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Health, Wealth, and Happiness

July 22, 2024

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."


- Winston Churchill

Howdy, investors!


  • Binance Coin (BNB) is the fourth largest cryptocurrency, and the best performer in our Future Winners portfolio. But given Binance's tangles with the SEC, is BNB still a good investment? Read today's guide to find out.


  • We also compare investing in bitcoin vs. investing in the S&P 500 to see the latest returns for BTC vs. traditional equities. With the S&P 500 hitting new highs, which do you think is the winner?


  • And, we've found a new job for the SEC: start regulating memecoins! Why? Because memecoins are nothing more than gambling, and gambling needs regulation. Check out our new memecoin manifesto below.


Read on!

This Week in Bitcoin Market Journal

Our latest crypto investing insights and ideas.

Should You Invest in Binance Coin (BNB)? Charts, Stats, Analysis for 2024


Binance was launched in 2017, but its story begins earlier with its creator, Changpeng "CZ" Zhao.


CZ's journey into cryptocurrency began in 2013 when he discovered bitcoin during a poker game. He got bitten by the bitcoin bug, eventually selling his apartment and investing the proceeds into bitcoin.


In 2017, CZ founded the Binance crypto exchange, financing it partly through an initial coin offering of a new token, Binance Coin (BNB). The coin was initially designed for discounted trading fees on the exchange, but BNB quickly became integral to various aspects of the Binance platform and ecosystem.


By 2018, just six months after its launch, Binance had become the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. But since then, Binance has run afoul of the world's regulators, and CZ has gone to jail. Is BNB still a good investment?


Click to read our analysis of Binance Coin (BNB) in 2024 >>

Bitcoin vs. S&P 500: How They Compare (2024 Update)


Our investing approach is to hold most of your investments in a simple index fund like the S&P 500 – or even the entire stock market! – with just a small percentage allocated to bitcoin.


There are still plenty of traditional investors who laugh at this strategy, avoiding bitcoin altogether. The question they should be asking: how does bitcoin stack up against the S&P 500?


In this article, we look at the historical performance of both the S&P 500 and bitcoin, to help show why our strategy has added so much alpha, and convert a few skeptics to the new way of investing.


See the updated numbers, and decide for yourself >>

ANew Job for the SEC: Regulate Memecoins


Solana has descended into memecoin madness. And the SEC should step in.


Solana was once hailed for its high-speed, low-cost transactions: far faster and cheaper than its competitor Ethereum. But the blockchain has become ground zero for a memecoin mania that is dangerous to investors, and to the network itself.


At Bitcoin Market Journal, we strongly discourage investing in memecoins, because they have no underlying value. They’re essentially a get-rich-quick scheme, though usually it’s the founders that get rich. (Read our guide here.)


The Securities and Exchange Commission – which is charged with protecting investors – has aggressively pursued legitimate crypto companies like Ripple and Binance, while largely ignoring the biggest threat to investor safety: memecoins.


We are calling on the SEC to crack down on memecoin projects, starting with the biggest offenders on Solana.


Read our SEC memecoin manifesto >>

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Level up your crypto investing game.

New Risk Scorecard: Pax Dollar (USDP)

Pax Dollar (USDP), originally known as Paxos Standard (PAX), is an ERC-20

stablecoin backed one-for-one by the U.S dollar. The token is issued by the

Paxos Trust Company and regulated by the New York State Department of

Financial Services.


USDP has fallen behind other stablecoins like USDT, USDC, and the relatively new FDUSD in terms of market cap. However, it has a very good track record of maintaining a close peg to $1 since its inception.


Our analysts ran the USDP token through our industry-leading Blockchain Risk Scorecard to determine how much risk is involved with keeping your wealth in USDP.


Premium members can download the Pax Dollar Risk Scorecard here to learn what our analysts say about the stability of USDP.


Not yet a Premium member? Sign up now to access our complete library of tools to make you a better crypto investor.

Must-Reads

This week's most important stories for crypto investors.

Which Crypto Tokens Have Strong Fundamentals?

(Bankless) - While short-term token prices are influenced by narrative and sentiment, the current cycle is shifting back to fundamentals. Evaluating tokens on real revenue and real users is something we have long championed. Our message of focusing on fundamentals is finally catching on!

Staking: Risks & Rewards

(Galaxy Research) - Ethereum has over $111 billion worth of ETH staked, representing 28% of the total supply. This report outlines the current staking landscape, as well as the upcoming protocol changes that will affect the staking economy on Ethereum. With new ETH ETFs on the way, it's a worthwhile read.

MATIC → POL Migration Coming September 4th 

(Polygon) - On September 4th, POL will become the native gas and staking token for the Polygon network. This community-driven upgrade aims to expand the utility of Polygon's native token, currently called MATIC. Existing MATIC investors need not take any action, while those on Ethereum, Polygon zkEVM, or centralized exchanges may need to migrate their tokens. (POL is definitely a better name.)

Spot Ether ETFs Likely to Begin Trading July 23

(Reuters) - The U.S. SEC has preliminarily approved three of eight asset managers to launch exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tied to the spot price of ether, expected to begin trading on Tuesday. This approval marks a significant step for mainstream adoption of digital assets. (See our guide: The Ethereum ETF is Coming.)

A TON of Gaming Hype

(Delphi Digital) - The TON ecosystem's rapid growth and substantial user engagement make it an interesting investment opportunity. With high-profile game launches and strong integration with Telegram's vast user base, TON is proving itself a leader in the Web3 gaming space. (See our TON Investor Scorecard.)

Chart of the Week

Top Layer-1s by Daily Active Users

While bitcoin and Ethereum had an early lead in Daily Active Users (DAUs), they have been overtaken. Since early 2022, the blockchain with the most DAUs has been Tron, which enjoys a significant following across Asia. (Read our guide to TRON.)


The big surprise in this chart is that you do not see Ethereum. Instead, Ronin (RON) has roared into the second spot as its DAU numbers have skyrocketed since the start of 2024. Will Ronin overtake Tron for the number-one spot?


Another exciting development is the spike in Polygon (MATIC) usage, driven by several announced improvements and the conclusion of its vesting contract, which limits inflation and dampens selling pressure. Polygon DAUs are now exceeding those on the BNB Chain, but it remains to be seen if Polygon can overtake Tron.


Meanwhile, bitcoin is seeing a drop in DAUs, as more people are holding bitcoin as a store of value rather than using it for transactions.


Any of these top five tokens present investing opportunities, and considering they all have healthy DAUs, each could become a key holding in a well-balanced portfolio of crypto assets.

ICYMI

In Case You Missed It

The Investor's Guide to Privacy Coins: Should You Invest?

Privacy coins like Monero are increasingly under the regulatory microscope. They serve a definite purpose, but should you invest in them?


Top Real-World Asset Protocols: The Guide for Crypto Investors

The future of RWAs looks promising, with more assets getting tokenized on-chain each month. However, it’s best to invest in RWA categories that you’re familiar with.


The Best Non-Crypto Crypto Book Out There

The key message of The Ministry for the Future is that working together, we can solve problems. Even the most difficult problems!

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