Daily Archives: September 26, 2021

What is a cryptocurrency?

A cryptocurrency is a digital currency that keeps records about balances and transactions on a distributed ledger, which is most commonly in the form of a blockchain. Cryptocurrencies enable peer-to-peer transactions between participants across the globe on a 24/7 basis.

A distributed ledger is a database with no central administrator that is maintained by a network of nodes. In permissionless distributed ledgers, anyone is able to join the network and operate a node. In permissioned distributed ledgers, the ability to operate a node is reserved for a pre-approved group of entities.

Top cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum employ a permissionless design, in which anyone can participate in the process of establishing consensus regarding the current state of the ledger. This enables a high degree of decentralization and resiliency, making it very difficult for a single entity to arbitrarily change the history of transactions.

Cryptocurrency works through networks of nodes that are constantly communicating with each other to stay updated about the current state of the ledger. With permissionless cryptocurrencies, a node can be operated by anyone, provided they have the necessary technical knowledge, computer hardware and bandwidth.

However, not all cryptocurrencies work in the same way. While all cryptocurrencies leverage cryptographic methods to some extent (hence the name), we can now find a number of different cryptocurrency designs that all have their own strengths and weaknesses.

The two major categories of cryptocurrencies are Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake. Proof-of-Work coins use mining, while Proof-of-Stake coins use staking to achieve consensus about the state of the ledger.

In order to send and receive a cryptocurrency, you need a cryptocurrency wallet. A cryptocurrency wallet is software that manages private and public keys. In the case of Bitcoin, as long as you control the private key necessary to transact with your BTC, you can send your BTC to anyone in the world for any reason.

Crypto prices are calculated by averaging cryptocurrency exchange rates on different cryptocurrency trading platforms. This way, we can determine an average price that reflects cryptocurrency market conditions as accurately as possible.

Cryptocurrency exchanges provide markets where cryptocurrencies are bought and sold 24/7. Depending on the exchange, cryptocurrencies can be traded against other cryptocurrencies (for example BTC/ETH) or against fiat currencies like USD or EUR (for example BTC/USD). On exchanges, traders submit orders that specify either the highest price at which theyre willing to buy the cryptocurrency, or the lowest price at which theyre willing to sell. These market dynamics ultimately determine the current price of any given cryptocurrency.

CoinCodex tracks more than 350 crypto exchanges and thousands of trading pairs to make sure that our data is as reliable as possible.

Generally, cryptocurrency price data will be more reliable for the most popular cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum enjoy high levels of liquidity and trade at similar rates regardless of which specific cryptocurrency exchange youre looking at. A liquid market has many participants and a lot of trading volume - in practice, this means that your trades will execute quickly and at a predictable price. In an illiquid market, you might have to wait for a while before someone is willing to take the other side of your trade, and the price could even be affected significantly by your order.

For smaller alternative cryptocurrencies or altcoins, there can be noticeable price discrepancies across different exchanges. At CoinCodex, we weigh the price data by volume so that the most active markets have the biggest influence on the prices were displaying.

Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency and enjoys the most adoption among both individuals and businesses. However, there are many different cryptocurrencies that all have their own advantages or disadvantages.

If you value a highly secure and decentralized network above all, Bitcoin is probably your best bet. This is because the Bitcoin network consists of thousands of nodes spread geographically and is secured by a massive amount of computing power. On the other hand, if you require transactions to be very fast and cheap, Bitcoin is probably not the best choice due to the relative inefficiency of its Proof-of-Work design. In that case, you might want to consider using a cryptocurrency like XRP or Stellar Lumens instead. If you want to use decentralized applications and need smart contract functionality, a cryptocurrency such as Ethereum or EOS would be the best choice.

The cryptocurrencies listed here are used as examples to illustrate the point that the best cryptocurrency depends on your specific requirements and use case.

Cryptocurrency was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto, which is the pseudonym used by the inventor of Bitcoin. Even though digital currency concepts existed before Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto was the first to create a peer-to-peer digital currency that reliably solved the issues facing previous digital money projects. Bitcoin was initially proposed in 2008 and launched in early 2009. Following the invention of Bitcoin, thousands of projects have attempted to imitate Bitcoins success or improve upon the original Bitcoin design by leveraging new technologies.

