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The Best 10 Cheap Crypto to Buy Now

Top cryptocurrencies (https://stormgain.com/cryptocurrencies) like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Polygon have generated huge profits for their early investors. However, while they still have good profitability potential, we can hardly expect a repeat of the truly impressive results they showed early on. But that doesn't mean that we won't see similar opportunities again. New or undervalued cheap cryptocurrencies sometimes pleasantly surprise their investors. In this article, we'll tell you about the best cheap crypto coins to buy today, which could bring good profits in the future.

What is the best cheap crypto to buy right now?

Before discussing promising cheap cryptocurrencies, we first need to answer the question, "what is a cheap cryptocurrency?" Many novice crypto investors think of cheap cryptocurrencies as those with a low price per coin, usually less than $1. However, since crypto assets can be fractional, the price of a single coin says nothing about whether that cryptocurrency is cheap. If a cryptocurrency has a large issuance volume, its coins may be cheap, but the asset itself may be very popular and possibly even overvalued.

Therefore, the really cheap cryptocurrencies are those with low market capitalisation. A low market cap compared to other cryptocurrencies means that the cryptocurrency is less popular, possibly undervalued and has more room to grow. Of course, of the vast number of cheap cryptocurrencies, only a few show significant growth. But those that do sometimes generate very impressive returns, reaching thousands, even tens of thousands of percentage points.

Needless to say, the potential for high profitability always comes with high risk. Investments in cheap cryptocurrencies are considered risky even by crypto market standards, so they are particularly demanding in terms of risk management. In addition, it should be kept in mind that the crypto market is currently in a bearish trend, and no one knows how long it will last.

The best 10 cheap cryptos to buy in 2022

It's always difficult to predict which cryptocurrency will see a significant rise in price, especially when it comes to cheap and lesser-known cryptos. We've listed 10 relatively cheap cryptocurrencies that have good growth potential and are also quite liquid.

1inch Network (1INCH)

1inch Network is a liquidity aggregator of decentralised exchanges that offers the best exchange prices from dozens of sources in real time. The project is actively developing and establishing partnerships, as well as trying to expand its native token utility.


1INCH statistics (as of 24/11/22)


1INCH/USD historical price chart

Storj (STORJ)

Storj is an open-source, decentralised cloud storage platform that protects hosted data with advanced encryption. Given the growing need for low-cost and secure cloud storage, the platform has good prospects, despite the presence of serious competitors.


STORJ statistics (as of 24/11/22)


STORJ/USD historical price chart

SushiSwap (SUSHI)

SushiSwap is a decentralised exchange on the Ethereum blockchain that incorporates a number of basic DeFi mechanisms for financial management. The platform is gradually evolving from an exchange into a full-fledged ecosystem, incorporating DeFi and NFT tools.


SUSHI statistics (as of 24/11/22)


SUSHI/USD historical price chart

IoTeX (IOTX)

IoTeX is one of the Internet of Things projects aimed at creating a decentralised ecosystem for secure and confidential interaction between people and smart devices. Given the huge potential of the IoT market, the project token has a good chance of growth.


IOTX statistics (as of 24/11/22)


IOTX/USD historical price chart

Ocean Protocol (OCEAN)

Ocean Protocol is an ecosystem for creating decentralised data markets where users can buy and sell any type of information. The protocol is intended to take advantage of artificial intelligence to monetise data and equalise opportunities to access it.


OCEAN statistics (as of 24/11/22)


OCEAN/USD historical price chart

Theta Fuel (TFUEL)

Theta is a decentralised video streaming network that aims to solve the problems caused by the centralisation of the industry, as well as the increase in the volume and quality of video streaming.


TFUEL statistics (as of 24/11/22)


TFUEL/USD historical price chart

Enjin Coin (ENJ)

Enjin Coin is the token issued by the Enjin gaming platform that allows for a full trading environment to buy and sell in-game items for multiple games, as well as creating communities around each game.


ENJ statistics (as of 24/11/22)


ENJ/USD historical price chart

COTI (COTI)

COTI is an ambitious project aimed at creating a scalable, decentralised payment ecosystem. The goal of the project is not only to enable individuals and companies to make fast transactions of all types of currencies but also to enable organisations to build their own payment systems.


COTI statistics (as of 24/11/22)


COTI/USD historical price chart

Everscale (EVER)

Everscale is a decentralised project originally launched on the basis of the Telegram Open Network's open-source code, but it has already outgrown its predecessor. The ecosystem is based on a scalable, asynchronous and multithreaded blockchain with functioning sharding, capable of processing more than 100,000 transactions per second. It's actively developing.


EVER statistics (as of 24/11/22)


EVER/USD historical price chart

SafePal (SFP)

SafePal is a cryptocurrency wallet that combines a hardware device with a software platform for managing crypto assets. It supports twenty blockchains and more than 10,000 different cryptocurrencies and tokens, as well as the ability to interact with decentralised applications. SFP is a wallet service token and is used to receive rebates on SafePal commissions and products, earn money from the SafePal Earn passive income programme, manage protocol and more.


