Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

Why These Cryptos Fail to Toe the Line

Most cryptos fell in January. All the big ones anyway. I’m talking about the top six (by market capitalization).

The seventh? That’s NEO.

It’s called “China’s Ethereum” by some. Like its American cousin, it specializes in smart contracts.

It nearly doubled in January, from $74.54 on January 1 to $145.76 on January 31.

NEO’s price follows its own path because its main applications will be in China, not the West. And the majority of investors are Asians, not Westerners.

As an investor in NEO, I must admit, it was nice to see.

And it wasn’t the only cryptocurrency to do so.

VeChain (VEN) is a top-20 altcoin. It shot up 146% in January. Like NEO, it’s another China-centric coin, developing blockchain solutions for Chinese companies.

Populous, currently ranked 23rd by market cap, rose 72% last month. Its platform, currently in beta, garnered some positive comments and interest from the crypto investment community.

The first week of February didn’t see a turnaround. As I write, bitcoin is already down another 20%… Ether is down 29%… and Litecoin is down 6% (but all three are now heading up!).

Like those in January, though, some coins have not fallen in line.

Tether, with a current ranking of 16 and a market cap of $2.2 billion, is holding its value so far this month.

So are a few other much smaller coins, like bitCNY. It has a cap of around $32 million.

BitCNY is a decentralized cryptocurrency based on the BitShares blockchain that is pegged to the Chinese yuan. The demand of bitCNY emanates from users who desire that the token get the same purchasing power as the yuan.

In a nutshell, bitCNY is a token that represents the amount of BitShares (BTS) equivalent to one yuan.

From around $0.14 at the end of January, as I write, the token is trading at $0.17, a rise of 14%.

Market pegged assets are NOT leveraged to sudden price booms like many other digital coins. They simply follow the price of the asset they are pegged with.

Because bitCNY operates differently from other coins, it can go up while the vast majority of coins go down.

Russian startup Revain, on the other hand, is a more typical crypto. The company built an unbiased feedback platform where reviews cannot be changed or deleted. Revain hopes to stop the spread of fake news and ratings manipulation.

Revain has a market cap of more than $300 million, ranked No. 58. Its price went up 18% in the first week of February.

Apart from Revain, bitCNY and Tether, 16 other coins are up in the month of February. Here’s a list of the top 12 as I write…

Source: Coinmarketcap.com

Two coins are up by triple digits and six by double digits.

But the only one that’s a top 20 coin by market cap is Tether (currently ranked No. 16).

Most of these coins are tiny. The top gainer, Quebecoin, has a market cap of $680,000.

Small caps can sometimes be manipulated. For example, bitcoin Diamond, the second-top-ranked coin, is extremely volatile, even for a cryptocurrency. Its volatility can be traced to suspected pump-and-dump schemes emanating from Asia.

Is that what’s happening with E-Coin (ECN)? Take a look at its seven-day chart…

As I write, it’s up almost 4,000% in the last 36 hours. And I can’t figure out why!

Its price hike seems to have come from transactions totaling less than $50,000 that occurred on CoinExchange in the last 24 hours.

E-Coin is a European exchange service that works with bitcoin, Litecoin and dollars. It seems to be on the up and up.

But until I know for sure what’s going on, I’m keeping my distance.

The variety of cryptos you can buy and sell is truly amazing. But recent market activity seems to be ignoring that, not quite treating them as an undifferentiated whole but also failing to take into full account the huge differences in technologies and prospects among the cryptocoins.

There are very few that manage to break free of a falling market and rise.

Today, I’m seeing this dynamic again. The market has turned up, and I count only seven coins out of the top 100 that have gone down in the last 24 hours.

When there is a shortage of concrete metrics to go by, investment sentiment plays a bigger role in boosting or withdrawing support.

That seems to be the case here…

At least for now.

Good investing,

Andy Gordon
Co-Founder, Early Investing

Can a $10 Bill Really Fund Your Retirement? The digital currency markets are delivering profits unlike anything we’ve ever seen. ​23 recently doubled in a single week. And some like DubaiCoin have jumped as much as 8,200X in value in 18 months. It’ unprecedented... but you won’t receive any of the rewards unless you put a little money in the game. Find out how $10 could make you rich HERE. ​



Source: Early Investing 

Here’s Why Crypto Is Correcting… and Why It’s Temporary

Last week, I was at my son’s friend’s birthday party, and one of the dads there brought up crypto.

We were discussing various coins when another parent overheard and broke into the conversation. “I hope you guys don’t own any bitcoin, because that thing is crashing hard!” he said with a grin.

I nodded politely and acknowledged that crypto is going through a rough patch, with prices correcting practically across the board.

Then I asked the other dad if he knew what a bitcoin cost a year ago. He didn’t.

So I told him that bitcoin was trading for around $948 one year ago. And that despite the recent pullback, bitcoin is still up around 9X to 10X over the last 12 months.

The entire crypto market, as tracked by Coinmarketcap, has risen from around $15 billion early last year to around $400 billion today.

I don’t know of any other asset that even comes close to these returns. And the further back you go, the more insane the returns get. When I first bought in the spring of 2013, bitcoin was trading for $84. And it had just run up to that price from around $5 only months before.

My point is that if you paid attention only to mainstream news sources, you might think bitcoin was trading at multiyear lows. It’s “crashing,” “plummeting “… it “won’t survive.”

I believe this pullback is completely natural. Here’s why…

A Natural (Yet Nasty) Correction

I look at the crypto market like this: 15 steps forward, nine steps back.

When an asset increases in value 20X, as bitcoin did last year, it’s only natural for some owners to take profits. Others who bought in at $15,000 or $19,000 are likely panic-selling.

This is simply how markets operate. Weak hands are shaken out during these times.

