As we move into the final month 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. Monero (XMR)

Monero is one of the most well known anonymous digital currencies, and security, privacy and untraceability are its main features. The currency makes use of ring signatures and mixes multiple transactions together, making it hard for anyone viewing the blockchain to follow the digital money trail. As a result, while there are many other cryptocurrencies that focus on enabling anonymous, and secure transactions, Monero is the most popular and the largest by market cap.

Why Monero?

While the project acts in a decentralized way, the development team behind Monero are preparing for a scheduled protocol upgrade on November 30. The upgrade comes after the earlier code freeze and v0.15 release and a tentative fork height has been set at block 1978433 (17:00 UTC on November 30). The upgrade will also introduce a new Proof-of-Work algorithm called RandomX and users, merchants, pool operators, and exchanges are recommended to run CLI v0.15 or GUI v0.15 prior to the update. More detailed information regarding the upgrade can be found in the official announcement.

2. Digitex Futures (DGTX)

Digitex Futures Exchange allows traders to buy and sell futures contracts on various digital assets, commodities and financial instruments. All trades are fee free, and the DGTX token derives value as traders on the platform must have a balance of DGTX in order to place trades, and can also win or lose their DGTX.

Why Digitex Futures?

After experiencing a number of significant setbacks the team behind the project are close to launching a public testnet on November 30. The platform will launch on the Ethereum public testnet and trading will be restricted to the BTC/USD perpetual swap market and will not use real DGTX tokens in any way. The launch remains a significant forward step for the exchange which aims to offer commission free futures trading, and the launch has been detailed here.

3. IOST (IOST)

IOStoken is a token designed for the Decentralized Internet of Services with a scalable, secure and decentralized blockchain App platform. The Singapore-based project launched in January 2017 and offers the developers to create, innovate and build their next big ideas on the platform.

Why IOST?

The team are scheduled to launch a new staking pool on November 30 that incorporates the Newpool staking technology. Newpool is a new generation decentralized staking pool that operates without the need to transfer coins. IOST has partnered with Newpool, and the two will conduct a series of collaborative projects with regards to community building and staking services. Furthermore, Newpool is an IOST partner node and will launch its IOST PoS staking pool on Nov 30, and IOST will also work together with the Newdex decentralized exchange to improve its liquidity and token trading options. The team outline the developments in their official blog post.

How did the coins perform last week?

The seven day period led to poor results across the market and the previous week's coins to watch saw big losses as well. AION fell by 25% and in value and is currently trading at around $0.06. CRO proved to be more resilient and fell by 6% over the week, and is currently trading at $0.03. OKB fell by around 26% in value and is currently trading at $2.14. Over the course of the week, the market declined significantly moving from $235B to $199B.