely autonomous way with [cryptocurrencies].”

It can seem counterintuitive — where else would you go for a loan, if not an established lender? But that’s one of the appeals to DeFi, says Leech. 

In the same way people have increasingly brought “smart” technology into their homes, proponents say cryptocurrency has potential to automate and digitize more and more aspects of the financial system. The appeal of this happening outside the conventional — or centralized — finance system depends on who you ask. 

Many Americans may not understand the appeal of a finance system that operates beyond government control. But things can be very different in countries with less financial stability, says Roger Aliaga-Díaz, principal and senior economist with Vanguard Investment Strategy Group. If cryptocurrencies offer as much or more stability as a given national currency, it’s an entirely different equation than if your national currency is the safe and stable U.S. dollar.

Just like there are different types of accounts and tools in conventional finance — from savings accounts to investment accounts to credit cards — that are used for different purposes, different cryptocurrencies can have similarly unique uses in this emerging decentralized finance system.

Instead of going to a bank to draw out a loan, you might “go to a decentralized application that’s not owned or operated by anyone in particular,” says Leech. 

Where conventional loans involve humans at a bank who take part in processing, reviewing, and approving loans, a DeFi loan — with funding in the form of cryptocurrency — could run via app on a network like Ethereum with an algorithm processing it. The borrower would put up some cryptocurrency as collateral, which they’d get back minus interest when they repay the loan.

“The code runs autonomously using smart contracts,” Leech says. “So once the developers release the data they’re pretty much hands-off, and everything runs automatically so there’s no intermediary.” 

Ethereum’s website offers a comparison chart contrasting decentralized from traditional finance. Along with these technical differences, a big consideration to keep in mind is that the conventional financial system is regulated to serve the interests of everyday customers, while cryptocurrency and decentralized financial systems are largely unregulated, and subject to governance and oversight only by their creators/users.

Unlike the money kept in a bank account, money you have in crypto may not be FDIC insured. Some exchanges offer this insurance while others don’t — something you’ll want to look into before buying crypto from one or another. For exchanges that don’t offer this insurance, there’s no guarantee you will be repaid if there is a hack or the exchange goes out of business.

You hold your moneyMoney held by financial institutions Transfers happen in minutesPayments can take days to processTransactions are pseudonymous Financial activity is coupled to your identity (social security number, name, address, etc.)Market is always openMarket closes Built on transparency – anyone can inspect the systemFinancial institutions are closed books.comparison-table tr td:nth-child(){border-left: 10px solid #5bffb1;border-right: 10px solid #5bffb1;}.comparison-table tr:first-child td:nth-child(){border-top: 10px solid #5bffb1}.comparison-table tr:last-child td:nth-child(){border-bottom: 10px solid #5bffb1}

With that in mind, here are some of the broad categories of cryptocurrencies that tend to organize the market.

Digital Gold

Digital gold refers to cryptocurrency comparable to real gold in its ability to store and increase in value. There’s a limited amount of gold on earth, in the same way that digital gold cryptocurrencies have a limited supply. 

“People buy gold not because they expect to be able to go to the store and spend it, but because they expect it to hold its value and maybe, probably, increase in value over time,” says Galen Moore, director of data and indexes at CoinDesk. 

The primary example of a digital gold cryptocurrency is Bitcoin, though that was not its original intention. Bitcoin was originally put forth as an electronic peer-to-peer cash system, but its volatility, among other things, limited its potential for that purpose. 

In use, such digital gold cryptocurrencies are bought and held, “for the same reason people would have diamonds, or some $100 bills, or some gold coins in a safe,” says Moore. Litecoin is another example — it’s been described as silver to Bitcoin’s gold.

Digital Cash or Internet Money

Internet money is exactly what it sounds like — you use it to buy things over the internet. 

Bitcoin was originally intended to be digital cash, but speculation led to the creation of another cryptocurrency, Bitcoin Cash (a variation of Bitcoin). Bitcoin’s price was too volatile for it to be a suitable currency, which proponents for Bitcoin Cash argued was the entire point of the currency to begin with. 