SFP statistics (as of 24/11/22)


SFP/USD historical price chart

The best app to buy cheap crypto

The best apps for buying cryptocurrencies, including cheap ones, are usually those of reputable cryptocurrency exchanges (https://stormgain.com/exchange). The specific choice depends on your experience, why you're buying cryptocurrency and your personal preferences.

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Bitcoin 'Santa Rally' boosted by declining US dollar, but miners are still struggling

Bitcoin (BTC) closed last week at just over $17,000, the highest price in three weeks, but bulls should still be cautious before charging forth. The king of crypto is battling the world reserve currency as Bitcoin appears to gain strength from the relative weakening of the US dollar and the general boost to the wider stock market.



All eyes are on the United States as it prepares to release its latest inflation figures, which will likely affect the cryptocurrency and commodities markets as we wind our way through the final month of the year. If the bullish sentiment holds, Bitcoin could reach $20,000 by Christmas.

Popular crypto community influencers such as Credible Crypto, Moustache and Dave the Wave all anticipate a rally, with several analysts noting now historical behaviour indicates a bottom in early December (e.g., around $16,000), followed by a recovery by the end of the year.



However, the community is not all singing from the same choir sheet in this case, as other popular traders have predicted larger bottom prices for BTC in Q1 2023, potentially down to $15,000 or even $12,000. The BTC pessimists include personalities such as Bluntz and Korinek_Trades.

With such mixed feelings among influential traders, caution is advised. Key elements to watch include the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) for November, which should be released on 13 December, as well as the US Producer Price Index (PPI) and unemployment figures that will follow. This trio of economic indicators has typically been indicators of short-term volatility.



Crypto traders should also keep an eye on the traditional stock market, as cryptocurrency performance has been generally correlated with riskier tech stocks.

Outside of the market, recent data has shown a decline of over 17,721 BTC in miner wallets over the last 30 days, the steepest loss since 2021. Given how Bitcoin's value against the dollar fell by 16% during November, the data appears to show miners unplugging and quitting due to unprofitability. However, there may be a silver lining for those miners who are willing to weather the storm: mining difficulty is scheduled to drop by an estimated 7.8%, adjusted automatically to reflect the market.


StormGain Analytics Team (https://stormgain.com/)
(a cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)

[DonaldAlfonso]

Thanks for the info.

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Bitcoin remains in a bear hug as staking boosts altcoins

Cryptocurrency remains in the jaws of the bear market as Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s first cryptocurrency, has languished under the $17,000 mark the last few days, trading near the 20-day exponential moving average ($16,966) and staying just above the immediate support of the immediate support at $16,787. If it continues to trade in this narrow range throughout the week, its eventual breakout could be even stronger.

One curious fact is that the state of the market doesn’t seem to have pulled investors away from altcoins and into Bitcoin. The original cryptocurrency’s total market share has held fast at around 40%, in contrast to historical market behaviour. While it could be a sign of fair-weather investors pulling out of the crypto market entirely, there are also altcoins that have introduced new strategies to adapt and survive the crypto winter, with staking being one such feature.



Chainlink (LINK), a project that expands the capabilities of oracles and inter-chain communications, just introduced staking for its native token, LINK, on its network. According to Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov, this move provides incentives for network users to help grow the Chainlink ecosystem, which he claims has enabled more than $6.6 trillion in transaction value in 2022. LINK continues to trade at around $7, about 50% down from its price in the first quarter.



Is ape fever over, or are there still some legs in this monkey business? After some time as the hottest thing in crypto, the hype around the Bored Ape Yacht Club has died down. Nevertheless, the simian brainchild of Yuga Labs has continuously tried to inject fresh ideas into the mix, such as the introduction of the Mutant Ape Yacht Club. Recently, the Ape Foundation introduced staking for ApeCoin (APE), and over $30 million worth of APE tokens was deposited into its contract the following day. APE is a relatively new crypto, originally airdropped to BAYC and MAYC back in March. It hit a high of $23 before dropping to the $4-$6 range ever since May.



With its associated rewards for depositing and locking up crypto, staking could be a viable strategy for altcoins looking to sustain healthy ecosystems through the current crypto winter. Without Bitcoin’s first-mover advantage, the pressure is on for other tokens to prove their tech utility and offer incentives to users to participate in their ecosystems.


StormGain Analytics Team (https://stormgain.com/)
(a cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)

[stormgain]

Shiba Inu (SHIB) price prediction for 2022-2030

It's quite common for successful projects to see imitators pop up, so it's understandable that the well-known cryptocurrency Dogecoin wasn't able to avoid this fate. The creators of the Shiba Inu cryptocurrency tried to repeat Doge's success, which was based on the Shiba Inu dog meme. This article will walk you through important facts about Shiba Inu, help you assess its prospects and show you price predictions for it.

