Here's where we take a look at ADA news, crypto markets and how Cardano is doing.

Bitcoin has been in a significant uptrend for several months, but other cryptocurrencies are starting to catch up.

Cardano, for example, has seen a 5% price increase in the past 24 hours as ADA reaches $1.50 for the first time since 2018 and continues its bullish momentum.
The number of Cardano wallets has hit an all-time high.

Data from Glassnode shows that there are now more than 1.3 million active retail wallets on Cardano's network, the highest number ever recorded.
This is a significant milestone because it exceeds the previous record of 1.2 million sets at the peak of the 2017 bull cycle.

## ADA News Crypto: Number of active wallets

Also, [Cardano (ADA)](/news/article/ada-coin-price-prediction) reached a new all-time high in terms of the number of active wallets at the end of March. The retail interest in Cardano increased on the back of ADA’s price rally, which pushed above $1.30 for the first time.

According to data from IntotheBlock, ADA had as many as 315,000 active retail wallets at the end of March. This is a new all-time high for Cardano and represents a 15% increase over February.
The number of active retail wallets for ADA has been steadily growing since January 2021, which coincides with Cardano’s massive price rally and increased adoption by institutions.

On the institutional side, Grayscale added over 690,000 ADA to its asset base in March alone. This takes Grayscale’s ADA holdings to 2 million tokens or close to $3 billion.
The firm now holds over 2% of all outstanding ADA tokens, according to data from IntoTheBlock.

Cardano’s price also neared its record high after rallying to $1.30 on Binance earlier today. At the time of writing, ADA trades at $1,210 with a market cap of $38 billion.

## ADA News Crypto: The price of ADA

Cardano (ADA) is a relatively new cryptocurrency protocol. It was designed to be a blockchain-based platform that allows decentralized applications and smart contracts.
Cardano was envisioned as a third-generation blockchain, the successor of Litecoin and Ethereum. Cardano has a single native asset called ADA, used for all transactions on the network.
The ADA price has seen an impressive rally this year, fueled by the growing interest in decentralized finance (DeFi).

At press time, ADA is trading at nearly $1.25 — this marks an impressive 471% increase from its yearly low of $0.21 set in March 2020.

## Ada News Crypto: Cardano (ADA) Becomes one of the hottest cryptocurrency

Cardano (ADA) is currently one of the hottest cryptocurrencies on the market, following a strong rally in the past few days. According to data provided by crypto analytics platform SANbase, Cardano's retail wallets reached an all-time high, surpassing the previous ATH established in February 2020 by 30%.

The increased interest in Cardano comes as the network prepares to upgrade its Shelley mainnet with a new hard fork called Mary. The upgrade will add multi-asset support and native tokens to Cardano. The fork is scheduled for February 20th.

Cardano's gains have been part of a broader bull run that has seen BTC reach $50k for the first time last week. In recent weeks, most top coins have rallied significantly, such as WazirX's WRX token or Swipe's SXP coin.


ADA News - Crypto Prices for Cardano 

## What Is Polygon (MATIC)?

Before we look at the [MATIC](/news/article/polygon-crypto) price prediction, let's examine the system.

Matic Network, launched in October 2017 and rebranded to Polygon in February 2021, was co-founded by Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, and Anurag Arjun, two professional blockchain creators and a business counselor. It is the first systematised, manageable platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure expansion. Polygon SDK, a modular, adjustable framework, is the main feature that sustains creating various kinds of applications.

Polygon successfully alters Ethereum into a proficient multi-chain system (Internet of Blockchains). This multi-chain blockchain design is similar to other ones such as Polkadot, Cosmos, and Avalanche, with the benefits of Ethereum's security, rich environment, and vulnerability.

Using the Polygon, developers can build promising rollup chains, ZK rollup chains, stand-alone chains, or any other infra needed.

The $MATIC token will persist and play an increasingly significant role in encouraging governance and securing the system.

Polygon, formerly known as Matic Network, is a Layer 2 scaling solution supported by Binance and Coinbase platforms. The project aims to promote the massive acquisition of cryptocurrencies by fixing scalability problems on multiple blockchains.

Polygon integrates the proof-of-stake blockchain architecture and the Plasma Framework. The framework operated by Polygon, as stated by the co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, authorizes the manageable implementation of scalable and independent intelligent contracts.

With Polygon, new components are being created around the current, proven technology to extend the capability to cater to the various requirements of the developer ecosystem. Polygon will persist in developing the core technology to rise to a more extensive ecosystem.

The Plasma framework allows Polygon to accommodate an endless number of decentralized apps on their infrastructure without undergoing the typical disadvantages of proof-of-work blockchains. So far, Polygon has drawn more than 50 DApps to its PoS-guarded Ethereum sidechain.

The native token of Polygon, MATIC, is an ERC-20 token operating on the Ethereum blockchain. The token is used for Polygon payment services and as a settlement coin between users who work within the Polygon ecosystem. Trading fees on the Polygon sidechains can also be paid with these tokens.

## Price Prediction

Polygon (MATIC) has been running down by 3.71% over the previous seven days. The price dropped by 1.78% over the last 24 hours. In just one hour, the price has gone down by 0.86%. The current price per MATIC is $1.6384. Polygon is running 43.89% down from the all-time high of $2.92. The current circulating reserve of the MATIC coins is 7,758,492,080.62.

## Highlights of Polygon(MATIC)

•	Polygon raised about $450 million via a private deal of its native MATIC token in a funding round conducted by Sequoia Capital India with participation from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Galaxy Digital, Galaxy Interactive, Tiger Global, Republic Capital, and renowned investors like Alan Howard (co-founder, Brevan Howard) and Kevin O'Leary (Mr. Wonderful from ABC's Shark Tank).

