The cryptocurrency market took a big hit in the second quarter of the year, to the extent that almost US$1 trillion was wiped off the entire crypto market capitalisation from the all-time high (ATH) in May.
Comparison of crypto returns. Source: Coin Metrics
In Q2 2021, Bitcoin (BTC) registered its worst quarterly performance for the past three years. However, Dogecoin (DOGE), Ether (ETH), and a few other major altcoins made positive returns within the same period.
BTC Returned -38%, Worst Record Since 2018
Bitcoin had been in an uptrend during the first three months of this year. However, it began tumbling in value shortly after reaching an all-time high of over US$63,000 on April 14. Based on data from Coin Metrics, BTC closed Q2 with a negative return of -38 percent.
Despite the fact that the largest crypto tanked heavily in Q2, a few major altcoins came out with positive returns, including Ethereum (ETH).
At today’s price of US$2,000, ETH has lost about 54 percent value from its ATH of US$4,362 on May 12. However, it still pulled through the second quarter with about 13 percent gain.
It’s worth noting that the meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE) was the best-performing major crypto in Q2, based on the data from Coin Metrics. Dogecoin posted a return of 391 percent in Q2, although it has lost over 70 percent of its value from the ATH.
Ethereum Classic (ETC) and MATIC follow on the list with about 297 and 226 percent gains, respectively.
Popular social media platform TikTok has banned its users from promoting financial products and services, including those related to cryptocurrency. The company also prohibits ads relating to crypto.
Crypto is on TikTok’s list of prohibited products and services, which also includes lending and management of money assets, loans and credit cards, trading platforms, foreign exchange, pyramid schemes and investment services.
In most countries, including the US and UK, TikTok bans “ads promoting virtual currencies/cryptocurrencies (eg bitcoin and ethereum), as well as cryptocurrency trading platforms and advisory services”.
TikTok’s move came after individuals were warned about taking financial information from TikTok amid concerns it could be misleading young savers or investors.
Martin Bamford, head of client education at Informed Choice, believes TikTok is “clamping down on directly or indirectly sponsored content which leads to an affiliate link, for example, to sign up to a trading platform and get free stocks”.
We see a huge amount of this branded content on TikTok, usually from poorly informed commentators, who lure in followers with promises of riches but in reality are making their money off people signing up via affiliate links.
Martin Bamford, head of client education, Informed Choice
Many people have been using TikTok to promote cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin (DOGE). Some TikTok videos have even pumped the prices of various cryptocurrencies.
Ban Good for Consumer Protection?
Almost exactly a year ago, the Australian government warned that TikTok was under scrutiny for any potential risks it might pose to user privacy or even national security.
The ability to advertise on TikTok is still an option for some, as the real issue lies with influencers who are paid a flat fee or commission for endorsing certain coins, exchanges, dApps, or other related products.
Elon Musk’s latest attempt to stay relevant in the crypto space and pump Dogecoin has been met with mediocre success. However, other Doge-inspired meme coins have jumped in value.
Crypto’s greatest ever troll has continued his quest to pump Dogecoin and all of the other copycat meme coins. On 1 July at 8:43 am UTC time, Musk posted a Godfather-themed meme along with the words, “Release the Doge!”
Seconds after, Dogecoin jumped from US$0.24 to $0.261, an 8.75% increase. A sharp sell-off followed but then at 9:24 Musk tweeted again, posting a message consisting of slightly altered lyrics from the viral 2017 children’s song Baby Shark.
After this second tweet, Dogecoin rose about 5 percent back up to $0.260. This could hardly be considered a successful attempt to pump the price of Dogecoin.
Dogecoin chart in relation to Musk tweets
Some in the crypto community suggested Musk’s tweets were beginning to lose their impact on the crypto market.
Even Elon tweeting about Doge doesn't work anymore
Although Dogecoin didn’t pump in response to Musk’s tweets, most of the other Doge-inspired meme coins, sometimes referred to as “Baby Dogecoins”, did. These included Shiba Inu, Baby Doge, which is up over 500 percent since its inception just over three weeks ago, and the brand-new Floki Inu. Musk tweeted about naming his new dog “Floki” on 25 June. In response, Shiba Inu jumped 25%, but Floki Inu went on a moon mission with an insane 3,500% surge in a matter of minutes.