What is Shiba Inu (SHIB)?

Shiba Inu (SHIB) is a fairly young cryptocurrency created in August 2020 by an anonymous developer under the pseudonym Ryoshi. The coin's creator positions it as the "Dogecoin killer" and chose the Shiba Inu dog as its logo, which is also the Dogecoin logo.

While SHIB strives to emulate and possibly surpass Dogecoin's success as a meme cryptocurrency, they have several differences. SHIB is based on the Ethereum blockchain and is an ERC-20 token. Moreover, in the future, the SHIB coin itself should become an internal token of the developed decentralised Shiba Inu ecosystem, which, among other things, will include the ShibaSwap decentralised exchange.

When Shiba Inu was created in August 2020, the developers sent half of SHIB 1 quadrillion tokens to the decentralised Uniswap exchange, and the keys to the wallet were thrown away. This means that 50% of tokens are in circulation, but the developers cannot dispose of them. According to the developers, this was done to provide users with an open market for exchanging and fairly distributing tokens. The second half of the token issuance was sent to the public wallet of Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin. In May 2021, Vitalik donated a portion of his Shiba Inu tokens, worth $1.2 billion, to fight COVID-19 in India. After that, on 16 May 2021, he sent 90% of his remaining SHIB tokens to an inaccessible address that burned them.

I don't want to be a locus of power of that kind. Better to just print the coins into the hands of a worthy charity directly. — Vitalik Buterin

As such, the developers didn't keep any tokens for themselves. To get any, they'd have to buy them on the market just like ordinary users.



Shiba Inu (SHIB) price analysis

At the time of writing, SHIB ranked 14th among cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation at $4,933,107,005.


SHIB price statistics (as of 23/11/22)

SHIB's price history

Although the coin appeared in August 2020, its price remained negligible until April 2021, when it jumped to $0.0000042. A subsequent correction pushed the price down to the range of $0.00000085-$0.0000022. It remained at that level until the beginning of May.

In the first ten days of May, the price rose sharply in response to the coin's listing on several large exchanges and reached an all-time high on 10 May 2021 after being listed on the largest crypto exchange Binance.

On 12 May, Vitalik Buterin spent part of his SHIB tokens on charity, after which the price fell by over a half. The subsequent burning of 90% of his remaining tokens didn't have a noticeable effect on the price, and it kept falling. In October, following renewed interest from investors and the token's increasing popularity, SHIB exploded upward again, creating a new all-time high at $0.00008854.


SHIB/USD historical price chart

SHIB technical analysis

Despite SHIB's relatively short history on large crypto exchanges, we can already draw certain conclusions about it. The coin is currently in a downward consolidation phase from the perspective of the daily chart. It recently shattered the long-term support at $0.00000984 and kept trading lower until it hit a price floor at $0.00000984. The 100-day and 200-day Exponential Moving Averages are also getting wider apart above price, which suggests a strong bearish trend. There don't seem to be strong signs of recovery, and $0.00000586 is a price to seriously consider in the coming weeks or months.


SHIB/USDT D1 chart

Shiba Inu price prediction 2018-2019

The SHIB was created in August 2020 and did not trade before that date.

Shiba Inu price prediction 2020

The SHIB token was not traded on large crypto exchanges in 2020, and its price was negligible.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) price prediction for 2022, 2023, 2025 and 2030

Now is the time to find out what famous cryptocurrency experts think about the SHIB token's prospects. As usual, we've compiled for you SHIB mid-term and long-term price predictions made by the most renowned of these experts.

WalletInvestor's SHIB price prediction for 2022, 2023, 2025 and 2030

WalletInvestor considers Shiba Inu to be bad for investment. According to their calculations, the coin has the potential to fall to $0.000000582 in 1 year, an over 90% loss. According to their estimates, Shiba Inu's price may crash in 5 years.


WalletInvestor's SHIB 2022-2023 price prediction

DigitalCoinPrice's SHIB price prediction for 2022, 2023, 2025 and 2030

Digitalcoin also predicts gradual growth for the SHIB token. Their forecast sees the coin costing as much as $0.0000228 in a year and $0.0000324 in 2 years. Not much growth is expected in 3 years, but it could rise to $0.0000491 in 5 years and $0.0000936 in 7 years.


DigitalCoinPrice's SHIB 2022-2028 price prediction

PickACrypto's SHIB price prediction for 2022, 2023, 2025 and 2030

PickACrypto is even more optimistic about Shiba Inu's prospects. Here's a statement from their website.

