It is evident bitcoin (BTC) and the entire crypto markets suffered one of the worst corrections in history the last two months. However, preceding this correction the market was driven to new all-time highs on a regular basis. February will be the month of the rebound and there are some fantastic options as far as coins to capitalize on during the upcoming bull rally.
State of the Market
Crypto is a very volatile investment as we’ve all come to realize in the past few weeks. What goes up, must go down. And what goes down, must go back up. February to be the month of the rebound with January having been the month of a serious correction.
Understanding the market will rebound with force this month is only half the battle. The second half it trying to find unique trading techniques that will not only yield higher than average market returns but can also be applied on a monthly basis. The crypto markets receded 50 percent in January, which is the standard month of corrections, in most financial markets. January has passed and February is here. As notorious as January is for corrections, February is equally notorious for rebounds. The question becomes not will the market rebound, but which coins will rebound the most?
ZClassic: ZCL
ZCL has approximately one fifth of the total coins of BTC, yet all ZCL holders and BTC holders will receive 1 BTCP at the end of February (February 28). This means ZCL should be trading by the end of February at the predicted value of BTCP. What is BTCP you ask? You can read our report on it here. BTCP is a private coin with the BTC branding. The benefits of XMR (hidden transfer amounts and wallet addresses) along with the faster transaction speeds of BCH will be combined into BTCP.
The real question is what will the value be of one BTCP in a month? To answer this question, it is essential to look at what other forks of BTC are worth and determine if this upcoming one will be worth more or less. BCH was originally a fork of BTC and is now priced over $1,600 per coin. BCH primarily sped up BTC transactions and decreased their cost. If BTCP is worth 25 percent of BCH, ZCL should be trading at $400 currently.
BTCP accomplishes what BCH does but also adds the privacy feature under the same BTC branding. The BTC brand is the most valuable name in crypto, and privacy coins are important to conceal one’s identity and amount transferred. BTCP for these reasons should be the most expensive fork of BTC yet once all the dust settles. ZCL was trading over $200 in early January and heading toward February 28 it should trend toward $200, or even higher.
The biggest risk of loss is if the fork does not take place. The BTCP team is already 70 strong with more than 30 Devs working on it. They are also holding meetups prior to the fork even taking place! Of all forks, this one does not seem like a scam. As long as the fork goes ahead as planned and is branded BTCP its value will be immense in comparison to other recent BTC forks, due to the privacy feature. This makes ZCL a very strong play at any price point under $200 for the remainder of February.
NEO and GAS
One of my favorite techniques to employ on a monthly basis on Binance is GAS accumulation. Binance is a day late currently with their GAS distributions for NEO holders. If you own NEO on Binance, at the beginning of the month (usually the first day), they provide GAS payments. GAS is basically a dividend provided for holding NEO. However, when the masses on Binance receive small GAS payments they instantly try to sell their $10 holding.
Honestly, why would anyone want $10 in a coin? So the majority sell their small holdings as soon as they receive them. This causes the price of GAS to plummet. However, GAS is very important to the NEO network and as we all saw in the middle of January the price of GAS exploded North when the entire market was crashing. This was not an outlier. The price of GAS on Binance trends North in the middle of every month, once the initial flood of GAS payments are sold off. GAS usually plummets in price the first week of every month as Binance saturates the market with small GAS payments, but by the middle of the month no more GAS has been given on Binance and it returns to its former glory. This is a monthly trend that if adhered to can net much greater than average market returns. It is also a very simple technique.
Regardless if you own NEO or not, accumulate GAS the first week of each month on Binance with sell orders in place 30 percent higher than where you purchased it. By the end of the month the sell orders should have processed, and during the first three days of the following month you can take your proceeds and reinvest in GAS. Repeat. This is a clever way to take advantage of the GAS payment structure on Binance. When supply is highest (the first week of every month) the price will be lowest and it’s time to accumulate. Three weeks later when GAS hasn’t been paid in weeks but still is required people will pay a premium for it on Binance.
GAS is always a strong play, buying it the first week of each month, and selling the third week. However, NEO is the Chinese ETH and as they release more and more ICOs on their platform the GAS payments will only increase on a monthly basis. ETH held its own even through a 50 percent market correction (it actually appreciated) and this demonstrates the importance of coins that can host ICOs moving forward. ETH was the early entrant but right behind them we have NEO making significant waves in the Asian markets, and having just supported NEO DevCon. NEO, although it will unlikely lead the charge of fastest recovering altcoins, it is a great option that pays regular dividends and should continue to chip away at ETH’s market share. The more ICOs the NEO platform produces the more valuable both NEO and GAS become. 2018 should be a very strong year for both NEO and GAS, beginning in February.
Ripple: XRP
XRP has had nothing but positive news for the prior two months. They are one of the only coins being integrated into currently functioning financial systems. They are also one of the few coins expected to make it to Coinbase this quarter. In the last few weeks there have been multiple partnerships (SBI International) and exchange listings from BitOasis (UAE and North Africa). If the entire crypto markets evaporate tomorrow, XRP has already solidified itself in the fiat world as a major player able to move funds instantly across the entire globe with complete transparency. XRP was trading at over $3 in the beginning of January as hype peaked it may make it to Coinbase any moment.