Although Floki Inu did not repeat its lunar launch, it did soar from $0.00000269 to a high of 0.00001280, a 375% rise, between 1 July and 2 July, largely due to Musk’s tweet.
Floki Inu chart around the time of Musk tweet
Musk Walks and Talks the Doge
Musk has been spruiking Dogecoin for months now, which many consider is the primary reason for its meteoric rise. Musk even went on Saturday Night Liveto shill the coin. Since then though, Dogecoin has been steadily falling in price, despite Musk’s best efforts. Some analysts and traders consider this a blatant “top signal” for the whole market.
Richest man in the world went on television to do a skit about dog coin
The crypto market is plummeting once again and Doge bulls are among those suffering the most. Dogecoin has crashed all the way to US$0.16, down from an all-time high of US$0.74 on May 8.
The most recent drop in the crypto market seems to be in response to China’s most recent crackdown on trading and mining. Of course, this is not the first time China has tried to “ban Bitcoin”, but because an enormous amount of Bitcoin mining has been based there, news of regulations and restrictions always has a big impact on the market.
China banning Bitcoin for the 689th time, still supereffective
However, some analysts – such as ‘Big Short’ investor Michael Burry, who famously bet against the housing market before the Global Financial Crisis – argue that the crypto market has been due for a crash for a while.
All hype/speculation is doing is drawing in retail before the mother of all crashes … When crypto falls from trillions, or meme stocks fall from tens of billions, #MainStreet losses will approach the size of countries. History ain’t changed.
Michael Burry
Doge Bulls Among the Hardest Hit in Recent Crash
Dogecoin crashes to 16 US cents, its lowest point since April 23
It seems that the recent NASCAR Dogecar crash foreshadowed the losses that were to come for the Dogecoin Army. Dogecoin, one of the “meme stocks” that Burry refers to, plunged to 16 US cents, the lowest it has traded since April 23. Dogecoin peaked at 74 US cents on May 8, the same day Elon Musk went on Saturday Night Live to spruik the coin.
Since then, Dogecoin has steadily dropped, losing a huge portion of its former market cap.
DOGECOIN HAS LOST $72 BILLION IN MARKET CAP SINCE MUSK'S SNL APPEARANCE $DOGE
During this most recent crash, many traders have been taking their frustration out on Reddit and Twitter, where there are large and active crypto communities.
The Dogecoin community has largely remained positive (or blindly optimistic, depending on how you look at it), arguing that this drop in price is a fantastic opportunity to buy more of their favourite coin.
$DOGE at $0.22!!!! We won’t get it this cheap ever again!! 😭🚀🚀🚀
It seems though that many within the Dogecoin domain believe that one tweet from Elon Musk is going to reverse the trend and pump Doge to the moon. The problem with “to the moon” narratives is that the price target is ambiguous and ever-changing, based on greed. Something the Dogecoin Army might soon have to consider is that perhaps the 20,000% gains Dogecoin has seen in the past six months was the moon shot they had been calling for.
A Dogecoin-sponsored car crashed into a wall at a NASCAR race on June 19, coinciding with a crash in the price of Dogecoin.
During a NASCAR Xfinity Series race in Nashville, US, the Dogecoin-sponsored Chevrolet Camaro collided with a wall, narrowly avoiding taking out another car in the process. The so-called “Dogecar” finished the race in last place.
But despite crashing out of the race, the Dogecar became a hot topic on Twitter, reaching #26 most trending worldwide. As one hopeful Reddit user noted, any publicity is good publicity. Then again, tell that to Iron Finance.
The price of Dogecoin dropped to 26 US cents, its lowest in over a month. Source: TradingView
Around the same time as the car crash, the price of Dogecoin fell to 26 US cents, the lowest since May 19. It is unlikely there is much of a correlation between the two events, given that most of the market is in the red at the moment.