Yet a significant portion of the investors who bought in over the last year will hold strong. And they will continue to hold for years because historically, that’s the most proven way to make money in crypto. This is the sturdy base of crypto owners, and it continues to grow steadily.

Let’s look beyond price action for a moment and recognize that huge developments are taking place in the crypto world.

First, governments appear to be closer to regulating crypto markets. If done correctly, this will be a very positive development.

The fact that South Korea, for example, is banning anonymous cryptocurrency trading, is arguably a good thing.

We need trust to make these new markets work long term. And that will never happen if naysayers can point to crypto as a haven for hackers and criminals.

So, just as banks are required to verify accounts under “know your customer” laws, cryptocurrency exchanges around the globe are now moving in that direction as well.

We also got news this week that Robinhood, the commission-free stock trading service with millions of users, is moving into the crypto markets. Soon, users will be able to buy and sell crypto with zero commission.

Still, there’s clearly some other factor holding cryptocurrency markets back. And it’s not what you might expect…

Exchanges Are Growing Too Fast

A primary factor in the crypto pullback that most people haven’t recognized is this: Most exchanges are growing far too fast.

So many people are entering the market that many exchanges have had to shut down new user registrations. Most others can’t keep up with customer support.

Bittrex, Bitfinex, CEX. IO and Binance (four of the largest crypto exchanges in the world) have been forced to deny new customer accounts due to explosive growth.

Binance, for example, added 240,000 new accounts in a single hour on January 10. It has since stopped accepting new accounts and only recently began allowing a small number of new users per day.

Coinbase, the largest U.S.-based exchange, continues to experience major growing pains. Its customer support is flooded, and it can’t verify new accounts fast enough.

Exchanges simply can’t keep up with the massive influx of new crypto investors.

Naturally, this has put a damper on markets. When the flow of new buyers is bottlenecked by exchange capacity, it’s of course going to cause a temporary pullback in prices.

Behind the scenes, however, crypto exchanges are furiously upgrading their systems and hiring to meet demand. Due to security requirements and the fact that exchanges are now required to verify all customers, this takes time.

The point is that exponential user growth is a great problem to have. Exchanges are working diligently to accommodate new users, and I suspect that soon, most of them will reopen new account registrations and clear their customer service backlogs.

When this happens, I expect to see a sharp rebound in crypto markets. And then we can begin the next leg up. If we get more clarity on government regulation, even better. There’s also the X-factor of institutional buyers, who I still believe will start moving into the crypto market in the next few months.

By the end of the year, I’m fairly certain we’ll look back at this dip and say, “Damn, that was a great buying opportunity.” But in the midst of a nasty correction, the opportunity is hard to recognize.

It seems like the end of the world for crypto, but I assure you… it’s not.

We’re still at the very beginning.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Adam Sharp
Co-Founder, Early Investing

Can a $10 Bill Really Fund Your Retirement? The digital currency markets are delivering profits unlike anything we’ve ever seen. ​23 recently doubled in a single week. And some like DubaiCoin have jumped as much as 8,200X in value in 18 months. It’ unprecedented... but you won’t receive any of the rewards unless you put a little money in the game. Find out how $10 could make you rich HERE. ​



Source: Early Investing 

Revealed: The Only Crypto Investment Strategy That Makes Sense

As I write, it’s a red day. The second one in a row, actually.

Most cryptos are down… just like yesterday.

Obviously, the crypto world has been taking some hits recently.

Late last week, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange reported more than $500 million worth of NEM (New Economy Movement) was stolen. And there’s more…

Earlier this month, French Minister for the Economy Bruno Le Maire restated his intention to include bitcoin as a major topic of debate at the upcoming G20 Summit in March.

Theresa May, England’s ineffectual leader, says her government is considering imposing regulations on crypto, preferably in coordination with the U.S.

And to top things off, China and Korea also made noises about more restrictions.

It sure seems like the noose is tightening around crypto…

On the other hand, any serious investor who has thought about the risks that crypto brings to the table probably had the same reaction I had…
Nothing really surprising or new here.

If any of these developments shocked or scared you, you clearly haven’t focused on the risk of owning crypto.

That’s okay… because we have.

And we’re willing to share with you some of our thinking on this important topic.

Our first piece of advice?

Don’t listen to the financial press.

The Mainstream Press Gets Crypto Risk Wrong

The mainstream press spends an inordinate amount of time reporting on government action (or inaction), hacks like the one that just happened with Japan’s Coincheck and price drops like the roughly 3% to 10% drops across the board we’ve seen yesterday and today.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s news. It should be covered. But the press offers little meaningful context or perspective.

Its reporting is shallow, misleading and often just plain wrong.

Let’s address the recent headlines one at a time…

Hacks. Yes, it’s lousy that these happen. And the pain is very real to those whose wallets are emptied. (By the way, Coincheck has pledged to pay back the losses to those affected by its recent hack.)

But it’s not a threat to the overall viability of the crypto space.

For one, unlike in the days of the Mt. Gox hack, there are a dozen major exchanges now. Though the amount stolen from Coincheck was more than what was purloined from Mt. Gox ($530 million versus $460 million), it was a much smaller amount when compared to the total value of crypto coins today.

The amount of NEM hacked? Less than one-tenth of 1% of crypto’s total market cap.

Let’s give the market some credit here. It reacted exactly as it should have. It’s not a big deal. The hack was reported on Friday. By Sunday, NEM was trading at a price exceeding the pre-hacked price.

There would have to be a series of large hacks squeezed into a short period of time to make a meaningful dent in the market.

That’s simply not in the cards.

Government actions and pronouncements. This has been a divisive issue from the get-go. Some crypto followers believe government regulation is sorely needed and would put crypto on firmer ground.

