Early Crypto adopters practically begged others to come on board — and! They mostly got rebuffed as geeks with yet another dodgy technology. Based on the initial reception, the expectation was for it to fizzle out in no time; instead, the space began to grow slowly and steadily as more and more people became enthusiasts. Even some celebrities that invested in Crypto early did so years after the first Bitcoin transaction.
Clearly, this is 2022; the Crypto market is now an internet frenzy. Many who missed out in the early days are now investing in cryptos instead of just wishing they’d joined sooner.
Below are some of the celebrities that invested in Crypto.
Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon and Crypto
Coming off the back of her media company sale, American actress Reese Witherspoon had a lot of cash to invest in other ventures.
Consequently, she announced her first Ethereum purchase on Twitter in early January 2022. Before that, she had posted a few tweets in support of Crypto and blockchain developers.
Reese is also a major backer of the World of Women NFT collection, as she promotes it frequently on her Twitter page. She’s thrown her weight behind the metaverse, too, calling for people to get ready before they are left behind.
Maisie Williams
Maisie Williams and Crypto
She is known as Arya Stark in the colossal HBO medieval television series, Game of Thrones. The English actress’ lead role in the hugely successful series catapulted her career several steps into the pinnacle of TV fame.
Maisie Williams engaged her Twitter followers in November 2020, asking them which is better between going long or short on Bitcoin. And of course, many skeptics advised her not to jump on the “bandwagon.” She bought it anyway; she announced later to thank her fans for the advice.
Lionel Messi
Messi and Crypto
Besides getting paid a significant portion of his sign-on fee in fan token $PSG, Messi also backed a blockchain-based operating system.
In addition, Messi invested in the new trend in NFT, the metaverse. His first authenticated NFT called Messiverse went live in August 2021.
Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton and Crypto
One of America’s most famous faces, Paris Hilton, is heiress to the famed Hilton family. Paris Hilton, regarded as an all-rounder in the entertainment industry, is an actress, singer, DJ, model, socialite, and businesswoman.
According to Paris in an interview with CNBC in 2021, she became an investor in Crypto long before the boom. Although she didn’t specify the exact time, some online speculators put the timeline between 2015 and 2018. She also got into NFT in 2020 before the boom.
Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson and Crypto
Mike Tyson is one of the first celebrities to get involved with Crypto. In 2015, “Iron Mike” partnered with Bitcoin ATM manufacturers “Bitcoin Direct.” The partnership got his iconic face tattoo engraved on the ATMs.
Besides his investment in Solana, his NFT collection, “Iron Mike,” is also an investor in the Cool Cats NFT collection.
Jay-Z
Jay-Z and Crypto
Jay-Z is not in crypto for fun. His series of investments made through his investment company Marcy Ventures Partners (MVP) touches different facets of Crypto. Jay-Z’s Crypto investment portfolio includes Alchemy, Ledger, and spatial LABS (sLABS).
That’s not all; Jay-Z also funded a trust with an initial investment of 500 Bitcoins in partnership with Jack Dorsey, Square CEO. The trust is to fund Bitcoin development in Africa and India. His love for NFTs has also seen him participate in the Series A funding of NFT marketplace Bitski. A fan of NFTs, he’s also a holder of some NFTs, including Cryptopunks and RTFKT Clone X.
To Cap it all, Jay-Z sits on the board of Square, which intends to build a decentralized exchange for Bitcoin.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk and Crypto
Unarguably the biggest Crypto influencer. Elon Musk, an innovative entrepreneur and current world’s richest man, built an enviable reputation as a major force influencing the rise and fall of the market, particularly Dogecoin, through his tweets and actions.
Although it’s not clear the volume of Crypto Elon musk has, what is certain is that he has at least 0.25 Bitcoin, which was gifted to him by a friend a few years ago. However, his company, Tesla, has invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin. Tesla also started accepting Bitcoin as a means of payment in 2021.
Jimmy Fallon
Jimmy Fallon and Crypto
The host of Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon, caught the NFT fever. He revealed in a chat with the world’s most successful NFT artist, Beeple, that he bought “an ape,” referring to a collection from the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collections through MoonPay.
Expectedly, the revelation turned into an internet frenzy in no time as many NFT enthusiasts rushed to Opensea to see the exact NFT the show host bought.
Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg and Crypto
Snoop Dogg is one of the few celebrities who got involved with Crypto early. In 2013, he made Bitcoin a means of payment for his new album. A unit of the album was made available for 0.3 Bitcoin each, equivalent to about $11,000 an album in today’s Bitcoin valuation.
It is unclear how much Snoop Dogg raked in from the venture or the current value of his portfolio.
He’s a holder of Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and other cryptos. His NFT portfolio includes Cryptopunks, Cool Cats, Sandbox, and other NFT collections, and he has continuously reiterated his belief in cryptocurrencies.
