Cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polkadot
by zippyd | January 13, 2021 1:04 am
No doubt you have been hearing more about Cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin and Ethereum at least.
You may have noticed Bitcoin and Ethereums huge gains and recent correction.
Bitcoin was at $5000, then during halving around $7k-$10k, and recently at $41k. And it had a 26% correction/consolidation, as it was going up to fast. Partly due to institutional investors and the public awareness. (See https://bitcointreasuries.org/ for a list of companies recently buying up bitcoin and moving their cash reserves). They seem to understand the bitcoin ‘store of value’ usage case. But they still do not understand or trust the Ethereum ecosystem, however Ethereum has been running since July 2015. [NOTE: There are scam projects so do your research].
Just to give people a place to start looking.. And this is by NO means a exhaustive list of good/solid projects.. just ones from the top of my head…
(Generally I avoid: xrp, bsh, bsv – which are good projects, do not bother with TRON or DOGE unless for fun or you have done the research. And feel free to talk to me about doing the research.. reading the whitepaper, checking the “tokenomics”.. total supply, circulating supply, percentage allocation and lockups.. Generally if the project takes 50% avoid them, if they are anonymous avoid them.. More conservative/solid projects lower risk are in the top 100 coins[1], large gainers are between a $1M and $10M marketcap, medium between $10M and $30M marketcap).
Any below I hold.. and I am fine with sharing what I hold and percentage.. (I have done some bad moves, but overall I am up signficantly over 7x in 6 months. and those are mostly holding not daytrading). And some of my losses have because I test features on the live blockchain[2] network.. yield farming, staking, etc.. but I have not found yield farming profitible when doing small tests due to fees.
Best Cryptos currently for gains are a few small ones but significant gains on:
Bitcoin(BTC), Ethereum (ETH)[3], ChainLink(LINK), Polkadot(DOT), chainX(PCX)
Parsiq(PRQ), Uniswap(UNI), API3 looks interest.
Matic, Cardano(ADA) and Loopring(LRC) also.
My Uniswap(UNI) tokens were all free to me.. from a airdrop since I used the platform previously(regulary also).
But you need to look for dips. And hold long [and know you will gain, but the lower than
the peak] unless you FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and buyin near the top.
I have NEVER lost money on bitcoin or Ethereum. (I have lost with small coins/tokens, but I invested small amounts I was willing to lose). And others 400+% in a few weeks. I do not have it mastered. However, if you do a little research, do not get greedy and balance between the solid projects [bitcoin, ethereum, polkadot]. A recent upcomer has been Cardano (ADA)[4] and also Matic
If you want to see a good list of the coins and tokens [note coins are ones that have their own blockchain, tokens are the ones hosted on a blockchain], you can see those at:
http://coingecko.com/ or http://coinmarketcap.com/
Current markets coming after this bitcoin correction/consolidation we have currently are in the areas of:
– DeFi
* Derivatives – Synthetix(SNX) and others
* AAVE – loands and yield baring
* Insurance[5] – Nexus Mutual (NXM), COVER, and others
* General yield farming – yearn.finance ecosystem/Sushi/YF-DAI
– Layer-2 solutions (basically to fix some issues with scaling on Ethereum until
Ethereum 2.0 is finished in a couple years). Phase 0 is already implemented.
* Matic
* LoopRing(LRC)
– Oracles – basically databases or pulling data/functions for projects
* ChainLink (LINK) – top oracle
* Band
smaller ones that may do well or be weeded out..
* API3
* Graph (GRT)
* DOS Networks(DOS)
* DIA
– Launchpads – places that launch new projects..
* DuckDuckDime(DDIM) – yeah I know the name is silly
* Polkastarter(POLS)
* TrustSwap(SWAP)
* Binance(BNB) and they have a launchpad also – big centeral exchange – US has to use binance.us [kicked off the main site]
– Alternate chains/ecosystems
* Polkadot is a ecosystem started by the other founder of Ethereum. And it is meant
to work with/interoperate with other chains. And there are many coins/projects
in Polkadot and Kusama chains.
* Cardano(ADA)
Stansberry had bad information on Crypto and bitcoin. It was wide open, but difficult to get originally due to the US SEC and it is still hard to get in good projects/offers due to US Gov restrictions. [so the US citizens are at a disadvantage or illegally access some exchanges]. Reecntly the US cracked down, and we can only use ‘US “blessed” exchanges’ to move US dollars on.
I am happy to discuss on anything, but especially science [genetics/medical], robotics, cryptos, blockchain, security or computing topics.
And even share my Crypto portfolio and my winners and losers. But I managed to get my 401k up in 6 months 214% [after I had to take it over and fidelity lost 20%]. And my crypto is up over 5x in the same time. It is likely IMO for bitcoin to $150k by Oct.. and I would start selling out at around $50k, $100k [expecting a correction and buy back in], sell at least half at $150 and let a portion ride and sell on the way down[if I catch it]. Ethereum best estimates are $20k again that is the feel. And Polkadot I was in at $3.00, and now about $8-$9, up to $100.
Again on the stockmarket a entry without ‘premiums’ for bitcoin would be MicroStrategy (MSTR)[6].
- coins: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/coins/
- blockchain: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/blockchain/
- Ethereum (ETH): https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/eth/
- Cardano (ADA): https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/ada/
- Insurance: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/insurance/
- MicroStrategy (MSTR): https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/mstr/
Source URL: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/2021/01/microblog-cryptocurrencies-bitcoin-ethereum-polkadot/
You seem to have a ton of knowledge on this. I have generally been reluctant to put my money without proper understanding. Because I couldn’t understand your post fully tells me that I have a lot to learn before I can even think of putting my money. I have been trying to take a few courses on Udemy to learn about the fundamentals and key metrics to look for. Will you comfortable sharing the list of resources/readings that I need to do to ramp up my learning.