Dogecar Driver Remains Upbeat
The driver of the DogeCar, Stefan Parsons, waxed positive about the whole experience:
Thanks to everyone for the support this weekend. We’ll take the positives away and learn from it. Been a rough couple weeks but we will build on it and be better for next time! Proud of the whole @TeamBJMcLeod crew for the effort we showed this weekend.
Stefan Parsons
Dogecoin Price Has Been Diving for Months
The Dogecoin Army have long called for the cryptocurrency to hit US$1 which, until recently, seemed utterly impossible. But Dogecoin skyrocketed over 20,000% this year alone to an all-time high of 74 US cents on May 8. Since then, however, it has been travelling steadily south. Some analysts and traders consider Elon Musk going on Saturday Night Live to promote Dogecoin to be a blatant “top signal” not only for Dogecoin, but the entire crypto market.
Richest man in the world went on television to do a skit about dog coin
Nevertoolavish, a “custompreneur” based in Jakarta, has made limited-edition hand-painted sneakers for crypto enthusiasts.
Although many custom pairs of kicks are simply colour changes, some are made by artists who change plain white into elaborate designs and dreamy sketches – or into crypto fashion statements.
Aside from these BNB-themed shoes, custom AF1s are available for fans of Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Cardano and others. A pair of these will set you back around 445 AUD (excluding shipping and other fees) according to the product page on Tokopedia (only for Indonesian customers).
For those international customer (outside Indonesia) interested on Crypto AF1 please DM us, there're several following steps 🙏🏻
As mentioned on Twitter, international customers have to inquire Nevertoolavish directly. However, their Twitter profile cannot be direct-messaged so you might need to contact them via WhatsApp (numbers provided on Twitter profile). There is also a LinkTree page with more resources.
Not Only Shoes, NFTs Too
In addition to selling custom shoes and other clothing items, Nevertoolavish also sells NFTs, created through the same thought process used to give solid colour shoes a fresh coat of paint.
Although crypto fashion has been around for a while, it’s mostly been limited to virtual pieces. There have also been notable exceptions, however, such as SwapPay – an Aussie Cryptocurrency for Fashion made specifically for the fashion industry. Some big brands seem to be aware of this niche, indeed Nike holds a patent for blockchain-based sneakers.
Now, however, you can show your love for crypto by wearing an eye-catching fit.
Founder of Ethereum (ETH) Vitalik Buterin said the idea of scaling Doge is “fundamentally flawed,” as Elon Musk plans to.
CEO of Tesla Elon Musk said that Dogecoin (DOGE) could scale its block production by 900%. This sparked a long and heated Twitter thread between Doge defenders and detractors, including other prominent personalities in the crypto space like Michael Saylor and Anthony Pompliano.
Ideally, Doge speeds up block time 10X, increases block size 10X & drops fee 100X. Then it wins hands down.
However, Buterin wasn’t so convinced. In an article published on his personal blog, Buterin addressed the limits and subtle technical issues of scaling a blockchain, adding the risk of centralization—which would change a blockchain’s original concept.
Vitalik Responds to Elon
In summary, Buterin said there are two ways to try scaling a blockchain: by simply adjusting its parameters or implementing fundamental technical changes. While the first one is the most attractive for developers, he outlines as follows why the approach is “fundamentally flawed”.
Computers can’t provide 100% of their CPU power because it would leave them unusable for other applications while it’s running a blockchain node.
Computers need a safe margin to prevent DoS (Denial-of-Service) attack.
Computers need spare capacity for other tasks like processing transactions in the mempool.
Buterin added the importance of users being able to freely run nodes to make the ecosystem truly decentralised:
For a blockchain to be decentralised, it’s crucially important for regular users to be able to run a node, and to have a culture where running nodes is a common activity.
However, technical changes can greatly improve a blockchain over time, and that’s what Buterin is currently working with Ethereum developers. He added that sharding the Ethereum network (that is, “decoupling the data contained on a blockchain from the data that a single node needs to process and store”) could increase throughput to 1 million TPS (transactions per second) without risking network security.
