Holidays are coming: feel the spirit with the crypto advent calendar by SwapSpace

The growth of the cryptocurrency market fuels the interest of society and business in the industry and does not allow states to stay on the sidelines. Dozens of countries are developing their digital currencies, and some of them will be launched as early as 2022. In this article, we will help you understand what digital currencies issued by the state are and how their appearance will affect citizens. What is CBDC The CBDC, or central bank digital currency, is a government-issued and government-backed digital analog of fiat money. CBDCs are created using blockchain technology, just like other cryptocurrencies. However, the digital assets of the Central Bank are not the usual cryptocurrency due to the centralized nature of the issue. The CBDC exchange rate is stable and equal to the exchange rate of the state currency in a ratio of 1:1. This is the principle of a stablecoin — a digital analog of the state currency, whose rate is tied to it and secured by it. For example, USDC or USDT are stablecoins tied to the value of USD. The main difference between those coins and CBDC is that the central bank of the country acts as the CBDC’s issuing center, and not a private company or a community of people. Two Ways of Financial Evolution The emergence of CBDC is designed to change the banking systems of all countries and strengthen the role of central banks. There are two points of view on what these changes will be. Supporters of state regulation of crypto believe that all crypto assets, except for the digital currency of the state, should be banned. This is the way that China's central bank cryptocurrency goes. Operations with CBDC will be transparent and will make it possible to track the history of each transaction and each participant in the chain . Banks will only have to work with companies and citizens: to serve customers and improve their products and services. The burden on financial monitoring will disappear. In a sense, the banks even want it. The second option for CBDC development is recognition and regulation. In this model, digital coins and crypto will be equated to shares, considered a digital value or a payment asset. In this case, the cryptocurrency market will develop systematically, and CBDC will be a full participant in the crypto world. This is Singapore's way. How CBDC Works From the point of view of the approach to the issue, the Bank for International Settlements identifies two basic concepts of digital currencies of central banks (combinations are possible): Account-­based (balanced): according to this concept, the creation of a Central securities exchange takes place by opening personalized accounts in the central bank for all economic agents. The features of this concept are the growth of the regulator's costs for maintaining accounts and the risks of disintermediation (reducing the role) of traditional financial intermediaries. Indeed, for commercial banks, the consequences of the emergence of such a retail CBDC can be revolutionary. For example, if individuals and legal entities have the opportunity to receive and store funds in accounts with the central bank, this may provoke a massive outflow of funds from commercial banks. Some European commercial banks are already raising the question of how, in such a system, the central bank will provide funds to banks for lending to the economy. Value token-based concept assumes a digital cash issue (token) distributed through commercial banks, replacing cash. In this case, the central bank relieves itself of a significant part of the costs and risks associated with checking and servicing customers, providing them with additional services, as well as creating and operating technologies. Tokens in such an ecosystem will effectively represent digital versions of cash. However, commercial banks fear that the launch of such digital money may simplify the entry into the financial sphere for large technology companies, which will increase competition in an already low-margin and competitive market, further reducing the industry's revenues. The form in which the Central Securities Exchange will be launched in a particular country can vary greatly from state to state, depending on the specific tasks assigned to the regulator.  When and Where Will the First CBDC Appear If you do not take into account the Sand Dollar issued by the central bank of the Bahamas, no major country in the world has yet reached the stage of launching its own CBDC. As of November 2021, more than 50 countries of the world were developing CBDC. China has come closest to real use, where the digital yuan has been tested for about a year. South Korea, Canada, France, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, and Uruguay are at the pilot testing stage. There is another approach to using crypto as the official currency of the state. This is an example of El Salvador, which in September 2021 recognized bitcoin as a means of payment on a par with the US dollar. Why Do States Need CBDC? One of the main tasks of the Central Bank's digital currencies is the security and transparency of financial transactions. Firstly, the technology underlying CBDC is the most modern means of controlling cash flows. Secondly, central banks strive not to be late for the trend and monitor each other. It is impossible to ignore the development of cryptocurrencies, therefore, to avoid a new round of money flowing into the gray zone, the state needs its digital currency. As they say, if you can't stop them — lead them. For many years, some states have been struggling with the outflow of money to offshore and other jurisdictions that are