Others believe that governments will treat crypto as a major threat (which it is!) and overreact with excessively restrictive regulations that would suffocate this emerging and still somewhat fragile market.

First of all, governments – even one as powerful as the U.S. government – cannot destroy crypto. It’s global and decentralized. It largely operates outside of U.S. approval and jurisdiction.

But a government can control and restrict the use of crypto within its borders. It can close the bank accounts of crypto companies. And it can forbid the creation of any and all related businesses.

When China essentially did this, crypto investors simply moved their accounts to other countries.

But what if, say, the U.S., England, the EU and China acted in unison to ban crypto?

It could spell the end of crypto as we know it. At the very least, it would be a major setback.

But even then, it would be premature to write crypto’s obituary. Whether it would reach the level of a catastrophic event would depend on what’s happening in a half-dozen hubs, including Korea, Japan and Switzerland, as well as up-and-coming crypto centers like India, Canada, Australia, Brazil, and South Africa.

I suspect crypto would survive and re-emerge down the road.

By the way, this is NOT a likely scenario, at least not in the short term.

The U.S. does not have good relations with many of these governments, and the Trump White House doesn’t mind forging its own solitary path on global issues of the day.

And after Trump? By then, crypto could be too ubiquitous to oppose.

A bearish market. Let me set the stage for this…

The crypto market went up more than 35X last year. Most of the reasons were legit, based on crypto’s massive and very real upside potential.

But the market was also fed by FOMO (fear of missing out) and unexciting returns in the more traditional asset classes. So crypto leaned a little too far ahead of its skis.

It was due for a breather. So what’s the risk involved?

How hard the fall is. And how long it lasts.

As for how hard, we’ve seen the drop already. It was a big one. Bitcoin’s price was halved.

The key is how long the drop will last.

Last year, drops lasted from a few days to a couple of weeks.

On the other hand, in previous years, when bitcoin peaked to just under $1,000 in late 2013, it took three years for the coin to revisit and then exceed that price.

Could something like that happen again? And if so, what would cause it?

If draconian government measures or a spate of hacks fail to deflate the market, the one remaining X-factor would be a slower-than-expected evolution of blockchain technologies impacting the real world.

Sebastien Meunier calls this dynamic “market fatigue.” I call it the “instant gratification” trap – born of impatience sprinkled with overconfidence.

Disruptive technology of this scale and impact doesn’t happen simply overnight. (See my article here for more of my thoughts on this.)

The Curse Comes at Dawn

So, if these aren’t serious risks, what are?

It’s the curse of being at the dawn of a new technological age.

Everything is so new – the technology, protocols and products.

Think about what it was like at the dawn of the consumer electronics age. Remember Sony’s Walkman?

The first mini-cassette Walkman hit the market in 1979. By the early 1980s, they had become wildly popular. But this was mobile music 1.0. Its days of domination began to wane with the introduction of Apple’s iPod in 2001. By 2006, 60 million iPods had been sold.

In 2010, Sony stopped making Walkmans.

We’re in the cryptocurrency 1.0 era.

The technology is still largely unproven. Perhaps bitcoin’s established and growing brand will make it very hard or impossible to replace it with a better crypto.

Perhaps not.

Walkmans didn’t have the extra layer of protection provided by bitcoin’s “network effects.” Then again, bitcoin has a new crypto rival coming out literally three times a week (or more), all of them claiming to do bitcoin’s job better… or cheaper or safer or faster.

Walkmans never faced such intense competition.

I expect the blockchain technology to work and to scale, with cryptocurrencies part and parcel of the success story.

But it won’t necessarily be cryptocurrencies 1.0.

Heck, it may not even be version 2.0 or 3.0.

Let me repeat something I said last year: “We’re basically in the experimental, pre-commercial phase of blockchain technology… Mass consumption is still years away.”

Which is why Adam and I are covering our bases…

The Best of Each Generation

We can’t ignore bitcoin’s status as the gorilla of the crypto world.
Nor can we ignore the fact that many altcoins are developing intriguing technologies that could represent significant upgrades to what bitcoin and some of the older 1.0 cryptocurrencies do.

So, in addition to recommending bitcoin to our followers, we track and recommend the best altcoins we can find.

It’s a strategy that will give us a piece of the action in each generation from crypto 1.0 through succeeding generations.

As we move ahead, we’ll be keeping the best of the earlier generations as they prove their worth. And the ones that don’t? We’ll recommend our members sell them when it’s clear to us that they’ve been superceded by better blockchain technologies.

This is a long-term, multiyear crypto investing strategy – the opposite of a sexier but far riskier (and dangerous) instant gratification mode of investing.
Instead of impatience and overconfidence, our strategy is predicated on open-mindedness, humility, steadfastness and a long-term outlook.

We’re in it for the long haul. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

Five years from now, nobody will remember the dip crypto took in the last two days. And, with a portfolio hopefully sporting some big winners, nobody will care.

Good investing,

Andy Gordon
Co-Founder, Early Investing

Can a $10 Bill Really Fund Your Retirement? The digital currency markets are delivering profits unlike anything we’ve ever seen. ​23 recently doubled in a single week. And some like DubaiCoin have jumped as much as 8,200X in value in 18 months. It’ unprecedented... but you won’t receive any of the rewards unless you put a little money in the game. Find out how $10 could make you rich HERE. ​



Source: Early Investing 

Bitcoin Passes the Torch to Altcoins

Bitcoin… For the vast majority of people, this original coin has long been synonymous with cryptocurrency.

Indeed, bitcoin was basically the only game in town until recently.

As you can see from the chart below, bitcoin accounted for roughly 85% of the crypto market one year ago.

Today, bitcoin makes up only 34% of the $500 billion-plus cryptocurrency market. New competitors such as Ethereum, Ripple, Dash, NEM, Monero and IOTA have emerged to grab big chunks of the market.

