Stellar(XLM) keeps kicking ass as it was integrated in Tokensoft, a platform for compliant token sales. Tokensoft will make it more enticing for new blockchain projects to be launched on Stellar’s network rather than a competing network as Tokensoft is regulation compliant and can facilitate KYC and other regulatory concerns that ICOs may have. This just further expands Stellar’s market and opens up another industry for Stellar as many new startup projects will look to fund themselves with XLM tokens instead of ETH tokens. Stellar looks poised for explosive growth during the next bull run.
Tag: ico
ICO’s sell $30 million of Ethereum, more dumping to come?
Ethereum, which has lost 60% since the beginning of September, may have more bad times ahead. ICOs, many of whom raised funding in Ethereum token are now dumping their tokens. ICOs reportedly sold off in quick succession, over $30 million in Ethereum tokens, tanking the price to $185 and the dumping may not be over yet. ICOs still hold hundreds of millions of dollars in Ethereum tokens that could be dumped if there is an exodus from Ethereum. This is further future implications for Ethereum as there are two possibilities.
The first is that the ICOs are just running out of money and need to sell to have funds for development. This would signal that projects based on Ethereum are running out of steam and may go under, which would negatively impact Ethereum by further decreasing its network transaction volume.
Second, these ICOs may be selling their Ethereum tokens because they are planning to move from ERC-20 to another network like XLM, TRON, EOS, etc. This would also be bad for Ethereum as it would increase a competitor’s volume while decreasing Ethereum’s own volume.
Either way I look at it, I would not put much money in Ethereum under the current market conditions.
Tezos(XTZ), smart buy right now?
Tezos(XTZ) since its debut has risen and fallen several times and while I think the coin may be a competitor for the likes of EOS or Ethereum, its growth potential is greater than both of them based on its current price right now. It is not as developed as either Ethereum or EOS, but at only $2.18 per token right now, it has larger room for growth if it gets it right. Tezos is a platform for people to execute smart contracts and build decentralized applications and is testing a Betanet right now. They also have bounty programs right now that are active that reward people for finding bugs within their code. They have also well-known investors like Tim Draper(Draper has actually confirmed this) that are involved with their project.
Unfortunately, I cannot find that much information on their project on their website like a roadmap so I am a little weary about them. However, for short term investing, they aren’t a bad pickup for the current price of $2.18 as it is at a low point right now and Tezos has been known to move quickly up and down in the last month or month and a half. If you buy now and sell around $3.00-$3.50, there might be some high profits in week to week trading. That is what I would do with Tezos right now and then wait to see where the whitepaper or roadmap is before I hold onto it for the longer term.
Once again, I am not a financial adviser and this is not professional financial advice, what you do with your money is solely your responsibility.
Japan Legalizing ICOs? India bans banks from dealing in Crypto
Japan(and South Korea to some extent) is looking at legalizing ICOs with some guidelines(from cryptocurrency news and Japanese ministry).
1. ICOs have to identify who they are selling to according to KYC(know your customer) guidelines.
2. Cryptocurrency exchanges need minimum standards to list a coin
3. After a coin is listed, trading practices such as insider trading and price controlling should be prohibited to make for fair markets.
4. Exchanges need to tighten up security measures
I actually like these guidelines. Some purists may not like the first one because it goes against the anonymous nature of cryptocurrencies but from a country’s perspective, it is necessary to prevent scandals and money laundering. I think once these guidelines pass in japan and/or South Korea, we will see a price bounce overall for Cryptocurrencies as new ICOs come into play. Once one major economic power adopts and allows ICOs, other countries such as the United States and the European Union will soon have to follow suit to not lose out on a competitive edge.
India has banned all institutions that are regulated by its central bank to do transactions with Cryptocurrency. India also has plans to issue a national digital currency and probably wants to rid the marketplace of all competition before that happens. This is more likely a reason the central bank wants to kill Cryptocurrencies rather than to “protect the people”. Financial institutions are all about self-survival and making profit for themselves rather than looking out for the well-being of their customers. This should not have a large effect on the Cryptocurrency market because volume in India has already dropped by 90% in the last few months and most Indian people who are involved in cryptocurrency don’t through a bank anyways.