From 2023 to 2025, we think the price of SHIB to visit the $0.0002000 to $0.0005000 USD area as the Team continues to develop their products and those products receive adoption from the target audience. This SHIB price prediction is based on several data sets and predictive modelling, which assumes the current long-term trend driving the price of SHIB continues in an upwards direction with no major setbacks.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) overall future value predictions

Shiba Inu is a controversial project. It was created as a competitor to Dogecoin, a coin that achieved popularity through hype. And although the developers intend to expand the project by building an ecosystem around it, to date, their specific plans are mostly unknown to the crypto community. The project doesn't even have a detailed roadmap. Although investing in such projects can bring substantial profits, doing so is highly risky, even compared to investments in other cryptocurrencies.

Will Shiba Inu go up?

Many cryptocurrency experts think so, but it's worth bearing in mind that if the developers abandon the project or the hype doesn't support its popularity anymore, the token's price may decrease significantly.

How high can SHIB go?

It will be difficult for Shiba Inu's price to reach high absolute values due to the huge number of tokens issued. However, its relative growth can be quite significant. As mentioned above, some experts predict a possible price increase to $0.0005, which is many times higher than its current price.

Shiba Inu price prediction today

The coin is currently in a downward consolidation phase, and it looks like the only thing that can revive the price right now is another crypto boom like the one that happened in May 2021.

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Binance shocks accountants with its reserves report

Actions from the head of Binance are increasingly leaving the professional part of the crypto community scratching their heads. At first, Changpeng Zhao (CZ) hinted at the unfair actions by Coinbase regarding the publication of reserves, for which he received a portion of well-deserved criticism. Now, in an attempt to show how things should be done, the crypto exchange has unveiled a financial report that contains just three indicators.

Proof of Reserves reports are a sore point for the crypto industry. Five years ago, Tether was actively lending money to crypto projects (including a bailout to Bitfinex) by printing stablecoins in exchange for IOUs. This resulted in the company facing a number of lawsuits, reputational costs and a decrease in market share.



As an audit showed, a year and a half ago, the share of commercial bonds in Tether's reserve structure reached 50%. The company now claims that it has almost completely eliminated this balance sheet item (0.07% as of 30/09/22).

After the collapse of FTX, the head of Binance called on market participants to reveal their reserves to calm the community and slow the speed of token outflows from centralised platforms. But CZ even skimmed over Coinbase, miscounting the public company's declared coins in the process. The speedily shot-off tweet was deleted due to it being blatantly groundless (for more information, see our article The head of Binance rocks the boat yet again (https://stormgain.com/blog/binance-ceo-rocks-boat-again).

A month after his call, CZ finally showed what the proof of reserves report should look like by ordering an audit from its South African partner MAZAR. The extensive five-page report (https://veritas.mazars.com/binance/Binance_POR_Report_7_December_2022.pdf) lists three financial indicators as of 22 November.



The report shows customer liabilities of just over 597,600 BTC, while the company's net liabilities, excluding in-scope assets lent to customers, came in at slightly more than 575,700 BTC. With a balance of 582,485.93 BTC, it gave Binance the opportunity to announce that it has reserves of 101%.



The report doesn't cover the company's liabilities to third parties and investors and provides no information about the state of its bank accounts. There's not even the slightest mention of the company's issuance of its own tokens or their use as an investment asset, which was the key reason for FTX's collapse. Former member of the US Financial Accounting Standards Board Hal Schroeder put it softly: the report means very little without any information about the quality of internal control.

In a press release, Binance called the summary it presented an "audit", which also raised some eyebrows. Douglas Carmichael, the former head of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, said that calling the report an audit was a "gross misrepresentation". Similarly, Francine McKenna, a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton Business School, believes "this is more worthless than even the Tether or USDC report".

On social media, CZ portrays himself as a champion of fairness and transparency, encouraging other market participants to disclose detailed financial information. At the same time, the world's largest crypto exchange that he runs is in no hurry to lead by example, instead publishing three insignificant indicators under the guise of an audit. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the Chief Strategy Officer at Binance, Patrick Hillmann, couldn't even name its parent company, instead referring to a two-year reorganisation of Binance.


StormGain Analytics Team (https://stormgain.com/)
(a cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)

[stormgain]

New signs Bitcoin is forming a bottom

Despite the incredible pain crypto investors have faced in 2022, new signs of an upcoming turn for the market have emerged. The culmination point could be last week's record: Realised losses exceeded profits by 14 times. The indicator's extremes coincide perfectly with the price lows.



Another key point is the growth in online activity expressed by the ratio of the average monthly transaction fee to the average annual fee. As investment attractiveness falls, interest in Bitcoin and the number of trades decline, which is reflected in a reduction in blockchain-building income for miners. But fee increases have historically been a leading indicator of a shift in sentiment.



There was also a downside: Smaller players are primarily the ones showing interest, which is why the volume of funds continues to test local lows.



However, big capital is still ignoring the market, as this group of participants is keeping an eye on the Fed's monetary policy. In March 2020, the key rate was lowered to its lowest level, which boosted interest in risky assets.