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban and Crypto
Billionaire investor Mark Cuban is a businessman, TV star, and media mogul popularly known for the Shark Tank series.
The billionaire invested in several coins in the early days of Coinbase. He also has a massive investment in NFTs, and he has one of the largest NFTs portfolios as a collector.
Recently, Mark Cuban claimed 80% of his investment outside Shark Tank is in Crypto, including UniKoinGold.
Furthermore, his NBA franchise, Dallas Mavericks, started accepting payments for tickets in Bitcoin through BitPay in 2019.
Ashton Kutcher
Ashton Kutcher and Crypto
Making an unexpected turn from a red-hot acting career to focus on investing, Ashton’s foray into investment has yielded positive results so far.
His investment journey wasn’t overnight; Ashton founded the investment company “A-Grade” in 2010 with his friends. The aim was to invest in tech startup companies.
Besides investments in established tech companies like Uber and Airbnb, Ashton has also invested in a couple of Crypto startups, including BitPay and UniKoinGold, alongside billionaire Mark Cuban.
Serena Williams
Serena Williams and Crypto
It took many by surprise when news filtered that the world-famous tennis star and 23 grand slam titles winner owns a venture capital firm.
Her venture capital firm, Serena Capital, announced an investment in Coinbase in 2019 but dropped it later. Serena Ventures, however, still maintains an investment in “Cointracker,” a Crypto investment and tax tracker.
Floyd Mayweather Jr
Floyd Mayweather and Crypto
Sometime in 2017, the world’s greatest welterweight boxer posted a picture of him brandishing a card with the caption saying he was spending Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other types of cryptocurrencies in Beverly Hills on his Facebook and Twitter pages.
In retrospect, the widely accepted belief is that the post was a means of announcing he had invested in different cryptocurrencies.
Shortly after, Mayweather’s involvement with Crypto became more pronounced as he promoted the ICO of Stox $STX on his Instagram page, touting his investment in the coin.
Tom Brady
Tom Brady and Crypto
Tom Brady once stated in an interview that he wishes part of his buccaneers’ salary is paid in Crypto — highlighting his interest in the Crypto ecosystem.
Clearly, the popular Crypto exchange and one of the biggest globally, FTX, got the memo and approached Tom with a multi-million-dollar partnership deal.
Tom is also the co-founder of the NFT platform, Autograph.io.
World number 1 and four-times single grand slam winner claimed in an interview with financial magazine Bloomberg that the rise and the internet buzz around Dogecoin did catch her attention.
Subsequently, Naomi dived into the NFT pool through a joint project with her sister, Mari Osaka. The athlete’s signed projects are on the Autograph NFT platform.
Gwyneth Paltrow has a long history in lifestyle and investment advisory; this she does through “Goop,” a lifestyle brand she owns. She also joined Abra in 2017 to become the face and advisor to the Crypto wallet.
Along with other investors, Gwyneth invested in the Crypto mining operation “Terawulf” in December 2021. Terawulf is involved in a 100% zero-carbon Bitcoin mining operation, according to the CEO, Paul Prager.
The Winklevoss Brothers
The Winklevoss brothers and Crypto
Twin brothers and former US rowing team Olympians, popularly known for suing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, in a claim that he stole the social network idea from them while they were in Harvard together.
The twin brothers got $65 million as part of the settlement from the suit, and they invested a significant chunk of it in Bitcoin early in 2013. Consequently, the explosion of the Crypto market saw them become the world’s first celebrity crypto billionaires.
Now, the brothers are principal shareholders in Crypto exchange Gemini, and both own an estimated 70,000 Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Founder and CEO of fintech company Square, the former CEO of Twitter, is one of the most prominent pro-Bitcoin voices globally. Jack became heavily interested in Bitcoin in 2017 and has been a significant voice in the Bitcoin crusade. An avid advocate of “buy the dip,” he indicated that he spends several thousand every week to buy Bitcoin in an interview in 2020.
Apart from his personal Bitcoin holdings, Jack’s Square is a significant investor in Bitcoin after buying a combined 4,709 Bitcoins in October 2020. In late 2021, Jack stepped down as Twitter CEO to head Square himself.
The British business mogul, the founder of Virgin Group, is known for two things: his business acumen and record-setting fun exploits.
Richard Branson participated in a $30 million funding round of the Bitcoin-based payment processing platform, BitPay. The value of his investment in the company is, however, not public. Still, if his audacious business moves are anything to go by, his investment in BitPay is expected to be significant.
NFL offensive tackle was one of the most vocal and consistent pro-Bitcoin voices in sports. In December 2020, he famously asked to be paid half of his $13 million salary in Bitcoin.
However, it didn’t take long before his wish became a reality through the Bitcoin paycheck solution “Strike.” Russell made this known on his Twitter account when he tweeted, “Got paid in Bitcoin.”