Crypto market capitalization or "crypto market cap" for short is a widely used metric that is commonly used to compare the relative size of different cryptocurrencies. On CoinCodex, market cap is the default metric by which we rank cryptocurrencies on our frontpage. We also track the total cryptocurrency market cap by adding together the market cap of all the cryptocurrencies listed on CoinCodex. The total market cap provides an estimate on whether the cryptocurrency market as a whole is growing or declining.

We calculate a cryptocurrencys market cap by taking the cryptocurrencys price per unit and multiplying it with the cryptocurrencys circulating supply. The formula is simple: Market Cap = Price * Circulating Supply. Circulating supply refers to the amount of units of a cryptocurrency that currently exist and can be transacted with.

Lets quickly calculate the market cap of Bitcoin as an example. The Bitcoin price is currently $41,527 and there are 18.83 million BTC coins in circulation. If we use the formula from above, we multiply the two numbers and arrive at a market cap of $781.81 billion.

Crypto market cap matters because it is a useful way to compare different cryptocurrencies. If Coin A has a significantly higher market cap than Coin B, this tells us that Coin A is likely adopted more widely by individuals and businesses and valued higher by the market. On the other hand, it could potentially also be an indication that Coin B is undervalued relative to Coin A.

Even though market cap is a widely used metric, it can sometimes be misleading. A good rule of thumb is that the usefulness of any given cryptocurrencys market cap metric increases in proportion with the cryptocurrencys trading volume. If a cryptocurrency is actively traded and has deep liquidity across many different exchanges, it becomes much harder for single actors to manipulate prices and create an unrealistic market cap for the cryptocurrency.

A cryptocurrencys market cap increases when its price per unit increases. Alternatively, an increase in circulating supply can also lead to an increase in market cap. However, an increase in supply also tends to lead to a lower price per unit, and the two cancel each other out to a large extent. In practice, an increase in price per unit is the main way in which a cryptocurrencys market cap grows.

The Bitcoin market cap is currently $781.81 billion. We arrive at this figure by multiplying the price of 1 BTC and the circulating supply of Bitcoin. The Bitcoin price is currently $41,527 and its circulating supply is 18.83 million. If we multiply these two numbers, we arrive at a market cap of $781.81 billion.

The circulating supply of a cryptocurrency is the amount of units that is currently available for use. Lets use Bitcoin as an example. There is a rule in the Bitcoin code which says that only 21 million Bitcoins can ever be created. The circulating supply of Bitcoin started off at 0 but immediately started growing as new blocks were mined and new BTC coins were being created to reward the miners. Currently, there are around 18.52 million Bitcoins in existence, and this number will keep growing until the 21 millionth BTC is mined. Since 18.83 million BTC have been mined so far, we say that this is the circulating supply of Bitcoin.

An altcoin is any cryptocurrency that is not Bitcoin. The word "altcoin" is short for "alternative coin", and is commonly used by cryptocurrency investors and traders to refer to all coins other than Bitcoin. Thousands of altcoins have been created so far following Bitcoins launch in 2009.

Bitcoin is the oldest and most established cryptocurrency, and has a market cap that is larger than all of the other cryptocurrencies combined. Bitcoin is also the most widely adopted cryptocurrency, and is accepted by practically all businesses that deal with cryptocurrency.

However, Bitcoin is far from the only player in the game, and there are numerous altcoins that have reached multi-billion dollar valuations. The second largest cryptocurrency is Ethereum, which supports smart contracts and allows users to make highly complex decentralized applications. In fact, Ethereum has grown so large that the word "altcoin" is rarely used to describe it now.

Generally, altcoins attempt to improve upon the basic design of Bitcoin by introducing technology that is absent from Bitcoin. This includes privacy technologies, different distributed ledger architectures and consensus mechanisms.

A stablecoin is a crypto asset that maintains a stable value regardless of market conditions. This is most commonly achieved by pegging the stablecoin to a specific fiat currency such as the US dollar. Stablecoins are useful because they can still be transacted on blockchain networks while avoiding the price volatility of "normal" cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Outside of stablecoins, cryptocurrency prices can change rapidly, and its not uncommon to see the crypto market gain or lose more than 10% in a single day.

Now, lets provide a simple theoretical example of how the value of stablecoins actually stays stable.