The current bottleneck for Ethereum is storage size. Statelessness and state expiry can fix this and allow an increase of perhaps up to ~3x – but not more, as we want running a node to become easier than it is today
Elon Musk didn’t take too much time to reply the same way Buterin did. His only response to Buterin was “He fears the Doge,” with a poster of a Shiba Inu trying to bite a dollar bill underwater, with a caption saying, “You’ll never use the dollar again”.
Following on from my article about 5 Crypto Coins That Could Have a Great 2021, I’ve had a lot of questions lately about what cryptos I like at the moment. So here is the shortlist, and the reasons why I like them.
Disclaimer: Before you continue reading, please note that I am not a financial advisor, nor do not recommend you buy any of these cryptos mentioned below. I also change my positions constantly and may or may not be holding these coins. This is just a list of those coins which I like at the moment and providing some commentary for educational purposes only to help people learn about these exciting projects.For the latest coin prices see the cryptos page.
BTC is the first cryptocurrency and the godfather driving the market. Over the years, I’ve learned that it is foolish not to have some BTC in the portfolio, because it tends to act independently to the other cryptocurrencies. What percentage of BTC of the total portfolio is totally up to you, something around 50% is not unusual to see.
With its inelastic supply and growing demand, it’s hard not to see continued upside as it averages around 200% per year over the past 10 years. We’re also seeing lots of institutional money flowing into BTC as big companies add BTC to their balance sheets as a “hedge” and “store of value”.
I would also say that there is also speculation that BTC may eventually replace the US Dollar and become unit of account for the worldwide economy. Could we be comparing the price of goods in Satoshi’s in future years to come?
While Bitcoin is seen as a “store of value”, Ethereum is powering the new crypto economy. Bitcoin currently has scaling and environmental issues while Ethereum is quickly evolving to address those issues.
As a computer programmer myself, as soon as I heard “Ethereum is programmable money”, my eyes opened wide and I saw the potential of cryptocurrencies for the future of the economy.
Ethereum has some very promising use cases especially with Decentralised Finance (DeFi), Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs), and Decentralised Exchanges (DEXs).
Compared to Bitcoin’s 200% average return per year, Ethereum has averaged 400% per year so far and is on target to outperform BTC once again this year.
Binance has evolved into a worldwide cryptocurrency exchange juggernaut since it started in 2017. At the moment, it is the easiest and best place to do your crypto trading. Before it came along, other platforms were terrible and hard to use with high fees.
They are also starting to expand their services into other markets such as DeFi with Binance Smart Chain, crypto loans, and crypto debit cards coming to Australia later this year.
It’s crazy to think that BNB was only $2 back in 2018 and now it is over $600. I can only see upside for Binance as their ecosystem expands rapidly as they buy up big companies such as CoinMarketCap and are set to Acquire 20-30 Crypto Startups Yearly.
Chilliz launched in 2020 to power the new sports fan token economy. These tokens act like a royalty program for fans and also can provide other benefits such as voting, connecting fans directly with clubs and players.
Since launching, CHZ has already increased over 7,000% in price and I can only see more upside for the project. My research into this coin revealed that there are currently no major competitors in the space. Their business model also looks quite clever, as they list new tokens (like in the case of UFC) on pre-sale, then the coin is actually added once the partnership is officially approved.
As clubs see the potential to raise funds through this new revenue stream, they will launch their tokens and form partnerships with Chilliz and Socios as a way to not only raise funds but engage with their fans. We’ve already seen big football clubs join such as Manchester City, Barcelona, Juventus and other sports such as UFC and Formula 1.
Chainlink is a project that connects real-world data with blockchain data. As a computer programmer, I can see the power of this technology and the need for timely, accurate, and trusted data.
Moving forward I can see a huge demand to sync the real world and the virtual world. This could be something simple like a weather forecast, or more complicated like tokenized partial ownership of real estate.
Together with this and its exceptionally regarded oracles that manage the security and integrity of the network it can only be a very strong “middleman” for the further advancements of blockchain and decentralized finance.
Basic Attention Token is a decentralized platform built on Ethereum. It rewards you for your attention, if you see an ad, you get paid in BAT through the Brave Browser.