•	Gamma is going live on Polygon. It is an operational liquidity administration platform for Uniswap v3, delivering non-custodial, automated, concentrated liquidity management services.

•	SynFutures has evolved as the most significant derivatives-based decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Polygon network, with a moderate monthly market volume closing of $1 billion.

•	Stader Labs' liquid staking solution is advancing soon to Polygon. This will allow MATIC coin holders to open liquidity and leverage their funds in one of 7,000 Polygon-based GameFi and DeFi apps — all while staying staked!
 



Polygon (MATIC) Price Prediction 

Are you looking for a Solana price prediction for 2022, 2025, and 2030, and want to know where the price of this promising coin will go in the future?

This guide will analyse Solana’s past prices, current standings, and SOL price forecast.

Solana is a blockchain platform designed to host scalable and decentralized applications with smart contract functionality. Its native cryptocurrency is SOL and claims to provide the fastest transaction times and lower costs than its rival blockchains, such as Ethereum.

## What is Special about Solana

Solana has become one of the most highly used blockchains today, with a theoretical peak capacity of 65,000 transactions per second. It’s becoming popular due to its low transaction prices and high speed.

[The Solana Foundation](https://solana.foundation/) launched its cryptocurrency in 2020, but you might wonder why it is trending today. Solana has recently gained widespread popularity due to its incredible functionality and high usability. Its astronomical surge has attracted the attention of many investors, leaving many of us wondering about its potential.

With SOL's excellent traction and popularity, many people wonder whether the coin is a wise long-term investment or if they should get rid of what they have before it goes further down.

## Solana Price Prediction

Let’s look at our SOL price prediction and what potential Solana may have in the future.

### Solana’s Price Today

Solana is a fast and secure blockchain that provides efficient decentralized finance or DeFi solutions. Although the coin was launched in March 2020, it was only in 2021 that it found acclaim and gained popularity. Solana went from position 42 in February 2021 all the way up to rank 7 in September of the same year.

### How did Solana’s price rise so fast

Solana is a highly efficient coin. But the catalyst that made its price skyrocket is an NFT project called the “Degenerate Ape Academy”. This project had sold over 10,000 NFTs in only a matter of minutes. The minting of the Apes went without any inflated transaction fees and congested network. This allowed many people to notice it and the benefits it offers.

### Solana (SOL) Price Prediction for 2022, 2025 and 2030

At Moni Talks, we predict the future Solana price predictions by using deep AI-assisted technical analysis and collecting maximum historical data for the SOL coin. This includes Solana's past price, market cap, volume, and other factors.

### Solana Price Prediction 2022

The average price of SOL could hit ~$135 with the minimum price around $100, and the maximum price level could reach ~$170. Solana has recovered more than half of its losses for the year. So, the year-end predictions have increased closer to $200.

### Solana (SOL) Price Forecast for 2025
The average price prediction of Solana is around $358.60, with the minimum price around $348.44 and the maximum price at $430.94.

### SOL Price Prediction 2030

The price of SOL is predicted to reach a minimum value of $2,150 and a maximum value of $2,630. The average trading price of SOL is expected to be around $2,312.52 throughout 2030.

### Is Solana a Good Investment?

Solana is a fast and efficient cryptocurrency, which gives the coin an excellent chance to keep growing in the future. Its value is expected to continue expanding as high demand encourages price rise. Even if SOL doesn’t shoot for the moon as expected, there’s a chance it can still be a good investment if it doesn’t crash. Since there’s some risk to any investment, you should conduct the maximum research possible before coming to any conclusion.

More [coin news](/news/category/crypto-coin-news).


Solana Price Prediction: Will SOL Surge? 

As altcoin season approaches, picking an altcoin to invest in can be a tricky thing. And for investors, knowing which coin will be on the rise next is imperative.

First, altcoins are cryptocurrencies that aren't [Bitcoin](/news/category/blockchain-news); after the release of Bitcoin in 2009, all other coins were released, and they were called altcoins. Over time as Bitcoin grew in value and popularity, so did altcoin. And in today's world, altcoins have lots of investment models, one of which is altcoin season.

As the usage of altcoin increases and becomes dominant in the market, investors are more than ever keenly interested in the altcoin season—a period where these coins could reach a record high. As of 2021, many coins reached record highs, and 2022 is no exception. That's all the more reason people are very interested in this season - altcoin season - and investors, enthusiastic alike, eye the season.

## Altcoin Season is Here

The price of Bitcoin is cyclical, and it only halves once every four years. As the price of Bitcoin went up and after its halving event, the altcoin season officially began. Now investors know altcoins with small market caps are about to go up, and they are keen on new investment opportunities.

So if you're thinking of the right altcoin to invest in this period, here are a few basic ones you could invest in:

### [Ethereum](/news/category/ethereum-news-today)

Ethereum is the essential altcoin. If you don't own Ethereum, you need to buy, and if you own, you could broaden your investment by buying more if you can. Some bullish news like a move to PoS, a possible upgrade to Ethereum 2.0, means the coin will see a significant rise in coming times. 

### Shiba Inu [SHIB](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/shiba-inu/)

SHIB is another good coin to buy in 2022, and the main reason is; that the meme coin buzz made coins like SHIB see massive growth. When it was introduced in October 2021, it saw a 1000% growth within a month. Considering this trend, SHIB is another coin to see massive growth as we move through 2022. More so, with the launch of ShibaSwap - a new decentralized exchange - the currency is still very much expected to grow.