Yes I am more than happy to share resources or discussions. Right now we are not 100% sure if the price will go up or down.. We should know more in a few days. Ethereum is down still. Some good youtubers are: IvanOnTech [I just started in their academy to learn more], EllioTrades, DataDash [technical analysis], BitBoy Crypto, Coin Bureau
I am a bit of a libratarian [not formally] I just prefer low government interference, as it kills innovation, limits opportunities and treats citizens as incompitant and now personal responsibility.
I have been in Crypto since 2012… But not that active until June 2020. (The if only I did more does cross my mind. But focus on what we can do now and be happy for any gains). One of my friends recently was concerned with the 25% drop, but I reminded him he was still up by 3x in a few months and with parabolic rises there needs to be correction or it is finished rising and will really fall. I do expect when Bitcoin/Ethereum hit the new all time high it will crash back to probably 25k-30k, so take profits near the top (remove your initial investment at least, then you do not loose.. Buy on dips, sell on peaks. ).
You are wise to be cautious and do your research. It is best to understand what you invest in. Especially right now, as we are in a ‘Head and shoulders’ pattern. So we may have downside by another 20-30% before we start up again.
Here is a comment by a traditional stock market person:
Cathie Wood, ARK CEO/CIO: Talks a bit about advising people to hedge into bitcoin.
https://youtu.be/MzPzz24UN3c?t=1837
If you want specific areas of knowledge feel free to ask. I may start writing some scripts for a youtube channel also. What topics do you think would be useful?
– What is bitcoin?
– how it works, how is the chain secured..
– quick basics:
Block A — Block B — Block C — …. — Block ###
Each block references the previous one by a hash (cryptographic hash)
And it is really just a chain of Blocks..
Each block also has a list of transactions..
It is similar to a linked-list :
cryptographic encription – which helps stop modifications of the blocks on the chain
distributed ledger – duplicate copies on different nodes
distributed unrelated nodes – protect from one company, governement, entity from manipulating. (like recalculate the entire chain – which would be expensive also).
consensus among distributed nodes to confirm each block.
Transfer is validated by the nodes..
If you wish to contact me directly feel free at: markwdalton@gmail.com
And I am fine with sharing here.. I just do not want to ‘talk to much’ about it in this forum. Some people are very sensitive about the new economy coming.
Parts of the goals for Cryptocurrency (at least the original intention – obviously some are just about profit versus public good just like normal stock companies). But at least in Crypto there is less possibilities of monopolist practices, censorship.
Goals:
– Trustless transactions – no middleman, it is a algorithm that decides.
– No play preferences like in government and businesses. The contract is the same for all. (You do not need to be a ‘professional trader’ to get the normal price and the public has to pay a premium).
– It is on good projects all fair. (Look at the ‘tokenomics’ to eliminate unfair ones).
– Providing stable monitary system for countries with inflation/devaluation
– Providing banking for the ‘bankless’. The old notions of a physical address for banking are unhealthy in this day. And KYC also opens up more concerns of public safety. (Banks, Government, companies all have lost private records commonly every year).
– Transparency – everyone can publically see the transaction records, and confirm it was or was not sent and to which address. (which is another reason why KYC is dangerous).
Mark
I did not see ltc in the list. I agree with your observations on btc and eth. What exchanges have you used and which do you like best? I have looked at coinbase and crypto. I am new to this but would like to start investing in crypto. Thanks for your help.
LiteCoin(LTC) is another basically a copy of bitcoin. (Often considered the ‘silver’ to bitcoin being ‘gold’).
So it would be good also. But for me it follows bitcoin, but I own some LTC, BCH, XLM also. There are a lot of others I did not list that are very good also. (I have over 80 different cryptocurrencies some are to support projects, others are small speculations). REN, RSR, RAMP, UTK, UBT have been very good also.
I had many exchanges prior to the SEC crackdown, but I moved most off now, incase the SEC gets even further out of control. I mostly use: pro.coinbase.com and the coinbase wallet, I also have some metamask accounts – that I can connect to all the defi places like Uniswap [and those bypass centralized exchanges]. You can use Uniswap with the coinbase wallet app on the phone. I have HW storage also.
Central exchanges that are okay to use by US residents:
– pro.coinbase.com – regulated [so some safety from SEC] – others have complained about their
fees, customer support issues and locking up accounts.
– kraken.com – here you can get polkadot – regulated [so some safety from SEC]
– Generally I have heard very good support.
– crypto.com – I had issues with them working with my bank so I cannot use with my bank.
– They would not verify my bank since my bank would not do tiny charges (less then $7.00).
– Neither the bank or crypto.com was willing to change or make a exception
– They have the crypto Visa also.
– binance.us – (I was on binance)
– I have not used much with yet another KYC, and booted from the normal binance
– less services are available than the normal binance, but more than coinbase.
I can send you links for bonus’s on some or all of these. Or you can look around to get bonus on signup.
So I only use pro.coinbase.com to move money into the crypto space and hold coins I want to be
ready to exchange with limit orders.
– kraken.com – I use for Polkadot coins
* I originally had mine on hotbit.io – but I was concerned as it is not a US exchange
RSR – is popular in countries with issues with high inflation rates (RSV is the stable coin associated).
But feel free to contact me directly also. I am happy to share anything I understand, and research topics I do not know. markwdalton@gmail.com
If you have a code for procoinbase and kraken that wold be great. I sent you an email. What is your take on dot? I am thinking it will go up from here but my analysis is in the beginning stages.