And hundreds of even smaller coins combine to make up around 25% of the market.

Collectively, everything that’s not bitcoin is referred to as the “altcoin” market.

While bitcoin has lost significant market share to altcoins, its value still skyrocketed from around $1,000 a year ago to around $11,000 today.

Over the same time period, altcoins have soared even higher than bitcoin, rising from just a few billion dollars combined to around $360 billion today.

In my view, these developments don’t represent the fall of bitcoin. We still need bitcoin as a reserve cryptocurrency, a secure rock in the crypto world. Instead, what we’re seeing is the rise of crypto as a new type of investment.

Crypto: A Maturing Asset Class

This past year has been a chaotic (and wildly profitable) one for crypto investors. And we’re beginning to see the type of market I envision as being necessary for crypto to grow into one of the largest global asset classes.

I’ve known for years that we need more than just a few big coins for crypto to thrive.

We need fierce competition among hundreds of coins, all of them using the power of open-source software to innovate and create amazing technology… and growing through the power of network effects and viral organic growth.

Today we’re seeing exactly that. There are now more than 30 separate coins with market capitalizations (total value) of more than $1 billion. Each has its own community of users, developers and supporters.

Hundreds of unique cryptocurrency models are being tested in the wild today. It’s an innovation bonanza, much like we saw in the early days of the internet.

Crypto today is a global phenomenon the likes of which the world has rarely seen.

Crypto vs. Old Money

With the rise of crypto comes inevitable scrutiny from governments and central banks around the world.

For more than a century, these centralized powers have had complete control over monetary systems. They won’t give that up easily.

They claim to be looking out for the welfare of their citizens, but I believe they see crypto primarily as a threat to their monopoly on money.

China has already banned most cryptocurrency exchanges. Before it did, it made up a huge chunk of worldwide cryptocurrency trading volume.

Imagine where the crypto market would be today if China hadn’t done that. We’d probably be 2X higher than we are today.

I believe China will eventually reverse its ban once reasonable regulations are finalized. If and when it does, watch out …

But we know that the type of government pushback we saw in China is inevitable. It’s likely that it will happen in other countries.

However, we’re seeing some encouraging signs.

South Korea, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency hubs, recently announced it was considering a crackdown and possible ban on crypto trading.

Korean citizens were outraged. More than 200,000 citizens signed a petition demanding that the government pull back on its crypto crackdown.

And its government appears to be listening. As reported by The Wall Street Journal

Hours later on the same day, a presidential office spokesman walked that back, saying that abolishing cryptocurrency exchanges was only “one possible measure” that didn’t represent a “final” decision.

Many young Koreans see cryptocurrency as a hopeful development for the future during a time of high youth unemployment and stagnant growth. And they’re not alone.

Worldwide, a new generation of investors desire something other than the traditional investment options.

For many of us, cryptocurrency is a big part of the answer. It’s a hedge against central banks printing money. A unique new asset with the power to transform financial markets through increased efficiency and decentralization.

In short, we view cryptocurrency as a rare beam of light in an often crooked and rigged financial world. Governments and banks will try to ban or kill off crypto, but we’re not going to take it lying down.

Crypto is this generation’s contribution to true free market capitalism. It offers a chance to revitalize our stagnant monetary and financial systems.

As I often say, crypto is the future of money. Let’s encourage our elected representatives to treat it as such.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Adam Sharp
Co-Founder, Early Investing

Can a $10 Bill Really Fund Your Retirement? The digital currency markets are delivering profits unlike anything we’ve ever seen. ​23 recently doubled in a single week. And some like DubaiCoin have jumped as much as 8,200X in value in 18 months. It’ unprecedented... but you won’t receive any of the rewards unless you put a little money in the game. Find out how $10 could make you rich HERE. ​



Source: Early Investinghttps://earlyinvesting.com/bitcoin-passes-torch-to-altcoins/

Bitcoin’s Not Dead

Stories about bitcoin dying have been written many times.

On Tuesday, there was one in The Atlantic titled, “Is This the Beginning of the End of the Bitcoin Bubble?”

This happens whenever bitcoin is down a nasty 20% in a day. The naysayers assume something very bad must be happening.

So even though bitcoin is still up 100% over the last three months and has done the entire boom-bust-boom cycle hundreds of times before, this time looks different. It looks scarier because it’s happening right now.

It’s in our nature to assume the sky is falling when something unexpected happens.

If you manage to hold crypto for long enough, that goes away.

Embrace the Dips

All the early crypto adopters were on buying sprees this week.

So when my mother-in-law texted me her condolences about bitcoin, I smiled and kept looking for bargains.

I don’t get upset when the prices of cryptos drop. That’s like yelling at the weather. Plus, only through these dips do we have the opportunity to buy cheap.

Once you really understand and appreciate what cryptocurrency is about, price shouldn’t matter that much.

It’s a bet on the future of money. That’s all I need it to be. No matter what happens to the price tomorrow, it will still be my wager – a hedge, of sorts.

Maybe if I had a larger crypto portfolio, these dramatic shifts would affect me more. But I don’t think so. I’ve talked with many crypto traders, and most of them feel the same way.

The global enthusiasm for crypto didn’t disappear overnight. It just fizzled for a moment due to a natural but significant sell-off.

You can’t kill off a movement this strong with a little negative price action and some scary headlines citing “possible government bans.”

Don’t get me wrong, governments are still the primary threat to cryptocurrency.

But cryptocurrencies present their own interesting dilemma for governments. If a government bans cryptocurrency, it is admitting that it fears for its own currency. It is telling its citizens that it decides what is best for them and their families.

So, naturally, governments will try to scare us into thinking cryptocurrencies are dangerous. The tools of criminals, hackers and worse.