### MANA - Decentraland

The buzz around metaverse has got people interested in crypto more than ever. Decentraland is at the forefront of metaverse development. Decentraland is a game consisting of a digital virtual world, where users can buy in-game items, like land, to develop with and characters.
Items in the game are in the form of NFTs. As the metaverse expands, with major tech companies like Meta and Microsoft leading development, coins used in the metaverse garner more interest. And MANA is no exception. Decentraland, a major metaverse game with coin MANA, will see much interest in 2022 even in the coming years.

### BLOCK

Lucky Block is changing the lottery industry one step at a time for the better. BLOCK is used to invent the way lotteries are being played by reducing draw times, improving transparency, and increasing the chance of winning. With these innovations, the coins have garnered interest not just in the lottery industry but also publicly. And the way the currency is built is that the supply reduces over time, and this makes the prices go up. So buying this altcoin now can be beneficial as its value is expected to rise.

## Final thought

Altcoins are expected to see a massive rise in the coming weeks; that's guaranteed. Buying one of these altcoins listed above will be an ample investment opportunity.


4 Coins to Watch this Altcoin Season

Throughout 2021, cryptocurrency heavyweights like [Bitcoin](/news/category/bitcoin-news) and [Ethereum](/news/category/ethereum-news-today) experienced sharp declines in value, however, the market showed remarkable resiliency and ended the year in bull market territory.  As we begin another new year, cryptocurrencies are _again_ experiencing sharp declines (hardly anything new for the month of January) and, while the most heavily capitalised cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, decline in value, other digital assets, referred to as “altcoins,” are gaining an increasing amount of attention from new investors. 

## What Are Altcoins?

Altcoins, an abbreviated way of saying “alternative coins,” are nothing other than digital assets **not** called Bitcoin.  As of November 2021, there were over 14,000 altcoins trading across a wide array of crypto-exchanges operating on the market.  The rate at which Millennials and members of the Gen Z demographic are piling into altcoins, more than any other generation, is sure to make 2022 an especially big year for these digital assets.  These two groups account form a portion of society that has never known a world _without_ the internet and their accelerated level of digital adoption and keen interest in digital assets is expected to drive the popularity and adoption of altcoins to new records. 

## Market Cheerleaders

The lot of these two groups account for the majority of the market’s “cheerleaders” or the digital asset crusaders loudly promoting their belief that cryptocurrencies are the vanguard of a financial revolution.  And why not?  It’s easy to understand how cryptocurrencies fit the lifestyle of these two groups.  If we examine them a bit more closely, we see how technically adept they tend to become at a very young age, and this is what drives their preferences for financial transactions that are achieved through digital means over other more traditional methods. 

Vendors haven’t failed to notice.  Organizations, large and small, are recognizing the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies among the younger generations as an opportunity to grow their own businesses.  The list of organisations announcing their acceptance of cryptocurrency as a form of payment is steadily growing.  The rapid adoption of altcoins by younger investors also sheds a bit more light on why mega-retailers, like Amazon, are investing so heavily in cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies.

## Expect a Steady Rise in Altcoin Popularity

In the new year to come, it’s safe to anticipate that altcoins already experiencing a steady rise in popularity will pick up _even more steam_.  Perhaps most notable of all, investors should develop a keen interest in the “metaverse” and the role it is playing not just in the lives of the younger generation, but in all our lives.  These virtual reality worlds are developing economies all their own and many, like Decentraland and The Sandbox, have their own cryptocurrencies that players use to exchange online goods and even purchase virtual real estate.

Here are a few of the more popular altcoins to watch in 2022:

[**Solana (SOL)**](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/solana/): Up more than 13,000% in 2021.  Logically, most think their opportunity to buy in has long since passed, but Solana has a reputation as a low-cost platform that can be very competitive with Bitcoin meaning there is room yet to grow. 

[**Decentraland (MANA)**](https://decentraland.org/): We mentioned the metaverse earlier, and MANA is what they mean when they say “buying the metaverse." In the [Decentraland](https://decentraland.org/) metaverse, one can purchase virtual real estate, buy shop fronts, and so much more.  MANA is the currency of this virtual world.

[**Chainlink (LINK)**](https://chain.link/): As the use of smart contracts continues to increase, so too will the value of Chainlink. 

Altcoins give us many reasons to be excited about the future as these smaller coins offer more upside potential, but this market hasn’t yet matured – altcoin prices can be significantly affected by rampant volatility and it’s important for investors to keep this in mind.

Altcoins Drawing Interest from Millennials

Polarity.  Volatility.  Even Mass Hysteria.  A wide array of terms can be used to explain the phenomenon of cryptocurrencies in 2021.  Whatever the term, it’s most certainly the type of phenomenon capable of creating new millionaires, which the market most certainly did in 2021.  Of course, celebrity tweets played a role in promoting the popularity of the market, but what a year it’s been for those with an iron stomach. 

Wall Street has always been fond of saying that “volatility works both ways” and you can ask the investors who bought into altcoins like AXS, SAND, or FTM back in January if truer words were ever spoken.

Though rocky at times with a couple of monumental dips, it was a fine year for the cryptocurrency market as it made huge strides towards mainstream adoption and gained $30 billion in new investments.  Those are remarkable achievements for a market that hasn’t yet adopted a regulatory framework and was all but outlawed by a global superpower (China). Still the popularity of digital assets continues to grow _no matter what_ the world seems to throw at investors. 

## A Look Back at 2021

A look back at the top-performing digital coins of 2021 reveals one thing about the future – get to know **[metaverses](/news/category/metaverse-news/)**.  Facebook's recent re-branding as “Meta” ignited a _powder keg_ that thrust every coin that was metaverse related into the stratosphere.  Essentially, a metaverse is a virtual world where people socialise, go to virtual shopping malls, buy virtual real estate, and do pretty much anything they would do in the _real_ world.  Most of the top-performing coins of 2021 are playing an increasingly crucial role in these metaverses:

### Gala (Symbol: GALA) – Revenue from the global gaming market is expected to reach $200 billion in 2024. At the center of it is a blockchain-gaming platform, GALA – a digital currency that shot up an absurd _51,000%_ in value in 2021.