I absolutely love Polkadot(DOT) it is a entire ecosystem. Kusama(KSM) is the other chain nearly identical to Polkadot [they work together]. Kusama is a production but more flexible area, so changes are more frequent, and more open to projects. Polkadot is more careful more ‘production’ style. But there are a lot of coins/tokens/projects and some promising ones have not released yet. Acala (ACA) is not available yet, BMI(Bridge Mutual) – Insurance – releases January 30th – on Uniswap, ChainX(PCX), Phala network (PHA), Sora(XOR), Frontier, Moonbeam, Darwinia(RING) are a few of the others. You can read up on the 2020 progress at: https://polkadot.network/polkadot-2020-roundup/ Others opinions are:
https://dailyhodl.com/2020/12/13/these-5-altcoins-are-poised-for-massive-rallies-in-q1-2021-says-popular-crypto-trader/
https://blaize.tech/article-type/top-startups-on-polkadot-that-will-rock-in-2021/
https://medium.com/polkadot-network/kusama-polkadot-comparing-the-cousins-170e4fe6c280
Just be aware, the project is not complete, there are risks. They did put up the testnet the end of December, 2020. Gaven Wood is the co-author of Ethereum so solid person involved. And the right prospective [not trying to take over, but to help interoperability between chains like Bitcoin, Ethereum and others to reduce fees and improve scaling .
Hi Zippyd, I started recently with my blockchain and crypto investments. Only about 3months into it now. I am wondering what your thoughts are on these investments that so far have been giving good returns. I am very interested in firms, banks and miners especially and your thoughts on that. For last 6 months I am in as follows: SI (Silvergate-) and the rest about 3 months…. Hive Technologies (miner of ehterium/ some bitcoin), MARA (miner Marathon Patent Tech). By luck I got out of my bitcoin crypto holdings just about 4 days before the recent big dip off highs and now I’d like to get back into crypto. I am a bit cautious so I thought maybe by opening an interest bearing account on a firm I read about called Blockify on yahoo—they use “Stable coin” tied to the USD). Kindly give me your thoughts and maybe also concentrate on a firm that you think is best in the Asian markets. Thx. JJ
I tend to hold through the dips.. During the halving I did the buy/sell/buy/sell and made about 0.5 Bitcoin [even after coinbase fees]. But it is more risky during a bull run. This was just a consolidation/correction, since we have had a huge run up. Right now the BTC price is up around $37k, I bought more at $33k. Ethereum is still a good deal at around $1k. I was in on alt-coins while the focus was on Bitcoin and the fees were low.
I do not do much with the stock/companies, except I did buy Microstrategy (MSTR) and Grayscales GBTC (up over 100%) and ETHE. But I can only do indirect bitcoin/Ethereum in my 401k. And for my cash I only invest in cryptocurrencies since the returns are much better.. for that I am currently up over 6x even after the correction in 7 months.
Ignore the Mainstream media and most ‘investor analysts’ they are bad enough in the stock market. But they are often completely naive in cryptocurrency. Cathie Wood and Michael Saylor seem to get why Bitcoin is good.
Cathie Wood, ARK CEO/CIO https://youtu.be/MzPzz24UN3c?t=1837
I almost did the sell of half my ETH and BTC at $40k, but choose to ride it out.
At $50k, $100k I will sell some, and if it goes down, buy back in. The conservative crypto analysts see bitcoin at $150k – $250k by October, then their are wild short term and very high in 3-5 years. Ethereum estimate is about $20k by October.
I will just follow the moves.
Stable coins you can get interest on them in MANY tools:
– Yearn.finance
– Celcius wallet – on your phone but I did not try that yet.
– Kraken – ETH, DOT, KSM, etc.
– Math-wallet
– Coinbase – the regular one has staking and learning modules to earn a little bit. But the bonus is you learn about the tokens.
– Akropolis allows you to stake on a node with less then 32 ETH, this is for Ethereum 2.0 but it is locked up for 2 years.
Then there is yield farming and providing for liquidity pools. If you have large money in the pairs, then it seems okay. Make sure you do this when ‘gas fees’ are low.
So mining I do not know as much of which companies do this.. But there is data out there. Pakistan Government is now do it to generate income in one state.
The miner machine production should do well also – BitmainTech
Riot Blockchain – purchase of an additional 2,040 next-generation Bitmain S19 (95 TH) Antminers from April to August, 2020 from BitmainTech
Riot Blockchain, Inc. (NASDAQ: RIOT)
Hive Blockchain (OTCMKTS: HVBTF), Hut 8 Mining (OTCMKTS: HUTMF), Marathon Patent Group (NASDAQ: MARA)
Here is some distribution information based on mining pools:
https://www.blockchain.com/charts/pools
https://cbeci.org/mining_map – you can see the majority is in China
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Comparison_of_mining_pools
* This may help you find what you are looking for..
* Bitfury is a private company. Alibaba (BABA) also did a lot and cloud.
https://research.ark-invest.com/hubfs/1_Download_Files_ARK-Invest/White_Papers/ARKInvest_031220_Whitepaper_BitcoinMining.pdf
And one of the ARK funds may cover this for you also.
SBI Holdings Inc. and Japanese internet-service provider GMO Internet Inc. are apparently going to start mining..
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-07/world-s-largest-bitcoin-mine-said-to-land-sbi-gmo-as-customers
what is your sense on polkadot? Has its has its run or is there still a lot of room to run up? any new alt coin you are looking at? and than kytoqu for the information so far.