In total, investors made $455 billion on Bitcoin during the cheap money cycle. At the end of 2021, the Fed announced an impending series of rate hikes. The market began to deflate, popping Terra-LUNA-UST, 3AC and FTX on the way down. This made things worse, and cumulative losses reached $213 billion.



Now the situation is making another turn. Fed officials are using their statements to prepare the public for a reduction in the pace of rate hikes. Some economists suggest a complete withdrawal of further monetary policy tightening as soon as Q1 2023.


StormGain Analytics Team (https://stormgain.com/)
(a cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)

[stormgain]

Stress test for Binance: a criminal case and record outflow of funds

After media reports of a potential criminal case against Binance and the release of an obscure reserve report from the crypto exchange itself, customers have rushed to the exits. Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, has called these events a provocation and a reason for the company to continue growing.

The bankruptcy of FTX, the crypto exchange with the third highest traffic, raised the degree of anxiety in the crypto market. Users have stepped up their withdrawal of coins from platforms to cold wallets. In late November, the outflow rate reached a record high of 178,000 BTC per month, while the total balance of centralised crypto exchanges (CEX) dropped to levels last seen in December 2017.



CZ tried to turn the tide by calling on market participants to disclose their financials and provide a detailed statement of reserves. But Binance's own approach was superficial, which only increased criticism and fear from clients. The 'audit' contains only three indicators and doesn't disclose the actual state of affairs at all (see more in our article (https://stormgain.com/blog/binance-shocked-accountants-with-reserves-report)).



An article by Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-justice-dept-is-split-over-charging-binance-crypto-world-falters-sources-2022-12-12/) on 12 December about the US Justice Department preparing a criminal case against Binance and CZ only added fuel to the fire. According to the news agency, an investigation has been underway since 2018, and the Justice Department is close to filing formal charges. At the heart of the case is the laundering of over $10 billion received illegally.

The Reuters article and mediocre 'audit' sparked panic among customers. According to the Nansen analyst agency, net outflows exceeded $3.6 billion between 7 and 13 December. The net daily outflows for Bitcoin reached $500 million. On the Ethereum network, this figure amounted to $1 billion between 12 and 13 December, while a significant net inflow of ERC-20 tokens has continued over a span of five months.



Retail customers are the only ones withdrawing funds; CZ partners and associates are, too. According to Lookonchain, Justin Sun (Tron) withdrew $33 million in BUSD and $15 million in USDT over the course of nine hours. Market maker JumpTrading withdrew $146 million over a week.

The outflow of funds has already resulted in less liquidity. In particular, Binance suspended USDC withdrawals yesterday pending the opening of a bank in New York, offering customers to use alternative stablecoins.



The drop in trust hit the BNB token, too, which lost 5% in two days.



CZ is trying to calm the community by calling events a reason for future growth and further proof of the company's solvency. He also suggests conducting a sort of stress test (with the mass withdrawal of funds) on all CEXs on a rotating basis.


StormGain Analytics Team (https://stormgain.com/)
(a cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)

[stormgain]

Reshaping the stablecoin market

Stablecoins are the link between fiat and cryptocurrencies and account for 16% of the crypto market. The shocks felt in 2022 have affected this sector, too, and led to a reduction in volume and a shift in individual preferences.

For the past three years, stablecoins had been gaining ground, reaching a capitalisation of $162 billion by the end of March 2022, before the collapse of crypto projects. That fall began with the complete loss of value for UST (Terra), a stablecoin ranking in the Top 3 by market capitalisation, has led to a steady outflow of funds from the stablecoin category.



Interest in specific coins has also changed. Because Tether had long faced complaints about the quality of its reserves, the initial shocks led to a more active washout of funds from USDT in favour of USDC (Circle) and BUSD (Binance).

BUSD showed its best growth in 2022, increasing its market share from 10% to 16% by mid-November. However, an inside scoop from Reuters (https://stormgain.com/blog/stress-test-for-binance) about an imminent criminal case against the company's management and a vague reserve report led to users actively fleeing from Binance coins. Over the past three days, BUSD's capitalisation has fallen by 16%, while BNB has dropped by 9%.



USDC is considered the most reliable stablecoin since its parent company is registered in the US and its reserves consist exclusively of fiat and Treasury bonds. USDC's capitalisation has risen after each shock, whether it was the crypto market crash after UST's collapse in May or FTX's bankruptcy in November.



USDC's growing popularity has even led to an undeclared war. In early September, Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, revoked support for the stablecoin. All deposits in USDC were automatically converted to BUSD, resulting in USDC's capitalisation falling by $10 billion in two months and BUSD's rising by $4 billion (as of mid-November).

If we look at investor preferences for more policy- and restriction-free decentralised platforms, USDC surpasses even USDT, coming in with a 43% share ($38 billion in staked funds). Statistics are given for the Ethereum blockchain, where $13.7 billion is staked in BUSD. On BUSD's network, BSC, the stablecoin has only $4.8 billion staked, which doesn't change the big picture.