The headline names on their partner list include Moneygram International, Banco Santander, and American Express (Amex). These names are exclusively working with XRP, and very few other coins have any market penetration when it comes to aiding current financial markets in adopting crypto. XRP stands alone in this category and having fallen from above $3 in under one month; XRP should have a rebound to be remembered. They have market adoption currently, are on the short list of possible Coinbase additions, and are resting at approximately 30 percent of their prior value from January 11, 2018.
ICON: ICX
ICX is similar to STRAT, NEO, and ETH as it is an ICO platform for new coins to be launched on. However, ICX is the South Korean favorite, and January was the month of South Korean FUD. With ICX taking such a battering in the month of January even though they successfully released their mainnet and hosted their first blockchain conference, it is likely during the recovery ICX outperforms the majority of alts. The FUD out of South Korea should be over as their traders were allowed to come back online January 31.
Expects ICX to have a new flow of funds pumped into it coupled with the market rebounding as a whole, which should lead to a very positive month of February. March should be even better as ICX has their mobile wallet coming out in between the Dallas SuperConference and Token Summit in San Francisco. ICX is a strong buy through the end of March.
STRATIS: STRAT
If you didn’t hear, they are hosting two Flagship ICOs, have new partnerships with Dev teams, and have a new masternode system they just brought online. If you are interested in learning more about masternodes, or STRAT in particular. STRAT is a platform similar to ETH and NEO that can host its own ICOs. The author believes 2018 will be the year of legitimate ICOs as regulation forces coins to select ICOs very carefully. STRAT was not able to take advantage of all the positive occurrences that happened last month because of the market’s lack of cooperation. However, the King expects because of all their positive news that STRAT will rebound in February with more ferocity than the majority of coins.
The upcoming Dallas SuperConference is approaching rapidly and one of the coins presenting: STRAT. According to STRAT, “We will be discussing our turnkey solutions and how we utilize C# & .Net development frameworks to provide quick and easy blockchain-based [solutions].” With STRAT attending the Dallas SuperConference, having most of their advertising money from their ICO still available, the Breeze Tumblebit, masternodes and having met all their January deadlines, the King sees STRAT rebounding harder than the majority of alts. There actually isn’t any negative news, or even sentiment regarding STRAT. This is very rare for an alt, and it’s slide the last few months mimicked the entire market as a whole. However, STRAT is differentiated from 90 percent of useless coins out there by having an ICO platform that is already functioning and a major month of February on the horizon.
PotCoin: POT
PotCoin (POT) was an early entrant into the crypto space to aid the cannabis industry in the United States (2014). They are rolling out an advertising campaign intended on breaking into states with new pending legislation. There has not been adoption by dispensaries, growers, or consumers on a mass scale and POT may be able to facilitate the market adoption. They already have ATMs in multiple dispensaries in Colorado and by far are the most active and publicized cannabis coin.
The banking industry is cooperating with dispensaries even less than the crypto markets were cooperating last month. Growers, dispensers, and consumers need a blockchain based system that can provide banking solutions. POT is that specific cryptocurrency that can alleviate the issues plaguing the cannabis business in the United States.
Metal: MTL
Metal (MTL) was delisted from Bittrex for missing their deadline to have a functioning product. The author is from the law and finance fields so I expect very timely, attentive, business transactions. Developers are the exact opposite. They are extremely hard working but rarely care at all about deadlines. The deadlines are generally set by the business-oriented individuals in the coin/company while the developers solely care about creating a well-built functioning product. This is no different from MTL. Generally, coins delisted from Bittrex become true scam coins. However, MTL is one of the rare exceptions.
Their Dev team is still hard at work on the MTL platform, and Bittrex even hinted at possibly relisting them once their platform is up and running. Like most coins MTL took a beating in January but coupled with being delisted from Bittrex, is priced exponentially lower currently than it should be. According to Metal’s website and the crypto calendars, Metal Pay and a new website will be formed in quarter one of 2018. In the next two months, a coin that was delisted from Bittrex will release the platform that had them delisted in the first place (due to delays), while also having a brand new website released. MTL will have a fantastic February due to their Q1 launch of Metal Pay, a new website, and the entire market rebound that follows major corrections.
Monero: XMR
The utility of a token is very important. Most coins/tokens have very little purpose. Monero (XMR) is a privacy token whose purpose one would say is not the most “ethical.” XMR is the primary coin currently used on the Dark web for very good reasons. Although all transactions take place on the blockchain, it is impossible to see how much coin is being sent, where it came from, or where it’s going. The ability to send crypto anonymously has its clear advantages.
Many illegal or solely private individuals flock to privacy coins as a means to transact in privacy without their information being public. XMR is the leading privacy coin on the market and as the market recovers as a whole so should a coin which has a very functional utility. Few coins have actual utilities, and even if the utility may be nefarious, these coins will have the greatest rebounds as they are regularly used as currency.
Conclusion
December 2017 and January 2018 saw one of the largest corrections in crypto market history. Corrections have a tendency to create significant fear among the weak holders allowing many to buy the dips. Hopefully, you’ve been acquiring more of your favorite alts while there was blood in the streets. Corrections are followed by rebounds, as has been the case in crypto markets for years.
Rebounds are generally followed by new all-time highs (ATHs) within sixty days. This means the market should have fully recovered by May at the latest if indeed February 2, 2018, was the bottom of the correction. Almost all coins in the crypto space should have a significant recovery in the next month, but it is important to analyze the coins in which you think will outperform.