We are just starting the alt-coin season. And most are likely to go up. Polkadot will likely continue to go up, along with many of the tokens in its ecosystem. Some of the coins are: Phala, ChainX, Polkastarter (POLS). Upcoming Polkadot ecosystem projects that are popular are: BridgeMutual (BMI) – insurance on your holdings [incase anything goes wrong] January 30th, Acala(ACA) which I do not have a date for.
Note: Kusama (KSM) – is almost the same as Polkadot and projects that do not get on Polkadot can try to get on Kusama. There is faster turn around on Kusama of changes [it is production, but it is like production beta testing after the testnet].
ChainLink, BAND and API3 oracles – are used many places. Chainlink is the big and most trusted (name brand), and BAND is the second. API3 and The Graph (GRT) are the new ones. API3 from what I hear is better, but GRT is on coinbase.
There are a lot of great projects. Again a lot of projects will go up and some 100x and more. But eventually will drop, some to the original or lower, some will drop 70% of the gain. [which is unfortunate for the project and some investors, so it is important to take out initial investment and take profits on the way up, and you can let the rest ride up and take it out near the top or as it comes down]. Better to have a small profit, than to try to time the top and miss it when it drops.
Ethereum and Bitcoin are pretty safe, $1428’ish is the previous All time high so it is resistance. Polkadot and Cardano are likey to go up until their releases this year, I would likely sell before the release for at least a chunk of them. (The excitement/hopes/expectations that build up before the release versus the reality). Chainlink and Band are also pretty safe.
The main thing is don’t panic, take out your initial investment one the way up, don’t be greedy [hoping to get the max amount of the peak]. And have fun with the profits, let some ride and see if you can or whatever you enjoy.
And do your own research, take ownership. I obviously cannot guarantee anything. We can just look at previous cycles, and human behavior.
And they do work much the same as the stock market..
– Fundamentals – matter – project, market area, team, community, and quality
– Marketing and hype – matters
– Timing in the market – matters
– Human emotion – matters
– FOMO – Fear of Missing Out
– Speculation of the importance and the future
Also PAID is releasing today January 20th also.. https://paidnetwork.com/ ; https://paidnetwork.medium.com/paid-networks-ido-will-take-place-on-polkastarter-january-20th-ffd974cd75b7
Do you have a site you’d recommend for purchasing some of these newer coins. I’ve used coinbase and pro.coinbase in the past, but i’m not seeing some these on exchanges. Curious what site you use.
Hello @zippyd , I have question regarding buying on kraken and binance us. I am not able to view or find coins when searched, like vidt on binance us, when others say they are able to. I see Dot on kraken but not rsr. Is there something obvious that I am missing? I have funds in binance us for bnb and usd . I have successfully bought other coins on binance us. Thanks!
Your analysis is very well thought out, and certainly your bitcoin targets are within the ranges I have seen. Many analysts predicted a Bitcoin price of $50K in 2020, which did not happen. But with institutional investors jumping in, I think $100K Bitcoin is a foregone conclusion. Reaching $200K is a tougher road. Will the big dogs alone push that price up? I doubt it without mass adoption and a change in the mindset of the masses. People in the know realize that bitcoin can be bought to the 8th digit, currently 4 tenths of a cent. Once everyday Americans (and others) realize they can convert their loose change into Bitcoin or make small investments, then it could explode and hit 500K or higher long term. And then there’s the elephant in the room. What will a Biden administration do? Will it become regulated? With the power brokers on Wall street buying in, I seriously doubt any administration will be able to stop it’s adoption. I am well diversified among 20 well known crypto tokens, but BTC is still most of my holdings.
Biggest concern now seems to be ECB, out of fear. Note ‘Christine Lagarde’ is probably not the most reliable and should not be trusted. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38369822 ; https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/19/business/lagarde-imf-verdict-france-questions.html
ECB President Christine Lagarde called for global regulation of #Bitcoin
https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1349341678335893504
– of course they neglected to say the fiat currencies are by far the main money laundering.
– Bitcoin is decentralized how do they plan to ‘regulate’? KYC puts owners at risk.
We cannot have more data breaches.. The ledger is already open to view.
Old system:
– They do ‘credit reports’ which are flawed to start with.. especially for those hit by identity fraud.
– The old system is heavily influenced by personal biases, fraud of giving to associates/friends
– Common bias on perception
– Filled with bad even irrational rules.
New crypto system:
– Cryptocurrency is based on a contract/algorithm/math.. Everyone is treated equally regardless
if you are a CEO of Facebook or homeless.
– No bias on where you were born, color of skin, where you live, what clothes you wear.
Yes it is a ‘threat’ to the ECB, as it eliminates the middleman, corruption, kickbacks, and control over the printing of money, manipulation of interest rates and power. But the cryptocurrency is about freedom, equality, banking for the bankless [no home, no address, all over the world], protection from
Positive news (or maybe mixed)..
1. The US is allowing banks to hold stable coins
2. The OCC is relooking at the ancient rules.
Currently you have to have a human at the bank decide..