Lets say that a company creates Stablecoin X (SCX), which is designed to trade as closely to $1 as possible at all times. The company will hold USD reserves equal to the number of SCX tokens in circulation, and will provide users the option to redeem 1 SCX token for $1. If the price of SCX is lower than $1, demand for SCX will increase because traders will buy it and redeem it for a profit. This will drive the price of SCX back towards $1.

Tethers USDT was the first stablecoin ever launched, and is still the most popular option on the market.

The term DeFi (decentralized finance) is used to refer to a wide variety of decentralized applications that enable financial services such as lending, borrowing and trading. DeFi applications are built on top of blockchain platforms such as Ethereum and allow anyone to access these financial services simply by using their cryptocurrency wallets.

To give you a better idea of what kind of use cases are enabled by DeFi applications, lets quickly go through some major DeFi apps and what they accomplish:

The top 10 cryptocurrencies are ranked by their market capitalization. Even though 10 is an arbitrarily selected number, being in the top 10 by market capitalization is a sign that the cryptocurrency enjoys a lot of relevance in the crypto market. The crypto top 10 changes frequently because of the high volatility of crypto prices. Despite this, Bitcoin and Ethereum have been ranked #1 and #2, respectively, for several years now.

If you want to invest in cryptocurrency, you should first do your own research on the cryptocurrency market. There are multiple factors that could influence your decision, including how long you intend to hold cryptocurrency, your risk appetite, financial standing, etc. Its worth noting that most cryptocurrency investors hold Bitcoin, even if they are also investing in other cryptocurrencies. The reason why most cryptocurrency investors hold some BTC is that Bitcoin enjoys the reputation of being the most secure, stable and decentralized cryptocurrency.

If you want to buy a particular cryptocurrency but dont know how to do it, CoinCodex is a great resource to help you out. Find the cryptocurrency youre looking for on CoinCodex and click the "Exchanges" tab. There, you will be able to find a list of all the exchanges where the selected cryptocurrency is traded. Once you find the exchange that suits you best, you can register an account and buy the cryptocurrency there. You can also follow cryptocurrency prices on CoinCodex to spot potential buying opportunities.

A coin is a cryptocurrency that is the native asset on its own blockchain. These cryptocurrencies are required to pay for transaction fees and basic operations on the blockchain. BTC (Bitcoin) and ETH (Ethereum) are examples of coins.

Tokens, on the other hand, are crypto assets that have been issued on top of other blockchain networks. The most popular platform for issuing tokens is Ethereum, and examples of Ethereum-based tokens are MKR, UNI and YFI. Even though you can freely transact with these tokens, you cannot use them to pay Ethereum transaction fees.

A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger that is useful for recording the transactions and balances of different participants. All transactions are stored in blocks, which are generated periodically and linked together with cryptographic methods. Once a block is added to the blockchain, data contained within it cannot be changed, unless all subsequent blocks are changed as well.

A cryptocurrency wouldnt be very useful if anyone could just change the history of transactions to their own liking - the point of cryptocurrency is that you can be sure that your coins belong to you only and that your balances will not change arbitrarily. This is why reaching consensus is of utmost importance. In Bitcoin, miners use their computer hardware to solve resource-intensive mathematical problems. The miner that reaches the correct solution first gets to add the next block to the Bitcoin blockchain, and receives a BTC reward in return.

With a blockchain, its possible for participants from across the world to verify and agree on the current state of the ledger. Blockchain was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto for the purposes of Bitcoin. Other developers have expanded upon Satoshi Nakamotos idea and created new types of blockchains in fact, blockchains also have several uses outside of cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrency mining is the process of adding new blocks to a blockchain and earning cryptocurrency rewards in return. Cryptocurrency miners use computer hardware to solve complex mathematical problems. These problems are very resource-intensive, resulting in heavy electricity consumption.

The miner that provides the correct solution to the problem first gets to add the new block of transactions to the blockchain and receives a reward in return for their work. Bitcoin miners are rewarded with BTC, Ethereum miners are rewarded with ETH, and so forth.

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin feature an algorithm that adjusts the mining difficulty depending on how much computing power is being used to mine it. In other words as more and more people and businesses start mining Bitcoin, mining Bitcoin becomes more difficult and resource-intensive. This feature is implemented so that the Bitcoin block time remains close to its 10 minute target and the supply of BTC follows a predictable curve.

Cryptocurrencies that reach consensus through mining are referred to as Proof-of-Work coins. However, alternative designs such as Proof-of-Stake are used by some cryptocurrencies instead of mining.