“There was a big debate about what the future of Bitcoin was going to be. Was it gold or was it cash? The people who wanted it to be more like gold won out,” says Moore. The decision was a “turning point for Bitcoin where it really went down to be digital gold.” 

But the group that wanted Bitcoin to remain internet money split off — or forked, in crypto parlance — the currency and created Bitcoin Cash. The network is devoted to digital payments (with faster processing and lower fees). In these ways, Bitcoin Cash is “meant to be cash. That’s the value proposition,” says Moore.

Though Bitcoin Cash is designed and intended for transactions, its price is still volatile and probably not your best option for making or receiving payments. 

Software Platforms  

Ethereum represents another type of cryptocurrency: It operates as a cryptocurrency network and along with its native cryptocurrency, Ether, offers a programmable crypto environment for developers. Similar to how smartphones allow third-party apps to be downloaded and used, Ethereum allows developers to create “dapps” — Ethereum-based apps that tap into the network. 

Investors can buy Ether just like they can buy Bitcoin, hoping it increases in value. Ethereum’s programmable network allows for other, more customizable uses. One example is the creation of NFTs — nonfungible tokens — that caught the attention of people far beyond the cryptocurrency community this year. NFTs are Ethereum-based digital assets, which hold value based on demand and supply on the Ethereum network.  

Stablecoin or Digital Fiat

A stablecoin pegs its value to some other currency or commodity. A digital fiat represents a fiat, or government-backed, currency on the blockchain, says Moore. One of the most popular examples of a digital fiat is Tether, a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to the U.S. dollar. 

Tether is a system that enables you to have a cash-like currency that is always worth $1 — but only on cryptocurrency exchanges. A digital fiat like Tether comes in handy when you want to quickly move your assets within a cryptocurrency exchange. For example, if you think the market for smaller, more unpredictable coins is going to crash, you might put your money in a stablecoin like Tether, and then buy back at a lower price after the crash, says Moore. 

Stablecoins enable the exchange to flow better, says Moore. Taking the previous example, you could theoretically cash out your smaller coins for actual dollars, and then reinvest those dollars after the crash, but it could take days to convert your coins into dollars and back again, says Moore. 

Memecoins, and Other Strange Cryptocurrencies

There are thousands of cryptocurrencies available. Many of them have little to no value, and no discernable value proposition, which lands them in the category of memecoins. Experts recommend avoiding investing in this category of coins and sticking with more well-known options like Bitcoin or Ethereum, if you decide to invest in crypto at all. 

Whoppercoin and PutinCoin fall into this category of cryptocurrencies, as does another famous memecoin of recent fame: Dogecoin. While Dogecoin has seen a rise in demand — and thus value — in recent weeks, it still is highly volatile, as evidenced by its drop in value when Tesla CEO Elon Musk made it the subject of a joke on a recent episode of “Saturday Night Live.”

Any cryptocurrency that’s not Bitcoin is referred to as an “altcoin.”

Bitcoin, Litecoin

Bitcoin Cash, XRP

Ethereum, Cardano, Polkadot

Tether, USD Coin

Dogecoin, PutinCoin, Whoppercoin

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Join us for a live interview with Suze Orman to hear about her experience as an LGBTQ+ personal finance icon in a male-dominated field.

Bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency, was launched in 2009. Today, there are thousands of cryptocurrencies with a total value of about $2 trillion. The surge in their prices earlier this year minted tens of thousands of cryptocurrency millionaires—at least on paper. Cryptocurrencies might turn out to be a massive speculative bubble that ends up hurting many naive investors. Indeed, many cryptocurrency fortunes have already evaporated with the recent plunge in prices. But whatever their ultimate fate, the ingenious technological innovations underpinning them will transform the nature of money and finance. Eswar Prasad Senior Fellow - Global Economy and Development Twitter EswarSPrasad

Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and Ethereum were designed as a way to make payments without relying on traditional modes such as currency notes, debit cards, credit cards or checks. The bitcoin white paper, which set off the cryptocurrency revolution, envisions an electronic payment system that allows “any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party,” cutting governments and banks out of the financial loop. The website Pymnts claims, “Blockchain IS the future of the payments industry,” a reference to the computational technology that undergirds cryptocurrencies.