They are looking at allowing more secure, unbiased, automatic solutions:
https://www.ft.com/content/c1caca5b-01f7-41be-85a4-3ecb883f2417
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/occ-building-crypto-america-saving-212410392.html
https://decrypt.co/53881/defi-self-driving-banks-occ-brian-brooks
Brian Brooks, Pro-Crypto OCC Leader, Will Step Down (perhaps bad news)
https://cryptobriefing.com/brian-brooks-crypto-friendly-occ-leader-steps-down/
(NOTE: These solutions are available already, without banks as middlemen)
OCC recent news:
https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2021/nr-occ-2021-2a.pdf
https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2021/nr-occ-2021-2.html
https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2021/nr-occ-2021-3.html
3. SEC
– New head of SEC:
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/90936/gensler-biden-sec-nomination-report
https://cointelegraph.com/news/reuters-gary-gensler-mit-blockchainprofessor-and-obama-s-cftc-chair-to-head-biden-sec
– ‘Crypto Mom’ Sheds Light on SEC’s Outlook
https://beincrypto.com/crypto-mom-sheds-light-on-secs-outlook/
Banks allowed:
https://www.coindesk.com/anchorage-becomes-first-occ-approved-national-crypto-bank
https://www.coindesk.com/kraken-crypto-exchange-secures-bank-charter-under-wyoming-law
https://decrypt.co/46561/avanti-becomes-second-crypto-bank-us
I thought this may be helpful to people. Michael Saylors interview with Stansberry Research. Michael is the CEO of Microstrategys and invested about $1 billion in Bitcoin. NOTE: Only bitcoin for him.. Bitcoin is a ‘store of value’ or ‘digital gold’ is how it is often described. And he mentions why he does not go into Ethereum or other coins. And I agree there is more risk, more volatility in other cryptocurrencies like, and there is more reward. (But please do be careful, stick to the major ones that are trusted teams, well evaluated, and good use cases). Here is Michael Saylors interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ60ehVJYAs Bitcoin and Ethereum went down today [I am not sure which reason… Due to Janet Yellen lying about crypto [in studies bitcoin has only 0.34% used in illegal activity and that is down from around 2.1% in the past.] And Government, monetary policy is more used in fraud than bitcoin. And the US Dollar dwarfs all other currencies in illegal activities, terrorism and money laundering.
Unfortunately from Michael Saylors talks he thinks everyone will force KYC for bitcoin. Which means criminals/governments will know how much you have and can track it. If there is KYC it will be in public.
Again watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ60ehVJYAs – to get a more ‘business’ view point
and less of my wishes for freedom and liberty..
Zippidy I have just found this thread. Very useful thanks for the info. I am relatively new into crypto and have kept it fairly simple (although the space is far from simple) and have mainly stuck with Bitcoin and Ethereum. I do have some Chainlink, Synthetics, Cardano, XLM , Aave and Uniswap. I am UK based and have used Kraken and Coinbase. I have n’t ventured on Uniswap so far. I think the whole space is very complicated which has held back the market but institutional demand for Bitcoin is growing which I believe may impact the price favourably over the longer term. I have also invested in MARA and Microstrategy Stock. Bizarrely being UK based I can’t access the Greyscale Bitcoin or Ethereum trusts. It will be interesting to see how all this pans out. I have only invested about 1% of my portfolio so if it goes to zero which I don’t think it will I am not going to get wiped out. I think I will regret not putting more in but if you get in early you have the possibility of some nice gains without losing your whole shirt in my opinion. Great thread
Looks like Aave has done especially well recently!. Andy Snyder, Manward Press, says he has the next three that will explode in his newsletter that just came out. Anyone know what they are?
Just wondering if you know anything about this webinars? Do you know which three coins he is suggesting?
Technical Trading Expert Andy Snyder Reveals
Three Coins to Profit From 2021: The Year of Crypto
Good discussion. I’m holding some BTC, ETH, IOTA and VE Chain. I felt much bolder with “picks and shovels” strategy, so holding a lot of MSTR, ARB.L, HIVE.V, MARA and CLSK. I am confident BTC will pass 100k and MSTR (MicroStrategy) will pass 1000. Feels inevitable to me. Argo Blockchain has a lot of potential: the only UK listed miner, low market cap, high growth, high capability and a track record of mining BTC and ETH (and others). CLSK (CleanSpark) is interesting: software company with technologies to manage and reduces energy costs, now using their own technology to mine BTC.
Interesting. I have some MSTR, MARA and CLSK but nowhere near enough! They have done well. I will check Argo Blockchain out. Thanks.
What do you think about the Coinbase IPO?
Maybe ask “Zippyd” above what he thinks. I use Coinbase and would state that Coinbase Pro is best because of the gas fees on regular Coinbase is rather high. With the Pro version fees that are about 1.4% of a transaction are reduced to a fraction of that and when you go to sell tokens there is no charge. Also, one should know that Coinbase seems to have a very limited selection of tokens compared to others like Binance, Kraken, cryto.com etc.
As far as investments, one may want to look at the power of Ethereum growing universe and leveraging its years of built in clients. Over the past 7 months, my best investments have been Silvergate Capital (SI), Hive Technologies (an ethereum/bitcoin miner that is one of the few profitable ones and included in the etf BLOK), MARA (miner of bitcoin). I am limited to coins on Coinbase at this time opting to be in mostly Ethereum, LINK, with tiny fractions of STELLA, CELO and Bitcoin. Author “Zippyd” on this blog seems to be very educated on blockchain/crypto and more than anyone seems to know about this area from a worldwide perspective.
Just to be clear. Coinbase does not have ‘gas fees’ but just straight fees for Coinbase. Gas fees are based on network ‘business’ on ethereum especially [and a major pain right now]. Coinbase fees are more based on % of dollar amount of your transaction.
Yes, coinbase is limited, but it works pretty well to get money from your bank to crypto. And once it clears coinbase, then you can send ethereum or other crypto to other exchanges.