The $6.5 million received in Bitcoin, which represented half of $13 million, soon increased in value exponentially with the rise of the king cryptocurrency.
Traditional social products are often considered fully packaged content feeds and communication apps. At their core, however, they are primarily identity products. They provide the foundational connection between a person’s digital persona and their data, content, and social connections. The person-to-content linkage is foundational to digital communication and yet, it is monopolized, monetized, and manipulated via sugary feeds built by a select few closed platforms.
Decentralized Social (DeSoc) protocols are re-architecting digital identity to be user-owned and governed. With DeSoc, users are free to trustfully communicate and construct applications without manipulation or censorship for profit’s sake. Before this can happen, DeSoc networks need to achieve a minimal level of network size and overcome the current centralized platform paradigm.
The traditional social platforms have been nearly impenetrable competitively due to advantages gained by closing external access to the rich sea of profile and content relationship data known as the social graph. While profitable for the platforms, locking access to the social graph creates three core problems for creators and tangential businesses:
• Disjointed creator monetization — Creators often are forced to use tools like email lists, blogs, and partnerships in addition to social media in order to adequately monetize their content. While the total creator market grew from approximately $14 billion in 2021 to over $100 billion in 2022, creator earnings are limited due to the added user friction of having to convert across tools and platforms.
• Disproportionate platform value share — While over $230 billion is earned by social platforms largely from advertising, content creators are only earning roughly $6.5 billion in revenue share. For example, on YouTube, which has by far the most generous revenue share, nearly 98% of creators would not meet the poverty line in the US on advertising revenue share alone.
• Concentrated creator revenue distribution — Because social algorithms are optimized for predictable viewership, only the uppermost creators with predictable appeal earn the vast majority of advertising revenue. Without developer access to the social graph data, there is no subsequent business model innovation that would support a creator middle class.
Given the large revenue imbalance between platforms and creators, there is a significant incentive for technologies to bridge the gap and for creators to adopt them. With an open social graph anyone can build upon, DeSoc poses a viable threat to incumbent social platforms whose competitive moat arises from their closed architectures.
DeSoc Architecture
DeSoc protocols, like traditional social, provide the core linkage of profiles to digital content. Profiles are typically represented as NFTs, and the content published, whether its posts, videos, or comments, is all tied to the core profile either on- or off-chain. Since all of the profile and content relationships (social graph) are open and readable by developers, anyone can build front-end applications and features on top of the social graph. This breaks apart the tech stack of traditional platforms and significantly expands the potential for innovation.
In the same way that increasing the contact surface area of two chemicals produces faster, more bountiful reactions, increasing the surface area between developers and technology multiplies the potential for new applications and features.
With the increased development surface area, numerous projects have spun up to tackle more than just the core social graph. They are building every facet of consumer applications ranging from developer infrastructure like video transcoding to features like messaging and search.
While still early, these projects are largely composable and are thus rapidly culminating toward being viable consumer application infrastructure.
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2022 was awarded jointly to Ben S. Bernanke, Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig “for research on banks and financial crises” explained briefly below:What is the role of banks in the economy and society? What happens if they collapse?
The foundations of modern banking research were laid by Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig in the early 1980s. Through statistical analysis and historical source research, Bernanke demonstrated how failing banks played a decisive role in the global depression of the 1930s. Bernanke’s research shows that bank crises can potentially have catastrophic consequences. This insight illustrates the importance of well-functioning bank regulation.
Ben Bernanke
Ben S. Bernanke – Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences
In the future, machines will be the primary workforce. MachineFi is a new paradigm fueled by Web3 that underpins the new machine economy, whereby machine resources and intelligence can be financialized to deliver value and ownership to the people, not centralized corporations.
MachineFi realizes the vision that devices are owned by the people and serve the people. By joining the machine economy, people can now fully monetize their devices and associated digital assets on a global scale.
IoTeX Roadmap
Introduction
Machines are emerging in our homes, businesses, and cities at a blistering
rate. In 2020, more than 150 new machines were activated every second,
connecting the physical and digital worlds like never before. By 2030,
McKinsey predicts machines will outnumber humans by 10:1 and generate
more than $12 trillion in economic value. From smart thermostats and
fitness trackers to connected vehicles, solar panels, and satellites,
machines are being inserted into practically every facet of the global
economy and our personal lives. But as we marvel at the new machine
economy that is blossoming before our very eyes, we must pause and ask
ourselves: who will own these billions of machines and this future machine
economy?
We are at a pivotal moment in human history. Trust in our institutions is at
an all-time low, while the desire for control and ownership from users is
growing by the day. Over the past decade, centralized corporations have
been the gatekeepers and sole beneficiaries of the largest technology
revolution in human history. Tech giants control our devices, monitor our
activities, mine our data, and earn huge profits with no value returned to
users. Now is the time for change. By re-architecting our world using
blockchain and Web3 technology, we can guarantee that the trillion-dollar
machine economy provides value, control, and opportunity to everyday
people, not omnipotent corporations.
