Just when we thought the crypto markets cannot plunge lower, we got hit by the last full week of Q2 2021, which was characterized by the total market valuation low of $1.27 trillion and Bitcoin dipping below $30,000 for the first time since January 27. Without a doubt, this is the period of the bears. But even when bears are ravaging almost every crypto asset, you can still find shelter by carefully selecting the coins you invest in. Perhaps you can find some inspiration in out top 3 coins to watch for next week.
1. Bitcoin (BTC)
Although we believe Bitcoin does not need much introduction and that all eyes would be on it even if it were not featured on our list, here is a short summary of the history and key characteristics of the first truly decentralized digital currency. The world’s pioneer cryptocurrency was launched by pseudonymous figure named Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009 and has a capped supply of 21 million coins. The decreasing miner block rewards makes the cryptocurrency scarcer with time, ensuring a deflationary nature. Bitcoin is also often referred to as the barometer of the cryptocurrency market as other assets usually follow BTC’s price performance.
Market sentiment is turning bearish, but some analysts still believe BTC could end the year at a valuation higher than $100,000
As already mentioned, Bitcoin dipped below $30,000 for a bit more than an hour on June 22. While cryptocurrency markets are known to be volatile, dipping lower than a round valuation or breaking a well-known support level has a predominantly psychological effect on investors, as Bitcoin has never traded below $30,000 since January 27, meaning that this broke the almost five months long strike.
A quick Twitter poll conducted by user @100trillionUSD also shows how the Bitcoin market sentiment has shifted almost a full 180 degrees in less than three months.
In this period (last 3 months) Bitcoin dropped by a whopping 43% and technical analysis shows that Bitcoin needs to convincingly go above $42k to put an end to the bearish sentiment.
After China’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies and the country’s central bank instructing institutions not to provide trading, clearing and settlement for crypto transactions, the Chinese miners found themselves in a very tough position. While Chinese ban on crypto has contributed a lion’s share to the ongoing bearish market trend, the country’s decision has also caused the drop of Bitcoin hashrate as several huge mining operations were forced to shut down. However, miners are already moving their equipment out of the country and establishing Bitcoin mines elsewhere, which will likely cause the network hashrate to stabilize again. One publicly listed Bitcoin mining company from China has reportedly already shipped all their miners to Kazakhstan. However, according to Tone Vays, miners in certain areas with excess energy can mine Bitcoin at a cost as low as $6,000 per coin, which could negatively affect the Bitcoin price in the short-term. Nevertheless, Vays is still confident in Bitcoin’s long-term prospects as well as the speculation that it will trade at a price over $100k by year’s end.
2. Cardano (ADA)
Cardano is a decentralized blockchain platform focused at creating a smart contract-enabled environment, on which developers can build decentralized applications. Cardano utilizes a Proof-of-Stake consensus model and aims to provide a more sustainable, scalable, and transparent operation compared to other smart contract blockchains. The project was started by Charles Hoskinson, a mathematician, who was once part of the Ethereum developer team, in 2017. The team raised $62.2 million for project’s development through an ICO. The development of the project is now overseen by three main organizations, the IOHK, Cardano Foundation and Emurgo. Hoskinson and IOHK stive to follow the principles of academic peer review in the project’s development process. The native asset of the Cardano blockchain is called ADA, but previously this year, the project rolled-out an update, which enabled support for other Cardano-native tokens as well.
Cardano has Allegedly Secured Another Major Deal with a Government of an African County
Besides being one of the most actively developed cryptocurrency projects Cardano is also doing a very good job at securing deals and implementing Cardano blockchain-based solutions to address real-world problems. In April we heard that the country of Tanzania will partner with Cardano’s parent company IOG to bring mobile internet connectivity, digital identity, and financial empowerment to inhabitants of rural parts of the country. However, the Cardano developers have recently revealed that another deal with another African country, that could bring an additional 1 million users to the Cardano ecosystem, is on the table. John O’Connor, director of African operations at IOHK, recently tweeted:
O’Connor tried not to disclose to many details about the deal, but he still revealed that the implementation will make use of the Cardano smart contracts feature (soon to be deployed through the Alonzo upgrade) and that it is somehow related to microloans and collateralized loans. Furthermore, it will be an open finance solution, meaning that third-party developers will be able to build applications and services around the financial framework through the use of open APIs. O’Connor also touched on the topic of cryptocurrency adoption and said that the main tipping point in adoption rates will come when people will not even realize they are using a blockchain-based solution. He said:
“A year down the line, you not even realize it, but Cardano could be the back-end financial rails for these huge businesses, and the customer won’t even know.”
The bottom line is that if you agree with the saying “buy the rumour, sell the news”, now might be a good time to buy ADA.
3. Theta Token (THETA)
The Theta Token is the native asset of a decentralized video delivery network Theta. You could also call Theta a blockchain-based YouTube or Twitch. The Theta platform incentivises various network participants via the use of cryptocurrencies.
The Theta Mainnet 3.0 Launch Scheduled for June 30
The long-awaited Theta Mainnet 3.0 launch is now finally just behind the corner after its launch got postponed from April 21. The mainnet upgrade, which has been announced already in December last year will implement a network fee burning mechanism into the Theta protocol. Already at this moment, Theta users are utilizing TFuel to pay for the costs of using the Theta Edge network. On Mainnet 3.0, however, at least 25% of each TFuel payment will be burned at the protocol level, decreasing TFuel supply. Mainnet 3.0 will also introduce Elite Edge Node “Uptime Mining” and allow TFuel staking. You can find more information regarding the launch in this recent Theta blog post.