### Axie Infinity (Symbol: AXS)– Another metaverse-related cryptocurrency that took early investors on a Nantucket sleighride in 2021.  Axie Infinity posted a gain of nearly 19,000% this year. 

### The Sandbox (Symbol: SAND) – Rage on, metaverse coins!  Sandbox has locked arms with mega-boosters, like Snoop Dogg who incidentally built his very own virtual mansion in the Sandbox platform.  Tallying a 14,530% pump in value since the start of the year, SAND enjoys its rightful place as one of our top performers of 2021.

### Fantom (Symbol: FTM)– Best described as a provider of ledger services to global businesses, Fantom has posted a surge of almost 9000% in 2021 and, with its very strong fundamentals, there could be more room to grow in 2022. 

### Decentraland (Symbol: MANA) – [Decentraland](https://decentraland.org/) is a wildly popular virtual world with 300,000 monthly participants (and growing).  Many of them wanting to purchase land or trade their digital wares in the platform.  To do it, they’re using Decentraland's official digital currency, MANA.  The surge in popularity was able to boost the value of MANA by almost 4000% in 2021.

As we march into the new year, we all aspire to discover the next coin best-positioned for a 50,000% gain.  Be prudent about your research, and understand this market is still young, extremely volatile, and oh-so exciting.

Momentum Behind 2021’s Crypto Gaming Coins

Early December was a brutal period for the crypto market, as it crashed substantially. While it has recovered since, crypto assets like BTC, MANA, SAND and GALA are yet to hit the highs they experienced in November. 

Causes include the volatile period for traditional financial markets and skewering inflation.

There is a silver lining, though. Terra (LUNA) surged in price, and Terra-TVL grew considerably in the past week or so. Why are people choosing Terra Luna crypto stablecoins over other US$-backed assets?

## TerraUSD, a truly decentralised stablecoin

TerraUSD (UST) is a decentralised, algorithmic stablecoin that offers a scalable solution for DeFi. Decentralised stablecoin leaders like DAI face severe scalability problems, and UST offers a viable solution. 

People finally realize UST’s potential, including easy cryptocurrency exchange, passive income potential and interoperability. The ability to earn income off stablecoin deposits is a key factor currently driving its acceptance. The fact that UST held its peg during the crypto crash is big news and a significant event for the DeFi ecosystem at large. 

While stablecoins like USDT, USDC, BUSD and TUSD failed to do so, UST held strong. Earlier this year, it was impossible to think of an algorithmic stablecoin outperforming the above-mentioned stablecoins. More and more exchanges are introducing UST pairs, the latest being KuCoin with SOL/UST and MATIC/UST.

Now, one of LUNA's capabilities is ensuring the price stability of Terra blockchain ecosystem stablecoins. 

## LUNA burning drove scarcity

From 26th November to 5th December 2021, for example, roughly 10 million LUNA tokens were burnt! The reason is simple. As more people are purchasing UST and exchanges are introducing UST pairs, more UST will have to be minted to meet growing demands. 

This in turn, leads to LUNA crypto burning, most of which is done by buying LUNA off the open market. 

## Conclusion

Confirming fundamentals means LUNA should be a key part of your core holdings and at the top of your ‘buy the dip’ coin list. LUNA surged to an ATH recently, so do not rush and buy the coin now.

(This article was written prior to the collapse of Terra in 2022)



luna crypto logo on green image of the sky

LUNA Crypto Continues to Shine Despite Crash

We have been here before.  The “flash crash” that occurred the morning of December 4th can likely be attributed to many factors, but the lesson is the same - investing in cryptocurrency requires the wherewithal to deal with extreme volatility.  [Bitcoin](/coins/btc) continues to reign as the industry titan and when the price suddenly plummets, like it did Saturday morning, altcoins and other cryptocurrencies are likely to follow suit. 

Crypto-investors found themselves having to deal with that exact scenario this past weekend.

## Omicron Variant Effects Prices

Hopes of seeing Bitcoin achieve a year-end price level of $100,000 were dashed in only moments when monetary policy rumours and speculation about the new Covid-19 variant, Omicron, sent tremors through the cryptocurrency marketplace.

The world’s original cryptocurrency suddenly lost more than 18% in value, dropping to as low as $42,875…_all within the span of a single hour_.  As the new week begins, Bitcoin has already recovered some of that value back, creeping just above $50,000.  But, still well below the $55,000 - $59,000 price range the digital coin traded in the week prior to the crash.

Don’t act surprised.  Experiencing a 30-40% price fluctuation within a single month is something to be expected as the cryptocurrency market continues to mature.

## Buy The Dip- Opportunity?

Following closely behind Bitcoin, the world's _second-_largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, [Ethereum](/coins/eth), declined to $3,525 per coin – the digital asset’s lowest price in a month, though it has since recovered some of the lost value. 

There are investors among us who have waited patiently for this opportunity.  The more experienced crypto-investors among us are seeing a familiar pattern – a significant and sudden market decline “washes out” the crypto-newbies who’ve been playing the cryptocurrency market like a casino, and while those players are making for the hills, the more prudent among us view the market carnage as a buying opportunity.

In other words, is this an opportunity to “buy the dip?” 

Even if we take Saturday’s precipitous drop into consideration, Bitcoin was trading just over $29,000 when 2021 began so it is still up over 65% on the year.  Lately, we seem to have been standing on the edge of what many would consider “mainstream adoption” of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.  But those aren’t the only two “would be” buying opportunities right now. 