In fact, it has become very expensive and slow to conduct transactions using cryptocurrencies. It takes about 10 minutes for a bitcoin transaction to be validated, and the average fee for just one transaction was recently about $20. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, processes transactions slightly faster but also has high fees.

Moreover, wild swings in the values of most cryptocurrencies make them unreliable as a means of payment. In late April, the price of a Dogecoin was 20 cents. It tripled in the next two weeks and then fell to half that peak value ten days later. It is as though a $10 bill could buy you just a cup of coffee one day and a lavish meal at a fancy restaurant just a few weeks later. Even on a calmer, more typical day, the value of a major cryptocurrency such as Ethereum might fluctuate by 10 percent or more, making it too unstable to be practical. Recently, Elon Musk announced that Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin as a form of payment, reversing a policy it had implemented earlier in the year. The value of a single coin almost immediately plummeted. A Chinese crackdown on cryptocurrencies then briefly took another one-third off the price in just one day.

Investment funds in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have proliferated. Even major banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are getting into the game. And you would certainly have made a fantastic return if you had bought any of the major cryptocurrencies last year. A typical article in the Motley Fool debates not whether cryptocurrencies are a good investment but “which one is right for you.” The website Business Mole claims: “Even with adjustments made, Bitcoin and Ethereum are very profitable. It’s simple.”

But beware. Part of the allure seems to be that, like gold, the supply of most cryptocurrencies is tightly controlled (by the computer programs that manage them). For instance, about 18.5 million bitcoin have been created so far, and there will eventually be a maximum of 21 million bitcoin. This is a cap set by the computer program that manages the supply of the currency.

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Scarcity by itself is not, however, enough to create value—there has to be demand. Since cryptocurrencies cannot easily be used to make most payments and have no other intrinsic uses, the only reason they have value is because many people seem to think they are good investments. If that changed, their value could quickly drop to nothing.

Bitcoin is now seen as the granddaddy of cryptocurrencies, and investors (or speculators, more precisely) are piling into other cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin. In 2019, Investopedia claimed that bitcoin was “losing its power as the driving force of the cryptocurrency world.” “Bitcoin And Ethereum Are Being Left In The Dust By Dogecoin,” reads a recent Forbes headline.

Dogecoin and other such cryptocurrencies, which are simply built around memes (Dogecoin, with its Shiba Inu dog mascot, references the “doge” meme), don’t even make a pretense of being usable in financial transactions. And there is no clear constraint on the supply of these coins, so their prices surge or crash on random events such as tweets from Musk. The valuations of meme currencies seem to be based entirely on the “greater fool” theory—all you need to do to profit from your investment is to find an even greater fool willing to pay a higher price than you paid for the digital coins.

Bitcoin’s technology does seem outdated compared with some of the newer cryptocurrencies that enable greater anonymity for users, faster transaction processing and more sophisticated technical features that facilitate automatic processing of complex financial transactions. For all its flaws, however, bitcoin remains dominant: It accounts for nearly half of the total value of all cryptocurrencies.

Morgan Stanley’s chief global strategist, Ruchir Sharma, has argued that bitcoin could end the dollar’s reign—or at least that the “digital currency poses a significant threat to [the] greenback’s supremacy.” A Financial Times headline proposes, even more ominously, that “Bitcoin’s rise reflects America’s decline.”

Cryptocurrencies are not backed by anything other than the faith of the people who own them. The dollar, by contrast, is backed by the U.S. government. Investors still trust the dollar, even in hard times. As one illustration, domestic and foreign investors continue to eagerly snap up trillions of dollars in U.S. Treasury securities even at low interest rates.

