Who would have thought that former president Donald Trump will come up with his very own NFTs and also sell them out in under 24 hours? Not me certainly. However, truth is stranger than fiction and it looks like Trump has made a splash in the NFT market when nobody was seemingly interested in acquiring digital images. So is Donald Trump making NFTs great again? let’s find out
Donald Trump’s NFT collection
Trump’s NFT collection dropped at a time when the market volume of the tokens is down by 89% from its peak in January. Dune Analytics reports that the trading volume of NFTs on OpeanSea Marketplace is the lowest since June 2021. One of the most famous NFT projects, Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT can be acquired now just for $80,466 which is an 81% drop from its peak value. Thus, Donald Trump’s NFTs selling out in under 24 hours is a testament to his popularity among the red-hatters.
Despite the bad timing, Trump’s NFT collection easily shot up to the top of OpenSea’s marketplace ranking, raking over $1.4 million since its launch. The collection’s trading volume is 900 ETH whereas its floor price is about 0.19 ETH which is about $230. The price has currently surpassed the original ask of $99 which is rare in the current NFT market.
Trump digital trading cards are fantasy NFT cards based on the polygon blockchain. The trading cards portray an exaggerated version of Trump showing him as a super-human, an astronaut, and a boxer, among others. There is also a certain reward program attached to the trading cards as buying 45 Trump trading cards at one go gives users a ticket to a gala dinner with Trump himself. Many are suspecting that this proposition has led to Trump Trading Cards becoming a massive hit among his fanbase and crypto bros.
It looks like the crypto community cannot catch a break. With news ranging from crypto billionaires dying mysteriously to the coins’ plummeting rates, 2022 was not entirely the year for crypto investors and enthusiasts. Now, another big blow to crypto bros has come from Microsoft which has decided to enforce new restrictions on cryptocurrency mining.
Microsoft bans crypto mining
Microsoft, one of the biggest players in the cloud computing arena has decided to take drastic measures to increase the stability of its cloud services. As a result, crypto mining has been axed from Microsoft’s cloud platform. There was no official announcement of the same as Microsoft quietly decided to ban crypto mining from its online services in order to protect its customers and clouds. The Register, a British tech news agency was the first to crack this development on December 15, 2022.
Microsoft introduced the new restrictions as a part of its universal license terms of Microsoft Online Services. Microsoft’s updated acceptable policy clarifies that crypto mining is now ‘prohibited’ on its platform without prior approval. The latest policy states that users now require users to obtain a written pre-approval from the company in order to use any Microsoft Online Services for crypto mining.
As per reports, Microsoft said that the latest restrictions laid upon crypto mining aims to protect the online service from cyber risks like fraud, attacks, and unauthorized access to customer resources. Furthermore, the company stated that it may consider permissions to mine crypto only for testing and research purposes, thus crypto whales running big mining operations on Microsoft cloud will take a massive hit with this development. Microsoft won’t be the first company in recent times to adopt the new restrictions. Earlier, Google also restricted users from engaging in crypto mining without the company’s prior written approval. Besides this, platforms like Oracle have banned crypto mining entirely, whereas Digital Ocean also requires users to take written permission.
It felt like for a while, everywhere you looked you were bombarded with metaverse-related content on the internet. Be it social media, digital news outlets, or your ‘Crypto-Bro’ friend, you could not miss out on the metaverse and everything around it even if you tried. So, what’s happening with the digital revolution which was touted to change the world as we experience it? Well, nothing much! One might ask what is happening with the metaverse these days only to find articles and discourse on the internet which do not lean towards the positive side. Now, it has been revealed that one of the high-budgeted metaverses, Decentraland, only had 38 daily active users!
Decentraland’s active users
I’ll come off clean here, I too had bought Decentraland’s crypto token, MANA, during its peak hype. I quickly sold the tokens off to shift to SHIBA INU and have been a SHIB loyalist ever since. Though I was skeptical about Decentraland’s ambitious metaverse ever becoming mainstream, this was not expected! DappRadar data aggregator recently released data that the Ethereum-based Decentraland only had 38 ‘active users’ over a period of 24 hours. This is a shockingly low number given the company’s market cap of a whopping $1.2 billion.