This is the essence of MachineFi. With IoTeX 2.0, we are embarking on a new
journey to equip machines with all of the tools they need to be selfsovereign and allow users to monetize the unique services and intelligence
from their machines. Since day one, we have always believed that
machines, not humans, will one day be the largest users of blockchain. With
MachineFi, we will turn this belief into action.
In this Vision Paper, we are proud to share our long-term vision for
MachineFi, as well as an overview of the IoTeX 2.0 protocols and products
that will make our MachineFi vision a reality. By realizing this vision IoTeX will
lead the masses in transitioning from centralized control to decentralized
freedom, empowering users to own and control their machines, as well as
the data and value their machines generate. Join us on our mission to
enable millions of users to capture the value from the future machine
economy and expand the possibilities of the Metaverse, Web3 world, and
beyond.
MachineFi will connect the Real World and Metaverse
Figure 1. IoTeX 2.0 Overview
The MachineFi Vision
Machines Will Be Our Future Workforce
The convergence of artificial intelligence, blockchain, 5G connectivity,
virtual reality, and other frontier technologies has sparked a technological
revolution that is fundamentally transforming the way society operates.
Although these technologies have evolved independently over time, they
are becoming increasingly intertwined and packaged into a new productive
asset: intelligent and autonomous machines.
What seemed like science fiction only a few years ago is now becoming a
reality in the budding machine economy. Autonomous taxis are now
delivering the first driverless rides. Doctors are now performing surgeries
from thousands of miles away using remote surgical systems. Warehouses
are now utilizing robots that match or even exceed the mobility, dexterity,
and agility of people. Security cameras are now providing surveillance-asa-service with alarmingly accurate facial recognition. And governments
around the world are now investing heavily in the next generation of robot
armies and drones. Across every industry, machines are not only
collaborating with human workers, but are also replacing cohorts of human
workers altogether.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) predicts that 50% of all jobs will be partially
automated by 2030, and Deloitte estimates that 30% of the world’s workers
will be replaced entirely by machines within the next 20 years. Whether we
are ready or not, machines will inevitably comprise the majority of our
world’s future workforce.
Which begs the question:
Who will own these
billions of machines and the future
machine economy?
Community-Owned
Machine Networks
The infrastructure that powers our modern world, often called
Web 2.0, relies on centralized servers and vertically integrated
tech stacks that are controlled exclusively by corporations. The
centralized nature of Web 2.0, amplified by corporations’
capitalistic focus on profits over trust, has unleashed
consequences for users such as data breaches, censorship,
and targeted advertising that are now impossible to rein back in.
If we apply this Web 2.0 philosophy to the new machine
economy, our future workforce of billions of machines will be
monopolized by the same corporations that have exploited our
trust time and time again.
It is time to change the status quo. Thanks to blockchain
technology, a paradigm shift known as Web 3.0 has come to life
which aims to replace corporate-owned, centralized networks
with community-owned, decentralized networks. Key benefits
that are not inherent in a Web 2.0 structure, such as
composability, free market incentives, and user-ownership, are
built-in to Web 3.0 by design
I. Composability
The ability for anyone in a network of distributed participants to leverage
the work of others to create new solutions in a collaborative, communitydriven fashion. Developers can bootstrap their own projects and
communities without starting from scratch by leveraging the collective
mindshare of all network participants to fuel innovation
II. Free Market Incentives
The prices for goods and services in a Web 3.0 network are defined in a
peer-to-peer (P2P) fashion by users that interact with each other without
centralized intermediaries. P2P networks are self-regulated and open to
everyone, where participation is driven not by top-down mandates but by
transparent incentives
III. Community Ownership
Unlike centralized networks that generally gravitate towards zero-sum
relationships where value is extracted from network participants,
decentralized networks reward users that contribute and utilize the
network by delivering ownership/equity of the network in a meritocratic
fashion
The above benefits are paramount to ensure the future of MachineFi is open, fair, and
most importantly community-owned. Only with the creativity and productivity of
pioneering developers and users can MachineFi reach its full potential. Specifically for
bootstrapping machine networks, which are capital-intensive with high upfront costs, the
composability and community-driven nature of Web 3.0 removes significant barriers to
entry by applying free-market incentives to raise capital, build communities, and scale
the network to new heights.
Proof of Anything
“Proof of Work” and “Proof of Stake” are common terms in crypto, but are
often mislabeled as consensus mechanisms. In fact, these are actual
proofs that an entity must provide to the blockchain in order to receive
rewards, permissions, or other benefits. For Bitcoin, if a miner proves that
they have done the work and calculated the correct hash, then they are
granted the right to mint the next block and earn a reward. For Ethereum, if
a validator proves to the blockchain they have staked sufficient ETH tokens,
then they are granted permission to be a network validator. But what if the
“proofs” we provide to a blockchain could also include things that everyday
people and businesses did in the real world?
