What the Doge? Up and Coming Cryptos Explained
Quite unbelievably, we’re at the mid-point of Q1/2021! Today, we’re going to dig into cryptos and uncover some fast-rising stars of the market. We’ll also give you a rundown of the key events that should be inside your trading diary this week. Let’s get to it, shall we?
Crypto on fire
You can’t outrun it, no matter where you go, Crypto is everywhere right now. Bitcoin is making all the headlines, especially when all-time-highs are happening on an almost daily basis, aided in part last week by a fairly well-known company buying a gigantic amount of the crypto coin.
But as crypto enthusiasts will stress until their voices shatter — it ain’t all about Bitcoin. The world’s number one crypto is just one of the 4,066 tokens and coins officially out there.
Today, we’re going to dig into three cryptos that you may have heard of, but know little about.
1. Cardano (ADA)
Cardano describes itself as a “third-generation blockchain”, designed to support smart contracts. It’s a proof-of-stake blockchain, which means that users must stake their ADA tokens in the network to validate new blocks.
ADA has really rocketed in the last few weeks, jumping 372% in value since the start of the year. Climbing from 0.34 USD to 0.85 USD has propelled the token to the 4th largest crypto in the world by market cap.
Why such movement? Well, it’s partly because Cardano is seen as a legitimate alternative to the Ethereum network. The Cardano Foundation, which employs scientists and professors, is also very vocal about its development and investors are lapping it up, piling in their cash and buying up ADA.
Year start: 0.18 USD
Price on 14.02: 0.85 USD
YTD low: 0.18 USD
YTD high: 0.90 USD
YTD % change: +372.22%
ADA, 2021
Source: CoinMarketCap
Polkadot (DOT)
Polkadot essentially tries to answer the question: “How do we get blockchains to interact with each other?” It’s a network that allows different blockchains to work together (regardless of their purpose or size), allowing one blockchain to trigger events in another blockchain.
For Tolkien fans, Polkadot is like Sauron’s Master Ring — one blockchain to rule them all. You can understand the attraction, right?
DOT is the native token on the network and acts as a governance token, which basically means DOT holders essentially manage the network, including deciding on the fees paid, which blockchains get added/removed and things like upgrades and fixes.
DOT is having an exceptional year, climbing to the 6th largest crypto by market cap. Its price has increased by over 200% and, so far, shows no sign of stopping.
Year start: 9.26 USD
Price on 14.02: 28.12 USD
YTD low: 7.68 USD
YTD high: 28.55 USD
YTD % change: +203.67%
DOT, 2021
Source: CoinMarketCap
Dogecoin (DOGE)
Okay, okay, this one isn’t exactly a new kid on the block(chain). DOGE is actually one of the oldest cryptos, invented in 2013. Yet, the popular meme coin has been catapulted back into the headlines of late, so we thought we’d give you a refresher.
The coin actually started out as a bit of a joke and is based on the popular “doge” meme, which involved a Shiba Inu dog. Such is the joke of the crypto that it’s founder, Billy Markus, recently revealed that he sold all his coins 6 years ago and spent all the cash on a second-hand Honda Civic! He certainly won’t be laughing now.
DOGE’s unbelievable rise of 1,450% since the start of the year is largely thanks to the efforts of a Reddit group called SatoshiStreetBets, a parody of the WallStreetBets board which recently propelled GME stock to dizzying heights.
Read more about Reddit in our brand new article.
Elon Musk, Snoop Dogg and Gene Simmons have also tweeted about the cryptocurrency recently.
Source: Twitter
Year start: 0.004 USD
Price on 14.02: 0.062 USD
YTD low: 0.004 USD
YTD high: 0.079 USD
YTD % change: +1,450%
DOGE, 2021
Source: CoinMarketCap
What’s on the trading agenda this week?
Aside from Crypto, here’s everything you need to keep track of this week.
Monday 15 February
● JPY — GDP Growth Annualised Prel (Q4)
Tuesday 16 February
● EUR — GDP Growth Rate QoQ + YoY 2nd Estimate (Q4)
● EUR — ZEW Economic Sentiment Index (FEB)
Wednesday 17 February
● GBP — Inflation Rate YoY (JAN)
● CAD — Inflation Rate YoY (JAN)
● USD — Retail Sales MoM (JAN) + FOMC Minutes
Thursday 18 February
● AUD — Employment Change (JAN) + Unemployment Rate (JAN)
Friday 19 February
● JPY — Inflation Rate YoY (JAN)
● USD — Markit Manufacturing PMI Flash (FEB)
Here at Contentworks we closely follow market movements and prep content that we think your traders would love to read. Let’s get you started right here.
Speak soon!
The Contentworks team