It is important to note that according to DappRadar, active users are counted based on unique wallet address’ interaction with Decentraland’s smart contract. This means that users making any purchase using SAND or MANA tokens in the platform only are counted as active users. People simply logging in to the metaverse to communicate with one another or roaming around the metaverse are not counted as active users. CoinDesk reached out to Sam Hamilton, the Creative Director at Decentraland, who clarified that DappRadar does not track the users in its entirety but only people who interact with their contracts. Sam added furthermore that there are currently 8,000 people on average in the Decentraland metaverse daily.
8,000 daily users off a $1.2 billion investment sounds…. tragic? This certainly does not prove whether or not the metaverse is the future. But we surely are off to a rocky start.
While the crypto industry becomes increasingly mainstream with each passing year, its volatility remains constant. One can never be sure how crypto trends change and new technologies emerge to render the previous-gen tech basically useless. Something similar has now happened with the Ethereum Merge.
Being simply regarded as the ‘Merge’ in crypto, Ethereum has moved away from the ‘Proof of Work’ trust model to a ‘Proof of Stake’ work model. The unversed need not get confused with such concepts as we’re here to explain to them in easy terms.
‘Proof of Work’ model
Earlier, Ethereum used to work on the ‘Proof of Work’ which basically meant that all the Ethereum transactions/ownerships were validated by the work of crypto-miners. Cryptocurrency mining is a process that verifies and adds new transactions to a cryptocurrency using a complex global network of computers. The miners ensure that the transactions are added correctly and are legitimate. The PoW model has long been criticized as it requires a complex chain of computers having stacked banks of graphic cards juicing up on an outrageous supply of electricity. The energy-intensive model of crypto mining is known to consume energy higher than in some countries! The Merge is expected to cut down electricity consumption related to mining by 99%.
‘Proof of Stake’ model
In this model, any crypto investor who stakes a minimum of 32 Ether tokens can become a validator. This translates to a group of validators getting selected to mine crypto in a far less energy-consuming process. Users will also have an option to create a ‘Stake pool’ to participate with a smaller stake.
Crypto enthusiasts should note that while the new mining mechanism is more energy-efficient, it does not necessarily make ETH transactions any quicker. According to Ethereum Foundation, the Proof of Stake method only increases the productivity speed by 10%. However, ETH developers do not need to worry as they won’t have to make any changes to their existing code. The technology is designed to be backward compatible, meaning applications built on the previous version will be available with the newer network.
Back then, investing money in the stock market was everyone’s dream, but people were unsure about the outcomes and kept themselves away from investing in stocks. They say movies have always been a mirror reflecting the actual image of our society, and people started believing it when they watched Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
However, it wasn’t enough for a large population of our country and to conquer that, Hansal Mehta came up with a web series called “Scam 1992”, which showcased the story of Indian stockbroker Harshad Mehta. The series not only changed the life of an actor Pratik Gandhi who starred as Harshad Mehta but also changed the perception of people about the stock market.
Today, we’re walking on the same lines, but the place of investment has changed, at least for some. In the last few years, we have moved from traditional investments to mutual funds, SIPs and the stock market, but not many of us are taking risks to invest in a real player, the cryptocurrency, which is taking the world by storm and creating new benchmarks every day.
Even though the finance department of India said, “cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum would never become legal tender across India”, we have about 20-million people who have invested in cryptocurrencies. Then, who’s stopping you? The fear of where to invest or the complex process of investing in crypto? Whatever it is, we’re going to take care of it, especially if you’re a first-time crypto investor.
Top 7 pieces of advice for first time Crypto Investors
Stay alert and listen to the inner voice
The cryptocurrency was invented in 2008 by a person or maybe a group of people with the pseudo name Satoshi Nakamoto. Over the last decade, it has become the first investment choice for many people, but many media personalities and financial advisors have said it’s an over-hyped sector due to its volatile nature. Well, I would say – start small and invest a little, but don’t dare to ignore the hype.
Do a little homework before investing your hard-earned money
Scammers are everywhere, and with the help of advanced technologies, they’ll easily fool you, especially in the field of crypto investments, as it runs on digital platforms. Also, cryptocurrencies are not regulated and backed by any government authority, making it impossible to recover your investments in case of any fraudulent activities. Hence, play safe and do the homework first.
Look for a trusted and genuine trading platform
One should always do a background check of the place where they’re about to invest their money, and the same rule applies when you’re looking for a genuine trading platform for cryptocurrency exchanges. When looking for a trusted trading platform in India as a first-time crypto investor, one should always go with platforms such as Coin DCX, CoinSwitch Kuber, or WazirX.