We’ll have to stand up for our right to choose the currencies of our choice. It won’t be easy, but it’s a goal worth fighting for.

Good investing,

Adam Sharp
Co-Founder, Early Investing

Can a $10 Bill Really Fund Your Retirement? The digital currency markets are delivering profits unlike anything we’ve ever seen. ​23 recently doubled in a single week. And some like DubaiCoin have jumped as much as 8,200X in value in 18 months. It’ unprecedented... but you won’t receive any of the rewards unless you put a little money in the game. Find out how $10 could make you rich HERE. ​



Source: Early Investing

Where Is Blockchain Heading? Your Questions Answered

The talk around bitcoin, cryptocurrency and blockchain is getting silly.

This is because now that the mainstream business media has hold of the story, they’re desperately trying to fit it into past patterns. History may rhyme, but it never repeats.

The TV machine trots out so-called “experts,” employees of large companies and salesmen, who are just as clueless as you or I about what will happen. Instead, they trot out theories and talk analogies. It’s 1994 for blockchain, they say (maybe). They say some of the dot-com winners went on to great things — look at Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) (name three more).

I was there. In 1999, I was an “e-commerce expert” with a six-figure paycheck. In 2002, I made precisely zero dollars. Same in 2003.

The truth is that almost every company we thought would be worth something in 1999 turned out to be worth nothing. It even took Amazon 10 years to get back to its 1999 price. If you were near retirement in 1999, you probably weren’t around to see it.

What about Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL, NASDAQ:GOOG) and Facebook, Inc.(NASDAQ:FB)? Google didn’t become public until 2004. Facebook didn’t exist in 1999. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)? The iPhone was still eight years away.

Forget first-mover advantage. Look for second-mover advantage — the guy who learns what the first mover is doing wrong and takes over from him (or her).

One of the more hilarious calls of the dot-com “experts” in the 1990s was to tell Yahoo! to stop focusing on mere “search” and become a “portal.” Buy GeoCities, they said. Buy Broadcast.com. Yahoo! did.

What we know, from history, is that first-mover advantage in the internet age wasn’t worth a thing. Even Bill Gates knew nothing. If you want to chuckle, read Gates’ 1995 “magnum opus,” The Road Ahead. He barely had a clue. And if Bill Gates didn’t have a clue in 1995, neither do you.

I’ll take your questions now.

Is bitcoin a bubble?

Yes.

Are the other alt-coins bubbles?

Yes.

Does that mean they’ll all be worth nothing in a year?

No, but most will.

Can I tell the difference, right now, between the winners and losers?

Not bloody likely.

What about ICOs?

You mean you want to buy something you can’t value, that’s completely unregulated, and that might be as phony as Bitconnect, which closed Jan. 17 after being accused (repeatedly) of running a Ponzi scheme? Have fun!

What about blockchain? Is blockchain like the internet in 1994? Is it going to create enormous value over the next 20 years?

Why, yes. It will also destroy millions of jobs, including high-salary jobs — especially for those in the business of making premature predictions.

How, then, do I get ready for blockchain?

The only stock I can recommend is Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). The combination of blockchain and the cloud is the raw material from which a lot of great stuff is going to come. We just don’t know what it is yet.

If you want to go out on a limb, try some IBM (NYSE:IBM). It’s grabbing on to blockchain like a dying man grabs for a cancer cure. It also has cloud-related business. Maybe something will come of it.

Beyond that, understand what blockchain does, and in the future, look for companies that prove an ability to make markets with it.

Here is all you really need to know.

Blockchain automates trust.

It does this by encrypting each block of a database, organized as a general ledger. Buyers and sellers can be tied to transactions, bids and asks, without being identified until after the deal is done, if then.

All that paper you shuffled to get a car loan or a mortgage and all those forms you filled out at a doctor’s office or for the government? They’re just blocks in a chain. We can find them, we can refer to them, and we can make them legally enforceable so you never need to fill out a form again.

Let that help you get to sleep at night.

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Source: Investor Place

Cryptocurrency News: Why Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple Are Plunging Today

Bitcoin, ethereum, ripple and other virtual currencies are falling today on a new bit of cryptocurrency news.

Cryptocurrency News: Why Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple Are Plunging Today

Source: Shutterstock

Recent reports claim that China is preparing to crackdown on on bitcoin and its various rivals. China’s central bank has specifically called for a ban on individuals and businesses getting involved with virtual currencies and offering services for them. This cryptocurrency news is likely behind the sudden fall in value for bitcoin, ethereum and ripple.

Following the release of this cryptocurrency news, bitcoin’s value dropped to roughly $11,000. This had the virtual currency losing roughly 18% of its value and its a far cry from the almost $20,000 it was trading for back in December.

Ethereum, the virtual currency with the second-highest value, also saw its value drop as much as 23% following the release of the cryptocurrency news. Ripple also lost as much as a third of its value on concerns about a crackdown, reports Reuters.

Governments preparing to crackdown on virtual currencies have been in the news quite a bit recently. This includes a recent report that South Korea was considering a full ban on bitcoin and its rivals. However, the government walked that statement back and said it may only look to regulate cryptocurrency.

The U.S. government has also been warnings investors about the dangers of bitcoins and its rivals. The SEC has been warning investors about the lack in insurance for virtual currencies and the highly-volatile market. The SEC also notes it can ban the trading of companies that appear to be Initial Coin Offerings scams.

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Crypto Forecast: From $731 Billion to $10 Trillion

A broker from a big bank just did something I’d never do…

He put a number on the potential value of the blockchain market.

If you think, as I do, that blockchain technology will expand from dozens of uses to hundreds and then thousands, how can you calculate a precise market value for that?

It’s like Thomas Edison trying to predict in the late 1800s how much the electricity market would be worth a few decades into the 20th century.

