With just a bit more than two full weeks left until the end of 2020, many people, including some cryptocurrency investors, are already looking forward and hoping for a better and less uncertain 2021. Nevertheless, 2020 has not ended yet and a lot can happen on the cryptocurrency markets in these remaining two weeks. While Bitcoin probably won’t double its value this December as it did in 2017, we have prepared a selection of 3 coins that are more likely to post positive returns this week. Our bet on these assets is mainly based on mainnet rollouts, upgrades, and similar events, that put these projects and coins into the spotlight of the cryptocurrency community.
1. Compound (COMP)
Compound is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that allows users to either take out crypto loans or lend their crypto assets in order to earn interest. COMP functions as the platform’s governance token and its holders have the power to propose and vote on changes to the Compound protocols.
The 55,255 COMP Distribution Vote Ended in Failure
On November 26, an anomalous spike in DAI prices on Coinbase caused an erroneous DAI price relative to the other exchanges, which resulted in the liquidation of positions on the Compound platform worth 85,220,406 DAI in total. The Compound’s Governance suggested to compensate the affected users by distributing 55,255 COMP, or around 0.55% of the total supply among them. The distributed COMP would cover the value of 8% of the total value of liquidated positions (6,817,632 DAI) given the 14-day average price of COMP of $123.39 was used for the conversion. Nevertheless, the Proposal 32 got rejected with over 75% of votes against the proposed COMP distribution. Naturally, COMP whales such as Blck and Dharma voted against, as the large volume of distribution could put pressure on the COMP markets and drive its price down. However, now that the proposal has failed COMP is likely to remain more stable pricewise, while at the same time, the denied compensation for unexpected loses will likely cause resentment among the affected users.
2. Orion Protocol (ORN)
Orion Protocol is an advanced decentralized trading platform that aims to revolutionize the way we trade cryptocurrencies by providing very rich trading tools and a simple user interface, all topped with access to almost bottomless liquidity. The promising platform will source liquidity from almost all major centralized exchanges, decentralized exchanges and liquidity pools. In addition, Orion was one of the first projects to use a Dynamic Coin Offering (DYCO) framework for raising funds. In DYCO the utility tokens are USD-backed for up to 16 months after the token generation event, which grants investors a level of safety previously unseen in crypto token sales.
Mainnet Phase 1 Goes Live on December 15
The first phase of Orion Terminal has been confirmed to rollout on December 15 at 14:00 UTC. It will feature basic trading tools as well as aggregated liquidity and guaranteed best prices. Functions such as staking, lending, margin trading, leveraged ETFs, and derivatives contract trading will be added in a series of consecutive mainnet updates. Users need to sign up and share their referral link to be placed higher on the waiting list for the early access to the platform.
3. Aion (AION)
AION is the crypto asset used to secure and access The Open Application Network (OAN). The OAN is a public open-source platform aimed at simplifying the process of creating and hosting of Open Apps – apps that put users back in control and are accessible across multiple online platforms.
Aion to Upgrade its Network Via a Hardfork on December 16
The time of a mandatory Aion network hardfork has been confirmed. It will take place at block height 7441441 predicted to be mined on December 16 around 10:00 EST. The hardfork will implement several important upgrades and improvements, including changes to the Kernel protocol by updating the block signer (V1.2). In addition, the team will deploy adjustments to the Proof of Work block rewards based on block time and fix issues with incorrect hashrate calculations, FastVM delegate calls, and client API block submits. There Aion Mining Pool software will also get revamped to Aion Pool 3 (v0.1.2). More details regarding this mandatory network upgrade can be found here.
