As we move further into the final quarter of the year, this week’s choices are set to benefit from significant developments and announcements that should strengthen their market positions and benefit their communities. The news should also result in increased amounts of attention to each respective currency over the coming weeks.

1. Bitcoin (BTC)

Bitcoin is regarded as the world’s first decentralized digital currency, and was created in 2009 by a mystical figure named Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin is a deflationary currency whose issuance is capped at a total supply of 21 million coins. Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency and is traded on various exchanges and is also used in peer to peer transactions.

Why Bitcoin?

Bakkt began to offer physically-delivered daily and monthly Bitcoin futures on September 23, and the trading platform has hit a new all-time high in terms of Bitcoin futures daily volumes with 1,741 futures traded on November 9. This volume translates to around $15.5 million and also represents a 109% increase in relation to the 834 contracts that were traded the day before. Bakkt volumes continue to improve and the initial all time high stood at 452 contracts which grew to 1,183 Bitcoin futures contracts on October 26, This coincided with a price move that sent BTC over $10,000, and as ever, the performance of BTC will dictate which way the market moves over the coming weeks.

Buy/Sell Bitcoin (BTC)

2. Fetch.ai (FET)

The Fetch.ai project combines artificial intelligence with blockchain and DAG (directed acyclic graph) data structures to build a scalable and stable ledger. The ledger’s consensus algorithm is called uPoW (useful proof-of-work), which seeks to make the computational power that is used to secure the ledger also perform other useful tasks for the network’s participants.

Why Fetch.ai?

The team are holding a meet up in Cambridge, UK on November 13 and will discuss various aspects of their project including their staking auction. The next auction’s bidding phase will also take place on November 13 and will last from 1pm GMT to 4pm GMT (around 6–9am on the West coast of the U.S. and 9pm to 12am in China). The minimal stake amount is 200,000 FET tokens and 200 validator slots will be made available with the 200 highest being awarded staking slots at the price offered by the lowest winning bidder, and approximately 7,500 FET tokens per month will be awarded to each of the winning bidders. The team outline the process here in their Medium blog post.

Buy/Sell Fetch.ai (FET)

3. Loom Network (LOOM)

Loom Network is a platform that makes it simple for developers to build highly scalable games and social apps on the blockchain. It does this through the concept of a DAppChain, which is a standalone blockchain that is bonded to an Ethereum smart contract via a Relay. The LOOM token functions as a membership pass giving access to all DApps running on Loom Network.

Why Loom?

The team have announced that as part of their Basechain upgrade, the project’s Transfer Gateway will be upgraded on November 12. The Gateway contract will be redeployed to the Ethereum Mainnet and for anyone with a dApp that relies on the Transfer Gateway; the team suggest testing the changes on the Rinkeby Gateway. They also outline all the changes needed to ensure any dApps continue to work after the update here.

Buy/Sell Loom Network (LOOM)

How did last week's coins perform?

The seven day period led to mixed results across the market, and the performances of last week's coins to watch varied significantly. KAVA grew by 10% while TOMO retraced by 24% over the week. FCT was the strongest performer - the coin gained around 27% in value. Over the course of the week, the total crypto market cap retraced from $246B to $242B.