The utility of rewarding people for their attention is quite a powerful concept, especially if you are shown the ads your interested in.
The project is currently advancing by developing a DEX (decentralized exchange) which should add tremendous value to the project’s already 3 million monthly users.
Theta is one of the leading projects that is providing decentraliszed bandwidth through peer-to-peer networking. Other features of Theta include Decentralised Video Streaming, Staking, Theta TFUEL, Guardian Nodes, CDNs, Voting, and more.
As more adoption comes to cryptocurrencies and blockchain, one would assume we will need more bandwidth to support scaling worldwide. Theta software was also included in the new Samsung Galaxy S20 smartphones to assist with video streaming and rewarding watchers with TFUEL tokens.
The hypothesis is that as crypto usage grows, then Theta adoption should grow with it.
Cardano is a decentralized blockchain platform, similar to Ethereum. It’s already a proof-of-stake platform which is more environmentally friendly and has implemented further unique scaling technology.
The QTUM project is a decentralized platform and blockchain similar to Ethereum. Its purpose is not to compete with Bitcoin and Ethereum, but to bridge the gap between them helping scale transactions at low cost.
The project is heavily committed to DeFi and supporting DeFi projects offering $1 million dollars in rewards to developers who build applications using the Qtum blockchain.
Personally, I think Decentralised Finance (DeFi) is going to be a huge disrupt to how we currently do finance worldwide. Frameworks like Ethereum and Qtum, which support DeFi projects can only have an upside in the future as they contribute to the rise of DeFi.
Ripple (XRP) is a cryptocurrency platform and blockchain similar to Ethereum. The project is attempting to become the facilitator for global payments between financial institutions.
XRP has had both good and bad press over the years. Initially, the sentiment was very bullish due to the rumors that banks may use it for liquidity and large global transactions. However, since then, it has been involved in lawsuits lessening its appeal.
Recently they announced plans for Ripple To Go Public After Lawsuit Settlement which has shed some light that there may be some potential for a comeback in sentiment. After running crypto news for the past few years I’ve seen that the 2 most popular coins in Australia are DOGE and XRP.
Dogecoin (DOGE) started as a joke when a developer cloned Bitcoin’s code and stuck a dog meme as the logo, back in 2013. Since then it has gained tremendous popularity and it seems you can’t go a single day without seeing that cheeky dog face.
I generally don’t invest in “jokecoins”, also referred to as “shitcoins” that have little to no utility. However, DOGE is an exception, due to its strong social appeal. Its “meme value” is so high within the crypto community and this provides free marketing for the coin.
Back in 2017, I underestimated the power of social media when DOGE was only $0.00023, and this year it almost reached $1 earlier this year – that’s over 400,000% gain in just 3-4 years.
As the crypto market grows and more people join in the frenzy, DOGE could be the one they buy as a speculation. However, I think it will only end badly for those people buying DOGE at all-time high prices, when the market turns, the shitcoins could drop to nothing, only the quality projects will survive long term.
Conclusions
It’s crazy how back in 2016 the prices were so low compared to now. I wonder if we will be shocked again in another 4-5 years from now…
If you’re interested in buying any of these coins then head over to one of our trusted Partners: CoinJar, Swyftx, or Binance to get started. You can compare the exchanges here.
It seems that Elon has done a complete backflip on his bullishness towards Bitcoin and is now asserting his power and influence to wage war against the very asset that has made him and his company billions.
Elon launched a negative attack on Bitcoin’s fundamentals to stir mass hysteria and fud on the entire crypto industry.
Michael Saylor has joined the debate to shed some light on the truth and offer some real facts over claims that Bitcoin is “bad for the environment”.
Michael Saylor intelligently articulates that while Bitcoin mining does use energy, it is actually powered by “wasted energy”: the 30% of lost excess energy generated by the world’s power grid. He argues that stopping Bitcoin mining would have no effect on reducing the amount of energy already being wasted in the world.
“The least energy intensive, most efficient technology that we have perhaps discovered, ever, in the history of the human race.”