## Rise of The Altcoin

Last weekend’s sell-off affected other altcoins that had been riding a trend of popularity in 2021, making such affected digital assets no less enticing in terms of “buying the dip.”  [Polkadot](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/polkadot-new/), which trades under the symbol DOT, looks especially appealing right now.  The digital asset lost nearly 10% of its value in the first 24 hours of the sell-off, but most suspect the decline had come as a result of the broader market sell-off.

At present, Polkadot is showing signs of recovery which would suggest strong investor support for this suddenly popular digital asset.  Polkadot has evolved to find a place on the list of the top-ten largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation, we assume for a reason.  Investors looking for solid projects to invest in that demonstrate future potential might have a reason to consider Polkadot right now.  Like, _right_ now…

Popular Altcoin Prices Drop in Unison

What an incredible year for the value of altcoins and lesser known digital assets. It would seem that all that is needed for them to go from complete obscurity to front page news is the connection to the right meme or to benefit from a well-timed tweet from some quirky and eccentric billionaire.

A cryptocurrency called Omicron is currently enjoying such notoriety, if only momentarily.

## Beast Mode

While treading water for much of the past week, the popularity of Omicron went into full ‘beast’ mode once the media announced a coronavirus variant that had been discovered in southern Africa and was given the same name as the coin.

From what we can determine, Omicron was launched on or around November 8th but already it’s identifiable by much of the mainstream public. The coin shot up 10 times in value from last week Friday till Monday as the news of the virus permeated all the major news outlets.

‘Experts’ said the rapid rise in popularity was likely attributable to the fact that both the new coronavirus variant and the coin share the same name. Good guess.

### There are other coins, once relatively obscure, that have quickly risen in popularity as well:

**SAND** – A digital asset that’s being mega-hyped by metaverse enthusiasts. SAND are tokens that can be traded or earned upon completion of certain adventures within the popular virtual gaming world called Sandbox. The digital coins recently traded at around $7 and have enjoyed an eye-popping 80%+ increase in value in the past week alone.

The metaverse, which is a combination of multiple technologies, including virtual reality and augmented reality where users can hypothetically ‘live’ within the technical platform, is gaining attention from some very big, highly recognisable companies that are considered industry leaders. According to a recent statement from one such company, Adidas, they are keenly focused on how the metaverse develops saying that it is ‘…currently one of the most exciting developments in digital, making it an interesting platform for Adidas’.

**MANA** – Another coin that’s riding the Metaverse wave of popularity. The MANA coin is associated with the [_Decentraland_](https://decentraland.org/) Metaverse and rose from $2.81 to $4.67 during the month of November. If metaverse environments pique your curiosity, Decentraland is an interesting story. There were many headlines that mentioned Decentraland last month which has a tendency to happen when a nation like Barbados starts to make remarks that it is taking steps to setup a virtual embassy in Decentraland’s metaverse.

The increase in value of altcoins mentioned above seem to have been initiated by Facebook’s announcement in October that the company would be adopting a new name - Meta, a new mission that hopes to ‘bring the metaverse to life’.

Overall, the cryptocurrency market demonstrated mixed results this week.

As we close out 2021, Bitcoin was projected to reach a year-end value of $100,000, but in terms of reaching that value, the market’s key digital asset would need to stage more than a 75% rally in the next four weeks.

BTC Set to Miss Expectations; Altcoin News

David Marcus will leave [Meta](https://about.facebook.com/meta/) (formerly Facebook) at the end of the year, with the company’s stablecoin project – Diem, formerly Libra, still not fully launched.

He confirmed he was stepping down as Meta’s crypto lead on Twitter.

The former president of PayPal joined Facebook as the vice president of the company’s Messenger division and took over the firm’s blockchain work in 2018.

Libra has faced regulatory scrutiny since its announcement in 2019, with Marcus becoming the face of the project in front of the US authorities.

## New Head for Novi

The project appeared to undergo cutbacks, with key staff leaving, before it was rebranded Diem. Recently, the Meta-owned cryptocurrency wallet subsidiary Novi launched a pilot that used the Paxos-administered USDP stablecoin instead of Diem.

Stephane Kasriel, also ex-PayPal, will be the new head of Novi

Confirming his departure on Twitter, Marcus said: ‘Personal news: after a fulfilling seven years at Meta, I’ve made the difficult decision to step down and leave the company at the end of this year.

‘While there’s still so much to do right on the heels of launching Novi — and I remain as passionate as ever about the need for change in our payments and financial systems — my entrepreneurial DNA has been nudging me for too many mornings in a row to continue ignoring it.

‘The one thing I’m the proudest of during my time here is the amazing kickass team we’ve assembled over the last three years. This is the most resilient, passionate, determined and talented group of humans I’ve ever worked with.

## Greatness Ahead 

‘I find comfort and confidence in knowing that they will continue to execute our important mission well under @skasriel’s leadership, and I can’t wait to witness this from the outside. I know there’s greatness ahead.

‘I’ll keep a special place in my heart for some of the most fun and stimulating years of my life building Messenger with so many talented people. In turn, the Novi years were the most mission-driven and intellectually stimulating ones.

‘I’m incredibly grateful to Mark for the opportunity and privilege to share a bit of the journey over the years. I’ll keep lifelong memories and friendships from my time at the company, and I wish it well in the years to come.

‘I now look forward to having more free time in the months to come before I start building something new and exciting again. Onward!’

Facebook Stablecoin Project Manager Quits

The surge in Omicron value may simply be coincidence, but more likely points to some irrational thinking among crypto buyers.