Proof of Anything:
IoTeX machines deliver proofs of real world activity to the blockchain
real-time GPS location from an asset tracker like Pebble
Proof of Presence:
health-related metrics from a fitness tracker or wearable
Proof of Health:
driving patterns or specific routes taken from a vehicle
Proof of Safety:
building’s energy efficiency score from a smart meter.
Just as Chainlink jump-started the DeFi renaissance by establishing a
“single version of truth” of crypto-asset prices, IoTeX will establish a “single
version of the truth” for things that happened in the real world. Smart home
devices, wearables, vehicles, and all types of devices can adopt our
MachineFi concept to become “proof generators” where the proofs will be
fed as inputs to smart contracts in order to trigger on-chain actions.
For example, insurance companies can reward homeowners every time
they prove they have locked their homes, which is a win-win scenario for all
parties. Possibilities are also abound in gaming, where proof of real-world
activity can transfer to your in-game characters — by proving you are
improving your health in the real world using healthcare wearables, your ingame character can also receive more health points. Finally, by proving your
vehicle’s GPS location, you may be able to receive on-chain offers from
nearby restaurants or receive token rewards for contributing intelligence to
a map application like Waze.
Mirroring the Real World to the Metaverse
By connecting the real world to the digital world, MachineFi will open a brand
new design space for blockchain builders where, for the first time, users can
earn digital assets or digital reputation based on their real world actions that
are captured/verified by machines. The impact of MachineFi grows even
further when considering the Metaverse, which will be an immersive virtual
world that can mirror events in the real world thanks to IoTeX:
I. Physical World
The world we experience with our bodies and five senses. In particular, the
physical world contains communication, computing, and storage resources
(i.e., tangible assets) that are required for supporting operations of the
Metaverse
II. Digital Transformation
By capturing the status of physical objects, we can create digital twins of
every object in every place to build seamless connections and two-way
interactions between the physical and virtual worlds. MachineFi will serve as
a composable and user-centric computing fabric that enables real world
users/machines and virtual users/machines to exchange value in a
trustworthy manner.
III. Metaverse
An immersive, computer-simulated environment with specific spatial and
physical characteristics. The Metaverse provides a vibrant, parallel world
that enables users to participate in virtual activities, gain virtual status, and
interact with other virtual beings via virtual avatars
Figure 2. The Metaverse with Two-Way Interactions
Machines, encoded with human intelligence,
will soon be the dominant workforce in the
real world, constantly listening, watching, and
monitoring our activities.
These facts can be used to program the metaverse, enriching virtual
applications with real world information. For example, if you prove you have lost
10 pounds in the real world by connecting your smart scale to IoTeX, then your
metaverse avatar may look slimmer as well. If you prove that you have traveled
to many countries in the real world, then your metaverse avatar may also gain
this real world perspective and unlock new “countries” in the metaverse. And
finally, if you prove that you are a good driver via your vehicle’s telemetry data,
your metaverse avatar may receive permissions in the metaverse to use new
types of virtual vehicles. An infinite number of possibilities awaits!
Enabling the Metaverse to Program the Real World
Play-to-Earn is one of the most innovative concepts in crypto today. Within this
new GameFi industry, users can perform actions in the digital world to earn
digital assets and digital reputation. By mirroring events in the real world to the
metaverse, IoTeX expands on the Play-to-Earn concept by enabling users to
perform actions in the real world to earn digital assets or digital reputation.
This is an innovative concept, but even more groundbreaking is the opportunity
to use the metaverse to program the real world. In other words, enabling users
to perform actions in the virtual world (metaverse) to earn rewards and
benefits in the real world.
The metaverse is still in its infancy, and there is much to discover about how
the metaverse will be built, adopted, and scaled. Regardless of how the
metaverse evolves from here, one thing is clear: building a two-way bridge
between the real world and the metaverse will enable all types of intelligence
to be synchronized and massive network effects to be captured. By instituting
incentives in the metaverse to complete missions, contribute mindshare, or
provide resources, metaverse builders will be able to leverage the borderless
user base and open incentives that crypto has popularized to bootstrap new
virtual ecosystems.
Trading & investing is not easy. If it were, everyone would be rich.
Here’s a couple time-honored reasons that traders lose money, and some tips to help you get back to basics.
Lack of knowledge
Many traders jump into the market without a thorough understanding of how it works and what it takes to be successful. As a result, they make costly mistakes and quickly lose money.
Poor risk management
Risk is an inherent part of trading, and it’s important to manage it effectively in order to protect your capital and maximize your chances of success. However, many traders don’t have a clear risk management strategy in place, and as a result, they are more vulnerable to outsized losses.