You can find historical crypto market cap and crypto price data on CoinCodex, a comprehensive platform for crypto charts and prices. After you find the cryptocurrency youre interested in on CoinCodex, such as Bitcoin, head over to the "Historical" tab and you will be able to access a full overview of the coins price history. For any given coin, you will be able to select a custom time period, data frequency, and currency. The feature is free to use and you can also export the data if you want to analyze it further.

There are thousands of different cryptocurrencies. On CoinCodex, you can find crypto prices for over 11800 cryptocurrencies, and we are listing new cryptocurrencies every single day.

ICO stands for Initial Coin Offering and refers to a method of raising capital for cryptocurrency and blockchain-related projects. Typically, a project will create a token and present their idea in a whitepaper. The project will then offer the tokens for sale to raise the capital necessary for funding development. Even though there have been many successful ICOs to date, investors need to be very careful if they are interested in purchasing tokens in an ICO. ICOs are largely unregulated, and very risky.

STOs and IEOs are alternative token sale models that emerged after ICOs started to fade in popularity.

IEO stands for Initial Exchange Offering. IEOs share a lot of similarities with ICOs. They are both largely unregulated token sales, with the main difference being that ICOs are conducted by the projects that are selling the tokens, while IEOs are conducted through cryptocurrency exchanges. Cryptocurrency exchanges have an incentive to screen projects before they conduct a token sale for them, so the quality of IEOs tends to be better on average than the quality of ICOs.

A cryptocurrency exchange is a platform that facilitates markets for cryptocurrency trading. Some examples of cryptocurrency exchanges include Binance, Bitstamp and Kraken. These platforms are designed to provide the best possible prices for both buyers and sellers. Some exchanges only offer cryptocurrency markets, while others also allow users to exchange between cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies such as the US dollar or the euro. You can buy and sell Bitcoin on practically all cryptocurrency exchanges, but some exchanges list hundreds of different cryptocurrencies. One metric that is important for comparing cryptocurrency exchanges is trading volume. If trading volume is high, your trades will execute fast and at predictable prices.

CoinCodex provides all the data you need to stay informed about cryptocurrencies. You can find cryptocurrency charts for more than 11800 coins, and access key data such as up-to-date prices, all-time high price, cryptocurrency market cap, trading volume and more. The crypto charts provided by CoinCodex are incredibly flexible you can watch real-time prices or select between 8 pre-defined time frames, ranging from 24 hours to the entire price history of the coin. If you need more precision, you can select a custom date range. CoinCodex also gives you the ability to compare the price action of different cryptocurrencies on a single chart.

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At first blush, if you look at the news about crypto right now, things don't look so great. China Declares Cryptocurrency Transactions Illegal; Bitcoin Price Falls screams the Wall Street Journal headline from yesterday. Bloomberg, citing that China news and the SEC threatening to sue cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, called September cryptos grim month. Indeed after topping $52,600 earlier this month, bitcoin is down some 20% to close to $43,000.

And thats all true, as far as it goes. Until you consider that China has long pushed back against all things crypto even as it cautiously explores a stablecoin pegged to a digital version of the yuan. (A stablecoin being a cryptocurrency pegged one-to-one to a relatively stable asset such as the dollar, gold or in this case the yuan.)

Bitcoin enthusiast Carlos Bonilla shows a physical representation of the cryptocurrency, at a Bitcoin Beach support office at El Zonte Beach in Chiltiupan, El Salvador June 10, 2021. Picture taken June 10, 2021. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas REFILE - CORRECTING INFORMATION

And there are the other recent headlines, like this one from CNBC: You can now get paid in bitcoin to use Twitter, or this CoinDesk story Crypto Industry Could Add $184B of Economic Value to India by 2030: NASSCOM. Or this one from the Wall Street Journal, Switzerland Gives Green Light to Crypto Trading Exchange.

So which one is it? Crypto thumbs up, or thumbs down? Is crypto at some sort of crossroads? Yes, yes and no. I dont mean to be flip, its just that its always this with crypto. And will be for years and years and probably decades to come, until it all gets sorted out.