The coinbase is no longer doing a IPO, but is now doing a direct listing on NASDAQ.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/coinbase-ipo-direct-listing/
Company valuation guesses for 2021 I have seen are between $8Billion and $75 billion
https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cryptocurrency/21/01/18943910/10-ipos-to-watch-out-for-in-2021-including-petco-poshmark-bumble-coinbase-and-more
https://fortune.com/2021/01/14/coinbase-valuation-75-billion-bitcoin-value-cryptocurrency/
Again be careful. When crypto does a 2x-4x please take out your initial investment and some profit. [so you do not loose]. [We never know what the Gov may do next or other things happening]. Normally the more money is printed, the more people realize fiat is worth less.
Also we expect the end of this bull part of this cycle ends around August – October, where we expect to see a significant drop. [So just be careful when you buy and sell.. Don’t buy at the top]. On Central exchanges [coinbase, kraken, binance.us] the fees are more ‘regular’, on the decentralized exchanges they are not based on the dollar amount, mostly on the network business. [So do not try to sell $400 worth when it is busy]. This is in the process of getting fixed in new versions [part of the reason for Eth 2.0, Cardano and Polkadot].
Yes if you build a portfolio of ‘blue chips’ would be:
– Bitcoin
– Ethereum – the main DeFi chain[decentralized finance]
– Polkadot – I personally like – but I was in at $3 [initial price] rumors feel upto $100
– Cardano – releases major feature in March [and will likely drop after release]
– Chainlink, Phala, PAID, Bridge Mutual – but these have gone up – all Polkadot projects
Next level:
– Band Protocol – baby brother of chainlink – both are oracles
– Aave – Aave is an open source and non-custodial liquidity protocol for earning interest on deposits and borrowing assets
– Compound – lending/earning platform
– TrustSwap
– Synthetix –
Please avoid unless you know what you are doing or are just want to support these… for fun.
– XRP – it is under a investigation by the SEC.. They may succeed, but know that before.
– DOGE – is a MEME coin, it was originally just a fun joke.. But popular on TikTok and Elon Musk likes teasing about it.
– Monero (XMR) – privacy coin – and the Gov has been toying with them.. threats and bounties to break their security.
I am happy to share anything I understand. And point you to other documentation.
Ultimately you need to do some research just to confirm, as I am not a ‘financial advisor’. 🙂
Unfortuantely US residents miss out on many of the best initial offerings, and only get in after they have gone up by 15x – 20x. (Due government threats of projects and SEC ancient rules, where you are NOT free to have personal responsability..). I have missed out on at least 5 projects due to this.
Nice post and what are your thoughts on the big DefI’s to get into, since this sector seems about ready to blow wide open?
I never seem to buy enough, but am doing amazing with UNI, DOT, and AAVE
That is quite a wide area some ar e more ‘stable’/’bluechips’:
– Polkadot(DOT) – ecosystem about interoperability between chains – one of the founders of Ethereum Gavin woods
– Cardano(ADA) – Trying to replace ethereum – one of the founders of Ethereum Charles Hoskinson
– ChainLink(LINK) – top oracle/trusted
– AAVE –
– TrustSwap(SWAP) – a few things but one is for swapping
So Uniswap(UNI) I did not purchase as I got a number of airdrops and I was not sure of the future use case. And UNI has done very well.
Others that I have liked are:
Bondly, Polkastarter, Tixl, Phala, Darwinia RING, Morpheus Network, Compound,
AllianceBlock, RSR, REN, and chi (currently since I purchased when gas was cheap
then when the network is busy chi/gas prices go up), Ocean Protocol, Unilayer,
Some newer coins [again more risky] would be:
88mph (MPH)
KeeperDao (ROOK)
API3(API3)
Paid Network(PAID)
Bridge Mutual(BMI)
You can see the projects in the Polkadot ecosystem:
https://www.coingecko.com/en/categories/dot-ecosystem
Also you can store BTC, ETH, or “stable coins” pegged to the dollar USDC, USDT. Then you can earn interest on those. (In various places. Polkadot – you earn more DOT coins on Kraken is easy, others on https://blockfi.com/ upto about 8.6%)
There are about 7,000 projects. I ignore the ones under $100,000 marketcap or little volume [just to weed out projects].
Here is a overview of the types of coins [not exhaustive] but a place to start looking.
And it is good to diversify across the market areas:
Oracles, Decentralized Exchanges, Central Exchanges [like BNB], Insurance, NFTs…
Either DCA into coins, or I prefer to watch or setup alerts to buy on dips/price points.
On central exchanges, you do not need to worry about gas fees. And if you are on uniswap, etc. then look at 1INCH, TrustSwap, and others. But also I would say have at least $1k-$2k minimum for initial investment [so that a $50-$100 gas fee does not kill your profits].
You can email me [my email is previous comments]. I need to go through this
fresh every time I want to purchase and take profits.
Also for taxes, there is software to pull the information from the blockchain to check
your wallets to see the trades/taxable events.
Mark
Mark, which altcoins do you think I should buy today or tomorrow? Also, what do you think of Coinbase Pro vs. Coinbase. It costs less but seems difficult to use.
