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Charlie Munger compares crypto to the Dot-com Bubble on 3 December, Bitcoin then drops 26%

On 3 December, during the course of an investor conference in Australia, Warren Buffet's right-hand man and Vice President of Berkshire Hathaway, Charlie Munger, voiced his strong criticism of cryptocurrencies. He called the crypto market an even bigger bubble than dot-com stocks in the late 1990s.

The spread of personal computers and the development of internet technologies in the mid-90s led to the emergence of a large number of startups. As the market was only gaining momentum and investors didn't have a clear understanding of which projects had real potential, the startups had no problems finding funding. The Nasdaq tech index shot up like a rocket. In 2000, a saturation point came, with the sector's collapse following shortly after. Investors lost around $5 trillion, and the Nasdaq crashed 70% in six months. The majority of projects went bankrupt, while Amazon shares lost over 90% in the space of two years.



Charlie Munger believes that cryptocurrencies are even more dangerous as they don't have any objective value. Speaking at the conference, he said, "The cryptocurrency market is even crazier than the Dot-com Boom...I wish that they had never been invented". After these comments, Bitcoin lost 26% in value over the span of two days.



Charlie Munger is a leading authority in the eyes of stock market investors, which is why his comments were able to impact cryptocurrency prices. But, in fact, the correction was the result of a whole chain of events: the Fed's intention to taper its stimulus sooner than expected, Congress's summoning of representatives from the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges to give testimony on 8 December and the increase in the amount of leverage permitted for Bitcoin purchases. When the price fell below its key support of $50,000, Stop Losses on many margin trades were triggered, setting off a chain reaction. As a consequence, traders lost $2.5 billion on leveraged trades over a 24-hour period.



Meanwhile, Bitcoin is currently trading above where it was a year ago, while Ethereum is sitting at the level of its May 2021 highs. By the cryptocurrency market's standards, what we're seeing is a minor technical correction. After rebounding, BTC recorded a 16% decline for December.



Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger were 78 and 84, respectively, when Bitcoin arrived on the scene. It could be that the crypto market is just too young for Berkshire Hathaway to take it seriously.


The StormGain Analytical Group
(a platform for trading, exchanging and safeguarding cryptocurrency)

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Who's a good boy? Shiba Inu price jumps as Newegg officially accepts meme coin

Popular canine cryptocurrency Shiba Inu (SHIB) is wagging its tail after seeing its price go up 33% on Wednesday, with a little help from a friend. And this time, it's not Vitalik Buterin. The surprising rally came after news broke that consumer electronics retailer Newegg Commerce (NEGG) officially confirmed that it would accept Shiba Inu as a form of payment, just as the holiday shopping season gets underway.

A crypto-friendly computer store

You might remember Newegg from our recent post on whether to spend cryptocurrency during the recent Black Friday sales. Newegg is an online consumer electronics retailer that sells a variety of tech products, from high-end gaming PCs and components to small accessories.

Newegg became popular in the crypto community as a source of hardware for mining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and the e-commerce company appeared to return the appreciation by being one of the earliest stores to accept Bitcoin back in 2014. Other retailers, especially in the tech and gaming sectors, also experimented with crypto payments, but many found the market's volatility too much to cope with and pulled out. Newegg, on the other hand, has been consistently crypto-friendly. Earlier this year, it also added Litecoin (LTC) and Dogecoin (DOGE) as payment options.

Now Shiba Inu finds itself once more competing in a dogfight with Dogecoin on the electronics platform. Both coins are currently very hyped, thanks to backing from celebrities in the crypto community and the feeling that something should be done with the enthusiasm these dog-based meme coins generate from the public. Although these cryptos started as jokey references, Newegg is certainly taking them seriously, announcing its acceptance of Shiba Inu on America's largest billboard on 30 November.

What's next? Shiba Inu to the moon?

The boost from Newegg was good news for Shiba Inu, which bounced back after losing over a quarter of its value over the month of November. However, it's important to remember that the dog-themed coin is still only trading for a tiny fraction of a cent, so traders will need to move large amounts of SHIB to see significant profits.

Is Shiba Inu merely an expensive joke played with by the ultra-wealthy crypto celebrities? For now, it seems like SHIB doesn't have many concrete use cases that would give it real staying power in the market.

Being able to use it to buy electronics is a step in the right direction, and there are other projects on the horizon that could legitimise Shiba Inu and reward early investors. The creators of SHIB have teased a partnership with a well-known game developer, and there is growing speculation that the Shiba Inu crypto may play a role in the metaverse, a virtual reality environment that promises to connect gaming, e-commerce, and social media.

Trade SHIB on StormGain for maximum profit

The holiday season could be a critical time for SHIB's future, depending on whether more partnerships like this push the canine coin over the borderline from meme to a serious asset. Whether you back SHIB's potential or bet against it, you can find the best conditions for trading on StormGain, which offers a SHIB/USDT pair as well as the opportunity to trade SHIB/DOGE against each other. If you're not a StormGain client yet, sign up in just a few seconds to find out what the best crypto platform on the net can offer you.