What do I mean by sorted out? I mean there are so many key questions to be answered. Here are only a few: Will crypto supplant money? (Or at least partially?) Are cryptocurrencies a form of exchange, or a store of value, i.e., an investment? How and when will crypto be regulated? Or is it the case as Ray Dalio suggested recently, that cryptocurrencies are doomed if they become too powerful, as governments would banish them? (More on Dalio later on.)

We will be hashing out those questions and more at our Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit+: Crypto Investing, this Monday, Sept. 27 from 12:00 p.m. EDT - 1:30 p.m. EDT at yahoofinance.com. (Please join us!) We have a stellar group of guests, including the likes of Kristin Smith, Blockchain Association executive director; Joseph Hall, Davis Polk Capital Markets Group partner; and Michael Sonnenshein, Grayscale Investments CEO. (Full disclosure, Grayscale is the event sponsor.)

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Yahoo Finance's All Markets Summit + Crypto Investing will take place on Sept. 27 from 12-1:30 p.m. ET.

I spoke with Sonnenshein a few days ago and asked him how business was going. The dude was upbeat, grim month notwithstanding. Grayscales business and the crypto ecosystem at large has experienced exponential growth throughout 2021, and weve never been more encouraged by the maturation of the digital asset ecosystem, he said.

Grayscale, an investment manager of crypto assets, is owned by DCG, Digital Currency Group, a crypto holding company, founded by now billionaire Barry Silbert. Speaking of billions, and just to give you an idea of how crazy this business is, later in my conversation with Sonnenshein he mentioned that Grayscale had over $40 billion under management. What? Last time I checked it was $20 billion. Thats still a far cry from a giant like BlackRock, which has $9.5 trillion under management, but the trajectory is impressive.

No doubt investor interest continues to grow. Zack Guzman, one of our anchors and a resident crypto expert, recently did a presentation in which he noted how the most searched tickers on our platform had changed over time.

A chart of the top 10 tickers on Yahoo Finance as of May 28, 2021. Courtesy of Zack Guzman.

A chart of the top 10 tickers on Yahoo Finance as of May 24, 2019. Courtesy of Zack Guzman.

Zack also put a couple of quizzes in this deck, including this one:

A cryptocurrency quiz, courtesy of Zack Guzman.

Answers to the cryptocurrency quiz, courtesy of Zack Guzman.

The answers to the quiz are instructive in a number of ways, including the point that Dogecoin (DOGE-USD), which performed best, is in fact a farcical currency, or as Wikipedia notes: Dogecoin (DOHZH-koyn, code: DOGE, symbol: ) is a cryptocurrency created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, who decided to create a payment system as a joke, making fun of the wild speculation in cryptocurrencies at the time. Despite its satirical nature, some consider it a legitimate investment prospect. Dogecoin features the face of the Shiba Inu dog from the "Doge" meme as its logo and namesake. It was introduced on Dec. 6, 2013, and quickly developed its own online community, reaching a market capitalization of over $85 billion on May 5, 2021.

So to be clear, one of the best performing coins this year is ... about nothing. Thats bananas, never mind terrifying. On the other hand, one of the top TV shows of all time, "Seinfeld," was also famously about nothing.

I last wrote about crypto in July where I posited bitcoin (BTC-USD) and its ilk are to money what the internet is to information a digital, low cost, less fettered variation. As such, cryptocurrency and blockchain are a parallel universe to the legacy world of finance, soon to mirror every facet of what came before and perhaps one day to subsume it.

If that is the case, then what are world leaders, regulators, and politicians doing about it? China, under President Xi Jinping, will no doubt continue to keep a heavy hand on all things crypto, as touched upon earlier. And there will be consequences for better or worse. Crypto entrepreneur extraordinaire, Sam Bankman-Fried, profiled recently in this Yahoo Finance piece by Roger Parloff, announced late this week that he was leaving the increasingly crypto-hostile environs of Hong Kong for the Bahamas. Who wins and who loses here, Hong Kong or Nassau? Depending on their respective governments objectives, they might both win. Such is the world of crypto.

As for the U.S., regulators are now scrambling to address at least some facets of crypto, which is welcomed by many in this world. The focus, according to The New York Times, is now on stablecoins. SEC Chair Gary Gensler who taught a class on crypto at MIT has a number of times referred to the crypto markets as the Wild West. Presumably this is hinting at the need for some law and order. Guess whos going to be the sheriff?

