Monat: Dezember 2021

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Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse: 2021 has been a watershed year for crypto

Brad Garlinghouse says 2021 was Ripple’s strongest year, with the adoption of its ODL offering despite the company facing a lawsuit from the SEC.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says 2021 provided a watershed moment for the crypto industry.  He believes developments over the past year have seen crypto broadly accepted, with billions of people getting an opportunity to get into a global financial community.

Garlinghouse also notes that the year was Ripple’s strongest ever, even with the negative sentiment that surrounded the company following the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit.

The Ripple chief executive’s comments come as the broader cryptocurrency and blockchain space look to build on positives in 2021 as the market heads into 2022. 

Incidentally, it’s 2021 that saw the explosion of NFTs, growth in DeFi, and increased interest in the metaverse, as well as talk of Web 3. It’s also a year where the US signaled it would not follow China in cracking down on Bitcoin mining nor ban cryptocurrencies.

“It’s been incredible to see a lot less ‘maximalism’, and many more builders joining the industry,” he observed via a series of comments shared on Twitter. He sees this as a positive for the entire ecosystem.

Saying that the year was Ripple’s best ever, Garlinghouse pointed to the fact that 25% of RippleNet’s dollar-denominated volume was recorded via the XRP-based On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) feature. The network also recorded a spike in ODL transactions, which he said was 25 times more compared to stats from Q3 2020. The transaction count also grew 130% quarter over quarter.

Ripple also saw significant expansion by entering new markets for its ODL features, with new offerings in key corridors such as Japan and UAE.

Garlinghouse is one of the harshest critics of the SEC and he feels the regulator makes the US unattractive to crypto companies. He adds that while Web 2 was a work of several US companies, the same might not happen with Web 3.

Here he questioned the SEC’s approach to regulatory issues, saying it’s a farce to still refer to crypto as the “Wild West” when most industry players comply with financial regulators across the world.

According to him, what the industry needs is regulatory clarity and consistency from enforcement agencies, with companies not punished for demanding the same from relevant authorities.

Ripple has maintained the SEC’s accusation that the company’s executives engaged in illegal sales of a security token is an unfair classification of XRP, given the regulator’s view of Ethereum’s ETH.

XRP currently trades around $0.96, about 18% up over the past week and more than 116% up over the past year. However, while many of its peers rallied to new all-time highs in 2021, XRP peaked at around $1.96 in April and is more than 55% down on its ATH reached in early 2018.

The post Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse: 2021 has been a watershed year for crypto appeared first on Coin Journal.

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Best cryptocurrencies to buy and hold for at least 1 year

There are many speculative crypto assets, including meme coins and others. But there are also a few coins that have some amazing underlying fundamentals. These are typically the coins that will become huge in the future and drive much of the growth and innovation we will see in cryptocurrency. Here are also some reasons why it’s also the best time to buy right now.

  • First, cryptocurrencies have seen a market-wide correction in the last month, and most assets are trading low.

  • It is likely that 2022 will start with a bull run in most crypto assets.

  • If you don’t act now, you will get priced out very fast

Well, while there are a lot of coins right now to buy and hold for at least a year, the two below are our top picks.

Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum (ETH) is the second-largest crypto by market cap, just after Bitcoin. But Ethereum is much more than a cryptocurrency. The blockchain is providing support for a huge variety of innovative blockchain projects, including DeFi and DApps. 

Data Source: Tradingview.com

In fact, it is estimated that at least 90% of all top blockchain projects are built on Ethereum. Also, the blockchain is expected to shift towards a proof-of-stake consensus model as opposed to the expensive proof-of-work. This will trigger extensive developer activity. Ethereum (ETH) is trading at $3,950.25, way lower from its highs of around $4600.

Terra (LUNA)

Terra (LUNA) is a stablecoin network designed to promote the growth of price-stable global payment systems. It launched in 2019 and has since grown massively to become one of the top 10 cryptos by market cap. 

Terra is expected to see heated growth in the future as applications for Stablecoins become more expansive. At press time, its native token LUNA, which also happens to be a stablecoin, was trading at $91.73.

The post Best cryptocurrencies to buy and hold for at least 1 year appeared first on Coin Journal.

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Best cryptocurrencies to buy with a market cap of less than USD 500 Million today

The crypto market, in general, has in recent years seen exponential growth. It’s therefore easy to think that there aren’t many coins that have enough upside for growth for you as an investor to take advantage of. But that’s not true. There are some coins that appear to be flying under the radar and as such, they are criminally undervalued. Here are some points:

  • Typically, coins with low market caps still have some room to grow.

  • They can be relatively new blockchain projects or older ones with a new twist.

  • Despite the low market cap, the coins should also have long-term intrinsic value as well.

So, if you are keen on finding the next crypto bargain, here are some incredible coins trading for less than USD 500 million in market cap:

Ultra (UOS)

Ultra (UOS) is an entertainment platform that provides a decentralised platform for people to publish and sell their entertainment. It could be music, videos, games, or anything else. It is actually the first such platform on the blockchain, and funny enough, Ultra has been under the radar for quite some time. 