That is always so hard.. First I recommend getting Bitcoin/Ethereum.. We are expecting a breakout in the next hours to a day for bitcoin and eth to follow. Bitcoin expected about $59k-$64k, Ethereum to $2k-$2.5k
in the next week or two. Then for alt coins it is probably best to email me. It really depends on ‘acceptable risk’, which exchanges you are on, which country you live in [sadly with the US Government we are not free to invest, we are restricted from many exchanges, public offerings, etc. and lose out on many 10x-15x gains in the first day of coins]. One of the reasons I am highly considering leaving the US having draconian laws/regulations. That said on the safer side, I like: Polkadot(DOT), Kusama(KSM), Elrond(EGLD), Avalanche(AVAX), Chainlink(LINK) still at their current prices. (I would say cosmos(ATOM) but it just went from 4x from the end of December). Then there are the more __Risky__ projects. SuperFarm(FARM) from superfarm.io gets released in 8 days that will be a huge gain [again US residents were restricted from investing in this US based project, my guess that will cost me 20x on the first day – Can I send the bill for lost gains to the US gov?]. But still .. it will do well even after that I am sure. You can also purchase their cards on opensea.io. This year is likely to be the year of NFTs [art work, collectables, or a clip of the NBA broadcast] both a token and a collectable and games related to this]. Personally I am not a fan of ‘betting’/’gambling’ but I think that will be huge also and there are projects that allow gamers to ‘bet on’ outcomes of their game for the common gamer [not just the pros]. https://www.coingecko.com/en/categories/non-fungible-tokens-nft – are a list of some of the NFT based tokens.
Oh on coinbase you are extermely limited on which tokens you can buy. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Chainlink(LINK) and The Graph(GRT) are the main ones there I would consider. You can send USDC or Ethreum to another exchange or decentralized wallet and you can get other coins on: Kraken.com or via Uniswap. If you use the coinbase-wallet on your phone and move funds to there, you can use Uniswap with the coinbase-wallet [and you own your keys, so do not share those or lose them]. And feel free to ask me for help via email .
Signed up for both Coinbase and Binance and still cant find some of the alt coins i am interested in – specifically POND, REEF, DOT, ICX – plus eome of the ones you suggested looking at. Any suggestions how to acquire some of these smaller alt coins?
That’s always the problem. So what I did was used only Coinbase,Gemini and Binance US . One of the interesting one and is still small is ENJ and it is related to Gamming which is growing always !!!!
On those three exchanges. For lower marketcap: Enjin(ENJ) is NFTs and gaming. The Graph(GRT) is good. (And of course they have the main more solid leaders: Bitcoin, Ethereum and Chainlink – less risk and less major changes). Uniswap, Sushiswap, 1inch are options if purchasing larger amounts [due to gas fees at the moment].
ENJ Enjin has been good. From about $0.13 in Jan 202q to over $2.00. Just make sure to take out your initial investment and some profits. We do expect a major drop eventually. And bumps on the way. So when it is up/e citing sell some, when it is down consider buying.
Current insanity is around one portion of NFTs. Art/collectables is crazy pricing. I do not personally buy collectables or art, but I bought the tokens for the markets last summer to January.
Look on coingecko, it lists where each coin is available. Many exchanges are not available to US residents due to US Gov actions. Polkadot is on Kraken.com. Ethereum (ERC20) based tokens are available on Uniswap also. Marlin(POND) is for example: https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/marlin#markets ; REEF is also a ERC20 token so is on Uniswap (https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/reef-finance#markets) .
Polkadot(DOT) and ICON(ICX) are not Ethereum tokens so you can get them from other exchanges: ICON( https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/icon#markets). NOTE: Binance.com has most but not available to US, and binance.us does not have many. Kraken does have DOT and ICX. (ICX is apparently on binance.us). It was easier before the US threats and lawsuits against exchanges. Voyager app may have some of these also.
REEF is on Binance I bought some yesterday. Also get it via Metamask but cheaper on Binance using BTC rather than gas fees via Metamask. You can buy and stake DOT on Kraken
same here!
Coingecko.com should show where you can get each coin. Kraken.com has DOT. REEF, POND are on Uniswap decentralized exchange. ICON(ICX) is on crypto.com app, kraken and binance.us. If you are out of the US most coins will be on binance.com.
Anyone familiar with Matcha as a platform? The Ledger Status guys from the podcast Ledger Cast advertise it all the time. For whatever that’s worth.
I thought I posted this.. But yes, I had not used matcha until you asked. It is a valid site so that is good, however, the gas fees are about the same or in my case were slightly higher than uniswap. It does look nice so a valid option. I am hoping we get a layer-2 solution we can use in the US soon or for Ethereum to get the fixes out [but likely those would be next year 2022 for zk-rollups and sharding]. Polkadot and Cardano may be ready. Loopring has a solution for those out of the US also. And Matic is working on a solution.
Thanks!
Thoughts on the safest wallet?
Depends what kind of wallet you’re looking for. I’m guessing a hardware-wallet, and then safety depends on how you store you keys. I can recommend Safepal which has a collaboration with Binance. It’s easy to use, and if I’ve had any problems or questions their support-team has helped me within seconds – highly recommended! https://shop.safepal.io/products/safepal-hardware-wallet-s1-bitcoin-wallet?ref=ca
… sorry I just found the edit..
The two top ones, and the longest life/well tested are:
1. Trezor – Hardware wallet – just do not lose your keys/recover phrase
2. Ledger – Hardware wallet – just do not lose your keys/recover phrase
* second now, the wallet was never hacked, but they peoples ‘kyc’ phone/address
information for those that bough ledgers.
3. “paper” wallets – people will get their recovery phrase [12-24 words] engraved on a metal
card [which is all you need to recover your account] or memorize it.
Also do not buy a hardware wallet from anyone but the seller. If you buy on Ebay or
Amazon some take the recovery phrase or make a modification and repackage.
Then when you use the wallet, they can check the balance and take the resources.
The reason many crypto people do not like others are:
– Companies are not 100% reliable – Think Luckin Coffee or in Crypto Mt. Gox
– Companies can go under
– Governments can lock up or take holdings
NOTE:
1. No crypto is stored on the wallet. It just holds the keys to the decentralized wallet on the block chain.
2. The wallet is PUBLICALLY viewable. So it is complete transparency. The only “safety” you have is anonymity, and with KYC that is taken away.