Did he realize at the time that almost everything, not just lights, that we make and use would be electrified?

Probably not. How could he?

(Perhaps the one thing he thought would be electrified – vehicles – didn’t catch on until more than 100 years later!)

I believe at some point in the future (10 years? 20 years?), most of the services we’ll be using on a daily basis will be enabled by the blockchain.

Again, how can you put a price on such a ubiquitous technology?

Is it in the tens of billions? Hundreds of billions? More?

A Report From Deep Inside Wall Street

That’s the best thing about the report this broker put together.

It does not come from crypto investors talking their own book… initial coin offering companies hyping their future growth… or blockchain evangelists espousing best-case scenarios as a given.

Mitch Steves, the author of this report, is a traditional Wall Street equity analyst. He works for the RBC Capital Markets subsidiary.

His only connection to blockchain and crypto?

Among the companies in his bailiwick is NVIDIA. It makes graphics processing units for mining cryptocurrencies.

By the way, he says the $4 billion-plus market for mining cryptocurrency is here to stay.

Steves says that blockchain technology is misunderstood – that store of value and payment use cases are the most commonly cited but “the least interesting.”

The single most “positive technology” breakthrough is the one staring us in the face: The blockchain, the underlying technology, HAS NEVER BEEN HACKED.

(And, in my opinion, WILL NEVER be hacked.)

This is no small thing. Steves compares Box, a content management platform, to Filecoin, a decentralized blockchain equivalent, to highlight the differences…

With Box, your data is owned and controlled by a third party that has access to your information (a photo loaded can be retrieved by anyone with access to Box servers – employees). With Filecoin, your storage is distributed and decentralized, making the holders unable to retrieve your photo (they would need to hack every computer on the decentralized network – blockchain). Your information is now secure, and without your private keys, it cannot be accessed.

This is an early case of how a globally decentralized network of computers can work using the blockchain. Steves calls this network of computers the “World Computer.”

He says that same concept can be applied to a “wide variety of decentralized applications (aka ‘dapps’).”

I completely agree.

Rose-Colored Glasses?

What Steves is saying is reasonable and, frankly speaking, not entirely novel. People who aren’t playing close attention may be confusing hacks of exchanges and individual wallets (which has happened) with hacks of the blockchain itself (which has never happened).

But insiders have well understood the security benefits of putting data, transactions, assets, documents and sensitive information on the blockchain… and how the blockchain makes it fast, easy and secure to track these things.

But it’s nice hearing this confirmed by a big bank with no vested interest in the crypto or blockchain markets.

And because Steves hails from outside the crypto community, he openly acknowledges the “many risks to crypto.” No rose-colored glasses for him.

Among the risks, he lists the possibility of an attack if a single entity were to garner more than 50% of the computing power (which, I should add, would be pretty near impossible).

Other risks mentioned? Coordinated attacks to manipulate prices… and the potential for smartphone wallet hacking.

The Worth of the Market Crypto Will Address?

How he arrives at this big round number turns out to be the most disappointing part of his 36-page report.

He basically took a third of the roughly $30 trillion in assets held in offshore funds and gold. Just a rough stab, in other words.

But perhaps that’s as it should be. At this early stage, trying to do anything more would be a reach.

We simply don’t know how big this number will be. Anybody who says differently is lying to themselves or everybody else.

However, I believe it will be a big number. Blockchain technology is driving a surge of innovation in the development of new protocols and blockchains.

There’s a long way to go. And nothing is a given at this point. But decentralized computer technology has the potential to reinvent huge swaths of the global economy.

With that kind of upside, even a modest investment could yield quite a large return. We can help you identify the best blockchain technologies raising money.

Just click here if you’re interested.

Good investing,

Andy Gordon
Co-Founder, Early Investing

Source: Early Investing

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4 Bitcoin Alternatives That You Need for 2018

Bitcoin Alternatives: NEM

Source: Shutterstock

I first featured NEM as a cryptocurrency idea for our InvestorPlace readers last October. With a then-price of less than 21 cents, NEM was one of the cheapest major altcoins available. Given that my article was one of the most heavily visited on the topic, I sincerely hope my readers acted on my suggestion. Today, the NEM price is a dime under $2.

If you’re doing the calculations, NEM jumped approximately 800% in two-and-a-half months. You will not find such performance buying and holding equities in the pedestrian stock markets. My absolutely best stock ideaBitcoin Investment Trust (OTCMKTS:GBTC), gained only 447% in half-a-year’s time. In contrast, you can take smaller-sized risks with altcoins, and make more money than you would in the traditional markets.

Of course, most people might get discouraged about the 800% move, thinking that the best is behind us. Consider, though, the remarkable case of ripple. Like NEM, ripple is a heavily diluted token, with nearly 39 billion coins in circulation. That hasn’t stopped ripple jumping from 19 cents to nearly $4 in the past three months.

More importantly, NEM arguably has a better blockchain. While ripple is exclusively focused on streamlining bank transactions, the NEM blockchain is open to multiple applications. Furthermore, businesses are attracted to NEM because its blockchain is scalable to increasing demand.

Given the success of similar altcoins, you’d be crazy not to try your hand at NEM!

Bitcoin Alternatives: Ethereum

Source: Shutterstock

Prior to the aforementioned ripple coin’s rally, ethereum used to be the number-two cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Despite ripple’s shocking price explosion, ethereum still commands tremendous respect. Coinbase, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchange, offers ethereum on its trading platform, not ripple. But it might surprise some newcomers that ethereum isn’t the original coin that bears its name.

That honor belongs to ethereum classic. The entire story of how ethereum and ethereum classic were born is beyond the scope of this article. But a long story short, in the run-up to creating a fully-fledged market for the original ethereum, a hacker exploited a loophole in the system, draining out ether tokens. The crypto community panicked as ethereum backers debated on a solution.