Binance is facing an all-time high outflow of funds, and attention from the US Justice Department is forming dark clouds over it. Law enforcement agencies have old claims against Tether over the quality of its reserves. In late September, a New York federal judge asked for several years of detailed financial records, including cryptocurrency payments to third parties.

USDC already dominates betting pools and is preferred for large transfers. Further tightening in the cryptocurrency market, including growing financial regulation, will likely result in the stablecoin taking the top spot in the overall rankings.


StormGain Analytics Team
(a cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)

[stormgain]

Top miner's stock is skyrocketing

Core Scientific's shares have tripled in value in just two days, going from 14 cents per share to 43 cents per share on news of a possible rescue. How justified is investing in this top company mining that produces over 1,000 BTC per month?



Mining is going through a rough period, with yields per terahash of capacity dropping fourfold to 6.6 cents in a year.



Miners faced an extreme shortage of funds as most of the big players expanded their capacity by relying on borrowing, and Core Scientific was no exception. Despite the challenges ahead due to the worsening macroeconomic environment, the company continued to make plans to further increase its production fleet during the year. Capacity was supposed to reach 16.8 EH/s in 2022.



But a short-sighted financial policy of aggressively buying up failing peers led to a logical outcome: money ran out, and aggregate losses topped $2 billion.



In late October, the company warned regulators and investors of the risk of imminent bankruptcy, leading to an overnight 80% drop in its stock value. With Bitcoin falling and mining becoming increasingly more difficult, the business's shutdown looked inevitable.



Core was given a helping hand by its main creditor, B. Riley, who announced in an open letter a rescue plan with debt restructuring. B. Riley says that bankruptcy proceedings aren't necessary and that the company can resolve most problems on its own as long as they're discussed transparently and involve creditors and investors. To support Core in the current situation, the company is willing to give an additional $72 million, of which the miner will receive $40 million immediately.

Riley estimates that with Bitcoin at $18,000, Core is capable of generating $140 million in revenue (EBITDA) and that each $1,000 increase in the cryptocurrency will generate an additional $20 million. If the coin returns to $24,500, revenues will reach $275 million, enough to fully service the debt and cover operating costs.

The publication of the letter triggered a threefold increase in the company's stock. Interest came primarily from speculators, who are counting on the top player's return to pre-crisis levels.

But it's not that simple:

1. Core hasn't agreed yet. The company's losses and its capacity are at record levels for the industry.
2. The chances of Bitcoin recovering soon remain low, with the Fed planning an interest rate hike before the end of 2023 and some economists predicting a recession next year.
3. After a few corrections, mining difficulty will begin to rise again as more adept competitors buy up ASICs at unprecedented discounts in the current environment and retain the ability to purchase more advanced hardware in the near future.

A combination of factors makes investing in Core Scientific a questionable venture. What do you think? Tell us in the comments!


StormGain analytics team (https://stormgain.com/)
(a cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)

[stormgain]

Shitcoins have fooled more investors than FTX

The desire among some market participants to profit off a coin's growth while others aim to get rich on the trust of a wider audience has led to a wide variety of shitcoins.

According to Solidus Labs, 41% more shitcoins have been issued this year than in 2021.



Shitcoins are usually created solely for commercial interests. To attract investors, shitcoin developers run a PR campaign and create artificial hype in the market. Because new coins have extremely low liquidity, the price increases many times over in a short period of time through a financial manipulation technique known as pumping. The jump in value causes potential investors to experience fear of missing out (FOMO) on profit.

Having rocked the market, the developers gradually shed their coin holdings. As a result, the project creator is left with investors' money, and the inevitable disappointment of buyers follows the wave of hype.



The image above is a logarithmic chart of the value of one of the most high-profile shitcoins of the past two years, SQUID. Before it collapsed, the coin soared 300,000-fold to $3,000 on the promise to buyers that they would receive access to an online game based on The Squid Game series. When the scam was uncovered, the token collapsed.

Most shitcoins are built on ERC-20 tokens that support smart contracts and their analogues in other blockchains. Solidus estimates that the BSC (Binance Smart Chain) network tops the list of dirty coins with a 12% share. The Ethereum network is second with 8%.

BSC is leading due to its lower commissions. In the fall of 2021, the network's commission was around $0.05, while Ethereum's averaged over $20. BSC also hosted the main volumes of SQUID trading.



Launching your own shitcoin is easy and cheap. The main challenge for the creator is to market the coin properly to engage a wider audience. In the past two years, almost 2 million investors have suffered losses because of shitcoins. That's twice as many as were affected by FTX's bankruptcy.



Some regulators have taken drastic measures to mitigate risks by restricting the issuance of shitcoins and meme cryptocurrencies. For example, Thailand's SEC banned NFTs and meme tokens in the middle of last year, a move that even affected Dogecoin.