Facebook ICO, Google Bans Crypto Mining extensions from Chrome, Korea to offering its own Cryptocurrency
Three big pieces of news this week starting with that Facebook is planning to ICO its own cryptocurrency to use on its platform. I do not know how this will be used but my guess is that it will be integrated into some of Facebook’s games and apps and will be able to be used for virtual money on a large social platform. I do expect the value of this currency to rise at first because it has actual use and being Facebook, it will have a lot of hype surrounding it.
However, this does raise the question if Facebook simply banned crypto ads from its platform just to kill competition instead of actually doing it for people’s protection. I would not be surprised if Google announced its own cryptocurrency in the coming days and that would seal the deal that these two giants simply banned the Crypto ads from their platform to clear competition for their own offerings — a scumbag thing to do.
Google has also banned Cryptomining apps from its chrome store. I actually don’t mind this because browser-based mining sucked anyways and it just hogged up system resources while offering very little returns on the CPU power. But this news probably will cause a slight dip in prices because it is yet another hurdle for Cryptocurrency.
Korea is planning to offer its own cryptocurrency but I still do not see the point and national cryptocurrency. The whole point of cryptos is decentralization so that no one entity controls the coin so if you want a national monetary unit, you already have that. In the United States, its called the dollar, in Japan, its called the Yen, and in Korea, its called the won. Why do you need a national crypto if you already have a national currency? It doesn’t make any sense.
That’s the roundup for news today.
Anyone can make a coin, crap coins detract from legit coins?
The thing with crypto coins is that anyone can make a coin and anyone can fork a coin with or without the original coin’s support. This was the way Litecoin Cash was created. And now, its pretty much trash, sitting at 26 cents or so whereas right after the fork, it hit $9, meaning people who bought in then are completely screwed. There are also completely nonsense coins like Donald Trump coins and Angela Merkel coin that obviously serve no purpose and if they did have value now, they won’t as soon as these people leave office. Steven Seagal tried an ICO before he got shut down by the authorities and now some soccer player wants to start his own cryptocurrency. They are also talking about coins as a fundraising tool for Hollywood movies. I think some of these “crap coins” are making it hard for real legit coins to get found and these coins that have basically no purpose are putting a stain on the entire sector because they almost always go belly-up after a while. I think there needs to be some kind of regulation and some preliminary things that needs to be passed before you can create a coin, mainly to prevent fraud to everyday people looking to buy into a coin. Maybe a background check to see if the coin is more than just a vehicle to trick ordinary people out of their money because it is too easy to fork a blockchain and create your own coin.
Telegram ICO — What to look for
Messaging app Telegram is holding its ICO soon, but its not for us common people. It is only for accredited investors that have at least half a million dollars to spend on an ICO project. I think this coin will soar once it hits the large exchanges because its a highly touted project and unlike most other coins, it has a good product that many people are currently using, something not many other coins can claim. The ICO is expected to raise at least $2 billion dollars and possibly a lot more through its Initial coin offering.
Despite it being a solid product and a solid coin, it does face many significant challenges, not least of all, Russia. The Russian supreme court has ruled that Telegram must hand over its user’s encryption keys because the country needs them to “Combat terrorism”. I think we all know what this means in Russian terms. They need the encryption keys to control its citizens and make sure no one uses it to protest the state or do anything “unpatriotic” or “un-putin”. Telegram has resisted but the Russian courts(no surprise) has handed down verdicts that are against them. They will go through all the layers of appeal but if it doesn’t go well, they could be completely banned in Russia, which is a huge market for them.
Despite this, some analysts are predicting Telegram’s tokens to be worth $200 billion in a few years. I’m not sure if I’m that optimistic about it but it can easily be in the top 10 Cryptos in a short time since Telegram is a well known and popular app.
As a side note, please do not fall for the scammers who are setting up fake sites for telegram ICO’s. The pre-ICO and ICO process is highly secretive and will not be available to the vast majority of people so all the links you see regarding it on youtube and social media networks are fake and scams.
Twitter Crypto Ad ban, G20 nothingburger,ETH is trouble with SEC?
