W. Paul Alexander
for
Better Call Paul Blog
[Jacksonville, Florida 08:13 am on 1/04/2021]
Hey Everyone! I'm checking in on the morning of January 4, 2021 to give an update regarding the crypto market.
The 2021 bull run continues to make massive profits for investors, although January 4. Over the last several days, we've seen another huge jump in the DeFi market as well. Not even a week ago, people were shocked to see that Decentralized Finance (DeFi) users had reached a massive, emotional milestone of $15 billion USD being locked into DeFi apps.
As of this morning, DeFi continues to break records, specifically with regards to total market cap and overall growth.
As of the January 3 update: DeFi crypto market cap is $21.52B.
Today, $22.05B, which means that market cap grew by approximately $500 million USD in a single day, again. This is due to a combination of increasing fiat invested into DeFi dapps and exchanges as well as the increasing value of tokens usually traded on DeFi platforms.
This is even more of an indicator that DeFi is here to stay and the foundation being laid among the thousands of DeFi dapps has grown to a comfortable level of stability.
Now, what does this mean for mainstream projects?
Well, the majority of DeFi dapps have a large focus on ERC-20 compliant tokens that are part of the Ethereum network, as well as nonfungible tokens (NFT) and other major and minor projects. As DeFi explodes, we should see Ether (ETH) start to move closer and closer to the psychological milestone of $1000.
Currently, here's where we are with ETH:
- It's trading at almost $977.00
- This does not seem like much of an increase from yesterday's update, which held ETH at $960. However, if one were to read my previous update for January 3, 2020, one can see that ETH was hanging steady around $770. Then overnight, ETH saw an increase of 24%, followed by this morning's price of $977. We are now just $23 shy of the psychological threshold limit of $1000. Once this threshold is breached, I believe we will see ETH continue to soar to new all-time highs.
- A note about Ethereum's position versus it's all-time high. To be completely accurate, $977, or even $1000, is not an ATH for Ethereum, but it is the highest we have seen for ETH since the 2017 bull run, which I think saw it reach around $1200 for a brief time period. Once we break $1000 for ETH in 2021, though, most seem convinced that it will continue a very fast climb.
Let's also take a look at where some popular tokens/projects stand:
Basic Attention Token (BAT)/Brave Browser
Many people, myself included, have projected BAT to end up as one of the most widely-used utility tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. This is due to its real-world use cases, of course. The BRAVE Browser, as we all know, is the flagship software that drives the BAT token, where users can tip publishers for their content and where users receive rewards for clicking on ad notifications instead of having ads pushed upon them according to the previous model of internet advertising.
Of course, all users of PUBLISH0X are aware of and use the BAT token, as it is one of the currencies that we receive tips in, and at one time, was the primary method of tips on Publish0x.
The Brave Browser continues to make inroads globally as well, with Japanese users of the browser being recently made eligible to receive BAT rewards.
Creators receive the bulk of the token rewards, of course. I am a verified creator with Brave and can attest to its potential for creators, but I do not feel couth about promoting a referral ID when I am supposed to be giving market updates, so I will not provide it. If you want to learn more, just Google "become a Brave publisher or creator" and you should find all you need to know.
However, BAT has not seen gains during this bull run. It has actually experienced a bit of loss but has remained within the $0.20 - $0.25 per BAT. I do, though, expect it to eventually reach around $1.00. This January 2, 2021 article gives a good analysis and price prediction of the BAT token and is definitely worth a read.
For BAT holders out there, my suggestion would be to continue to HODL YOUR BAT, as so:
Holding a BAT
Bitcoin
Bitcoin has continued to soar to heights unseen. Just yesterday, it broke $33,000, another all-time high among a record-setting 60 days. However, we are seeing a bit of volatility, as it to be expected, as it has fallen to right around $31,000. This should not be seen as an indicator of a correction -- yet -- although we are certain to see one at some point in the near future. This stumble down to $31K is likely just a normal exercise in volatility that we've all come to know and love with blockchain assets as a whole.
Ripple
Ripple (XRP) suffered a major loss after the announcement of the SEC lawsuit which wishes to classify the XRP asset as a security. Such a move has the potential to completely end XRP, and the project dropped to as low at $0.17 at one time in the last week. It has regained a bit of this, now trading at $0.23.
Now, this may not seem like that much of a gain but think about this for a second...
If you had bought in at $0.17, you've now made a profit of a little over 25%. This fact is something that most people do not consider when they see the 4.36% value increase on the widget below.
Today's update keeps Ripple/XRP hanging around at the $0.23 mark that it achieved yesterday.
The SEC Lawsuit Continues to Hover Like an Evil Specter Over Ripple. Ripple's stability and longevity in the cryptocurrency world seem to indicate that XRP will survive the lawsuit, but if the SEC wins their effort to classify XRP as a security, Ripple executives could face millions and millions in fines and judgments for sales of billions of an unregistered security, which is exactly what the lawsuit alleges.
So as I said in yesterday's update, until the resolution of the SEC lawsuit, I cannot, in good conscience, recommend XRP, as I will not recommend an asset that I would not buy myself. A couple of weeks ago, XRP almost reached the $1.00 milestone, only to have around 80% of that value wiped out. The danger with the SEC lawsuit is the potential for multiple state regulators to also jump on the bandwagon with cease and desist demands and lawsuits of their own. Such a move by multiple states against an American company would end that company, and unless you are comfortable taking that kind of a risk, I don't suggest XRP.
However, the plus side is that, because it is trading at a very low amount right now, it does not cost that much to buy a significant of the asset, and because it's so cheap right now, small bumps in price on the positive side has the potential to make investors comfortable with such risk a decent profit if all goes well.
Litecoin
One of the most surprising gains over the last few weeks has been Litecoin. Before the bull run started, Litecoin was down under $40 at one point. Yesterday, it broke the threshold of $150! This is a gain of almost 400% for one of the oldest, most stable cryptocurrency projects out there -- so established that it is a commonly held maxim that LTC is the silver to Bitcoin's gold.
Today, LTC remains at $154.73 -- evidence that the increase of value is not just a one-time spike.
Wrap Up
Well, everyone, that's all for this morning's short update!
Keep those profits rolling in. Don't hold onto a project because you are emotionally attached to it. Instead, become emotionally attached to the profit potential and start trading when your assets reach a profit margin threshold that you have set for yourself.
As always...
Do your own research and don't spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt!
See you all tomorrow for the January 5, 2020 update!