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Terra enters the Top 10 by capitalisation and Top 3 by DeFi preferences

Despite the cryptocurrency market's increased capitalisation, Bitcoin continues to lose its market share, losing ground to more practical solutions. Even though it has just entered the Top 10 by capitalisation, Terra's capitalisation is only $26 billion compared to Bitcoin's $955 billion. However, the project's goals are ambitious: to become the #1 payment and exchange method.



The problem with Bitcoin is its low bandwidth and high price volatility. For example, it is unsuitable for real estate transactions because, within a few days, the price of a property could potentially rise by 1.5 times due to a correction in the cryptocurrency's price. The same thing happens with fiat in developing countries, just for a slightly longer period of time. Terra is trying to solve all of these problems by creating a supranational currency, Terra SDR, which balances market volatility. Terra SDR is positioned as an analogue of the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights or a basket of currencies.

But first of all, Terra needs to ensure the integration of the existing financial system with decentralised blockchains. This means they need to create an efficient payment system with a high degree of security, instant conversion and low commissions. This is implemented through proprietary stablecoins pegged to the US dollar, euro, South Korean won, and even the IMF's SDR. In exchange for an atomic swap, conversions take place at market rates with zero commission.



To support these mechanics, Terra uses a floating-rate currency called LUNA. The coin allows you to reward validators for carrying out transactions and provides the network with scalability and decentralisation. The algorithm for changing the money supply is responsible for the stability of the stablecoin rates. This avoids the risk of increased emission for selfish purposes, as was the case with Ripple, and the outflow of funds if the exchange rate of 1:1 is exceeded, as was the case with DAI on the Maker platform.

Terra's unique and practical Terra nature, as well as its good staking rewards with an average annual return of 7.2%, led to the blockchain reaching third place in terms of staked funds, displacing Solana and Avalanche.



Over the past six months, the value of LUNA has skyrocketed eight-fold, largely due to the rise in stablecoin usage. Among algorithmic stablecoins, UST came out on top with $8.4 billion in capitalisation. The rise of decentralised applications (dApps) and the need for 'independent' stablecoins suggest that LUNA's main growth is yet to come.


The StormGain Analytical Group
(a platform for trading, exchanging and safeguarding cryptocurrency)

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Whales preparing for a Bitcoin sell-off

For major Bitcoin holders, including public mining companies that hold a large share, the end of the year is an excellent time to lock in some of their profit and improve their overall financial performance. After BTC fell from $57,000 to $42,000, the whales again increased the supply of Bitcoin on exchanges, preparing for another round of sell-offs.



The "whale exchange ratio" measures the ratio of the inflow and outflow of large sums in relation to the total inflow and outflow. In early December, the influx of large capital (coefficient 0.95) led to a 26% price correction. This trend's continuation portends a correction for Bitcoin from its current price level to $36,000.

Futures traders are less supportive of whale sentiment as the funding rate has returned from the negative zone. However, there is no need to speak of any optimism yet. Funding rates rise when bulls dominate leverage and, conversely, fall when bears dominate. Currently, this rate is 0.



The share of institutional investors is much lower in Ethereum, so the December sell-off affects this coin to a lesser extent. In November, the total volume of funds in investment funds with Bitcoin amounted to $48.7 billion. The figure with Ethereum was $16.6 billion.



The quarterly futures premium for the March 2022 Ethereum contract is also outperforming Bitcoin, coming in at 2.9% and 2.6%, respectively. This confirms the higher appreciation of the altcoin's growth prospects over the next four months. In addition, unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum didn't experience much of a fall in price in November, which is when the cross-rate set a new three-year high.



Whales are gearing up for the end of the year and are selling off some of their Bitcoin holdings, which could mean a new correction wave is on the horizon.


The StormGain Analytical Group
(a platform for trading, exchanging and safeguarding cryptocurrency)

[stormgain]

Amazon invests in the fractional NFT market

NFTs make it easy to link copyrights to digital art, but some are too expensive for everyday people. This problem is solved by fractional NFTs, which divide the ownership of the asset into shares. The value of a share is proportional to its size in the total amount of ownership.



It's thought that fractionalised NFTs will make collecting non-fungible assets more accessible to ordinary users. Currently, the size of the fractional NFT market is estimated to be at $213 million. The most valuable is The Doge NFT, with a market cap of $132 million and a fractionalised price of less than one cent.



The most famous fractional NFT platforms are Otis, Unicly, Fractional and Daofi. Last week, WAX blockchain, which is responsible for the startup Dibbs' technical support, tweeted the news about Amazon joining the project. The amount invested by the retail behemoth and the terms of its participation were not disclosed.

Dibbs makes it possible to create digital counterparts of physical sports cards. The client sends the original to the company to confirm ownership and guarantee the transparency of the transaction, after which the client issues a solid or fractional NFT. Tokens are exchanged within the platform. In the event that a 100% stake is reached, the new owner can receive the original or reissue the NFT.