Just hours after the World Health Organization (WHO) named a new variation of COVID-19 Omicron, there was a rally in the price of OMIC.

While the broader crypto market responded poorly to the identification of a ‘concerning’ new variant, the DeFi Protocol Omicron value saw gains.

Previously little-known, the cryptocurrency proved resilient and over the weekend saw its value increase 10 times over.

## Omicron- Digital Currency

According to one exchange, OMIC – a token of decentralised reserve currency protocol Omicron – saw bids grow from less than $70 late on Friday to around $690 by Sunday. At the time of writing the value was sitting at about $325.

Decentralised reserve currency protocol OMIC is a fork of Olympus on the Arbitrum Network1.

On its website, Omicron says OMIC ‘introduces unique economic and game-theoretic dynamics into the market through staking and bonding’.

It adds: ‘Our goal is to build a policy-controlled currency system…we believe this system can be used to optimise for stability and consistency so that OMIC can function as a global unit-of-account and medium-of-exchange currency.’

## No Connection to COVID-19

There is no connection to COVID-19

The token’s supply is capped at 1,000,000 OMIC, but many data providers do not provide details about the cryptocurrency’s market capitalisation. It is, however, backed by a basket of assets, including stablecoin USDC, and is listed solely on decentralised exchange SushiSwap.

The broader crypto market has also stabilised to an extent following the weekend stumble.

Omicron Value Surges as COVID-19 Variant Named

Here’s a crypto market round-up for the past week with some highlights you might have missed.

## A Buying Opportunity for Ripple (XRP)?

Earlier this week, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said that his company was making significant enough progress in the company’s legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to make him think the lawsuit would likely end next year. Whatever the outcome, the results of the lawsuit are expected to have a widespread effect on the cryptocurrency industry as a whole.

Thus far, the ongoing legal battle between the SEC and Ripple has interfered with the potential of Ripple’s digital coin ([XRP](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/xrp/)). The XRP coin has _not_ enjoyed the same rate of success as other lesser-known digital assets, but all things considered, the XRP coin _is_ up more than 130% year-to-date which is quite an accomplishment for such an embattled company.

The XRP has been on a downward trend since hitting a ceiling of 1.35 on Nov. 11th, and if the XRP coin should fall to .85, many believe it would be the key support point for XRP and a good opportunity to buy again.

If the outcome of the SEC affair leans in Ripple’s favour, many believe it would send the market into a massive buying frenzy. If what Garlinghouse says is true, we don’t have much longer to wait.

## Dogecoin - Most “Googled” Cryptocurrency

Continuing our crypto market round-up, we move to Dogecoin.

It can only be interpreted as a ‘positive’ for the cryptocurrency that was originally created as just a joke by a couple of software engineers back in 2013. Dogecoin became the most-googled cryptocurrency in more US states than crypto titans Bitcoin and Ether combined. So, will Doge go up based on recent popularity surges?

According to research by [The Advisor Coach](https://www.theadvisorcoach.com/), a financial advisor, Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that is based on an internet meme of a Japanese Shiba Inu dog, was the most Googled cryptocurrency in more than 20 states, including Florida, Illinois and Michigan.

2021 has been a great year for Dogecoin thanks largely to mega-boosters like Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, who has made positive remarks about the cryptocurrency on Twitter and has even hinted at the possibly of accepting Dogecoin as a form of payment for his car models. Dogecoin is up approximately 5000% since it was introduced, according to some valuations.

## Crypto Wallet Start-up BRD Bought

Crypto wallet start-up BRD, formerly known as Breadwallet, has been acquired. BRD is behind the digital asset Bread (BRD) and once news of the acquisition by Coinbase was announced, crypto investors were buying.

The price of BRD coin immediately went stratospheric, achieving a 500% plus increase in value within just two hours of the news being announced.

BRD went from approximately $0.16 and peaked just over a dollar per coin ($1.01).

BRD co-founders Adam Traidman and Aaron Voisine said that deal ‘will accelerate the company’s decentralization goals’ and that ‘nothing will change’ for users following the company’s acquisition.



Will Doge Go Up & Is it Time to Buy XRP?

Let’s talk Ripple and XRP.

Earlier this week, the overall market cap of cryptocurrencies hit $3.3 trillion. It’s an amount that merits attention and has further prompted regulators and financial authorities to accelerate the tempo in writing a regulatory rulebook for the market.

However, first they’ll need to cut through their own confusion on how these financial instruments work.

Can _all_ digital assets be categorised as a form of currency or are some them _securities_ masquerading as currencies? It’s one question among many that regulators are asking.

## Ripple Labs

One blockchain company that knows this all too well is San Francisco’s Ripple. A fintech company that popped up a decade ago, Ripple Labs originally promoted a strategy that would offer financial institutions a new low-cost method of performing expedient trans-border money transfers.

To achieve as much, Ripple Labs built the technical infrastructure on which transactions sped across the globe in the form of a cryptocurrency identified as XRP. Ripple created 100 billion units of XRP in 2012 and allotments were sold off while Ripple remained a majority holder.

This is where Ripple found itself in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Because of the way in which XRP was distributed, it appeared, to some, that XRP functioned _more like a stock or security_ rather than a currency. By December 2020, SEC chairman, Gary Gensler, had seen enough and initiated a lawsuit against Ripple Labs for how the company distributed XRP, claiming the company was selling an unregistered security, _not_ a currency.

## Lawsuit Causes Anxiety Among XRP Supporters

The pending case initiated a sequence of negative events that cratered the price of XRP and got the asset delisted from many popular crypto exchanges, the most crippling being Coinbase. The lawsuit has continued to drag on causing anxiety among XRP supporters and investor, and many legal experts have said that the lawsuit is unlikely to have an ending this year.