Top 7 pieces of advice for first time Crypto Investors
The importance of KYC and documentation in crypto
KYC is a need of the hour, be it in bank accounts, cryptocurrencies, or any platform where you’re worried about theft, scam, and frauds. The KYC process saves you from fraudulent activities by taking and verifying your details, such as identity proof, address proof, PAN card, and driver’s licence. KYC offers improved customer transparency and trust, keeping you away from scams and frauds.
Don’t expect miracles and go in for a long term investment
Cryptocurrencies are here to stay, but they keep fluctuating day by day due to their volatile nature. Hence, being a first-time investor, don’t expect miracles and go in only for a long-term investment. The more you’ll wait and adhere with your patience, the more benefits you could have in the future. Thus, invest in crypto as soon as possible and wait for the right time to come.
Don’t listen to the social media and follow the 5-per cent rule
Be wise, and don’t fall for the social media trap where most influencers urge you to invest a massive amount of money in cryptocurrencies. Well, one should not invest more than 3 to 5-percent of their monthly or annual income in the crypto market, at least when you’re a newbie in the crypto world, as most of the coins have dropped by 60-70 per cent overnight in the past.
Invest in multiple cryptocurrencies instead of one
While investing in platforms like the stock market or cryptocurrencies, one should never invest a considerable percentage of their money in one share or coin. Being a newbie in the world of cryptocurrency, one should always prefer to invest in multiple cryptocurrencies as it’s more beneficial than investing in one sole type of crypto. The moral of the story – if you lose in one, you might gain in another.
Almost everyone adores cryptocurrency, but only a few dare to invest. When El Salvador became the first country to permit consumers to use cryptocurrency in all transactions, several crypto investors thought it would soon get a legal tag in their respective countries. However, to their surprise, not many other countries followed El Salvador’s footsteps, which deeply saddened crypto investors.
Now, looking at the current happenings around the world, we can say that the future of crypto entirely depends on how much time developed and developing countries take to legalize these currencies officially. The risk involved around the investment in cryptos, such as the risk of money laundering and terror funding, worries every country, and that’s why it is taking forever to legalize.
We can’t predict the future, but we can always work on our present. Thus, investing in a volatile market of cryptocurrencies could be a risk at the time, but if you invest in it systematically by working on implementing proper strategies at the right time, you might not believe it, but you could have a chance to get the benefits from it in the coming years.
Let’s take a look at the top 5 cryptocurrencies:
Bitcoin (BTC)
Market Capitalization – $880 billion
Value of 1 Bitcoin in Indian Rupee (as of 22nd April 2022) – ₹30,92,870.31
Bitcoin was created in 2008 by someone under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, and over the years, it became one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world. It was designed originally as a medium of exchange, but now it is primarily viewed as a store of value.
Ethereum (ETH)
Market Capitalization – $375 billion
Value of 1 Ethereum in Indian Rupee (as of 22nd April 2022) – ₹2,29,731.28
Ethereum was founded by programmer Vitalik Buterin in 2013 along with a few additional founders, including Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio and Joseph Lubin. Ethereum is a programmable blockchain that finds applications in various areas, such as DeFi, smart contracts, and NFTs.
Tether (USDT)
Market Capitalization – $79 billion
Value of 1 Tether in Indian Rupee (as of 22nd April 2022) – ₹76.44
Tether is a stablecoin, and it’s backed by fiat currencies such as U.S. dollars and the Euro. Due to its non-volatile nature, Tether is preferred by many investors. Tether tokens are issued by the Hong Kong-based company Tether Limited, and the owners of Bitfinex control it.
Binance Coin (BNB)
Market Capitalization – $68 billion
Value of 1 Binance Coin in Indian Rupee (as of 22nd April 2022) – ₹31,384.25
The Binance Coin is a form of cryptocurrency which can be traded or exchanged for other forms of cryptocurrency, such as Ethereum or Bitcoin. Binance offers relatively secure options to invest in and trade cryptocurrencies. It is expected to climb up to the maximum price of $14,800 by December 2030.
Solana (SOL)
Market Capitalization – $45 billion
Value of 1 Solana Coin in Indian Rupee (as of 21st April 2022) – ₹8,293.88
Solana was developed in 2017 by a former executive at Qualcomm, Anatoly Yakovenko, with the current Solana board member and COO Raj Gokal. The native token ‘SOL’ powers the platform, and the coin hit its all-time high of $260.06 in November 2021 but since then it’s struggling somewhere around $100.