New cryptocurrencies called stablecoins aim to have stable values and therefore make it easier to conduct digital payments. Facebook plans to issue its own cryptocurrency, called Diem, that will be backed one for one with U.S. dollars, giving it a stable value. But the value of stablecoins comes precisely from their backing by government-issued currencies. So while dollars might become less important in making payments, the primacy of the U.S. dollar as a store of value will not be challenged.

Warren Buffett has compared cryptocurrencies to the 17th-century Dutch tulip craze, while Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey cautioned, “Buy them only if you’re prepared to lose all your money.” Economist Nouriel Roubini called bitcoin “the mother or father of all scams” and even criticized its underlying technology.

Cryptocurrencies may or may not persevere as speculative investment vehicles, but they are triggering transformative changes to money and finance. As the technology matures, stablecoins will hasten the ascendance of digital payments, ushering out paper currency. The prospect of competition from such private currencies has prodded central banks around the world to design digital versions of their currencies. The Bahamas has already rolled out a central bank digital currency, while countries like China, Japan and Sweden are conducting experiments with their own official digital money. The dollar bills in your wallet—if you still have any—could soon become relics.

Even transactions such as buying a car or a house could soon be managed through computer programs run on cryptocurrency platforms. Digital tokens representing money and other assets could ease electronic transactions that involve transfers of assets and payments, often without trusted third parties such as real estate settlement attorneys. Governments will still be needed to enforce contractual obligations and property rights, but software could someday take the place of other intermediaries, including bankers, accountants and lawyers.

Many times when a NASCAR driver isn’t actually racing, they can be found outdoors somewhere; hunting, fishing, racing in another series, working on a farm perhaps.

NASCAR driver Landon Cassill is a little different.

When he’s not racing on an actual track the 31-year-old Iowan can be found racing online amongst whomever decides to join him, most often streaming himself on “Twitch” an online platform that allows others to watch. 

The point is that Cassill is part of a generation of younger people who live much of their lives on the information superhighway, aka the Internet. It should come as no surprise then that Cassill knows a lot about cryptocurrency, the once mysterious form of money that to many of us remains nothing more than “magic money.” Cryptocurrency is made up of a bunch of numbers that lives in “digital wallets” on blocks in a “blockchain” on a “node” and can be “mined.”

And Cassill knows all about it.

He’s been dabbling in cryptocurrency for quite some time and has even “mined” it. Recently though, he’s started to do something else with cryptocurrency. You see, Landon Cassill is the first NASCAR driver to get a cryptocurrency platform to sponsor the car he races in NASCAR’s Xfinity series for JD Motorsports using cryptocurrency to pay for the sponsorship. And that’s a pretty big deal.

“I've, I've traded it. I bought it, I've held it, I've mined it,” Cassill said. “But a couple of years ago, I really decided that in addition to it being a part of my personal portfolio I wanted to build a network in the space.”

 “As a race car driver. I make my living by having sponsors and representing brands that I'm aligned with.”

The sponsorship is with Voyager Digital which operates a crypto-asset trading platform. Cassill met CEO Steve Ehrlich a couple years ago at a crypto conference and the two became friends. It was this friendship that led to the partnership.

“It just seems like the space has gotten bigger and bigger and more and more active,” Cassill said. “And it's matured to a point where companies are ready for something like a mainstream sponsorship of a sports team or a race.”

“The timing is perfect for it.”

With no centralized banks that hold onto cryptocurrency, it’s been the Wild West in the crypto space in years past. But that space is starting to be tamed. Voyager is one of the newer platforms, basically a brokerage firm, that allows users to build a portfolio of different forms of cryptocurrency. It’s opening the once mysterious world to more and more people, including those who might not be too comfortable trading “magic money.”

“It's easy for someone that doesn't know much to understand it,” Cassill said. “For me to tell my parents or you know, my grandmother, who last time Bitcoin was at $60,000 called me and asked me, ‘how did my Bitcoin do?’ It takes me two seconds to copy and paste an invite link to Voyager and she's on the platform in a second.”