Fractional NFTs tend to significantly increase the value of a digital object, which is why holders of famous collectable cards are increasingly resorting to fractionalisation. Dibbs takes a 2.9% commission per transaction.



This year, the NFT market has grown nearly ten-fold, and its volume now exceeds $2 billion. Its volume could reach $10 billion next year, as more and more companies find NFT interesting for investments. Amongst blockchains, Ethereum continues to lead both in the number of NFT collections, with daily volume exceeding $75 million.


The StormGain Analytical Group
(a platform for trading, exchanging and safeguarding cryptocurrency)

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Stepping into the same river twice: Tesla to accept Dogecoin for payments

Elon Musk already flirted with cryptocurrencies at the beginning of the year, allowing the purchase of cars for Bitcoin. The experiment ended after a month and a half, with the deciding factor being Bitcoin's environmental unfriendliness. Now the company is incorporating Dogecoin into its payment system, but the choice of cryptocurrency has caused confusion among professional community members.



Elon Musk is known as the godfather of Dogecoin or the "Dogefather", given his frequent mentions and expressions of admiration for the cryptocurrency. His tweets have often resulted in the coin's value doubling. However, as time has gone on, the power of his statements has weakened.



The reason for this is Elon Musk's inconsistency. When he abandoned Bitcoin, the Tesla chief played heavily on its poor environmental record. However, Dogecoin works on the same proof-of-work principle and requires miners' participation. According to rough estimates, the annual electricity consumption of the Dogecoin network is 3 GWh, which corresponds to the total energy consumption of countries such as Montenegro, Jamaica or Yemen.

In simple terms, Musk traded something bad for something worse. He claims Dogecoin's main advantages are lower commissions ($0.40 versus $2 for Bitcoin at the time of writing). However, the meme cryptocurrency has higher volatility and is less secure as a repository of value.

One of Dogecoin's developers, Jackson Palmer, called Musk a "narcissistic swindler" in the spring for his wanton bias and thirst for hype. Former SEC analyst Mark Powers urged the regulator to investigate Musk for abuse of confidence. Elon Musk has also promoted other canine-themed meme cryptocurrencies, which Powers believes is leading to multi-million dollar losses amongst his followers.



But, apparently, the crypto market has already developed immunity to the "Dogfather's" antics: this time around, most of the price increase resulting from Musk's news had been cancelled out 24 hours later.


The StormGain Analytical Group
(a platform for trading, exchanging and safeguarding cryptocurrency)

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StormGain Holiday Giveaway: win fantastic prizes, including fast mining and free crypto

The holiday season is just around the corner, and as we prepare to ring in the New Year, StormGain would like to extend our best wishes of happiness, prosperity, and good cheer to all our valued clients. Of course, that also includes an exciting new opportunity to win extra bonuses and coins on your favourite crypto platform!

Upgrade your StormGain account, mine Bitcoin even faster!

Here's how it works. Starting Monday, 6 December, and running until Sunday, 9 January, you can get tickets for a series of four prize draws on StormGain. The winners of these draws will receive a free StormGain loyalty programme status upgrade. As a reminder, the benefits of the loyalty programme include bonus funds on your deposits, lower commissions, and, most importantly, increased StormGain Bitcoin cloud miner speed to earn free BTC! Would you like to experience how it feels to mine Bitcoin at blistering speeds, courtesy of StormGain’s integrated cloud miner? Here’s your chance!

As an extra-juicy reward, the final draw will also award free cryptocurrency as top prizes to a select few!

How to enter the draw?

To get a ticket in the prize draw, all you have to do is make a deposit of 100 USDT and have a trading volume of at least 50K USDT in your account. Multiple deposits can get you multiple tickets with multiple chances to win.

The dates and number of places for each draw are as follows:

- Draw 1 (10 December) - 50 places
- Draw 2 (17 December) - 100 places
- Draw 3 (24 December) - 150 places
- Draw 4 (10 January) - 200 places (+5 places for crypto prizes)
 
Get free BTC, ETH, BCH, LTC and ZEC in our biggest ever crypto giveaway!

Crypto prizes, you say? That's right! We're giving away free crypto as part of the final draw on 10 January. Last year, StormGain gave away one BTC to the lucky winner of our New Year's draw. This time, we're upping the ante and have five different crypto coins up for grabs. Five winners from the final draw will receive one of the following cryptocurrencies:

- Bitcoin (BTC), current value $58,000
- Ether (ETH), current value $4682
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH), current value $582
- Litecoin (LTC), current value $216
- ZCASH (ZEC), current value $227

The prizes are in real crypto, not in USDT equivalent, so you can trade, hold or withdraw your prize coin as you see fit. Only one of each cryptocurrency will be awarded, and only one account status upgrade will be awarded per user.

Celebrate the holidays in style with StormGain

We all like to give and get a little extra every holiday season, so why not play and go for the prizes over the next few weeks? Whether you're a new user or an active client, the rules are the same. If you're not yet a StormGain client, make sure to register in time before the draw to have your chance at the best start to the most versatile crypto platform on the market!