Michael Saylor
The beneficial advantages that the blockchain solves in our society makes it’s energy usage justified. For Bitcoin, this energy expenditure is a small price to pay for a censorship-resistant digital bearer asset, one that lets citizens of the world to escape a broken centralized financial system and improve people’s lives exponentially.
He also explains that Bitcoin mining will decrease in the near future; as the last of the 21 million Bitcoins in existence are mined. Every four years, the revenue and the block rewards for Bitcoin are falling, so by the year 2035, 99% of the world’s Bitcoin will have been mined. This means that over time, Bitcoin brilliantly becomes less energy-taxing on the environment.
If you take all the energy of used in the Bitcoin network it amounts to 25 basis points of all the wasted energy. So 1/4 of 1% of the wasted energyin the world, offers the hope of a decent life to 8 Billion people and solves an economic problem”.
Michael Saylor
To slander crypto-mining as an inherently dirty business, appears intellectually dishonest and deliberately deceptive. Is Elon looking to get enter the cryptocurrency market himself and partner with Dogecoin to save the world from the ‘harmful environmental impact’ of Bitcoin mining? For starters, if Dogecoin was ever to be a serious contender for the ‘currency of earth’, or mars for that matter, it would want to be deflationary (as Bitcoin is) and also decentralised (as Bitcoin is), ie: not having 30% of the circulating supply owned by one person (as Doge is).
Following a bizarre poll on Twitter on May 11, asking followers if they wanted Tesla to accept Doge; Elon took to Twitter again on May 13- this time to condemn Bitcoin, renouncing BTC purchases for Tesla due to ‘environmental concerns’. As cryptic as Elon’s tweets often are, you don’t have to be a genius to read between the lines; as he clearly hints at an alternative cryptocurrency being a more favourable alternative; stating: “we are looking at other cryptocurrencies that use <1% of Bitcoin’s energy/transaction”.
Working with Doge devs to improve system transaction efficiency. Potentially promising.
What is Elon Musk’s agenda here? Is he really concerned about the burning of fossil fuels, in particular coal, used to mine Bitcoin, or is he carefully turning the debate to focus on something much bigger? Is it about creating further hype around Dogecoin, or something else that would hugely benefit Tesla’s financial interests?
If you’re going to focus on environmental issues, particularly those centred around the world’s consumption of coal, there are a lot of other places to start, than criticising the use of energy required to mine Bitcoin.
Will we see Bitcoin go to a proof of work model like Ethereum 2.0 which is greener and better for the environment.
One of the world’s largest collector car auction company, Mecum Auctions, has announced that it now accepts payments in Bitcoin and other major digital currencies from bidders during online auction events.
You Can Bid on Collector Cars With Cryptocurrency
Per the announcement, the company will accept bids in about ten cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), and stablecoins such as USD Coin (USDC), Binance USD, and others.
This is made possible following Mecum Auctions’ partnership with one of the industry-leading crypto payment processors, BitPay. The development today will enable bidders to experience the “convenience of an end-to-end digital experience”, according to Mecum.
Mecum Auctions will now accept cryptocurrency for payment via @BitPay, the world’s largest provider of #Bitcoin & #cryptocurrency payment services!
Additionally, the company believes its crypto payment service will enable them to attract new customers and sales, as it opens doors to new massive crypto marketplace.
We recognize the growing acceptance of cryptocurrency for commerce and are confident that by accepting crypto for collector cars, it will widen our scope of influence and introduce the Mecum Experience to an entirely new audience.
Sam Murtaugh, Chief Operating Officer at Mecum Auctions [source]
Aussies Can Buy Cars With Bitcoin
Mecum is not the first company to accept Bitcoin payments for purchasing cars. Only a few weeks ago, Crypto News Australia reported that CarBuyers.com.au is allowing Australians to buy and sell their vehicles using Bitcoin.
Tesla also previously allowed people Bitcoin payments for its products. Not until May 12, when the founder Elon Musk tweeted that the company will no longer accept payments in Bitcoin due to environmental concerns. The announcement preceded the massive drop in the price of the cryptocurrency, as people began to panic-sell their coins.