And that platform brings something that Cassill has been doing on the internet full circle, as in the circle that is a racetrack.

 “To me that's a perfect alignment for something I'm invested in already but also compliments my career as a race car driver.”

One thing that cryptocurrency market is known for however is volatility, the value can swing wildly. That’s something that Cassill says isn’t an issue with Voyager and similar platforms.

“Yes, it’s an active market,” Cassill said. But he adds: “Just like if you're holding a stock or anything else crypto, Bitcoin, light coin, Ethereum, they're all going up and down.”

“One thing that's really awesome about Voyager is you earn interest on your holdings,” he said. “And not just like a little bit of interest, like holding cash in the bank. I think that for Bitcoin, you earn like six and a quarter percent interest. And if you hold their native token, Voyager token, a certain amount, they'll give you a 1% bonus. You can earn between six and 9% interest, 10% interest, actually, I think on some tokens just by holding it in your account. That's pretty awesome.”

“I mean for a crypto guy; I hold my personal portfolio. A lot of people hold off exchanges. So for those of you that are willing to hold on an exchange or want to see your cryptocurrency earning some yield, even while the market is going up and down, it's a great way to, I suppose, hedge the market.”

Holding on then is the best way for crypto to pay off.

“We've seen the price change, it swings of 10 or 15% at a time,” Cassill said. “It can definitely be a volatile market. But I mean, if you're holding one Bitcoin in your Voyager account that one Bitcoin is earning a six and a quarter percent interest annual interest rate, that's nothing to sneeze about.”

It’s obvious that Cassill is passionate about the cryptocurrency market and enjoys educating others about the once mysterious world. Cassill has seen how interest has grown in the crypto market and it’s a big part of the sponsorship.

Something he doesn’t mind at all.

“It is fun to just tie things from other aspects of my life into racing,” Cassill said. “And I think that really what it does is strengthens my community and strengthens Voyager's community. Because that's one thing that is really strong about cryptocurrency is the community. And Voyager, I think a big part of the sponsorship is that community and how can they tap into the NASCAR community and really just provide a good service.”

While the sponsorship may be something new to the sport, the contracts weren’t any different than any other sponsorship deal. And the process of turning cryptocurrency into the cash needed to pay the race team’s bills isn’t all that difficult Cassill said.

“Fortunately, on Voyager's brokerage platform I can just liquidate the crypto that I need and send it right to my bank account,” Cassill said. “The sponsorship is paid fully in cryptocurrency. That's a part of this sponsorship. And from that point I can hold what I want to hold, keep it in my Voyager account. But I could also sell it carve out what I need to pay bills. And obviously, go racing with it.”

Cassill’s JD Motorsports car he’s racing at Nashville Superspeedway (and raced at the Circuit of the Americas several weeks ago) isn’t the first to have a crypto sponsor on the hood and get its funding from cryptocurrency, Stefan Parsons has a partial sponsorship for the same race with Dogecoin. And Josh Wise famously had Dogecoin sponsorship for a race in 2014. But the Voyager sponsorship isn’t just a one or two race deal; in fact, it’s a deal that will see it as a primary sponsor for the rest of the season, with that sponsorship paid for fully in cryptocurrency; that’s a first for NASCAR.

“I've been a NASCAR long enough, I guess I don't count anything out in this sport,” Cassill said. “But I think that the one thing that I probably didn't imagine when I first got into cryptocurrency; the level of professionalism I would deal with when, doing a sponsorship with a brokerage exchange like Voyager you know, Steve, or like Pam Kramer and the whole team there. These people are really good people and they're professionals and I'm excited to work with them. Because I think it's a, a really great brand.”

Cryptocurrency is indeed becoming less mysterious. It’s exiting the information superhighway, and thanks to enthusiasts, like race car driver Landon Cassill, its going racing in NASCAR.

