Are you fascinated with Cryptocurrency? If so then you’ve come to the right place! I’m George Tung, and I am a die-hard Bitcoin believer and a Cryptocurrency day trader. I run CryptosRUs.com and have a channel on YouTube where I educate people about cryptocurrency. Every Friday, I will cover a new and unfamiliar cryptocurrency that shows great potential in its technology and as an investment.

You’ve probably read or have heard about Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and possibly Ripple. But are you aware there are over 1,400 cryptocurrencies in existence? Some are currency-based like Bitcoin, while others are utility-based. They each have their own unique twist on how they operate, and many have been the greatest investments we’ve ever witnessed within the last decade.

For those looking to get be an early investor in a new cryptocurrency, Loopring may be the one for you.

Loopring’s Potential

Loopring’s roadmap for 2018 looks amazing, and I see its protocol being adopted not only within the Ethereum-based decentralized exchanges but also within NEO’s and QTUM’s Blockchain.

Currently, Loopring is worth roughly $1.55 each, and the total market cap overall hovers slightly under $1 billion. That might sound like a lot, but within the cryptocurrency world, that’s right where it should be.

I can see Loopring hitting $2.50-$3.00 within the next few months and getting as high as $5-$6 dollars toward the end of the year.

You can buy and trade LRC coins on Binance, OKEx, HitBTC and EtherDelta.

Why Is Loopring a Big Deal?

Building decentralized exchanges requires a lot of parts in place and is currently being built by several companies, and that’s where Loopring (LRC) comes in. Loopring is not partaking in the exchange business but has developed the protocol that decentralized exchanges use.

Without getting too technical, its protocol allows exchanges to swap Ethereum ERC-20-based coins with each other. Since 90 percent or more of the altcoins in existence are ERC-20-based, the decision to focus on Ethereum was clearly a wise one.

Loopring’s protocol also allows trading of non-common pairs and helps with liquidity by executing trades with intelligence and lowers fees and costs. While Loopring does have a technical advantage over its competitors, the reason why I like it the most right now is that it has strong ties with the Chinese community and other crypto companies.

Loopring is a China-based company that came onto the scene in 2017. The backers are incredibly loyal and strong. The team is small but is composed of people who know what they are doing. Loopring’s CEO Daniel Wang has worked at Google, JD.com and has held many other impressive jobs within Asia. Its CMO Jay Zhou has worked at E&Y and Paypal.

As for the advisers, the biggest one has to be Da Hongfei, which is NEO’s founder and CEO. Daniel and Da have been long-time friends. For those of you that don’t know, NEO is considered the Ethereum of China. It is the largest enterprise-based Blockchain in China and in all of Asia by market cap.

Loopring will soon be developing its protocol for NEO’s blockchain as well as QTUM, which is another large enterprise blockchain from China. This is important, as no one else is doing this. When Loopring is done, it will be airdropping free tokens given to the holders of LRC. Free airdrops is a big deal, since everyone likes free money. This alone usually causes a huge rise in the price.

Lastly, it was rumored that Loopring was brought in to help NEO finish developing their NEX exchange specialty on some cross chain swaps. This means that Ethereum-based coins can soon be swapped with NEO-based coins and vice versa. If true, this is extremely exciting.

The Benefits of Decentralized Exchanges

Currently, almost every exchange around the globe involved with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading is considered a “centralized” exchange. That means any buying, selling and trading is controlled by a company that you are most likely relying on to safeguard your precious coins that are stored within their wallets.

The problem with this is that unlike banks or financial institutions with heavy regulations, insurance and strict access controls, cryptocurrency exchanges are fairly new and unregulated. History has shown that some exchange goes belly up, gets hacked, or gets shuts down. When this happens, that means some or all of the coins stored within are gone. Mt. Gox was an example that left a lasting impression among the Bitcoin community for years.

So to protect yourself from that, most crypto traders or holders are storing their coins on their own personal wallets. These can be anywhere from a desktop, mobile or hardware wallets. However, these are not always the go to option, since coins come out faster than underlying infrastructure. That means you have to store your cryptos on centralized exchanges. You have no choice.

Some decentralized exchanges pairs traders with other traders directly and hold no coins at all. That means there are no fears about the exchanges being hacked or shut down. Decentralize exchanges also have a decentralized infrastructure which means that the computer, storage and data transfers are spread across thousands to tens of thousands of nodes or miners around the world.

Because there will always be a need to rely on some kind of exchange to buy, sell and trade tokens, there are a few crypto companies that are now focused on making decentralized exchanges. Decentralized exchanges do not inherit any of the problems centralized exchanges have. What’s not to love?

This column is part of a weekly series from cryptocurrency enthusiast George Tung. To read more of his work, head here.