INTRODUCTION
The Cosmos (ATOM) project is an ecosystem of independent blockchains with the intent to make them interoperable and to scale. The team behind Cosmos (ATOM) desires to create an 'Internet of Blockchains' or in other words a network of interoperable blockchains operating in a decentralized fashion. Indeed, a very ambitious undertaking.
In this subsection of the Cosmos Coin Guide let's investigate whether or not Cosmos (ATOM) is an asset you should be considering adding to your portfolio.
FACTORS IN FAVOR OF INVESTING IN COSMOS (ATOM)
- Cosmos was launched in 2017, so in cryptocurrency standards, it is an established project with staying power.
- Cosmos is one of the most sought after cryptocurrency projects when considering blockchain interoperability.
- Cosmos ranks among the top 50 digital assets based on the metric of market capitalization.
- Being one of the most popular blockchains for interoperability, Cosmos enjoys wide liquidity across many cryptocurrency exchanges.
- Cosmos boasts of having 248 available applications available for use in its blockchain that in cumulative total manage over $70 billion in user assets.
- Cosmos has first-mover status in the space (interoperability).
- As of July 23, 2021, Cosmos ranked 36th with a 788/1000 Fundamental Crypto Asset Score (FCAS). This metric measures the health of a crypto asset on a comparative basis with other similar projects.
- Cosmos demonstrates a healthy high daily trading volume.
- The ecosystem of Cosmos is sufficiently healthy so as to support both decentralized autonomous organizations as well as decentralized gaming projects. Likewise, DeFi projects have been added to the Cosmos blockchain within the past three months.
- In February of 2021, Cosmos launched STARGATE, which enhanced the performance blockchain connections with its SDK (Software Development Kit) thereby increasing its interoperability capabilities.
- Cosmos has impressive credible use cases in that Crypto.com, ThorChain, Terra, and Binance have all used the resources provided by Cosmos in the construction of their respective projects.
- Due to the relative low price of Cosmos as compared to comparable blockchains, Cosmos is undervalued. This situation provides the opportunity for institutional investors to buy Cosmos when they are looking for projects with historical credibility and strong use cases. The entry of institutional investors would drive the price of Cosmos higher benefiting current investors.
- Cosmos has a a very strong team backing the project. The core team is well versed in blockchain technology and operations as well as decentralized finance. It is through the teams efforts that Cosmos has developed into a continuously improving third generation technology.
- One of the three important technologies within Cosmos is its SDK (Software Development Kit) which permits developers to add their projects to the Cosmos chain easily and seamlessly. The simplicity of the Cosmos SDK should drive additional projects to the Cosmos ecosystem.
- It is within Cosmos future plans to introduce an 'opt-in shared security model' within it's network zones to provide incentives for developers to choose the Cosmos ecosystem for their project.
- Cosmos will be launching its 'Gravity Bridge', which will be an efficient bridge between EVMs and Cosmos SDK compatible blockchains. This bridge will permit transfers from ETH to Cosmos and Cosmos to ETH by locking tokens on the Ethereum side of the transfer and minting equivalent tokens in the Cosmos ecosystem. Launch of the Gravity Bridge will bring added liquidity and value to the Cosmos blockchain as well as to the other assets running within its ecosystem.
- In January 2021, Grayscale took the first steps toward creating a Cosmos Single-Asset Trust.
FACTORS AGAINST INVESTING IN COSMOS (ATOM)
- There exists some possible regulatory concerns surrounding the initial Cosmos token sale in 2017. Although there has been no direct action by the SEC against Cosmos, these regulatory concerns (i.e. Ripple) could potentially either directly or indirectly effect the price of Cosmos.
- Cosmos' IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication) feature has stiff competition. Competitors include Akash Network, Crypto.com, IRISnet, CELO, and Polkadot. The result being Cosmos will face additional competition from blockchains in the mainstream (Cardano, Ethereum, EOSIO, and basically any IBC capable chain) which could divide the available market among these competitors.
- As of July 2021, there were less than 300 applications available on Cosmos which is difficult to comprehend in light of its easy to use SDK available to developers. During the same period, only 40 zones were available for use on Cosmos with only 2 being used, and further, Cosmos ranked 14th among its competitors in terms of Development Activity per Sanbase.
TOKENOMICS
Per CoinMarketCap, at the time of the writing of this subsection (October 1, 2021 at 11:50 EDT) there is a circulating supply of 222,232,891.34 ATOM. With the current price of $37.42 the market capitalization of Cosmos (ATOM) is $8,312,590,654. There is a total supply of 280,017,494 Cosmos (ATOM) tokens authorized yielding a fully diluted market capitalization of $10,534,317,852. Presently, Cosmos (ATOM) is ranked No. 20 by CoinMarketCap.
A review of the Cosmos (ATOM) price chart for the entire history of the project demonstrates a nice upward trend, especially when taking into account external market forces and periods of unrelated project market volatility:
PRICE PREDICTIONS
A sampling of some of the current expert predictions on the price of Cosmos (ATOM) include:
[O]ur long-term ATOM price prediction 2021 is bullish. It has a high possibility of surpassing its current all-time-high (ATH) at about $41.34. Moreover, it is possible for ATOM to reach this level this year.
[Reeta, A. Cosmos Price Prediction – Will ATOM Price Hit $65 in 2021?. (Accessed October 1, 2021)
- Wallet Investor has provided the following graph showing its price prediction for 2021 and 2022:
- Digitalcoin has provided a longer term price prediction for the year 2025 in graph form as follows:
Please keep in mind that while these price predictions paint a rosy future for Cosmos (Atom) as an investment, they are just that - predictions. No one has a crystal ball that can guarantee future performance. As such, as a potential investor, you may take the prediction for what it is, as the same is no guarantee of future price performance of Cosmos (Atom) due to the volatility of the cryptocurrency markets.
CONCLUSION
This subsection has provided you, the potential investor in Cosmos (ATOM), with the key elements to consider in reaching a final decision on this token. In reaching a final investment decision many differing opinions should be sought out. Reliance on one source is highly discouraged.
It is a given that every individual investor possesses a different present financial circumstance, tolerance for risk, and investment strategy. These must be weighed in light of the factors and information above provided in finalizing any investment decision.
Please remember, this subsection of the Cosmos (ATOM) Coin Guide is merely a starting point and should not be deemed a substitute for doing your own diligent research. And as always, never invest more than you can afford to lose. Good luck!