But the wheat must be separated from the chaff. Dogecoin was created as a joke, and its creators didn't aim to enrich themselves. The coin needs to be mined, unlike a SHIB (Shiba Inu) clone whose issuance has one person behind it. SHIB is an ERC-20 token with an issuance of one quadrillion that has been completely released.

Solidus estimates that 350 shitcoins are issued every day, most of which are created as a scam to take advantage of naive investors.


StormGain Analytics Team (https://stormgain.com/)
(a cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)

[stormgain]

2023 will be a challenging year for Ethereum

Ethereum is ending 2022 in a way worse position than Bitcoin. In 12 months, it has dropped by 69%, while Bitcoin has fallen by 64%. The long-awaited switch to PoS only resulted in new challenges that promise to make 2023 a challenging year for the cryptocurrency.



Technically, the switch went smoothly: developers managed to decrease energy consumption by a jaw-dropping 99.9%, and the blockchain's 'heart rate' was stabilised to precisely 12 seconds to create a block.



But the 13.3% growth in validators, an extra 57,000, is a dubious achievement.



Usually, this indicator hints at an increase in the network's decentralisation. With Ethereum, the situation was the opposite because of the significant entry threshold of 32 ETH (~$38,000) for a node to be deployed independently. As a result, investors took their money to aggregators represented by Lido Finance and major cryptocurrency exchanges.

Lido, Coinbase, Kraken and Binance have a 57% market share, while the US share of the global total has reached 56%. These are alarm bells for the cryptocurrency.



Because of the dominance of the US in shaping transactions, financial regulators have already stated the need for more network supervision. The presence of such large participants makes it easier to control and impose the rules of the game. For example, this year, the crypto industry saw the virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash get blocked by the US Treasury Department's OFAC unit. Censored Ethereum blocks reach 72%.



But things could get even worse if SEC Chairman Gary Gensler succeeds in getting Ethereum recognised as a security. A statement to this effect was made on the day of the PoS transition, as staking provided users with the opportunity to receive passive income.

And there's more. The deposit contract to engage validators was launched in late 2020 and currently contains 15.7 million ETH, which is worth $19 billion or 13% of the network's total capitalisation. Some investors put coins at a way higher price but can't get them back because they are actively staked.

The restriction will be lifted by the Shanghai hardfork, which will take place around March 2023. The release of a large number of coins and the disappointment of some investors with the negative dynamics can lead to a sell-off of ETH and a new downturn.


StormGain Analytics Team (https://stormgain.com/)
(a cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)

[stormgain]

Liquidity vs cryptocurrency capitalisation

Evaluating cryptocurrencies by capitalisation alone doesn't provide the whole picture of their credibility. For example, the FTX crypto exchange's FTT token had significant capitalisation but lacked the necessary liquidity. Conor Ryder from the Kaiko analyst agency suggests paying more attention to liquidity when assessing investment risks.

Trading volume

When assessing liquidity, analysts often look at trading volume. The larger the volume is, the more participants there are with orders at different price levels, making it possible to trade without slippage when executing orders. But if a large participant dominates, the significant trading volume isn't a sign of liquidity. This allowed FTX subsidiary Alameda Research (which holds up to 50% of all FTTs) to manipulate the price. Trading volume was substantial, but liquidity wasn't.

Market depth

This is one of the best indicators for assessing liquidity. It takes into account trading volume and the number of open (buy and sell) orders in both directions at different price levels. A market depth of 2% has been applied in this analysis.

The higher the indicator is, the easier it is for buyers and sellers to exchange at a price displayed in the order. The more stable the asset is in the event of shocks and significant price movements, the harder it is for large individual participants to manipulate the price. This last point is crucial for the Wild, Wild Crypto Market.

Below is a summary of the top instruments ranked by volume and market depth. A clear discrepancy can be seen between BNB and SHIB. In terms of trading volume, the coins rank 3rd and 4th, but they only rank 9th and 10th, respectively, by market depth. Litecoin, on the other hand, looks undervalued given its good level of trading activity and shortage in mass.



Spreads

Spreads are also a valid measure of liquidity. They taper as the number of participants and trading volume increase. Notably, BNB loses out to some coins in market depth and spreads on parent cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Dogecoin, on the other hand, ranks third, just behind Ethereum and Bitcoin.



Overall liquidity ranking

By combining the three liquidity indicators above with market capitalisation, we get the following chart:



Bitcoin and Ethereum are in line with their liquidity levels, BNB and DOT (Polkadot) are overvalued, while Dogecoin, on the other hand, is undervalued.



The overall results don't suggest that Dogecoin is destined for inevitable growth. However, this methodology gives a better assessment of the potential risks of owning an asset. This is especially applicable to centralised coins emitted by one person or organisation.