Which gets us back to Ray Dalio, whose comments I alluded to were from an interview the hedge fund billionaire did recently with CNBCs Andrew Ross Sorkin, where Dalio said this about regulators and bitcoin:

I think at the end of the day if its really successful, they will kill it and they will try to kill it. And I think they will kill it because they have ways of killing it," Dalio told Sorkin Wednesday on CNBCs Squawk Box at the SALT conference in New York.

Leaving aside the conspiratorial tone, I think Dalio may be slightly off here. I dont think the government will kill bitcoin or crypto for a number of reasons. First, because I actually dont think they can, certainly not globally in our digital age, i.e. this cat is not going back in the bag. Second, rather than try to "kill" it, regulators will find it more prudent to co-opt it, which third, is going to happen to one degree or another anyway.

In the meantime, whats an investor to do?

I should point out that the headline of my aforementioned July story was in fact a question. To wit: Should you own (maybe just a little) bitcoin? The answer I came out with was, yes, but a small amount. Did I follow my own advice, you might ask? Yes? Have I made any money? No. In fact I am down a whopping 29.93%. This grim month certainly hasnt helped my cause.

Im telling my kids not to worry about it, though. The dollar amount isnt going to hollow out anyones inheritance. And who knows? Theres always next month.

This article was featured in a Saturday edition of the Morning Brief on September 25, 2021. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe

Andy Serwer is editor-in-chief of Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter: @serwer

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Demystifying cryptocurrency one month at a time - Yahoo Finance

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Someone in your life is talking about cryptocurrency maybe your partner or best friend. Or maybe youve seen it in the news or on social media. Either way, you want to understand this new technology that people are telling you to invest in.

Below, Select dives into what makes up a cryptocurrency, and what to look for before you invest.

At its most basic, a cryptocurrency is a digital asset that utilizes computer code and blockchain technology to operate somewhat on its own, without the need for a central party be that a person, company, central bank or government to manage the system.

A blockchain is a ledger which keeps track of cryptocurrency transactions. This ledger of transactions is maintained across computers that are linked across a distributed network. Transactions in cryptocurrency protocols are combined into blocks, and these blocks are then linked together in a historical record of everything thats happened on that blockchain.

Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency created, was developed initially to act as a payment mechanism native to the online world. Faster, cheaper, censorship resistant and not beholden to any government or central banks whims.

Today, there are thousands of cryptocurrencies. These still act as payment mechanisms but have also been developed for other use cases, such as lending and borrowing or digital storage. And one of the broadest use cases for this technology is speculation, buying in the hopes that the price will go up and the holders can make a profit.

The vision behind cryptocurrency is one of a peer-to-peer electronic currency system that is not controlled by a central authority and therefore, is fast, cheap and invulnerable to censorship (for instance, PayPal blocking gun sales) and other forms of corruption or control.

While the definition is fluid, there are several features that typically make up a crypto asset:

In the crypto space, many terms are used interchangeably, which of course, makes the conversation confusing for newcomers. But broadly, there are three categories of crypto:

From its beginnings in 2009, the ecosystem surrounding cryptocurrency and blockchain technology has ballooned into a billion-dollar industry, while cryptocurrencies have a total market cap over $1 trillion.

The technology has led to some serious innovation, both internally and externally, pushing financial services providers and other industries to update their processes to better reflect peoples expectations for transacting and communicating online. For instance, the speed and low cost of cross-border crypto transactions has led many to begin re-evaluating the remittance industry and other payment networks, i.e. Western Union.

Being an open system, one of the goals of cryptocurrency is to expand access to financial service tools to many people who are barred from entering the traditional banking system. And the industry encourages self-sovereignty, the ability for individuals to maintain control over their data, be it identity information or their money.

Still, there are risks involved when getting involved with cryptocurrency and financial systems that aren't regulated by the government, including hacks and lost wallet passwords, where people get completely locked out of their accounts and/or lose their money. Remember: These accounts aren't FDIC insured.

Because cryptocurrency is outside of the control of government, it allows individuals and organizations to skirt laws, restrictions and regulatory oversight. Early in bitcoins history, it was used to send donations to WikiLeaks, after the U.S. government pressured the card networks, Visa and Mastercard, to cut off transactions to the organization. More recently, some Venezuelans have turned bolivars into bitcoin as a way to store value, since bolivars have been inflated to near worthlessness by the Venezuelan government.However, cryptocurrencies have also facilitated illicit activities like money laundering.