Emotional decision-making
It’s easy to feel strong emotions while trading. However, making decisions based on emotions rather than rational analysis can be a recipe for disaster. Many traders make poor decisions when they are feeling overwhelmed, greedy, or fearful and this can lead to significant losses.
Lack of discipline
Successful trading requires discipline, but many traders struggle to stick to their plan. This can be especially challenging when the market is volatile or when a trader is going through a drawdown. Create a system for yourself that’s easy to stay compliant with!
Over-trading
Many traders make the mistake of over-trading, which means they take on too many trades and don’t allow their trades to play out properly. This leads to increased risk, higher brokerage costs, and a greater likelihood of making losses. Clearly articulating setups you like can help separate good opportunities from the chaff.
Lack of a trading plan
A trading plan provides a clear set of rules and guidelines to follow when taking trades. Without a plan, traders may make impulsive decisions, which can be dangerous and often lead to losses.
Not keeping up with important data and information
The market and its common narratives are constantly evolving, and it’s important for traders to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in order to make informed decisions.
Not cutting losses quickly
No trader can avoid making losses completely, but the key is to minimize their impact on your account. One of the best ways to do this is to cut your losses quickly when a trade goes against you. However, many traders hold onto losing trades for too long, hoping that they will recover, and this can lead to larger than expected losses.
Not maximizing winners
Just as it’s important to cut your losses quickly, it’s also important to maximize your winners. Many traders fail to do this, either because they don’t have a plan in place, telling them when and how to exit a trade. As a result, they may leave money on the table and miss out on potential profits.
Not Adapting
Adapting to changing market conditions is paramount to success in the financial markets. Regimes change, trading edge disappears and reappears, and the systems underpinning everything are constantly in flux. One day a trading strategy is producing consistent profits, the next, it isn’t. Traders need to adapt in order to make money over the long term, or they risk getting phased out of the market.
Overall, the majority of traders make losses because they fail to prepare for the challenges of the market. By educating themselves, developing a solid trading plan, and planning out decisions beforehand, traders can improve their chances of success and avoid common pitfalls.
Bull markets are a time of optimism and growth, and they can be a great opportunity for making substantial gains. However, it’s important to remember that bull markets don’t last forever, and it’s crucial to approach them with a healthy dose of caution while keeping your eye on your long-term goals.
Here are a few more things to keep in mind when dealing with bull markets:
Don’t get caught up in the speculative frenzy
It’s important to remain level-headed and avoid making impulsive decisions based on short-term gains. Take time to thoroughly research any trades you’re considering. It’s always good to focus on ideas with strong fundamentals as well as technicals.
Keep an eye on valuations
In a bull market, it’s common for stock prices to rise, sometimes to levels that may not be justified by a company’s fundamentals. For investors, it can be important to keep an eye on valuations and make sure the stocks you’re investing in are reasonably priced.
Be prepared for reversals
Like all good things, the Bull markets too eventually come to an end. Hence, it’s essential to be prepared for a downturn. It’s always good to manage risk exposure by employing techniques such as diversification and hedging.
Control your risk
It’s natural to want to hold on to the positions that are performing well, but it’s important to remember that bull markets eventually come to an end.
If you’ve made substantial gains, trailing may be a good option to lock in profits should things change quickly. Letting the winners ride by continually trailing your positions is one good strategy for improving a trade’s Risk-Reward ratio.
Keep a long-term perspective
Trading is a marathon , not a sprint . Bull markets can be a great opportunity for gains, but it’s important to keep a long-term perspective about your goals. Did you miss the big moves? Don’t get angry and make bad decisions. There will be more opportunities down the road to apply what you’ve learned.
Bull markets can provide excellent opportunities, however, they must be approached with caution and with defined personal goals. Consider the risks and rewards of each investment, keep an eye on valuations, and always be prepared for a downturn.
We hope you enjoyed! Please feel free to write any additional tips or pieces of advice in the comments section below!
Exchange tokens are native assets distributed by a centralized exchange, often providing the holders’ benefits within its closed ecosystem. Initially, they were created by crypto exchanges to bootstrap funding from users and create a “community ownership” model more palatable to investors.
Exchange tokens and their use case have come under greater scrutiny due to the recent collapse of FTX. The exchange’s downfall was primarily brought about through the misuse of its native token, FTT. We explore what happened with FTT before analyzing and attempting to analyze the value of major exchange tokens.
The Curious Case of FTT
An exchange token derives its value from the health of the business of the underlying exchange. How closely the token is tied to the actual cash flows of the exchange is a broad spectrum we will example in further detail in coming sections. FTX’s exchange token FTT sat towards the end of that spectrum with a tenuous tie to intrinsic value besides faith in the FTX entity. FTT only held value if FTX existed, and therefore the token can be thought of as a bet on the solvency and health of the exchange.