JOIN NOW (https://promo.stormgain.com/lp/en-en/new-year-lottery/)

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'Small fish' buy the Bitcoin dip

Activity for whales (balance > 1,000 BTC) and small investors (balance < 1 BTC) differs depending on market conditions. For example, in March 2020 and May 2021, whales replenished their stocks after a significant correction. At the same time, small fry continued to dispose of their coins, fearing that the index was off the charts. Now the picture is reversed: whales are locking in their annual profit, while the small fry are counting on a repeat of last year's winter rally.



On the chart above, blue dots mark prices at which whales reduced their holdings and small fry bought Bitcoin. This trend has been on the rise for the last month and a half and may be exacerbated by central banks' reaction to rising inflation.

In the US, consumer prices rose by 6.8%, while manufacturer selling prices jumped 9.6%. This forced the Fed to cut its monetary stimulus programme in half from $120 billion to $60 billion. For next year, committee members envisage three federal funds rate hikes. Loans will become more expensive, and the dollar will have a reason to strengthen. This will reduce the appetite for risk and lead to large capital outflows. The Bitcoin sell-off has already led to an increase in the turnover of stablecoins. A similar situation was recorded in May of this year.



However, the CEO of Galaxy Digital Holdings, Micheal Novogratz, believes that BTC will not fall below $42,000 due to the fact that cryptocurrencies are only at the beginning of their introduction into the modern financial system.



The same opinion is held by MicroStrategy (the largest public holder of Bitcoin), which continues to increase its holding. Last week, the company bought another 1434 BTC, increasing its reserves to 122,478 BTC. Its head Michael Saylor is one of Bitcoin's most ardent fans, calling the cryptocurrency the best way to save money in the 21st century. In its time, MicroStrategy has spent $3.7 billion on purchases, while the current value of the portfolio stands at $5.8 billion.


The StormGain Analytical Group
(platform for trading, exchanging and storing cryptocurrency)

[stormgain]

Solana breaks into the Top 5 by market cap

At a time when Ethereum is currently transitioning towards a faster protocol, other Layer 1 blockchains are expanding their presence and chipping away at Ethereum's share of the smart contract market. Early in the year, Ethereum was the undisputed leader of the DeFi blocked funds market, with a share of 97%. Now, however, this has shrunk to 63%.



Solana has since bitten off 5% of the total DeFi market pie to take second place in this space. Meanwhile, the second-place NFT platform by cash turnover with $7.5 million is also Solana-based. Over the course of October and November, Magic Eden caught up with OpenSea in terms of the total number of transactions, despite trailing them significantly in terms of the number of users and turnover. These heights were reached just four months after Solana began to release its own non-fungible tokens.



Solana's fast transaction speeds (currently 2887 TPS), low commission ($0.00025) and decent level of decentralisation (1325 nodes) are significant draws for investors. As such, Solana Labs has managed to attract $314 million worth of venture investments for closed token sales, while CEO Anatoly Yakovenko has set a key target of 1 billion users. Proof of a high level of interest from institutional investors can also be found in Solana's current position in terms of open futures interest, with SOL futures currently sitting in third place with $860 million in volume.



Investor interest in the project has catapulted Solana into fifth place in the cryptocurrency rankings with a market cap of $55 billion. However, if the leaderboard was adjusted to include only independent blockchains with smart contract support, Solana would come in just behind Ethereum.

According to figures for November, SOL was one of the few coins that rose during the month. Over the last seven days, it has been the only member of the Top 5 to post positive results (stablecoins excepted). The blockchain periodically experiences problems due to DDoS attacks, leading to transaction hold-ups and price corrections. However, the project is still young, and it needs time to overcome such teething problems.


StormGain Analytics Department
(cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)

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UST: the number one decentralised stablecoin

The top three stablecoins by market cap consist of the centralised coins Tether, USDC and Binance USD. "Centralised" means that a single company is responsible the issue of tokens. This entails specific risks for both investors and the industry as a whole.

Tether, for example, pledged that it would hold a corresponding amount of US dollars on its bank accounts for every USDT it issues, thus ensuring liquidity is maintained. However, following an investigation by the State of New York Attorney General's, it came to light that USDT is not "fully backed by dollar reserves", but in fact supplemented by "crypto assets and credit income". Then, in March, a court-ordered audit revealed that around half of all USDT was actually backed by undisclosed debt obligations. In other words, the tokens issued by Tether in fact go to fund other crypto companies. So, if a critical mass of users decided to exchange their Tether for USD all at the same time, the market would not have enough liquidity to meet demand. This could then threaten to destabilise the 1:1 exchange rate, bringing with it a raft of consequences.



If you wish to avoid the risk of such an abuse of trust, you can make the move to decentralised stablecoins whose issue is controlled by an algorithm and not in any way influenced by the issuer. This month, Terra's UST project overtook Maker's DAI to take first place among these stablecoins.