There are many ways to analyze crypto assets and projects, although there is no single silver bullet to finding the next big thing.Here are some things to consider while researching cryptocurrencies:

Remember cryptocurrencies and crypto tokens are a new category of investment, only a little more than a decade old. These digital assets are built with new, experimental technology, plus theres thin and constantly changing regulatory oversight on the industry. As such, crypto assets are seen as a riskier bet than more traditional assets, like stocks and bonds.

Editorial Note: Opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Select editorial staffs alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any third party.

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What is cryptocurrency? Here's what you need to know about blockchain, coins and more - CNBC

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The smartest entrepreneurs understand that their long-term goals can't just be tied to the success of their business. You need to find ways to passively grow your wealth and create new wealth opportunities. Fortunately, the modern, digitally connected world is full of those opportunities and one of the more interesting ones is cryptocurrency.

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You'll take a deep dive into staking, lending, copy trading, ICOs, yield farming, and DeFi projects to gain an understanding of how people make money fromthem and how you can get a slice of the pie. These are some of the most popular and simplest ways for crypto beginners to start generating real passive income from cryptocurrency without stomaching the volatility of the crypto market.

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Prices are subject to change.

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In this episode of the EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS: Intellectual Propertypodcast, Mintz Intellectual Property attorneysFrank GerratanaandDaniel Weingerexplore cryptocurrency,blockchain, and how IP factors into the future of these emergingtechnologies. The crypto/blockchain space is confusing to manypeople, so Dan and Frank try to simplify what blockchain actuallymeans and how it works. Dan and Frank also discuss potentialapplications for blockchain technology and what technologistsworking in this groundbreaking space need to consider when decidinghow to protect their innovations.

This podcast covers the following topics:

The content of this article is intended to provide a generalguide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be soughtabout your specific circumstances.

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The Digital Asset SEC Timeline serves as an interactive compilation of select SEC guidance, enforcement actions, and speeches relating to the application of the federal securities laws to digital assets.

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EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS: Intellectual Property Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, And IP: What Does The Future Hold? (Podcast) - Technology - United States -...

According to the letter, VanEck TRX ETN (VTRX) has been officially approved by Deutsche Brse Group and is available for trading on Xetra from September 21, 2021.

The approval from Germany will exempt VTRX from the approval of other EU regulatory authorities, and VTRX will be listed as compliant security in 14 countries including Germany, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

This marks TRX (VTRX) as the third mainstream cryptocurrency after Bitcoin and Ether that has been listed on the traditional financial market of Europe.

Justin Sun introduced blockchain as a value network to China in 2012, which established him as an early evangelist and practitioner of blockchain. Later in 2017, he founded TRON.

Today, TRON has built a comprehensive ecosystem spanning from underlying protocols and smart contracts, to NFT and metadata storage, boasting over 54 million users and $50 billion worth of crypto assets across the globe.

Moreover, the TRON-based USDT (TRC20-USDT), with a circulating supply as high as $36 billion, is now the worlds largest stablecoin in circulation, accounting for more than 50% of the global market.

Not long ago, TRON also inked a strategic partnership with Valkyrie Investments to launch Valkyrie TRON Trust. As the first institutional fund targeting TRONs crypto ecosystem in the US, the initial size of this trust is over $50 million, and it plans to file to go public in 2022.

Justin Sun also announced in his latest open letter to the community that BTTC, a layer 2 scaling and cross-chain solution, is scheduled for launch on October 30, 2021.

By then, a closed loop of both layer 1 and 2 networks with sound cross-chain connectivity will take shape, delivering both a robust underlying network of global settlement layer and a heterogeneous, scalable cross-chain network BitTorrent Chain that features high throughput and full compatibility with EVM. This solution will usher in a new era of connecting all chains.

According to available resources, the listing of VTRX has been stringently reviewed and approved by Deutsche Brse Xetra, fully complying with the financial regulatory requirements in Europe.

Further, with the support of Clearstream under Deutsche Brse Group, TRX ETN is expected to be available for trading in the pan-European market on major European exchanges in London, Paris, Amsterdam and more.

This marks another milestone of TRON the forerunner in the global public chain sphere in pursuing globalization and compliance under Justin Suns leadership.

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Justin Sun Launches the Worlds Third Cryptocurrency ETN - The Daily Hodl