FTT maintained a tie to FTX through a buyback and burn mechanism. A portion of FTX’s revenue was used to buy back and burn FTT’s supply, similar to a stock buyback. However, FTX / Alameda also used this token as collateral for loans. Instead of it being a one-way relationship where value flowed from exchange business to token, it became a circular relationship; value flowed back from the token to the exchange as the price of the token had a direct impact on the liquidity, solvency, and future of the business. As the token price came under pressure, the solvency of the business was affected, putting further pressure on the token price, and creating a death spiral.
While FTT used what seems to be a reasonable model of tying exchange value to token value by reducing token supply with profits, the exchange’s undoing was the inherent leverage it/Alameda created through using FTT as collateral. Other exchange tokens have taken different approaches to how to drive value back to the holders.
Exchange Token Value Capture
Equities can be considered a residual claim on the cash flows of the underlying company. Most native cryptocurrencies can be viewed as a claim on the revenue (transaction fees, MEV, etc.) from the blockspace of an underlying network. Within a vertical like DeFi, we can similarly think of token value as the amount of cash flow generated on the underlying network. Exchange tokens may or may not have direct ties to an exchange’s revenue but have other ways to create value for holders.
We’re happy to release a valuable update to IntoTheBlock Analytics. We’ve improved several indicators and metrics including historical correlation, historical market cap, circulating supply and many more!
There are 6 main improvements to our blockchain analytics platform that will help you get additional insights and guide your trading decisions. Let’s go through each of them.
We now provide the daily market capitalization from the beginning of each asset. Market capitalization is the total dollar value of all the coins that are in circulation. This is an important metric because it helps you assess the value of a crypto asset with the circulating supply in mind.
We now provide the daily circulating supply from the beginning of each asset as well. This refers to the number of cryptocurrency coins or tokens that are publicly available and circulating in the market.
We now provide a correlation analysis between any crypto asset and the top 10 assets ordered by Market Cap, instead of only the correlation to BTC. The time frames we support are 30 days and 60 days.
Correlation Matrix & historical correlation
With these new metrics, you will also be able to analyze the historical correlations per asset.
With this new release we provide insights into how long coins are held before they are transacted. This chart includes price and volume of transacted coins. This can be useful to analyze because it helps to understand the behavior of holders of a specific asset and potential selling pressure.
Last but not least, we now provide a simple breakdown of the number of addresses and volume held by different levels of holdings in our crypto Holdings Distribution Matrix. This table makes it easier to view how assets are distributed in the market.
Holdings Distribution Matrix
Whilst this release brings a lot of exciting new metrics to our Analytics platform, we have plenty of things coming in the near future, including new assets and more features. Sign up for a free trial and click here to try out all the improved cryptocurrency analytics
If you have been in the market for some time, you may have heard of a tool called “Volume Profile”. Today, we are going to take a deeper look at this tool, explain how it works, and leave you with a few tricks that you can use to supercharge your analysis.
What is Volume Profile?
Volume Profile is an advanced charting tool that displays trading activity at specific price levels over a specified time period. On the chart, it plots a horizontal histogram to reveal areas where significant trading volume happened.
Volume Profile vs. Traditional Volume
The core difference between Traditional Volume and Volume Profile is how they consider volume with respect to the time and price.
In other words, Traditional volume tells you when volume happened, and Volume Profile tells you where it happened.
Volume Profile – TradingView
Volume Profile Terminology
The Volume Profile tool has several unique components & terminology that you should know about:
Point of Control (POC) – The single price level in a given time period where the most volume traded.
Profile High – The highest reached price level during the specified time period.
Profile Low – The lowest reached price level during the specified time period.
Value Area (VA) – The range in which a specified percentage of all volume was traded during the time period. Typically, this percentage is set to 70%.
Value Area High (VAH) – The highest price level within the value area.
Value Area Low (VAL) – The lowest price level within the value area.
Tips & Tricks of Volume Profile
Just like with most other tools or studies, Volume Profile has a number of uses.
One common strategy is to analyze where previous period value areas are vs. the current price. If current prices are outside of a previous period’s value area, then it can be assumed that an asset is trending. If price is still within a previous period’s value area, then some may label that asset as being in a consolidation. Determining trend and consolidation are often used in conjunction with trend following and mean reversion execution strategies, respectively.
Another common strategy is to use “Virgin” Point of Control (VPOC’s) as key levels in an asset. VPOC’s are levels that haven’t yet been retested and remain untouched by current price action since they were formed. The idea here is that if there was lots of action at a certain price, then it’s likely that the market’s biggest participants have positions from that level. This can cause predictable behavior which keen-eyed traders can take advantage of.
