Welcome to our first Crypto Asset Strategies update.
In today’s article, I’ll be providing updates on our portfolio, a market overview and some tips.
I am currently analyzing a number of upcoming ICOs and hope to have our first pick ready within a few weeks. However, I am being extremely selective and am not willing to settle on quality.
The market has been on fire over the past few weeks. I expect volatility to continue as private wealth, hedge funds and retail investors continue to flood in.
During exciting times like these, I advise new cryptocurrency (aka crypto) investors to be prepared for market corrections. Dips of 20% to 35% are common in the crypto world. (Luckily, bull runs of 3X to 5X in a short time are also common.)
Let’s look at bitcoin as an example. This chart, courtesy of Mauldin Economics, shows that bitcoin historically “crashes” once a quarter.
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I have held through all of these, as bitcoin rose from less than $100 to a recent peak of $11,000. At times, it was stressful. But it gets easier with time and experience.
These corrections are simply the result of rapid exponential growth. When you go up 10X, it’s only natural to come down a bit. And as you can see, these dips have gotten smaller over time. As the number of people who believe there’s value in crypto grows, the dips get bought up with more gusto.
No asset goes straight up. And that’s a good thing. The market needs to step back and consolidate from time to time. This also gives us a nice opportunity to buy the dips.
Bottom line: Don’t sweat the volatility.
Portfolio Updates
Ark (ARK)
Ark continues to make good progress on its tech road map. Price action has been positive, with the coin now trading around $3.99. I believe this coin is still significantly undervalued.
Here are some additional Ark highlights:
- The number of Ark subscribers on Reddit has passed 10,000, showing strong community growth
- Ark is now incorporated as a “cooperative society” in France to further ecosystem development. (Read more here.)
- Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance currently lists Ark, which increases the number of potential buyers significantly.
- The company released a new version of its core software to improve transactions and accommodate recent growth.
Vertcoin (VTC)
The Vertcoin community is growing fast. Here’s a highlight from the November development update showing impressive growth numbers on social media platforms.
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
- Reddit (r/vertcoin): 18,573 subscribers + 78.6%
- Reddit (r/VertcoinTrader): 2,367 subscribers + 359.61%
- Twitter: 46,006 followers + 28.64%
- Discord: 8,037 members +332.56%.
Vertcoin’s unique properties continue to shine in this market. Due to its ASIC-resistant design, it remains one of the most decentralized coins. And since its “mining difficulty” adjusts every 2.5 minutes, transactions stay fast and cheap, even if the network’s “hash” (computing) power dips temporarily.
Another reason to be excited about Vertcoin is the upcoming reward “halving.” In December, the reward for mining Vertcoin will be cut in half from 50 Vertcoins to 25 Vertcoins. This means less coins coming on the market, which should serve as a very positive price catalyst.
This will be Vertcoin’s first halving, and based on bitcoin’s history of spiking after these events, this should be a major bullish development.
Since our recommendation, Vertcoin has risen from around $5 to $8. With a tiny market cap of around $300 million, this one still has significant room to run.
Here are some other highlights:
- There is continued progress on beta-testing of the “one-click miner” to make mining Vertcoin easy.
- There is continued headway on “atomic swaps,” which will allow Vertcoin to be seamlessly exchanged with other cryptocurrencies.
- New mobile and desktop wallets are coming soon.
- The former lead developer of Vertcoin has rejoined the team.
OmiseGO (OMG)
OmiseGO continues its bullish trend and recently surpassed the $1 billion market cap mark.
Behind the scenes, developers are hard at work on Plasma, a technology they believe could allow 1 million transactions per second (TPS). Compared to bitcoin’s current seven TPS, this would be an amazing feat, surpassing even Visa and PayPal.
Here are some other highlights:
- OmiseGO has strong community growth, with more than 100K followers on Twitter and 20K subscribers on Reddit.
- The OmiseGO team says the goal of Plasma is to create “the” decentralized exchange for crypto and other assets, capable of handling 1 billion simultaneous users.
- Crypto exchange Huobi.pro has added OmiseGO trading.
That’s all for now with OmiseGO. The big developments we’re watching are the launch of its blockchain, staking (dividends) and Plasma next year. These upgrades are set to take the company to the next level. We recommend buying here if you haven’t yet and holding strong if you already have.
Keep these general tips in mind:
- Don’t use Google to find your exchange/wallet. Sometimes hackers buy ads that look like an exchange, but they’re actually trying to steal your login information. Always go directly to the exchange.
- Don’t log in to your bitcoin wallet/exchange to check prices. Use an app, such as Blockfolio, that is not linked to your coins.
- Use long, secure passwords and store backups of them somewhere extremely safe.
- Start familiarizing yourself with a hardware wallet, such as the Trezor, for offline (cold) storage of coins. (Search YouTube for “Trezor wallet” for a video primer.)
Good investing,
Adam