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May 10, 2024

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Howdy, investors!

Nearly half a million memecoins have been minted in 2024. In today's guide, we'll explain our position on memecoins, in just two words.

The SEC has been active in bringing cases against crypto companies, and it pays for investors to watch which companies the agency is suing, and why.

Bitcoin is increasingly used to circumvent political and economic repression. Learn how bitcoin can be used to protect individual rights.

Read on!

The Investor's Guide to Memecoins

by John Hargrave

The year was 2013: the first big crypto boom.

Bitcoin started the year around $13, and skyrocketed to $1,100 by December. In response, many entrepreneurs began launching alternatives to bitcoin -- Litecoin, Ripple, Peercoin -- with their “altcoins” quickly making millions.

In the midst of this madness, two guys launched the world’s most valuable joke.

Billy Markus was an IBM software engineer, and Jackson Palmer was a developer at Adobe. Since all these new altcoins were based on open-source code, it was a simple matter for the duo to launch their own version of Litecoin, tweak a few variables, and call it Dogecoin.

It was a parody of everything happening in crypto: a token with no good use, with the ridiculous Doge meme as a mascot (see above).

But the joke was on them: people started to buy DOGE, running the near-worthless token from $0.00026 to $0.00095. Billions of Dogecoins were being traded each day: a month after it launched, Dogecoin was briefly traded more than all other cryptocurrencies combined.

Today, their parody coin has a very real market capitalization of $21 billion, which must make it the most valuable joke in the world.

In today's guide, we'll give you some common-sense principles for buying memecoins, which can be summed up in two words.

Click for our investing advice in memecoins >>

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New Investor Scorecard: THORChain (RUNE)

THORChain is a cross-chain decentralized protocol that allows users to exchange native assets directly without the need for wrapped tokens or centralized intermediaries.

Like much of the crypto market, the native RUNE token has been under pressure recently, taking it more than 40% below its 52-week high. However, the token still has a 420% gain over those 52 weeks.

So, is RUNE a good buy ... or will it leave investors in ruins?

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

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.

Real World Assets, Real World Application (Medium)

From their humble beginnings, stablecoins and real-world assets (RWAs) have expanded into broader applications such as payments and remittances, particularly in regions with unstable currencies. Both will likely play a significant role in merging the crypto economy with the traditional economy: here are the investor opportunities.

SEC Crypto Crackdown: Every Company That is Being Investigated (Decrypt)

For a government agency that complains about being understaffed, they sure do have a lot of resources for lawsuits: the list includes the Ethereum Foundation, Robinhood, Consensys, and Uniswap Labs. Investors take note: these cases will influence the future of crypto in the U.S. (Remember: the SEC is not guaranteed to win!)

How to Dictator-Proof Your Money (Journal of Democracy)

Human rights activists are increasingly utilizing bitcoin as a censorship-resistant currency to use against financial oppression by authoritarian regimes. In nations where financial systems are often manipulated to stifle dissent, bitcoin offers a viable alternative for maintaining the flow of donations and operational funds. It's another positive use case for bitcoin: to protect human rights.

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Chart of the Day

Crypto Lending Activity Picks Up

While staking is the most popular yield generation method, interest in lending is also growing, with the total amount in lending protocols now topping $10 billion.

Lending can also be particularly profitable, especially when stablecoins are used as collateral. Current lending rates on USDT and USDC on some platforms can be over 10%.

In the chart above, Aave (AAVE) is the leading lending platform in fees collected, with nearly $100 million in fees over the past 90 days. Second-place contender Venus has seen roughly one-third of that amount.

With crypto prices rising, lending will likely gain more attention as some traders look to leverage their positions. This added demand would also increase fee revenues, increasing lending yields even as staking yields are trending lower.

Smart investors can invest in the leading lending protocols by buying and holding their tokens for the long term.

ICYMI