However, Ripple has demonstrated some legal prowess since the lawsuit was filed, accruing small victories in the proceedings while simultaneously attracting troves of new investors who have faith in a favourable outcome. Frankly, at the current rate of mainstream adoption, a settlement deal could be reached at any time and November 2021 is expected to be particularly revealing in terms of what’s next for the lawsuit.

Today will be a crucial as it marks the deadline for the exchange of _Expert Rebuttal Reports,_ an expert analysis of each opposing party’s claims. Once those reports are submitted, the second half of November should be rife with opinions on where the lawsuit is headed and when it might finally get resolved.

Getting down to brass tacks, it seems that Ripple has the momentum and SEC Chair Gary Gensler can’t be pleased with how things have unfolded with his lawsuit. The inability to close a ‘slam dunk’ case against a gritty crypto start-up hardly has any place on a resume for someone who’s vying to be the next Secretary of the Treasury. Will Gensler broker a settlement deal with Ripple? It’s possible.

If so, not only would it be a move that would put XRP right back on the exchanges that delisted it, including Coinbase, it would be a ‘drinks for everyone’ kind of announcement that would send the whole market upward.

More [Coin news](/news/category/crypto-coin-news).

Ripple, XRP Latest News- The SEC Lawsuit

The cryptoverse is awash with stories of record returns from cryptocurrency meme coins like Doge and, more recently, Shiba Inu.

However, does the hype match the reality and how wise is it to invest in a meme stock?

## What is a Meme Coin?

A meme coin is essentially a cryptocurrency which is based on a joke or a meme and uses that tenet as its primary marketing feature.

The most well-known meme coin is Doge, which is based on the famous meme of the same name.

However, unlike other cryptocurrencies, meme coins are generally used for trading or investing with little to no utility.

That said, meme crypto Shiba Inu has seen a massive spike in interest over the last six to 12 months and has recently been accepted for payment in a Paris restaurant.

## Open-Source Technology

Many cryptocurrency projects are a result of open-source technology essentially meaning that the creators share the code which enabled them to build the original project.

This revolutionary approach to development has helped provide the catalyst for the boom in crypto over the past three to four years. Many new entrants ‘fork’ from an original code to produce an entirely new coin with a slight modification. Doge, for example, is a fork from the original Litecoin code.

## Meme Coin Hype

So, what is all the hype about? As I mentioned above, the majority of meme coins on the market today are used for trading and investment purposes with buyers looking for an opportunity to purchase the next Shiba or Doge coin before they hit the big time.

With stories of $8,000 becoming $5.7 billion in a little over a year it is easy to understand why. However, with 222 meme coins listed on coinmarketcap.com, picking the next investment rocket may be easier said than done.

## A Serious Investment?

As more capital pours into meme stocks people will continue to sit up and take notice. This, in turn, is bringing more serious investment and leading to developers looking for ways to upgrade the network and provide meme coins with an actual use case which is something we have seen this week in Paris.

What is a Meme Coin?

In a recent tweet, Elon Musk has called Dogecoin (DOGE) the 'people's crypto'.

Elon Musk [tweeted](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1452348126753349640): "That’s why I decided to support Doge – it felt like the people’s crypto." The meme coin has seen an increase in popularity recently as Musk has shown his support for the coin publicly. However, Dogecoin is still around 63% away from its lifetime peak despite Musk's attempts to send the meme coin soaring.

## SHIB Competes with DOGE

Competing meme coin, Shiba Inu (SHIB) has recently skyrocketed over 500% and has recently taken the lead ahead of Dogecoin. Elon Musk took to Twitter to say that he isn't holding any SHIB, only DOGE. Shiba Inu [tweeted](https://twitter.com/ShibaInuHodler/status/1452313323261861891?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1452332435266576395%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fu.today%2Felon-musk-calls-dogecoin-peoples-crypto-rejects-shiba-inu) 'Hey [@elonmusk](https://twitter.com/elonmusk) How Much [Shib](https://twitter.com/search?q=%24Shib&src=cashtag_click) You Are Holding!' to which the businessman replied 'None'.

## Puppy Post Boosts SHIB

Musk shared an image of his puppy a few days ago which helped to boost SHIB up the market ranks, but after he has admitted not owning any SHIB, the meme coin is reportedly down 15%.

Dogecoin has been struggling to keep up with Shiba Inu, but is now up 12% in the last week thanks to Musk's tweet.

Find out more about [Dogecoin](/coins/doge)

Doge is the 'people's crypto'- Elon Musk

Polkadot has had approval from blockchain's on-chain governance to debut parachain auctions from the 11th of November, that will run until the 9th of December.

This will enable the fast deployment of parachain operators, which are key to Polkadot's scaling capacity.

## What are Parachains?

Parachains are intended as a solution to one of blockchain technology's biggest problems; scalability. Most blockchains either limit the number of transactions they can process (Bitcoin) or charge increasingly high fees (Ethereum). 

The Polkadot parachain auctions will run for five consecutive weeks, and the initial bidding period will be two days long, followed by a five-day ending period. This intentionally limits the amount of time available to make bids, which is intended to counteract any large bidders camping out on the auction and forcing smaller participants to pay inflated prices.

More [Altcoin news](/news/category/altcoin-news) 

Parachain Auctions Approved for Polkadot

Since becoming the darling of investment communities worldwide, Bitcoin has spawned an entirely new class of digital assets called “altcoins.”  Seeking to replicate the success of the world’s first digital currency, the rapidly expanding cryptocurrency market continues yielding swaths of newer coins that are all designed with the intention of upending Bitcoin as the heavyweight king of crypto.