I have been around and written about the sport of NASCAR for over two decades and previously worked fulltime for the Sporting News and Scripps-Howard News Service. I am

I have been around and written about the sport of NASCAR for over two decades and previously worked fulltime for the Sporting News and Scripps-Howard News Service. I am also a contributor to two Chicken Soup for the Soul books including the NASCAR edition, published in 2010 and the author of “The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing.” I am a multiple National Motorsports Press Association award winner. Early in life I spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community serving in support of Operation Just Cause, Desert Shield/Storm and ended my military career in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

By Richard Eisenberg, <strong 101/">Next Avenue Editor

Until now, we've never published a Next Avenue article about cryptocurrency or Bitcoin or the blockchain and, as the editor of our Money channel, I'm the reason why.

Frankly, I've felt that the Bitcoin digital currency and other cryptocurrencies were, at best, extremely volatile and risky investments (did I mention the price of a Bitcoin coin went from $10,764 in September 2020 to $64,829 in April 2021 and is now down to $40,000?) and, at worst, sometimes sketchy. I figured the cryptocurrency craze would fade. I was wrong about that last part.

So, here are the basics on the blockchain and Bitcoin and how to invest (just a little!) in cryptocurrencies, pulled from the new episode of the "Friends Talk Money" podcast I co-host with personal finance writer Terry Savage and public media's MoneyTrack host and Wealthramp.com founder Pam Krueger. (You can download the podcast from your favorite podcast distributor.)

Fact is, lots of smart financial analysts — like Ark Invest's Cathie Wood — have become big believers in cryptocurrency.

Some have come around to become, if not crypto fans, then at least no longer deniers. In 2018, legendary investor Warren Buffett called Bitcoin "probably rat poison squared." But his company recently put $500 million into Nubank, the parent company of the digital bank selling cryptocurrency products.

And why should you care about Bitcoin and the blockchain?

Well, the GlobalData analytics company just predicted that revenue from blockchain platforms and services will soar from $4 billion in 2020 to $199 billion by 2030. According to a survey by Motley Fool's service The Ascent, 21 million Americans — 14% of adults — own Bitcoin, which has been around since 2009; half of them bought it during the last 12 months. And, for what it's worth, El Salvador just became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, and the payment app Venmo now lets customers buy or sell cryptocurrencies.

"I see the blockchain technology on which cryptocurrency is built as being transformative," Krueger said on the podcast. Some compare the impact of Bitcoin on the financial world with the way the internet disrupted music and publishing.

Krueger said that a year ago, when she asked Wealthramp's 250 fee-only advisers whether they'd recommend clients invest in cryptocurrencies, "almost all of them said, 'Not yet.'" But she surveyed them in June 2021 "and I would say that there's a shift in the mindset of the whole group." In other words, they now think their clients should consider owning a little crypto if they're interested.

For a primer on all this, let me try to make crypto less cryptic by offering a few questions that may be on your mind and answers to them.

What is the blockchain, what is Bitcoin and what is cryptocurrency?

Here's how Savage explained them on the "Friends Talk Money" podcast:

"The blockchain ledger is a computer program. Think of it as the behind-the-scenes backbone where all [financial] transactions are securely recorded without any intermediaries in a ledger that every participant can see, but no one can change unless by an authorized transaction recorded on this blockchain," said Savage.

Savage conceded that definition might sound "clear as mud," so she offered an analogy that might help.

"When you buy a house, you get title insurance to make sure that no one else has filed a claim to the property. And that's why we have title insurance companies and we pay a fee to them," Savage noted. "But if all the title changes were recorded on the blockchain, there would be no need for this insurance or for the title insurance companies… The registration would be immutable and visible on the blockchain ledger."

With the blockchain's peer-to-peer transactions, she said, you don't need a financial intermediary, a bank, a currency exchange or even a government. "Think about the implications of that kind of medium of exchange," said Savage.

And what does this have to do with Bitcoin, Dogecoin (a meme-inspired crypto), Ethereum (billionaire investor and "Shark Tank" star Mark Cuban is a fan) and other cryptocurrencies?