The algorithm responsible for controlling the money supply maintains a 1:1 exchange rate between UST and USD using its own LUNA coin as a floating peg. To put it in simple terms, when there is a surplus of UST supply, a portion of LUNA is burned. When there is a deficit of UST, validator compensation is raised. The strong potential of this project saw Luna rise 1,500 times this year. Meanwhile, it even managed to outperform Binance in the DeFi sector, trailing only to Ethereum.



The Terra project has ambitious goals and plans to become a leading intermediary blockchain between traditional finance and cryptocurrencies. The spread of decentralised apps and the predicted metaverse boom will spur LUNA on to continued growth in 2022, while UST could enter the TOP-3 stablecoins by market capitalisation.


StormGain analytics team
(cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)

[stormgain]

Crypto digest 2021: The top trends of 2021 and beyond

Cryptocurrency and the blockchain industry have enjoyed increased adoption, media attention, and value in 2021. Looking back on the year, we can point to the emergence of several exciting trends and emerging patterns in the crypto world. Could they tell us anything about what's to come in 2022? Here's what shook the crypto community just this past year.

New all-time highs

Hodlers enjoyed several high points for some of the biggest cryptocurrencies this year. Bitcoin (BTC) hit new all-time highs in quick succession as it grew over 200% over the year, reaching $67,000 in October and $69,000 in November.

Ethereum (ETH) also reached several all-time highs, capping at $4,891.70 in November. Along with these leading cryptos, many altcoins also enjoyed boosts in value, which have raised the bar for future valuations.

NFTs go mainstream

Non-fungible tokens were not invented in 2021, but this was the year they became part of the public discourse. The standout event was the sale of the NFT representing Everydays: The First 5000 Days by artist Mike Winkelman, AKA beeple, for $69 million at the renowned Christie's auction house in March.

This historic sale spurred a new interest in NFTs as investments and boosted the likes of CryptoPunks, CryptoKitties, Bored Ape and more. Now, all kinds of brands — whether in art, music, sports, gaming or other sectors — are creating and selling NFTs in a thriving marketplace. Many companies, especially the big gaming and entertainment media firms, are just getting into NFTs now, so 2022 will likely see more NFTs tied into mainstream entertainment.

SHIB and DOGE

How far can you take a joke? All the way to the moon, it seems! Thanks to the promotion of Elon Musk, the self-labelled 'dogefather', Dogecoin (DOGE) jumped from an obscure meme coin to a serious contender in the crypto space. Its runaway success inspired a wave of canine coins, with Shiba Inu (SHIB) being the most notable. SHIB surprised many by shooting up into the top 12 cryptos by market cap and reaching a valuation of $26 billion.

Although these meme coins started out as jokes, their new popularity has led to investors and companies backing the cryptos, such as Newegg accepting payment in SHIB. In 2022, these funny meme coins could actually be adopted for serious use cases.

Environmental awareness

Cryptocurrency's popularity and increased adoption have also led to greater awareness of its environmental footprint. Ecological concerns have been raised about the practices of many nations and industries across the world, and although crypto production was previously too small-scale to be of much import, the energy cost of mining Bitcoin has been a popular topic in the mainstream media throughout 2021.

The year also saw the formation of the Crypto Climate Accord, backed by major players in the blockchain industry. The future of cryptocurrency may well be marked by efforts for less energy-intensive mining processes, such as the cloud mining feature you can take advantage of in StormGain.

Government intervention

As cryptocurrency and blockchain networks become more popular, governments were always going to step in at some point, regulating either in support of or against cryptocurrencies in their jurisdiction. China probably had the biggest impact on crypto in 2021. The country banned crypto mining this year, causing a drop in the market as many large-scale mining operations shut down or relocated. On the other hand, this can also be seen as paving the way for the Digital Yuan, China's CBDC, that could prove a very influential centralised digital currency in the near future.

The year 2021 also saw the government of El Salvador wholeheartedly embrace Bitcoin. The South American country declared BTC to be legal tender in September, creating an official national crypto wallet and distributing $30 worth of Bitcoin to individuals in an effort to promote adoption. At the time of writing, El Salvador has purchased 1,981 BTC, with president Nayib Bukele proudly ‘buying the dip' along with many other crypto traders.

The beginning of the metaverse

The metaverse is the hot new buzzword in the tech industry, especially since Facebook rebranded as Meta. These virtual worlds will combine elements of VR, video games, social media and e-commerce, and they present exciting opportunities for cryptocurrency such as electronic cash for purchasing virtual items, NFTs to prove authenticity, DeFi apps for virtual economies and more.

So, will we all be buying up land in virtual reality next year and spending crypto on new clothes for our metaverse avatars? Maybe not in 2022, but the groundwork is being laid for something very exciting, and early adopters who back the right projects will be in a good position in the years to come. Metaverse tokens such as Axie Infinity (AXS) and Enjin Coin (ENJ) are already popular, but next year will likely see new metaverse-focused blockchain projects and coins that could prove interesting investments.