A consensus of supporters decided to create a hardfork of the ethereum blockchain. However, a significant amount of dissenters existed. They objected to the hardfork on the basis that it violated the immutable principle of a blockchain application. Rather than follow the new blockchain pathway, the dissenters remained on the original. Thus, ethereum classic came to existence.

The hardforked ethereum is what most investors today get excited about, and for good reason. Its price will very likely hit and exceed $1,000. However, ethereum classic is the better deal. At under $33, if the original could duplicate half of the offshoot version’s success, it would be a phenomenal investment.

Bitcoin Alternatives: Steem

Source: Shutterstock

The biggest hesitation that investors have against altcoins is that they must spend real money to acquire virtual currencies. We often hear criticisms that bitcoin is simply vapor that is destined to vanish, eliminating billions of actual dollars. But what if there was a way to acquire cryptocurrencies for free? Steem is the answer to this seemingly rhetorical question.

The steem coin is the underlying cryptocurrency of Steemit, a blockchain-powered social media platform. Unlike Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) or Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), regular folks can earn money through posting original content. Before you dismiss Steemit as a too-good-to-be-true fairy tale, take a look at the network’s top earners. With just one post, you can make hundreds of dollars, even thousands.

Better yet, you can transfer the steem coins you earn to a third-party exchange like Bittrex. Using my Bittrex beginner’s guide, you can easily sell your steem coins for bitcoin. From there, you have access to hundreds of altcoins. Using the Steemit network is undoubtedly the least riskiest way of building a cryptocurrency portfolio.

However, there is a catch: it’s very difficult to build a profitable steem account through blogging alone. In order to “juice up” your profitability potential, you can purchase “steem power” coins. This of course is a capital risk.

But with most major altcoins flying through the roof, getting involved with steem today could pay huge dividends later.

Bitcoin Alternatives: Stellar

Source: Shutterstock

It’s hard to imagine any asset priced below a dollar as having a solid profitability potential. Hardened market investors understand that penny stocks are usually only attractive because of their unit price. However, with youth comes blissful ignorance. While older investors avoid cheap investments like the plague, Millennial cryptocurrency investors run to them like flies on stink.

When it comes to the digital markets, though, it pays to listen to youth. This is particularly the case for stellar. A little more than a week ago, stellar traded hands at 22 cents. At time of writing, the digital token came within striking distance of a buck. That’s serious performance given the ridiculously short time frame.

More importantly, I think stellar has additional room to run. Unlike the scalability-challenged bitcoin, the stellar blockchain closes transactions within seconds, not hours or days. As the blockchain concept becomes an everyday reality, transaction speed will be critical.

Furthermore, stellar extends the lightning-quick transactions to fiat currencies. For example, users can swiftly convert dollars to euros, rather than relying on cumbersome and expensive banking institutions. Recognizing the potential, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) uses the stellar blockchain to develop a payments system with large banks.

With so much opportunity, and an accessible price point, stellar is one of the best altcoins to buy in 2018!

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8 Bitcoin Stocks That You Won’t Lose Your Shirt Over

Bitcoin may not have the trust of Wall Street institutions just yet, but millennials are all in. Blockchain Capital recently conducted a study of 2,000 millennials (aged 18-34) and asked them to make a theoretical choice between owning $1,000 in bonds or stocks and $1,000 in bitcoin: Thirty percent chose bitcoin…

These days, a single bitcoin goes for more than $12,900. That’s a gain of nearly 1,550% since the beginning of the year. It seems millennials are laughing all the way to the decentralized blockchain.

The price of bitcoin keeps skyrocketing because people believe its price will keep shooting higher. It’s such an incredible gain, in fact, that C-suite execs can no longer afford to ignore bitcoin and its underlying technology — blockchain. Neither can you.

The following bitcoin stocks aren’t pure plays on the cryptocurrency and that’s what makes them attractive. Once bitcoin is no longer “cool,” there will be a massive correction, but not in companies that are diversified. And Blockchain, for what it’s worth, is another thing entirely.

That’s why the following stocks are all much safer bets on the digital money craze than bitcoin, ethereum or any other digital currency. And you won’t end up like this guy for owning them.

Bitcoin Stocks: Microsoft

Source: Shutterstock

Bitcoin Stocks: Microsoft

Blockchain, the technology behind bitcoin, could be the most monumental shift in our culture since the internet, which is why Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) invested in it.

Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing arm, hopes to be the first to mainstream blockchain-to-enterprise businesses. Billed as a distribution ledger, Microsoft is selling businesses a new infrastructure from which to do business, offering several different blockchain apps for companies to create their own “network topology:”:

“Rather than spending hours building out and configuring the infrastructure, we have automated these time-consuming pieces to allow you to focus on building out your scenarios and applications. You are only charged for the underlying infrastructure resources consumed, such as compute, storage, and networking. There are no incremental charges for the solution itself.”

Companies that will benefit the most tend to rely on third-party intermediaries, with multiple parties sharing and updating data between firms. Blockchain simplifies this process and allows everyone to have access to the same data at all times. Nothing can be deleted.

The difference between Microsoft’s blockchain and bitcoin’s, however, is that bitcoin is a public blockchain while Microsoft’s is specifically designed for enterprise. And it’s not the only company that has found an enterprise use for bitcoin’s secret sauce …

Bitcoin Stocks: IBM

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), like Microsoft, is targeting enterprise with blockchain technology, and it has several solutions for businesses small and large.

IBM is focusing on democratic applications of blockchain. That is, it allows users to create networks, determine governance rules, invite network members and validate transactions.

Its “blockchain workshop” provides consultation on how to best use the technology and successfully create your own blockchain network. While “blockchain accelerator” helps guide businesses through the legal and technical ramifications of blockchain networks.