StormGain Analytics Team (https://stormgain.com/)
(a cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)

[stormgain]

The dollar's worth has fallen 30-fold since the Fed's creation

According to the American Enterprise Institute, from 1913 through 2017, the US dollar lost 96% of its purchasing power. In other words, in 1913, $1 could buy 30 Hershey's chocolate bars, and in 1944, it could buy 20 bottles of Coca-Cola. Now, the average American can use this same amount to only buy a small cup of coffee at McDonald's.



The situation is typical for an economy where the money supply growth rate outstrips GDP growth. It is exacerbated further by exorbitant government spending, which increases the size and cost of servicing government debt.

During the 2007-2008 global financial crisis, the Federal Reserve significantly increased its balance with an ultrasoft monetary policy. 'Cheap' dollars gave the economy the push it needed, and Americans fairly quickly forgot about the crisis.

However, the regulator was unable to unload its balance sheet in the subsequent 13-year growth cycle to prepare for the next downturn. At the same time, the pace of assistance was staggeringly large. In the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, 35% of all US dollars were printed, and the Fed's balance sheet grew from $4 trillion to $9 trillion.



Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has already acknowledged that the situation has spun out of control since the regulator incorrectly interpreted inflationary risks. In an effort to correct the situation, the Fed raised its key interest rate at the fastest pace in modern history.



Businesspeople have already spoken out to criticise the regulator, as the high interest rate has made borrowing more expensive, and the housing sector saw a significant drop in demand for real estate after the price rally in 2020-2021. Elon Musk once again called on the Fed to back down. Otherwise, he claimed, the last cycle could go down in history as the most destructive.

Recent events have put the Fed's weak ability to analyse and manage risks on full display. As soon as the Fed backs down (and it will have to do so despite relatively high inflation), the dollar's purchasing power will begin declining again. The economist Friedrich von Hayek opined that since there is no hope for a rational monetary policy from the government, it follows that the government must be stripped of its monopolistic right to issue money.



This alternative comes in the form of Bitcoin, a decentralised cryptocurrency independent of financial institutions. Critics use its latest drop to argue that it's not up to the challenge, but the reason lies in the dishonest interests of individual participants. It recently turned out that in the first few years of FTX's existence, its management used client funds to meet their personal needs. The collapse of the third-most-visited crypto exchange couldn't help but cast a shadow over the industry as a whole.

However, Bitcoin itself has not lost its significance. Its degree of decentralisation (as expressed in total network capacity) has only increased over the past year. Furthermore, its issuance is severely limited and is aimed at reducing the number of new coins entering circulation. If 13 years ago, you needed 10,000 BTC to buy one pizza, now, 1 BTC could buy a whole pizzeria!


StormGain Analytics Team (https://stormgain.com/)
(a cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)

[stormgain]

FTX is dragging Solana down with it

The so-called 'Ethereum Killer' Solana blockchain risks becoming a victim of FTX's collapse. SOL has lost 96% from its all-time high, which is more than the drops experienced by Bitcoin (76%), Ethereum (75%) and even the memecoin Dogecoin (91%).



It's not fully known how closely tied FTX and Solana are, but Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has repeatedly emphasised his interest in SOL. In January 2021, the user CoinMamba said the coin was overpriced, which led to an argument and words we can't publish here from the head of FTX.



In 2020, SBF launched the decentralised exchange (DEX) Serum, which is based on Solana. After listing it on several crypto exchanges, including Binance, the internal coin, SRM, rose 10-fold in value in just the first day of trading.



Alameda Research's CEO, Caroline Ellison, made a deal with prosecutors and spoke about direct instructions she received from SBF to manipulate the FTX crypto exchange's FTT token. Similar operations were probably also carried out with SRM and Solana. Alameda's total SOL holdings as of early November (including those staked) exceeded $1 billion.

Despite the fact that Serum was positioned as a decentralised and independent platform, it ceased to exist at the end of November. Its code was compromised after the hack of FTX on 12 November and a crash of over $600 million. The crypto exchange's leadership may have been behind the caper in an attempt to hide the financial hole and send investigators on the wrong path.

The failed joint project between FTX and Solana, SEC accusations of systematic fraud against SBF and its own problems in the form of frequent failures could not but affect the blockchain's image. In just the past two months, SOL has 'shrunk' nearly four-fold. The crisis had an even stronger effect on positions in the DeFi sector, where the total value locked (TVL) decreased from a peak of 98% to $228 million. In its golden days, Solana was in the Top 3 among cryptocurrencies by TVL. Now, it's not even in the Top 10.



The growth in associated risks has led the DeGods and Y00ts projects to recently announce their move to other networks. These have been the most popular of the Solana-based NFT collections recently. It's possible that other developers will follow suit and that growing competition will put an end to the network's return to its previous performance.


StormGain Analytical Team (https://stormgain.com/)
(a cryptocurrency trading, exchange and storage platform)