What's coming in 2022?

What can we expect for crypto going into next year? The ongoing situation with COVID-19 and its economic effects seem likely to uphold the tendency for BTC to serve as a haven against fiat currency devaluation. The trend toward increased adoption by institutions and retail investors also appears likely to continue as DeFi and metaverse projects mature.

CBDCs could also be released and legitimised in 2022, not just in China or the Caribbean but also in Europe. Sweden has announced the pilot program for its e-krona, set to roll out over the next five years.

All in all, 2022 looks as though it will be an exciting and dynamic year for crypto. The market could become very competitive, presenting interesting opportunities for traders and investors. One thing's for sure: StormGain will remain the top platform for all your crypto needs, bringing you the best perks and bonuses in the business to maximise your gains. Keep an eye on the StormGain page to avoid missing out on upcoming promotions to earn even more! If you're not a StormGain user yet, sign up here to join the all-in-one crypto platform in just a few seconds.

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Bitcoin hash rate at an all-time high as miners continue to up their capacities

Up until May, China had been responsible for half of the entire global Bitcoin hash rate. Following the PRC's expulsion of miners, the network's capacities fell by 50%. After that, the lower mining difficulty and increased reward from one terahash led to an explosion of demand in the ASICs market.



This total redistribution saw China lose all of its share of the mining market as the US took the top spot (34%), with Kazakhstan (13.8%) and Russia (11.9%) moving into second and third place, respectively. The bulk of second-hand Chinese gear made its way to neighbouring countries, while US-based companies put in scores of new equipment orders using funds from IPOs and loan capital. This arms race helped bring about the full recovery of Bitcoin's computational capacities over the course of the last seven months.



On the one hand, attracting external capital reduces one's own financial risk. On the other, however, it requires companies to constantly increase their computational capacities in order to remain attractive to investors. Thus, on 23 December, Marathon Digital announced a record order for a farm of the latest s19 XP ASICs from Bitmain. Their aim is to increase their current hash rate by 600% to 23 EH/s by the start of 2023 to become the biggest publicly traded mining firm in the world. This news saw the companies shares rise by 12% in the space of just one day.

In order to finance its order, a record-setter in terms of the amount, Marathon Digital took out a $100 million loan from Silvergate Bank in October. The company has already purchased 35,419 ASICs this year, while the total amount is expected to rise to 199,000 by early 2023.

Despite the correction over the last two months, Bitcoin still looks like an attractive investment. Meanwhile, the increase in computational capacities will not lead to a supply surplus since mining difficulty is also on the rise.



Analytics agency Glassnode notes that, of late, about 100,000 BTC per month is being sent to cold wallets and low-activity accounts.



The accumulation of Bitcoin generally tends to foreshadow a fresh bullish cycle. If we see all-time highs revisited, this would certainly whet publicly traded mining companies' risk appetite.


StormGain analytics group
(cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)

[stormgain]

Into the metaverse: a guide to crypto virtuality

The metaverse is entering mainstream vocabulary in 2021, but it's actually been around for a while. Sci-fi author Neal Stephenson first coined the term 'metaverse' in his 1992 novel Snow Crash. The novel referred to a shared virtual reality world that characters used to escape the limitations of the rather dystopian techno-capitalist future they existed in. In the metaverse, one could have different bodies and special powers like in a video game, but also own virtual territory, run businesses, play games, work jobs and also engage in conflict through espionage, sabotage or outright battle.

Snow Crash was a tongue-in-cheek riff on cyberpunk literature, which explores the effect of technology on our social relations. Cyberpunk speculated on things such as realistic virtual worlds, cybernetic augmentations to the human body, advanced AI, etc. While it often took place in dystopian settings, the futuristic technology imagined by the writers inspired many creators in the tech industry who went on to work on the Internet and social media platforms, games, VR and, of course, crypto.

As major tech platforms such as Meta (formerly Facebook), Epic Games and others announce their plan to take the metaverse mainstream, it's no surprise that blockchain projects are eager to show off their use case in the metaverse. With their expertise in creating digital items of value and automated transactions, blockchains could power the economy of these virtual worlds.

Where does crypto come into this?

One of cryptocurrency's central problems is that it came into a world already controlled by centralised institutional powers. The territory in which people live is controlled by different states that maintain their own fiat currencies and financial institutions. Bitcoin (BTC) was originally created to be a digital currency, as widely usable as cash, but in practice, opportunities to purchase goods and services with BTC remain limited, and it is mainly judged by its dollar value. Even with some countries introducing their own digital currencies, these are still centralised fiat currencies.

Likewise, cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL) and others that attempt to present blockchain versions of existing centralised finance services run into the problem that the latter are going to hold on to their territory, even if it means adopting some blockchain innovations on the way. In a blockchain-based metaverse, however, DeFi could become the standard.

While NFTs have shown how valuable certificates corresponding to digital objects can be, many NFTs around today are still pieces of digital media, i.e., images, video, audio files, etc., without much utility in real life. But what if they could also represent digital objects that had use value in a digital world? Your house, your clothes, even your body in the metaverse could be an NFT.