Solid creates interoperable ecosystems of applications and data. Data stored in Solid Pods can power ecosystems of interoperable applications where individuals are free to use their data seamlessly across different applications and services.
Solid
Solid is a specification that lets people store their data securely in decentralized data stores called Pods. Pods are like secure personal web servers for your data.
Any kind of information can be stored in a Solid Pod.
You control access to the data in your Pod. You decide what data to share and with whom (be it individuals, organizations, and/or applications). Furthermore, you can revoke access at any time.
To store and access data in your Pod, applications use standard, open, and interoperable data formats and protocols.
Solid Servers and Pods
A Solid Server hosts one or more Solid Pods. Pods are where you store your data:
Each Pod is fully controlled by the Pod owner (i.e., you).
Each Pod’s data and access rules are fully distinct from those of other Pods.
You can even have multiple Pods. They can be hosted by the same Pod Provider or by different Providers or be self-hosted or any combination thereof. The number of Pods you have as well as which Solid Server or Servers you use is effectively transparent to the applications and services that you use. This is because, in the Solid ecosystem, data is linked through your Identity and not through the specifics of your Pod. This is true for your own data as well as for data that others have shared with you.
Data
You can store any kind of data in a Solid Pod.
What makes Solid special is the ability to store data in a way that promotes interoperability. Specifically, Solid supports storing Linked Data. Structuring data as Linked Data means that different applications can work with the same data.
Access
With Solid’s Authentication and Authorization systems, you determine which people and applications can access your data. You grant or revoke access to any slice of your data as needed. Consequently, you can do more with your data, because the applications you decide to use can be granted access to a wider and more diverse set of information.
And just as you can share your data with others, they can also share their data with you. This creates rich and collaborative experiences across a combination of both personal and shared data.
Solid Applications
Solid applications store and access data in Pods using the Solid Protocol.
Within the interoperable Solid ecosystem, different applications can access the same data instead of requiring separate data silos specifically for the applications. For example, instead of inputting your email with your bank statement notification service, with your phone’s billing service, etc., you can instead store this information in your Pod and grant access to read your email information to these disparate services/applications.
Considering the events from the last few days, we thought it would be a good time to re-visit some of the best things you can do, as a trader and as a human being, to insulate yourself from Black Swan events. While a massive crypto exchange going insolvent is only the most recent example of a Black Swan, Black Swans can exist across all different realms – personal, political, environmental, and more. Because of that, we’re going to walk you through some tips discussing how you can insure your future against unexpected calamity.
1.) Don’t keep all your eggs in the same basket. 🪺
This one is glaringly self-evident following FTX’s recent troubles, but spreading your assets out among custody providers is an excellent hedge in case any of them have solvency issues. That way, you’re always protected against single-provider risk. Various global governments have tried to take steps to mitigate this (FDIC insurance , financial regulation), but nobody looks out for your interests like you do. Make sure you’re in a good spot.
Never keeping your assets in one place also applies to asset class and geography. Own a lot of property in a single region? You’re suddenly exposed to natural disasters that could hit the area, drastic political changes, and more. Only own a single asset class? Maybe the macro situation just changed against you quickly and it’s all worth a lot less than you thought.
Diversity is the name of the game, not only from a position perspective, but from a total risk perspective. Where are you vulnerable?
FTT / USD (FTX:FTTUSD)
2.) Keep some cash on hand 💵
This one is also self-evident for those who are currently unable to access their funds as a result of the recent turmoil, but keeping cash on hand in order to cover short term expenses is a life saver should you ever need it. To some, getting laid off is a great example of a personal black swan event, and something that could set someone back years in their personal finances. Make sure you’re in a position that you’re not financially stressed if something abnormal happens to your regular, everyday life.
3.) Carry no liabilities 🏦
While some purchases in our lives often necessitate the use of debt, the strongest-positioned people during a crisis are those who are not beholden to others financially. Considering that most Black Swans often cause all sorts of financial damage to their victims, having liabilities can cause undue additional stress that removes options from people who would otherwise be able to take advantage of the conditions. Also, those with a strong financial position are often those best able to improve their own standing when bad situations strike, buying up assets at prices that would normally never be available. Debt can prevent this level of flexibility, and therefore in order to reduce risk, you shouldn’t carry any.
4.) Keep some assets on hand, in person. 🪙
This tip is for broader, more macro-scale black swan events like extended power outages, communications network failures, meteor strikes, war, and other things that would typically fall into that category.
But, in a broader regional or global societal collapse, having assets on hand is the best thing you do for yourself. In a situation where you’re unable to access the broader societal infrastructure to which we all buy in, having a backup on hand where you live is really the ultimate insurance blanket. Whether this is cash, gold , seeds or food, don’t get caught without a plan.
We realize this isn’t the most fun topic to talk about, but if you follow these tips, it’s likely you’re much better insulated against all of the disasters and misfortunes the world can throw at you.