Savage said: "You could use this blockchain ledger technology as a basis for all kinds of completely secure transactions, like property transactions. But the most popular use is with the so-called cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin." Bitcoin records transactions in the blockchain.

There are thousands of other cryptocurrencies, Savage added, but "many of those are started by complete scammers." Consumers lost almost $82 million in crypto scams during the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

So, how do you buy cryptocurrencies — if you dare?

Savage's first rule: "If you're going to buy a cryptocurrency, stick with the best-known ones [like Bitcoin]. That doesn't mean you won't lose money on the price fluctuations, but it means you're not just throwing your money into a black hole."

And that led to another of Savage's rules: Buy cryptocurrency on a legitimate crypto exchange like Coinbase or Kraken, or through an ATM that sells it — though ATM fees to do so are steep. (Coinbase isn't that machine in supermarkets where you exchange your loose change for bills, I joked on the podcast; that's Coinstar.)

Alternatively, you could invest in a blockchain Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) that either invests in companies involved in blockchain technology or invests in futures or options pegged to the performance of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or crypto investment products from asset managers.

Is buying Bitcoin investing or speculating?

It's a speculation, since there's no intrinsic correct value for it. Bitcoin is worth what people decide it's worth each day.

But there seems to be strong long-term potential for a rise in Bitcoin's value, since businesses like banks, Microsoft MSFT and Tesla TSLA accept it (CEO Elon Musk's musings on Bitcoin often lead to wild fluctuations) and it looks like more will, over time. And, as Savage noted, the Federal Reserve is studying developing a digital currency.

How big a portion of my investment portfolio should I put into Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies or businesses related to them?

Here's what Kraken.com Chief Product Officer Jeremy Wells told the "Friends Talk Money" hosts: "I just generally encourage everyone to kind of explore the space a little bit. There's no need to put an entire paycheck into cryptocurrency."

So, the "Friends Talk Money" co-hosts said, maybe you might put 3% of your total portfolio into crypto; maybe less. I'm starting to think of it as a new way to diversify your investment portfolio, the way you might do with your stocks by buying international stocks of companies in countries with emerging economies.

Incidentally, you don't have to buy an entire Bitcoin. Crypto exchanges let you purchase a fraction — even as little as $5 or $10 worth.

But think of this type of investment as money you can lose — and very well might. Mad money meet mad crypto.

Dennis Chookazian, a futurist and longtime cryptocurrency analyst, told "Friends Talk Money" that Bitcoin and its ilk are "entertainment assets" that provide "psychic income."

His advice: "You shouldn't buy it with any money that you need for your children's education or something like that…You should not buy cryptocurrencies with money that you absolutely can't afford to lose."

Krueger calls investing in cryptocurrencies "emotional gambling," adding that "anytime you put money into something based on your emotions, it's the fastest way to lose money."

But, she noted, "it's kind of fun to learn about." And, Krueger said, she owns some Bitcoin and digital tokens Ethereum and Cardano.

Next Avenue is public media’s first and only national journalism service for America’s booming older population. Our daily content delivers vital ideas, context and

Next Avenue is public media’s first and only national journalism service for America’s booming older population. Our daily content delivers vital ideas, context and perspectives on issues that matter most as we age.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced its regulatory agenda for 2021 and cryptocurrencies are not on it.

The SEC has curiously left cryptocurrency and blockchain off its list of regulatory priorities for 2021 according to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The official release is called the Spring 2021 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. The purpose of the document is to provide “important public notice and transparency about proposed regulatory and deregulatory actions within the Executive Branch,” according to the release.

The document breaks down the actions each administrative agency plans to move forward on, in both the short and long term.

Some of the items that did make the regulatory agenda include cybersecurity risk governance, short sale disclosure reforms, and amendments to the custody rules for investment advisers.

The move to leave off cryptocurrency, specifically Bitcoin, off the agenda is a little surprising after SEC Chairman, Gary Gensler, had spoken about the need for regulations on crypto. Speaking with Congress back in May, Gensler stated that his desire was to regulate cryptos in a similar manner to the stock market.