With well over 9,000 new altcoins to choose from, here’s what you need to know:

## What are altcoins?
------------------

Altcoin is short for "alternative coin.”  Quite simply, these digital assets are alternative cryptocurrencies to Bitcoin.

Bitcoin will forever be universally hailed as a “first of its kind” asset and newer cryptocurrencies developed after the fact are viewed as alternative coins, or altcoins. The first altcoins started showing up back in 2011 and they were designed to be more advanced than Bitcoin in terms of technology.  For example, quicker transaction speeds than what Bitcoin could offer. 

To get an idea of how altcoins work, all you need to do is look at blockchain technology – the environment where all cryptocurrencies “live.”  A blockchain is an _electronic ledger_ that records cryptocurrency transactions and this ledger is maintained across computers that are linked across a distributed network.  What investors finds so intriguing about cryptocurrency is that they operate on a decentralized, trustless, P2P payment network that functions without a central authority or overseer to facilitate transactions. 

It is truly _decentralised_. 

Many of the altcoins that you can invest in are, in fact, technologically superior to Bitcoin.  They’re just not as popular…yet. 

Here are three altcoins with an especially promising future:

### [Chainlink (LINK)](/coins/link)
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Chainlink's price has more than doubled in 2021, and they’ve recently announced a partnership to provide data for what are called “smart contracts” - programs used to automate the execution of an agreement so that all parties are held accountable for a desired outcome.  Chainlink is building a great reputation for being able to translate real-world data into something that these smart contracts can immediately interpret and act upon.  In a nutshell, Chainlink is offering capabilities that are very desirable in the cryptoverse, making Chainlink one of the top altcoins to watch.

### [Polkadot (DOT)](https://polkadot.network/)
-------------------------------------------------------------

Much of the ballyhoo surrounding this altcoin is that it’s promoted as “one of the most highly anticipated next generation blockchains.”  Polkadot lets developers _build their own_ blockchains and then connect them with each other, overcoming major scalability issues.  Much of the cryptocurrency brain trust has gone so far as to say that Polkadot is the future of decentralized applications.  Time will tell, but this altcoin is certainly off to an incredibly searing start.  

### [Stellar (XLM)](https://www.stellar.org/)
----------------------------------------------------------------

Stellar was created by one of the co-founders of another popular altcoin called “Ripple” and was designed with a focus on the people that are living in developing countries.  These are places where traditional banking services may not always be immediately available and Stellar is designed to be the “peoples” resource.  This altcoin offers the best in terms of real-world application.  For those who’ve worked in a business operating internationally, Stellar could be a _very_ big deal.

## Altcoin Price Volatility
------------------------

As altcoins got their start, the cryptocurrency market would move in unison with the performance of Bitcoin.  As Bitcoin went up, so did the market.  It was the same if Bitcoin trended downward.  Maybe not perfectly aligned, but about 70% and more was what we could expect.  Now, as altcoins demonstrate their usefulness, and independence from Bitcoin, there has been a break in the correlation. 

I think this is the sign of a healthy cryptocurrency market that is gaining strength, and another sign that now is the time to start looking seriously at cryptocurrencies, or altcoins, _not_ named Bitcoin.

Altcoins Continue Upward

Harmony One is a well-kept secret that won’t be a secret much longer. The coin has seen a recent surge in price and no doubt a surge in attention.

When Ethereum launched on July 30, 2015, as another decentralised open-source blockchain cryptocurrency playing little brother to Bitcoin- they knew they had something different. Ethereum has the functionality of Smart Contracts. A way to further extend the utility of cryptocurrencies in ways that can potentially change the way the world works.

Just like Bitcoin has spawned many copycat coins, Ethereum has given birth to so many amazing projects that are built based on the Ethereum smart contract model. Harmony is most certainly one of the more efficient and affordable coins to transact with.

## About Harmony

[Harmony Mainnet](https://www.harmony.one/) was launched in June 2019. Harmony network has produced 30M+ blocks with 450k+ transactions in publicly traded, native ONE tokens. Harmony’s bridges can connect any Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake chains. Their FlyClient architecture is fully trustless and highly gas-efficient. Currently, their bridges for Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain secure tens of millions of cross-chain assets.

Developers simply change Chain ID and enjoy faster EVM executions identical at the bytecode level. They can use their familiar and standard Web3 tooling to easily migrate to Harmony.

As far as users they can continue to use MetaMask or Ledger — but now pay minimal fees. Any Ethereum wallets or portals can work on Harmony without code changes or new installs — they are fully compatible for both transaction messages and execution environments.

## What is harmony one used for?

The One token is used as a stake in the consensus model used with Harmony. The holders can earn block rewards and are incentivised to keep the system healthy. The tokens are used to pay for various fees, including transaction fees, storage fees, and gas fees.

Speed kills, in a good way.

Harmony One is well known for its amazingly fast transaction times and very low fees.

Transaction times of 2 seconds at 1 block and fees of $0.000·001 USD are superb when compared to Ethereum at 6 minutes/25 blocks and fees that are continuously making holders very upset. 

## The Price is Right?

Just to place things in perspective: On Aug 31, 2015 [Bitcoin (BTC)](/coins/btc) was valued at $227.18 and [Ethereum (ETH)](/coins/eth) was $1.25.

On January 28 2020 Harmony was priced at $0.00502 with a market cap of $18.3 million. If you want to buy Harmony, at the time of writing (October 7th, 2021) its priced at $0.219 with a market cap of $2.43 billion, yes billion with a B. A significant increase in that span of time. 

Harmony One seems to have a very bright future and at this price, it’s still a great time to jump on the bandwagon- I certainly am.

Crypto Spotlight: Harmony ONE