Digital currency for digital worlds

The metaverse would essentially be the next level of the Internet, in which we ditch interaction via computer screens and keyboards and more naturally interact directly via our senses. It should bring together the worlds of social media, gaming, e-commerce and crypto in virtual worlds, with the exciting potential to make new experiences available to us.

The virtual world of the metaverse represents uncharted territory in which crypto can establish itself without the restriction of having to operate under the traditional power structure of states and banks in the physical world. With our avatars in the metaverse potentially moving and working in virtual land owned by blockchain companies, using cryptocurrencies as cash and NFTs to verify ownership of objects, this brings up interesting use cases for a whole range of tokens that can integrate themselves into such a system.

Metaverse crypto to look out for

Blockchain companies have been involved in virtual reality for some time now. Platforms such as Decentraland, Sandbox and Somnium Space have been creating social platforms in which people can interact, buy digital real estate, purchase and use virtual objects and conduct business. The metaverse is currently a hot trend in the crypto community, with many projects jumping on the bandwagon, but there are some tokens standing out from the crowd. Many of them use the 'play-to-earn' model, in which activities in metaverse games can reward players with cryptocurrency.

Axie Infinity (AXS) is one of the most popular metaverse tokens right now. Axie Infinity itself is a blockchain-based game in which players breed, battle and trade monsters called Axies, in a similar concept to Pokémon. The AXS currency functions as a governance token, giving the players control over the direction of the game's development.

Enjin Coin (ENJ) is the currency of the Enjin Network, a social gaming platform that allows its users (as of the time of writing, about 20 million) to create websites and clans, chat and host virtual item stores. The virtual items are NFTs valued in ENJ that users can trade freely with each other or liquidate to receive their value in ENJ.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) announced a partnership with an AAA game studio along with former Activision VP William Volk for the development of mobile games and its own metaverse. SHIB's momentum and high-profile partners definitely make it one to watch.

How close are we to the metaverse, really? Should you invest?

So, should we all be putting down some money for our metaverse real estate right now? As is always the case with emerging technology, an investment in metaverse projects will be a bet on future events. Will the competing metaverses be interoperable? If not, which projects are likely to succeed? How plausible is their product? How sustainable is it? These are the questions you need to ask yourself when looking to invest in the metaverse. Online trading games and digital land development are just the beginning. If you can pick a winner (or invest in a diverse group to increase your chances), tokens that become widely used in metaverse activities could become very profitable.

Trade metaverse tokens and more on StormGain

If you're looking to trade or invest in popular metaverse cryptocurrencies, StormGain offers the best conditions for making a profit on the market. Trade SHIB, AXS, ENJ and more with high leverage, low commissions and fantastic perks. New to StormGain? Sign up in just a few seconds and find out what the world's best crypto platform can do for you!

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2021's Top 3 crypto projects

This past year was full of new developments in the crypto space: the success of some projects was impacted by media personalities, while others relied on the unique strengths of their products, and others still simply failed to live up to expectations. Below you'll find a leaderboard put together by Cointelegraph that ranks projects by their market cap and popularity in the crypto community.

The top three are as follows: Dogecoin, Solana and Terra

Early in the year, Dogecoin traded at $0.004. At its height, its price reached $0.73. Despite the significant correction from May highs, its annual gains remain some of the most impressive ever at more than 4500%. The biggest driver of Doge's growth was Elon Musk's tweets in support of the coin, with the Tesla founder even earning himself the moniker "Dogefather" as a result.



In the space of just a year, Solana rose from a price of $1.50 to its current dizzying heights of $199, recording a far from the run-of-the-mill gain of 13,300%. This project is perhaps the closest thing to an "Ethereum killer" on the market, combining smart contract support with high speeds and low commission. Within a mere couple of months after its launch, SOL-based NFT platform Magic Eden managed to overtake OpenSea (Ethereum) in terms of transactions completed. The possibilities this blockchain provides have caught the eye of some major investors. At a closed summer token sale, its developers were able to garner $314 million in investments.



Terra is a project with the ambitious goal of creating a bridge between traditional financial markets and the world of cryptocurrencies. Its stablecoin (UST) became one of the most in-demand decentralised coins in existence, while its internal token, LUNA, is up 8500% YTD. In December, Terra overtook Binance smart chain for second place in the DeFi sector, while UST was listed just last week on both Binance and Huobi.



Outsiders

If we exclude projects with a dubious reputation, then the worst performer of the year was Dfinity. The coin's management has set itself the target of creating an "internet computer" that enables users to avoid hosting and store their code directly on the "open-access internet". Dfinity had its ICO on 7 May on the Binance and Coinbase exchanges. Within the span of just a few days, it reached a peak of $630 but then fell to $0.03, the same price it went for at its closed funding rounds in 2017.



