Health, Wealth, and Happiness

May 20, 2024

"Fifty percent of my preparation is my mental game. It is easy to brush off because it is time-consuming. I definitely think more people should up their mental game if they have big goals."

- Sue McDonald

Howdy, investors!

Even if you're not trading, you need a platform for buying and selling crypto investments. Centralized exchanges can be a great choice, and we are covering the best today.

Hedge funds have been snapping up shares of bitcoin ETFs, indicating a trend toward greater institutional interest in the crypto markets.

The various categorizations of ETH's role raise questions about its position in a portfolio. Today, we examine ETH's upside potential and tailwinds in the coming months.

The presence of bots should be seen as a feature, not a flaw, in the blockchain ecosystem, highlighting the need to redefine our understanding of "real" transactions in this context.

Read on to explore more!

Best Centralized Cryptocurrency Exchanges, Rated and Reviewed for 2024

by Matthew Du

Exchanges are the beating heart of the crypto market. Through them, cryptocurrencies and tokens flow in and out across different networks.

But, working with any given exchange can be challenging. Each organization has their own rules, fees, capabilities, and opportunities.

That’s why finding one that aligns with your investing goals is important.

Today, we examine these essential institutions more closely and provide a list of the top crypto exchanges recommended by our editors.

P.S.—If you're more interested in decentralized exchanges, check out our list of top DEXs.

Read our updated guide to the best centralized exchanges >>

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New Risk Scorecard: Zcash (ZEC)

Zcash focuses on enhanced privacy through cryptography, offering users the option of "shielded" transactions that hide the sender, recipient, and amount transferred.

Over the past 52 weeks, however, Zcash has seen its native token (ZEC) decline by more than 30% despite the relative strength of the overall crypto market.

Does that make ZEC a risky investment... or one that's ready for a rebound?

Our analysts put the ZEC token through our industry-leading Blockchain Risk Scorecard to determine what risks investors in the token might face.

Premium members can download the Zcash Risk Scorecard here to learn what our analysts say about investing in ZEC.

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

Must Read

Today's most important stories for crypto investors.

Big Business Wants Bitcoin(Bankless)

Bitcoin experienced a ~10% rally last week, surpassing $67,000 on Friday, driven by favorable CPI readings and significant disclosures of ETF holdings. Major hedge funds revealed substantial investments in bitcoin ETFs, and the Wisconsin Investment Board reported $162 million in bitcoin ETF holdings. Research by River indicates that 13 of the top 25 U.S. hedge funds purchased BTC ETFs in Q1, potentially reflecting long-term bets that signal a market that's only just starting to heat up.

Monthly Outlook: Expectations on Ethereum(Coinbase Research)

According to this new report, Ethereum's long-term positioning remains strong despite underperforming YTD. Coinbase believes that Ethereum has some of the strongest persistent demand drivers in crypto, and retains unique advantages to its scaling roadmap. ETH’s historical trading patterns indicate that it benefits from a mix of “store-of-value” and “technology-token” narratives, making it a strong long-term holding.

Stablecoin Bots are a Feature, Not a Bug (Blockworks)

A Bloomberg headline claims that more than 90% of stablecoin transactions aren’t from real users, raising concerns about transaction authenticity. We've seen this claim before, and proponents typically ignore the prevalence of bots used to automatically execute smart contracts--a key component of blockchain technology. This piece explains why bots aren't always a bad thing: they power the blockchain bus.

Long-Term Wealth

$1K invested at today's market prices

This asset	invested 5 years ago	is now worth
Bitcoin (BTC)	$1,000	$10,504
Ethereum (ETH)	$1,000	$7,099
Uniswap (UNI)*	$1,000	$1,339
BNB Chain (BNB)	$1,000	$41,452

Note: The future may look different from the past. Please invest carefully.

* As UNI is less than five years old, we calculate from the launch date (Sep 2020).

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Chart of the Day

Which Projects are Cleaning Up on Fees

Fees are integral to a blockchain project's functionality, security, and economic viability.

Besides compensating miners or validators who secure the network, fees:

Enable transaction prioritization during periods of high network congestion.

Ensure sustainability by funding network operations, development, and upgrades without central funding sources.

Bolster the network's decentralization by compensating a broad base of participants, preventing control by any single entity, and preserving its decentralized ethos.

Not surprisingly, the most prominent blockchains also collect the most fees. Even after the Dencun upgrade, Ethereum tops the list with nearly $3 billion in fees collected over the past year.

While blockchain fees can seem counterintuitive to the goal of providing fast and cheap global money transfers, they provide compensation for those securing the network, which means we can all benefit from fees through staking, validation, mining, and other network usage.

ICYMI