Data Source: Tradingview.com

But this won’t last long. In fact, at the time of writing, the 24-hour trading volume had spiked by nearly 30%. The coin is trading at a market cap of $440 million with a price of $1.58 per coin.

EverRise (RISE)

EverRise (RISE) is a blockchain project designed to bring greater security in decentralised finance. The project is also looking to build an innovative system of DApps to accelerate access to DeFi around the world. 

It is a very promising initiative but remains significantly undervalued. At press time, the coin was trading at a market cap of around $55 million. The price per coin at the time was $0.0009016.

The post Best cryptocurrencies to buy with a market cap of less than USD 500 Million today appeared first on Coin Journal.

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China’s Xinhua News Agency to issue out commemorative NFTs

The state news agency has outlined plans to release digital news collectibles, despite authorities in the People’s Republic of China showing skepticism of the underlying blockchain technology

China’s state-run Xinhua agency is gearing up for a December 24 release for an NFT collection to document photographic news reports captured by the agency’s journalists across the year. The digital news collectibles would be available for free via the agency’s news app and will include a set of 11 photos, capped at 10,000 copies each, Bloomberg reports. There will also be a special edition to follow the first batch of released collectibles.

„It’s a unique year-end review. Moreover, it’s digital memory written in the metaverse,“ the agency said.

The news outlet added that the NFTs would hold collection value and bear unique identifying information reflecting ownership. Following the announcement, Chinese companies operating in the NFT sector, such as Perfect Rose and Goertek, were trading higher.

It now seems that the fate of NFTs in the country could be getting more lucid given that media institution Tencent Holdings said in November that the Asian country is soon expected to allow metaverse virtual environment activity, subject to compliance with domestic rules.

The PBoC harbours concerns about NFTs

Earlier this month, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) warned citizens of the inherent risks as interest in NFTs and the metaverse rises. The central bank warned that these virtual assets could easily be misused and taken up as channels of money laundering schemes. An official from the bank said the bank would scale information sharing and enhance cooperation with law enforcement to prevent fraud and illegal monetary engagements.

Xinhua News Agency’s move is no first for NFTs in China as a few business entities, including Tencent and Ant Group, have already launched NFTs, though under strictly-controlled blockchains. In July, The South China Morning Post introduced plans to tokenise a series of historical assets onto blockchain using a novel token standard called ARTIFACT.

ARTIFACT’s litepaper explained that the standardised structure would be used to digitally immortalise key historical moments from the legendary agency’s 118-year-old archive. The NFTs would capture news moments in various representations, including infographics, photographs, and data visualisations.

The digital collectibles market has been one of the standout developments this year, with owners from around the world netting to the tune of millions of dollars from minting them. However, in China, it has remained a gray area, or rather an area of concern, as its legality remains in limbo.

It remains to be seen what China’s relationship with the NFTs would look like as the assets‘ underlying blockchain technology is ideally the same one backing the troubled cryptocurrencies.

The post China’s Xinhua News Agency to issue out commemorative NFTs appeared first on Coin Journal.

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The best cryptocurrencies for long term value investing

With the volatility often associated with cryptocurrencies, it’s easy to assume that they are only speculative assets designed for short-term investing. But you’d be wrong. For instance, even though a coin like Bitcoin has seen wild swings in prices in recent months, it’s still up over 100% year to date. So, crypto is a decent asset class for long-term value investing, and here is why.

  • First, most established coins are backed by decent underlying fundamentals that have real economic value.

  • The history of crypto shows steady and consistent gains over time. This won’t change even in the future.

  • The trick is to buy into an asset early before you are priced out

If you are thinking of adding crypto as part of your long-term investment portfolio, here are two coins that must consider very seriously:

Solana (SOL)

Solana (SOL) is a proof of stake public blockchain designed to power decentralised services and applications. Think of it as Windows for PCs or Android for mobile but instead of powering phones and computers, it is the ecosystem that will power the future of decentralisation. 

Data Source: Tradingview.com 

Solana (SOL) is highly rated and is often seen as the most direct competitor for Ethereum. It’s also faster, more efficient, and cheaper. But unlike Ethereum, it is still undervalued. At press time. Solana (SOL) was valued at $178 with a market cap of $55 billion. There is still a lot of potential for more growth in the long term.

UniSwap (UNI)

UniSwap (UNI) is the largest decentralised exchange in the world or DEX. The DEX is built on the Ethereum network, and it allows peer-to-peer crypto trading. 

Decentralised exchanges are expected to become huge in the future as investors look for more autonomy in trading. UniSwap will lead the way. At the time of writing, the coin was trading at $16.81 with a market cap of around $10 billion.

The post The best cryptocurrencies for long term value investing appeared first on Coin Journal.