There was a slew of news this week after the Google ban as Twitter is rumored to be following in the footsteps of Google in banning all cryptocurrency related advertising. This has not been confirmed yet but I expect that it will be confirmed soon and will cause a small dip in the market. The pressure of regulations is forcing these large ad networks to shun crypto for now. This won’t hurt already established coins but it will hurt new and upcoming ICOs.
The regulators of the G20 summit announced that they will not put any new regulations into Crypto but rather review things that are already in place. This caused an immediate $700 bounce in the price of bitcoin. I don’t think this means BTC is out of the woods yet of course because they could still have some harsh words for Bitcoin and other Cryptos in general but at least we probably will not get the type of fear that new regulations usually bring. This most likely improves the floor price of what Bitcoin could fall to in the next week.
Ethereum has been hit extra hard this week because the SEC has decided to clamp down on ICO tokens, many of which are built on the Ethereum network. This of course, threatens Ethereum’s overall volume and demand for the coin. Ethereum, unlike Bitcoin or Litecoin, is not made for everyday transactions but is made more for business transactions on their network and heavy scrutinizing of the tokens built on their network would cause a dip in demand. I think as things pan out, ETH will rise and slowly recover but it may be a long while to wait.
Overall, my sentiment is a bit more bullish than it was a day ago about the overall direction of the market and I do expect the market to start seriously making gains starting in 1.5 to 3 weeks from now.
Google Bans Crypto Ads and More Regulatory Concerns
This morning Google announced that in June, it would ban all Cryptocurrency related ads on its ad network. This means that Adwords will no longer run ICO ads or ads for new exchanges or tokens. This has hit the Crypto community pretty hard as prices plunged below $8000 during trading today. I believe this news is bigger than Facebook banning Crypto Ads and will have more of an effect as more ads go through google than Facebook. I do expect the market to bottom out perhaps around $7000 in a day or two before starting a recovery barring more bad news so if you want to wait until then to buy back in, that may be a good idea. The IMF also wanted a crackdown on Cryptocurrency but the IMF kind of speaks for the banks and banks see decentralized finances as a threat to their business model so of course they are going to want to shut it down. They keep saying that Bitcoin is like a bubble that is about to pop. But in truth, Bitcoin, unlike tulips, would never have all these wild dips if not for the Financial industry and the governments that are beholden to them repeatedly scaring investors with news and concerns time and time again. In fact, its not like a delicate bubble. Its more like an iron ball and the financial industry and the governments that are tied to them keep trying to poke it and hack it with scissors and knives to try to pierce and kill it and they are frustrated that their tactics are not working. They know its a threat to their political and financial power they have and they are afraid of the change that is coming. I think some like Goldman Sachs are getting smarter and taking up a position in Crypto(by buying Poloniex) because they realize that Crypto can’t be killed so easily and they had better start to adapt before they become obsolete. I believe in the coming months, some other banks will follow and those that don’t eventually will be competed out of existence eventually. So, right now, I’m waiting for a dip to around $7000, maybe $6500 before I buy back in for some more.
Vinchain(VIN) ICO analysis and strategy
Vinchain(VIN) is a blockchain technology and coin targeting the used car market and has a test net and a Alpha Stage mobile app that can take data and run diagnostics on your car. It will also pay users to use the app and send data from their car while driving. This can help insurers adjust rates based on the user’s driving habits. The are poised to enter the North American Market in Q3 of this year and expand into Europe the next year.
This blockchain technology and coin is very similar to carVertical(which I reviewed a few days ago) and does pretty much the same things so it does have competition. However, I don’t believe these two companies will run into each other for at least another year as Vinchain is targeting North America and carVertical is launching in the Baltic States so I do believe there is room for two companies. I believe the biggest threat to Vinchain is a larger company like Carfax deciding to incorporate blockchain onto their already existing platform. Because they already have a large database and user base, they would have a large advantage over the startup like Vinchain.
The Vinchain technology is solid, the market is huge and profitable so there is a lot of potential in this company and token. The date to look out for is start of Q3 2018 as that is when they want to roll out to North America. If they can quickly get adopters and partners then the price of this token will skyrocket up so if you want to be in on this token, you need to be in by late summer at the latest. If you are looking to invest in a blockchain company that targets the Auto sector, you will have to choose between this company and carVeritcal and decide which team and vision you like better but both look promising.
Cryptocurrency Vlog 