Stable coins

Initially, the stable coins trend was planned for the year that already passed and they actually were kind of one, but not as hyped as was expected. Term ‘stable’ describes the coin that can possibly hold a stable value over time. USDT is a great example of a stable coin that’s meant to be traded around 1$ and it has been doing so balancing at +-0.5 USD. This state of things is granted by the claim that each Tether coin is supported by the fiat dollar. The same goes with the True USD, they hold collateral dollars in reserve to back up each coin.

On the other hand, there are stable coins that are not using fiat currencies like USD to grant their low volatility value. For example, there is DAI that is based on the Ethereum network and backed up by the ETH.

As a small intermediate conclusion it should be said that stable coins are aimed to resolve the issues related to the cryptocurrency-to-fiat conversion so it could be possible to remove the current difficulties and just become a simple USDT to USD withdrawal. Also, holding stable coins might be good for those who are lazy enough to watch the volatile market and compare the basket of currencies one’s holding to the USDT.

Large companies entering the market (Fidelity, Bakkt i.e.)

The biggest news was the announcement in late 2018 that Fidelity will launch its crypto custody service in the first quarter of 2019. They also confirmed it recently in February that the storage component of Fidelity Digital Asset Services LLC (FDAS) is already live and they are aiming the official launch for March 2019. This event tends to bring thousands of already experienced people into the crypto market which might cause another bull run.

The second huge thing happening closer to the end of 2019 is the launch of the Bakkt. And the fact that it’s backed up by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and they were planning to spend from $20 million to $25 million on Bakkt in 2019 in addition to the approximately $182 million Bakkt raised at the end of 2018 from some of the biggest venture capital firms and corporations. Another thing that might give a boost to the Bakkt is that ICE is not the only one who is supporting Bakkt, also Microsoft and Starbucks are participating.

The big question is how will this even influence the market if it will do so at all.

Is STO another safe crowdfunding options for startups?

As we all remember the ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) took their start in January 2017 and with time they attracted more and more people into the action because everything looked pretty safe and simple at the same time. And the dreams of people to get rich without any huge investment almost came alive. But this looks so only if you don’t dig deeper.

Companies behind the ICOs are planning the fast money raising but the investor can never be sure the whole hundred percent that the company will reach the goals it stated in the Whitepaper. But there’s also a good thing about the token you get after putting some money into the project: despite the huge pumps and dumps the market is still very volatile, so you could possibly win good money trading the ICO tokens.

On the other hand STO (Security Token Offering) is more secure in a long-term sense. Just because it is being officially regulated (ICO is not) thus investors are taking fewer risks by purchasing STOs due to it’s being an actual share in the company that issued tokens. Thus we automatically can exclude the scams started appearing in the early 2018s ICOs and improving the ecosystem that will potentially bring more people and more money into the crypto areas. Also, the plans are that STO price will stay more stable in the volatile market thus allowing holders not to lose the funds due to price drops.

The aforesaid concludes that STO is not something completely new, it looks more like the upgraded version of ICO that might bring new ways of raising funds for the companies and start-ups in the future.

Is another FOMO coming?

The fear of missing out is lurking out there ever since the lottery came into being, but nowadays it seems much easier to participate just because people are almost granted huge incomes with low investment. Another thing that’s raises FOMO is media telling about upcoming events that will shake the market and raise BTC back to 20k so people are hanging in growing excitement. If we shall have the same story with the BTC princess like the last year and the market rise in the mid 2019 it will surely attract even more people increasing capitalization of the market and more shocks for the future volatility.