With the year ending, the last month has been dominated by Bitcoin as it has achieved all time high prices as a result of a number of forks. This put an increased amount of pressure on the altcoin market and here are 5 coins to watch for the rest of the year.
Substratum
Substratum is an open-source network that allows anyone to allocate their spare computing resources in order to participate in a decentralized web. The Substratum network is a worldwide collection of nodes that uses cryptography to provide secure internet access and content without the need for Tor or a VPN.
Substratum raised just over $13M during its recent ICO and has been one of the better performers over the last few months. SUB began trading at around $0.04 in September and despite experiencing a period of fluctuation has remained well above its ICO price. SUB has also made its way to exchanges such as Binance, COSS, and HitBTC and this has helped it to maintain its current price of above $0.10. With a market cap of just under $29M this project has a lot of room to grow and the team have a number of releases lined up such as a node that pays out SUB tokens. After staying resistant to selling pressure during October, we can expect SUB to only increase in value during 2017.
Komodo
Komodo (KMD) is both a cryptocurrency and platform that is designed for maximum security and privacy. The Komodo platform is intended to provide smart contracts as well as blockchain-based solutions. Komodo is linked to Bitcoin, and uses a consensus mechanism that is backed by the Bitcoin hashrate. Komodo also allows anonymous transactions via zk-SNARKS technology and KMD is a currency on the rise. Komodo is a technology that has been attracting a lot of interest in the crypto community thanks to a number of unique and this looks set to increase with its hosting of the Monaize ICO in mid-November.
The Monaize ICO will be the first to utilize cross chain atomic swaps and investors who donate KMD will automatically receive the MNZ token in return. Komodo has been one of the few altcoins to actually increase in value during the Bitcoin fork period and traded at just under $2.00 leading up to November. Since then KMD has continued to rise in price and currently trades above the $2 mark. With its innovative use of technology and ability to host blockchain projects on its platform, Komodo is a cryptocurrency to watch for the rest of the year.
Binance
Binance Coin (BNB) is a token released by the Binance exchange, which came into life as a result of a recently held ICO. Binance is run by an ambitious team and in a short space of time has become the 11th biggest exchange according to trade volume. Its BNB coin enables customers to enjoy reduced fees when trading cryptocurrencies that are paired against BNB and traders can receive discounts on exchanges, withdrawals and listing fees.
For its first year, there is a 50% discount rate on trading fees, dropping to 25% in the second year and halving again in each of the subsequent two years. In addition to offering discounts on fees, Binance also engages its community via polls, promotions, and special giveaways, which continue to attract new users. As BNB is linked to the Binance exchange, its value increases with increased usage on the platform and Binance looks set to continue its rise up the ranking. BNB currently trades just under $1.75 and holds a market cap of around $175M, earlier this year it reaches its all-time high price of $2.92.
Kucoin
The second coin linked to an exchange in this list is Kucoin. Kucoin is an up and coming exchange based in Hong Kong. Kucoin are ambitious outfit and in addition to incorporating an aggressive promotions campaign, the exchange also plans to provide early access to some of the most promising coins in Asia as well as allowing for the trade of more established coins.
The exchange also operates its own currency known as Kucoin Shares (KCS) and the KCS token operates as a standard ERC 20 token based on Ethereum blockchain. The value of the KCS token will increase in line with an increase in its number of holders and traders. This provides extra value as holding KCS allows the platform’s users to access benefits including a 30% trading fee discount as well as an award incentive bonus, which equals to 50% of the total trading fees charged by the platform, which is distributed back to users who hold KCS in their accounts.
The exchange has experienced around $4M of total trading activity with its KCS token attracting the majority of traders. The recent listing of coins such as the Red Pulse RPX token has helped increase the exchange’s user base. With further keenly anticipated tokens set to be listed, Kucoin is an exchange that will only grow in importance and we can expect the price of KCS tokens to match the rise of the exchange.
OmiseGO
OmiseGO (OMG) is a token-based digital currency backed by the Plasma decentralized exchange and a digital wallet provided by Omise. The technology behind OmiseGO revolves around providing super-fast payments and linking e-wallets for different types of fiat and digital currencies.
It’s designed to facilitate payments for goods and services on the web to and to enable the cross-border transfer of assets. Backed up by the Ethereum Foundation, the project’s extremely successful ICO held in June sold out before it had even gone live to the public.
OMG has been one of the year’s best performers and currently trades at around $7.00 after launching with an ICO price of just $0.24. Most OMG observers have been waiting for a suitable entry point and now is as good a time as any. Prior to the downturn experienced by altcoins because of Bitcoin forks, OMG was generally trading at around $8.00. Since that time, the price has dropped to $6, but has recently bounced back above $7. However, OmiseGO is a popular project with both Western and Asian investors and the OMG token has recorded returns of over 2000% since its ICO as well as recording an all-time high price of over $12. Many feel that OMG provides great value at its current market cap of around $640M so look for significant positive price action in the months to come.