According to some estimates, early-bird investors have already bought up around one-quarter of its entire supply at an average price of less than one dollar per coin. Other analysts blame the project's management for dumping coins on the exchange. Indeed, according to data from Arkham, Dfinity moved 18 million tokens worth a total of $3.6 billion to exchanges in May and June. Whatever the cause, this oversupply led to a 95% price drop.


StormGain analytics group
(cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)

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Season's Greetings from StormGain! Take a look back on the year with us

It's that time of the year! Every one of us at StormGain would like to extend our sincere and heartfelt holiday greetings to all our valued clients. Whether you're a long-standing client or a new trader, StormGain is proud to have had you along on the journey throughout 2021.

The year has seen many exciting developments in the crypto market, and to provide you with the best opportunities possible, StormGain rolled out a number of exciting features, hit new milestones and won new awards.

None of this would have been possible without our beloved customers, and so, in this time of reflection and gratitude, we invite you to look back with us and celebrate the achievements of the past year. Here are some of StormGain's most significant 2021 moments:

One million users

In October 2021, StormGain surpassed an important milestone: over 1 million active users on the platform! StormGain launched in late 2019 as a new contender in the crypto space, and to reach so many clients worldwide in such little time is a testament to our quality of service and the passion of our community. To each and every user, we salute you!

Ultimate Fintech award

As well as picking up users, StormGain has also collected new awards for its trophy cabinet over the last year. In 2021, StormGain was proud to take home the coveted Best Cryptocurrency Broker award from Ultimate Fintech, an agency that aims to provide a benchmark of quality for the entire global finance industry.

Crypto options

StormGain's mission is to continue to be the best all-in-one crypto platform for everyone. To that end, new types of trading instruments were introduced to the platform this year, including crypto options. StormGain clients can now place Call and Put option orders based on the potential future price of the cryptocurrency, trading on the price changes of a digital asset without having to actually own or hold the asset itself. Crypto options are perfect for traders whose strategy is to profit from price volatility.

Tokenised stocks

Another innovative trading instrument introduced to StormGain in 2021 was tokenised stocks. StormGain users can trade in these company shares and commodities tied to crypto tokens, both to manage risk in crypto trading and to get a foot in the stock market. Now you can trade precious metals and company shares right in your crypto portfolio!

Crypto indices

It's common knowledge in trading that a diverse portfolio is key to success. That's why stock indices (e.g., the S& P 500 or the Dow Jones) is such a popular investment instrument. In 2021, StormGain made diversification easier by introducing crypto indices, each one being a consolidation of 3, 5 or 10 different cryptos, designed to offer a safer investment in the market performance of a whole group of cryptocurrencies rather than a single coin.

Crypto market report

Since launching almost three years ago, StormGain has assembled a team of experts in both the financial and blockchain technology spheres and applied this expertise, along with the experience of the platform, to an analysis of the entire crypto market. The latest result of these efforts was StormGain's Crypto Research 3.0, released in July 2021. This nearly 30,000-word report is packed with useful information and analysis to guide all of our users in their goals to understand the crypto market and profit from it.

New altcoins

Bitcoin (BTC) has continued to hit new all-time highs in recent years, but even more remarkable in 2021 was the success of various altcoins. Blockchain technology is always innovating and producing promising new coins, and StormGain is committed to making the best of them available to our users. This year, the number of altcoins on StormGain grew to over 50 coins, including metaverse tokens such as Axie Infinity (AXS) and Enjin Coin (ENJ), as well as the ascended meme coins Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogecoin (DOGE).

Islamic accounts

StormGain is proud to count people from all over the world as part of its client base. As part of our mission to make crypto trading easy for everyone, we introduced Islamic trading accounts in 2021. The StormGain Islamic account is swap-free and doesn't incur interest or any rollover commissions. This allows Muslim users to invest in the cryptocurrency market, resting assured that they're upholding their religious convictions.

Profit-sharing

It might be the worst feeling in the world to lose money on a trade and then have the broker take even more money away via commissions. It's just so unfair. But fairness is one of StormGain's most critical values. That's why we introduced a feature in 2021 to make crypto trading fairer for everyone. Now, commissions on the StormGain platform only apply to profitable trades.

Demo contests

Cryptocurrency trading can be intimidating to newcomers, but practice makes perfect! StormGain regularly offers tournaments and contests to engage our community and give them the chance to earn extra perks and rewards. In February 2021, we challenged users to see who could make the most profit in their StormGain demo account, where everyone can try their boldest strategies in a simulated environment. The top 20 winners will see their StormGain Bitcoin miner speeds supercharged up to the highest levels, just as if they had ranked up to the top tiers of the StormGain loyalty programme. All participants gained the valuable experience of testing their trading tactics and seeing how they measured up against other community members in real market conditions.

What's next?

It's been an exciting year for StormGain, but there is more to come in the year ahead. Our New Year Giveaway with free crypto prizes is still ongoing, and it's not too late to sign up and participate!

We wish all our clients a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Don't forget to follow this page and our official Facebook and Instagram channel for news of upcoming promotions, features, contests and more in 2022!