Health, Wealth, and Happiness

May 15, 2024

"We are all ordinary. We are all boring. We are all spectacular. We are all shy. We are all bold. We are all heroes. We are all helpless. It just depends on the day."

- Brad Meltzer

Howdy, investors!

Memecoins were the best-performing crypto sector in 2024, especially on Solana. But are memes a net positive or negative for SOL investors?

We look into the gaming-focused blockchain project Immutable (IMX) in our latest Investor Scorecard. Is IMX worth your interest and investment?

It appears miners have been able to adjust after the recent halving, and that demand will be the key factor for bitcoin pricing going forward.

Do you follow crypto social media influencers for trading tips? A recent study suggests influencer investing might not be a great strategy.

Read on!

Are Memecoins Destroying Solana?

by Danielle Greving

For good or for bad, we’ve all heard about memecoins. From Elon Musk tweeting about Dogecoin to the latest version of a Pepe-inspired coin, it seems there isn’t a meme on the Internet that someone won’t try to spin into a blockchain project.

This trend is a double-edged sword, however. While it signals a relatively strong interest in blockchain technology (and, potentially, an influx of new users), it also attracts users with little interest in the overall health of the underlying blockchain technology.

In this article, we’re digging into memecoins on the Solana blockchain. Do these projects help or hurt Solana? How are they proliferating on Solana? And do they ultimately make SOL a good or a bad investment?

Click to find out whether memecoins are destroying Solana >>

Premium Power-Ups

Level up your crypto investing game.

New Investor Scorecard: Immutable (IMX)

Immutable is a project within the Ethereum ecosystem focused on providing solutions for Web3 gaming.

Like much of the crypto market, the native governance stolen (IMX) has been under pressure since mid-March, taking it more than 40% below its March high. However, the token still has a 175% gain over the past year.

With that kind of price rollercoaster, a simple question remains: Is IMX a good investment?

Premium members can download the Immutable Investor Scorecard here to learn what our analysts say about Immutable, its fundamentals, and investing in IMX.

Are you not yet a Premium member? Sign up now to access our tools and tips for becoming a better crypto investor.

Must Read

Today's most important stories for crypto investors.

Bitcoin's Halving Aftermath

(Coin Metrics)

The latest bitcoin halving is complete, with significant implications for miner economics. Despite an initial revenue boost from transaction fees, miners now face increased operational costs, and the reduction in block rewards is causing additional financial pressure. Worth a read for investors interested in mining companies.

What President Biden’s Crypto Politics Might Really Be About (Unchained)

The Biden administration's regulatory crackdown on the crypto industry has made crypto custody economically non-viable for financial institutions, which critics argue is part of a broader effort dubbed "Chokepoint 2.0" to prevent crypto integration into the U.S. financial system.

The Biden administration's stance is seen by some as a move to preserve America's global banking dominance by preventing the growth of a decentralized financial system that could undermine U.S. control. This stance could have potential long-term implications for U.S. financial power and global crypto adoption.

Crypto Influencers

(SSRN)

This paper analyzes investment information provided by crypto influencers on Twitter. It explores a massive dataset of 180 creators, 36,000 tweets, and 1,600 assets from 2020-2022. Though the tweets are initially correlated with positive returns, this is followed by negative price action, making influencer investing negligible in the long term.

Thanks to our Sponsor

With the Earn on Coinbase program, you could be getting up to 10% APY for your eligible crypto. Put your crypto to work, and earn rewards today at Coinbase Earn.

Chart of the Day

Daily average fees for Ethereum

While it's still not the cheapest blockchain in terms of fees, the Dencun update seems to have finally accomplished the goal of lowering ETH transaction fees for users. This makes Ethereum more accessible, although fees remain higher than we'd like for a transactional blockchain.

Over the past month, average user fees have dipped below $10 except for a few days. (The last time we saw fees consistently this low was the previous crypto winter in July - December 2022.) In fact, the average user fee in May fell to just $6.52, and the downward trend looks set to continue.

Of course, that also means that the network's overall fees have fallen, and that's having a negative impact on staking rates. However, over time, the overall network fees collected should pick back up as the lowered gas fee attracts more usage.

ICYMI