What’s more, IBM is continually dreaming up new applications for blockchain as “untold more” exist that will change the future of business for the better. Enter Hyperledger — IBM’s open source collaboration to improve blockchain across all industries.

More than 130 members spanning industries such as finance, manufacturing and technology are working to create a distributed ledger framework that is open and standardized.

Bitcoin Stocks: Pfizer (PFE)

Source: Shutterstock

Bitcoin Stocks: Pfizer

Big Pharma has been plagued by supply-chain fraud and blockchain is the answer to all its problems.

The Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), established in 2013, is weighing on the pharmaceutical industry to find a solution and Big Pharma is betting on blockchain to create an interoperable system to stamp out rampant counterfeiting.

To this end, Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) joins with several Big Pharma cohorts in the “MediLedger Project,” a collective of pharmaceutical companies working on a program to track drugs through a blockchain.

Basically, if a shipment of drugs “falls off the truck,” the data stored on the blockchain would show who last touched the shipment. Any stolen goods would be harder to unload in bulk, too, as blockchain makes it easier to prove authenticity.

Such a system could slow the bleed of counterfeit drugs, which hit $75 billion this year, and that could only be good for Pfizer’s bottom line.

Bitcoin Stocks: Overstock (OSTK)

Source: Overstock.com

Bitcoin Stocks: Overstock

The past few months have been good to Overstock.com Inc (NASDAQ:OSTK), which has gained 280%-plus since the beginning of August. Not bad for an outlying e-commerce stock that scrambles for light under Amazon.com, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) shadow.

The reason for this is Medici Ventures, Overstock’s blockchain-focused division that has been in the works secretly for the past three years. Medici, according to its website, focuses on “six key areas of emerging crypto-industries” — capital markets, money and banking, identity, land, voting and underlying tech. The firm has a number of companies in its portfolio dedicated to advancing blockchain applications, but the most prominent is tZero.

TZero is planning an initial coin offering (ICO) to fund the development of trade “tokens” for an SEC-compliant alternative trading system. Essentially, it’s a stock offering in the parlance of blockchain.

According to at least one analyst, OSTK stock could gain more than 60% if it sold its retail business to focus solely on its blockchain ventures.

Bitcoin Stocks: Square (SQ)

Source: Via Square

Bitcoin Stocks: Square

Square Inc (NYSE:SQ) CEO Jack Dorsey hasn’t been shy on the topic of blockchain, describing the technology as “the next big unlock,” but he cautions against blanket approaches.

Does this mean that Square, or Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), won’t soon take advantage of blockchain? Not necessarily. Until then, Square stock is primed to have a first-mover advantage in the bitcoin marketplace space, which isn’t a bad place to be.

Square just hopped on the bitcoin train in November, and not a minute too soon. In the past three months alone, the price of bitcoin has soared nearly 340%. SQ stock gained 2% on reports of it testing a bitcoin marketplace in its Square Cash app, as user Zach Miles revealed through Twitter:

As this bitcoin-buying feature begins rolling out to more of Square’s user base, SQ stock could benefit from fees it generates from people buying and selling the cryptocurrency.

And more people could flock to bitcoin as Square gives the digital currency a mainstream legitimacy.

Bitcoin Stocks: JPMorgan (JPM)

Source: via Wikimedia

Bitcoin Stocks: JPMorgan

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon isn’t one to mince words, dubbing bitcoin a “fraud” and questioning the intelligence of the people who buy it. Blockchain, however, is another story.

Which is why JPM just launched a new payment processing network that uses blockchain in collaboration with the Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE:RY) and the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group.

Blockchain has proven especially valuable for finance, and JPMorgan has poured millions into its blockchain effort, Quorum, which it hopes will simplify its processes and lower its costs.

For instance, international money transfers would reach their beneficiaries much more quickly (and much more securely) when done through blockchain than through traditional means. This will be especially true as more banks join in.

Bitcoin Stocks: SAP

Another company listed in the Reality Shares Nasdaq Blockchain Economy Index is SAP SE (ADR) (NYSE:SAP). SAP revealed its blockchain-as-a-service product earlier this year, a fee-based service accessible in the SAP cloud.

As more businesses begin to use emerging technologies like blockchain, it’s SAP’s job to leverage that into a business model. Enter SAP Leonardo, a product line that includes machines learning, Big Data, Internet of Things, analytics and blockchain services.

SAP Leonardo is crucial to SAP’s growth and ability to adapt to an increasingly digital world as businesses seek out new technologies to better serve the customer.

SAP is also spearheading a blockchain co-innovation initiative to cement blockchain into IoT, manufacturing and digital supply chains.

Bitcoin Stocks: Accenture (ACN)

Source: Shutterstock

Bitcoin Stocks: Accenture

Accenture Plc (NYSE:ACN) recently found itself listed in the new Reality Shares Nasdaq Blockchain Economy Index as it seeks to solve what it considers “inefficiencies around money transfers.”

ACN is a consulting firm that works with clients to improve their business. As such, Accenture has blockchain experts that go around from business to business to help them implement a blockchain strategy.

They do this through a number of services, including strategy assessment (basically determining whether blockchain is right for a particular business), blockchain solution design (a “holistic” process for blockchain operations), blockchain bootcamp (workshops for training employees), blockchain sandboxes (hands-on development with blockchain toolsets) and more.

Their goal? The swift adoption of a distributed ledger system. That can only be good for every company on this list.

Can a $10 Bill Really Fund Your Retirement? The digital currency markets are delivering profits unlike anything we’ve ever seen. ​23 recently doubled in a single week. And some like DubaiCoin have jumped as much as 8,200X in value in 18 months. It’ unprecedented... but you won’t receive any of the rewards unless you put a little money in the game. Find out how $10 could make you rich HERE. ​