3. There is a private key [do not give this or the recovery phrase to anyone,if they ask it is probably a scam]. And there is a public key, which is where people send you crypto. Of course, if they have your public address, they can see your holdings in that wallet, and where everything was transferred.
3. I would like to see one level of separation from my address and my wallet. [And there are a few projects].
B”H
Any thoughts about Matt McCall’s Ultimate Crypto and 5 best DeFi suggestions?
B”H Thought about beginning to invest in the coins via Graystone. Thought that Graystone has a 2%fee. While researching, see that there is a “premium” that seems to have fluctuated without any relation to the price of the cryptocurrencies. What does the “premium” on GDLC /Ethereum/GBTC mean? Is it an added fee for purchasing? Ideally would prefer to invest directly in blockchain. This is new to me. Invested in BLOK, VIH (BAKKT), and CLSK. Would appreciate advice/information. Thank you.
The fees are high due SEC not allowing ETFs in 2017. The SEC really does harm to citizens a lot more than they or the public realizes. I think they may even mean well, but dramatically kill US residents opportunities, innovation. And avoid what should be personal responsibility.
So the 40% was real but has come down and will reduce the premium more as the ETF becomes closer. I use Grayscales Trusts due to yet more regulations on where I can invest from a 401k.
B”H
Thank you for explaining. Last week invested a little in GDLC and a smaller amount in their Ethereum fund. ….G-d willing the market will go up! Seems in the long run it usually has. Your information is appreciated.
Not yet I see, but surely soon enough.
For those who are thinking about investing in cryptocurrencies be advised that it is somewhat dangerous. Forget about the ups and downs, $169 billion in value has been lost because companies like Coinbase where you set up a wallet and get a key and password are something you have to remember. If you forget your password or it dies with you and none of your beneficiaries know what it is, your money is gone. A few months ago Peter Thiel who started Paypal offered crypto currencies. You can now buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash or Litecoin on Paypal. There is no wallet or password to remember, and if you forget your paypal signon, you can contact Paypal and they will get you back on their website. Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash have a maximum amount of 21 million that will be produced. After that the bitchain will shut down production. They project that 2040 will be the year production ends, but it may end sooner because companies are now producing crypto mining machines that can produce more crypto much faster than before. Alse, Litecoin has a maximun production of 84 million coins. Ethereum has no limit on how many can be mined. If you want to know what gives any crypto currency any value it is a medium of exchange. There are thousands of vendors that now accept Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Litecoin and the numbers are growing weekly. Also, both Visa and Mastercard are now accepting crypto currency as a payment method.
Right off you say it is dangerous, then go on to list reasons why it’s attractive. You do not need to set up a wallet with Coinbase and losing your password will become more of a non-issue as these crypto trading platforms become more mainstream and traditional in usage.
There is a reason why economists like Roubini call some coins sh$tcoins. At the same time fraud is notably easier to commit with the blockchain press of a computer button or two. Cryptography is getting bettee but so are kackers and bad actors. Last week the largestt blockchain bank in the nation Turkey had its senior manager run off with untraceable tokens (maybe BTC and ETH). Today Colonial gas/oil pipelines was hacked with ransome wate from yet to be ID’d hackers.
It is not much different than the stock market. But with Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini you do NOT need to remember your keys. If you move off of the central exchanges you do need to keep track of your keys, the same way you need to keep track of a password (however in the decentralized world, you are responsible, and the ONLY person to plan a recovery) however, there are many solutions. You just need common sense.
Coinbase, Kraken, etc you can call them or email to get your password reset. However, you have to pay the central exchange fees, you do not have full custody of your funds. But it is good for the non-technical or people that commonly loose their passwords.
Ethereum has a limit on frequency of mining, and is nearly deflationary after EIP-1559 in July. Value is based on use cases. Bitcoin is really only a ‘store of value’ and is deflationary. Ethereum is for basically finacial systems (stocks, derivatives, payment systems, interest, trading, art/collectables/games, real estate and what ever is dreamed up).
Some are ‘junk’ coins or pump-n-dumps just like in the stock market. Technical (emotional trend) analysis works on Crypto just like stocks. Support/Resistance/EMA’s, etc.
Also tokens/coins are traceable with the exception of a few things like:
– Monero, perhaps Pirate Chain
– And the blank, tornado and other projects that are to help preserve privacy/safety.
But the US Gov does not like these since a few people use them for illegal. Versus the US dollar and US Gov are the most corrupt uses of finances. (like devaluing the dollar which is another form of tax). The US dollar is for about 90% of all money laundering. Only a speck is done in crypto. And far more is done by official banks.
So yes, do you research or at least ask regarding coins. Litecoin follows bitcoin, I am not a fan. Bitcoin, Ethereum are the best stable long term. Then I would say: ChainLink (LINK), Polygon(MATIC) – at least until September, Polkadot(DOT), Kusama(KSM), and Cardano(ADA). And I like Binance(BNB) and Cosmos(ATOM).
You can use Paypal, Visa, etc. And it is great for the Cryptocurrency world also. I think Paypal is actually allowing you to send it now also (like normal crypto). On Crypto we do finalized transactions in seconds to minutes [depending on the blockchain] (Visa about 1-2 days, they do a initial credit based settled in seconds, but finalized in a few days).
There is a reason I have lost respect of much of the US Gov, SEC, financial market, media, and most of it is because people like Roubini, Joe Kramer talk without knowledge. A lot of FUD is spread, perhaps out of their fear, ignorance or attempts to manipulate the market. Janet Yellen has been a big problem in general spreading false information. It mostly just makes me loose any respect for them and the office they hold.
Mark