He said one of his missions is “to bring the similar protections to the exchanges where you trade crypto assets, as you might expect on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq.” While Gensler is pro-crypto, this is not the first time he has stated the need for expanded regulations to protect investors. On an episode of CNBC’s Squawk Box, The Chairman acknowledged that one of the primary issues was that of unregistered securities posing as cryptos. “To the extent that something is a security, the SEC has a lot of authority. And a lot of crypto tokens, I won’t call them cryptocurrencies for this moment are indeed securities.”

While Gensler is not pushing regulatory action this year against cryptos, he did recently make a request of Congress to begin hearings and take official steps to control crypto. In the month following that request, no official action has been taken. 

Gensler is not the only big-name pushing for more regulatory restrictions surrounding cryptos. Senator Elizabeth Warren has long been critical of cryptocurrency, calling them “a fourth-rate alternative to real currency.” Recently, she has taken a hard stance against the mining of bitcoin in the United States, objecting to the negative impact it has on the environment.

News cryptocurrencies and tokens Jeremy Nation August 29, 2017 7:05 PMAugust 29, 2017 7:05 PM0 ShareFacebookTwitterRedditLinkedInCancel Indorse will distribute 65,000 IND tokens to holders of other cryptocurrencies. On August 28, 2017, Ethereum blockchain-based professional social media network Indorse announced it would airdrop 65,000 IND tokens to holders of TenX (PAY), Digix (DGD), CoinDash (CDT), and 0x (ZRX) tokens based on a snapshot of the blockchain taken on August 18, 2017. Indorse will not disburse tokens to Ethereum addresses containing more than 3,000 or less than 0.01 Ether to avoid sending tokens to inactive and exchange accounts. David Moskowitz, Indorse co-founder and CEO, said that giving the tokens to users will facilitate activity and capture a wider audience. "In choosing to airdrop our tokens to these communities, we ensure not only wide distribution, but also that our tokens will be placed in the hands and wallets of some of the most active and engaged token holders in the Ethereum network. The airdrop will take place automatically, so nothing needs to be done. But users interested in doubling their airdrop are directed to sign up on an official Indorse website by September 4, 2017. Indorse warns users not to give out private keys to any site. The company said it will not ask for private keys, and so a site asking for a private key and claiming to be Indorse is a scam. Moskowitz said Indorse has a reward-centric approach, "by providing a platform on which users can use crowd-verified endorsements to further their reputations. As such, our ecosystem flourishes as active and engaged participants, receive financial rewards from engaging on the network, in the form of IND tokens. Indorse's collaborative efforts have caught the attention of others in the community and have been met with support from developers. Co-founder of Digix Global Shaun Djie acknowledged Indorse's past efforts. "The team at Indorse have been long time supporters of the Ethereum and Digix communities," he said. "We are very happy to support them in their efforts to expand the universe of IND holders." Adam Efrima, COO of CoinDash, spoke about his company's future support of IND tokens. "The IND token will be added to CoinDash ecosystem soon, following the airdrop our users will be able to manage one more asset in their CoinDash portfolio. TenX co-founder Dr. Julian Hosp expressed how the companies work well together. He said, "We are thrilled that our PAY holders will receive IND tokens in this airdrop, as while Indorse provides a way for people to earn tokens, TenX gives them a way to spend them." "We aim to tackle the fundamental flaws associated with social networks such as data ownership and privacy leak by putting the power into the hands of the user, as opposed to the owners and advertisers," added Moskowitz. "The significant interest in our project to date paired with the extensive community support of our Airdrop partners has positioned Indorse as a truly revolutionary undertaking. Jeremy NationJeremy Nation is a writer living in Los Angeles with interests in technology, human rights, and cuisine.ETHNews is committed to its Editorial PolicyLike what you read? Follow us on Twitter @ETHNews_ to receive the latest Indorse, IND or other Ethereum cryptocurrencies and tokens news. Indorse IND airdrop token TenX Digix CoinDash 0x