more favorable from the point of view of taxes and doing business. Previously, this happened with cash, then with non-cash, and now the process has almost entirely switched to cryptocurrencies. There is a threat that people and companies that create stablecoins will control too many processes and resources and will become stronger than some states. Therefore, CBDC for states is also a tool to combat gray financial flows. Are We Moving to Digital Currency? Most likely, a link between CBDC, stablecoins, and crypto will exist and their exchange for cash will be possible for quite a long time. But it is possible that in some countries, cash and digital values, except for their own CBDC, will remain in the gray zone and will be banned. For example, in China. Criticism Writer Dominic Frisby, author of the book "Bitcoin: the Future of Money?", believes that the main disadvantage of CBDC is its programmable capabilities. While fiat currency presupposes certain freedom, digital currency completely excludes it. Governments will also have direct access to users' wallets, which will make it easy to collect taxes or fines — you just need to change a couple of lines of code to do this. The programmable functions of money can be used against certain undesirable persons or as a weapon in an economic war. Integration with social rating systems opens up even wider opportunities for punishments or rewards. Your bank knows almost everything about your spending model, knows where you live, who you work for, and which store you prefer to buy groceries at on Mondays. He is well aware of your financial situation and state of health. Knows what devices you use, and in some cases even has biometric data. All this information opens up great opportunities for analysis, including behavioral analysis. However, information about consumers is of interest not only to the private sector but also to the state. Moreover, central banks are among the first to queue for user data. In the current realities, the introduction of national digital currencies by several countries is a matter of "when", not "if". As with fiat currencies, their strength will be determined by the strength and influence of the central banks behind the issue. A former employee of the NSA and the CIA, Edward Snowden, considers the tool "the newest danger hanging over society."  In a world where CBDCs are a priority means of settlement, including cross-border ones, there will be no room for privacy. After all, a tool that is positioned as a way to increase financial inclusion, in the end, can only tighten the noose around the neck of economic freedom.

The bitcoin exchange rate has experienced a lot of falls in recent years, but in the end, it has recovered every time and reached new heights. In the last six months, almost all cryptocurrencies have significantly dropped in price. At the end of last month, after a prolonged fall, the first cryptocurrency began to show some positive dynamics, gaining a foothold at $ 32 thousand. Against the background of the rising inflation rate in the United States (almost 9% per year), bitcoin rapidly flew down and reached $ 27 thousand. Then analysts said that with an increase in inflation, the BTC rate would inevitably fall. On Monday, June 13, the bitcoin exchange rate fell to a price of $ 25 thousand, and on June 19, bitcoin collapsed to $18,707 (according to the Binance exchange). The first cryptocurrency pulled other coins along with it. Ethereum has fallen in price and now costs about $ 1.1 thousand, Solana has lost as much as 18.2% in a week, and the exchange rate has dropped to $ 37 (at the time of 06/21/12) Reasons The collapse of the cryptocurrency market will not surprise anyone. Even though the cost of bitcoin and Ethereum has increased dramatically over the past decade, fluctuations in this market have become familiar. Among the reasons for the fall of the cryptocurrency, experts name three — of which Bloomberg considers inflation statistics in the United States to be the main reason: in June, the US Federal Bureau of Statistics reported that the main consumer price index (CPI) increased by 8.6%. Inflation excluding food products increased by 6%. This is a record since 1981, and the statistics turned out to be worse than analysts' expectations, which assumed an increase of 8.3% for the CPI and 5.9% for core inflation. The second reason is the tightening of monetary policy in different countries. First of all, the US Federal Reserve, which in May raised the base rate (according to which the Central Bank issues loans to commercial banks) by 50 basis points, to 0.75-1%. This is the strongest increase since 2000. Because of this, people prefer to invest in assets less risky than cryptocurrency. The cryptocurrency market is also affected by the collapse of the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin and related proceedings, which undermined investors' faith in such projects, Bloomberg writes. After it lost its binding to the US dollar, the Luna cryptocurrency used for its release collapsed by 76.4%. Luna Foundation Guard, which is behind TerraUSD, spent $2.9 billion in bitcoins to protect the binding of the token to the dollar — almost all of its reserves. On June 10, Bloomberg, citing sources, reported that the US Securities and Exchange Commission had launched an investigation into Terraform Labs and its algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD. The regulator will examine whether the platform violated the rules for protecting its investors. Shares of Crypto Companies Also Fell The negative dynamics of the cryptocurrency affected the shares of industry-related companies on the stock market. In particular, the value of Coinbase Global Inc. paper has dropped by 13% since the beginning of the year, Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. — by 24.4%, and Riot Blockchain Inc. — by 21.7%. After spending "hundreds of millions of dollars" on campaigns, sponsorship agreements, and advertising at the Super Bowl, most cryptocurrency firms have reduced marketing costs. This is reported by The Wall Street Journal.  Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said that crypto winter is the right time to hire new employees and further develop the business. Activity in the sphere has been reduced by Crypto.com and Gemini Trust. The first, after spending $40 million in January, allocated $2.1 million in May for commercials on the eve of the Super Bowl. The second one spent $478,000 last month — eight times less than in November ($3.8 million). Terra Crash The Terra incident is undoubtedly one of the highest-profile events in the history of the crypto industry. So far, no DeFi project has reached such gigantic proportions before its collapse. In March 2021, Terra launched an application called Anchor, which offered profitable deposits, which forced people to buy Terra to then deposit it into their account and get a 20% profit. This attracted a lot of new investors. The dizzying growth of Terra USD (UST) and the popularity of algorithmic stable coins have been a crypto trend for a long time and inspired many developers to create similar projects and reserve crypto funds. However, everything changed in a matter of days: on Wednesday, May 11, Terra USD lost its peg to the US dollar — its price fell below $ 0.23. The LUNA cryptocurrency used to issue the stablecoin has fallen by more than 80%. Some market experts believe that the Terra incident, regardless of the outcome, will have serious consequences for the cryptocurrency market. Blogger Dennis Porter noted that regulators use the collapse of UST as the main argument in favor of total regulation of stablecoins and promotion of CBDC. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the unbinding of Terra USD exposed the need to "create a regulatory framework for stablecoins aimed at minimizing volatility." According to experts, the main reason for the "death" of LUNA was the weakening of the binding of the UST stablecoin to the US dollar. It was TerraUSD (UST), according to the creators of Luna, that was supposed to become a "bridge" between tokens and fiat, but in practice, it turned into a disaster. The path to the rebirth of Terra, if at all possible, will be long and thorny. After all, the main problem lies not in the technical component or the mechanism of binding to fiat, but in restoring user trust. Mutual Influence of Markets Bitcoin is increasingly tied to the world market. And, accordingly, it becomes dependent on its fluctuations. The dynamics of bitcoin this year are almost identical to the fluctuations of the US Nasdaq Composite stock indexes, which are dominated by shares of technology companies. The indicator has dropped by 8.3% since the beginning of the year. Sentiment in traditional markets and cryptocurrency markets can mutually influence their dynamics, analysts at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) say. "A sharp decline in bitcoin prices may increase investors' flight from risk and lead to a reduction in investments in stock markets," experts write. Summary The exchange rate is based not only on promises but also on faith in these promises. The more faith the promisee has, the more stable the course. Recently, more and more analysts are predicting a collapse of Bitcoin almost to zero. According to Guggenheim Partners director Scott Meinerd, bitcoin will fall to $8 thousand, bitcoin critic Peter Schiff admits a rate of $10 thousand, and Galaxy Digital founder Mike Novogratz is confident that the "crypt" will fall further. However, such prophecies in no smaller quantities accompanied every protracted decline in the cryptocurrency market which each time regained its position. Against the background of the fall of cryptocurrencies, the founder of the world's largest crypto exchange Binance Changpeng Zhao has repeatedly said that digital money cannot be evaluated by its falls. He wrote: from a historical point of view, "if you bought bitcoin every time the headlines "bitcoin is dead" appear, you would have succeeded." Zhao backed up this statement with the fact that in 2011 bitcoin fell below $ 20, in 2015 - below $200, and in 2017 — below $ 2000. And in 2022, bitcoin fell below $ 20 thousand. Zhao does not doubt that the leading cryptocurrency will begin to rise in price at auction. But it is worth understanding: when exactly bitcoin or ether will go up, no one can predict now.

This year started with a significant decline in the cryptocurrency market, which did intensify because of the geopolitical situation. Since the fall of 2021, crypto has been passing through the bear market and this trend continues to this day. And over the past one and a half to two months the main cryptocurrency has collapsed in price by almost 60%. Are Crypto Market Crashes Really Bitcoin Crashes? The correlation between cryptocurrencies has always existed to various extent. Altcoins depend upon Bitcoin because of the formation of primary demand for digital currency around it. Almost half of all coin investments are in BTC. Large investment portfolios include Bitcoin as a core asset. All large exchanges hold the bulk of liquidity in Bitcoin, as the largest volumes of transactions occur in trading pairs with BTC. Although the dominance index has shown steady growth in altcoins investment since 2017, Bitcoin still holds 40% of the entire market. The closest competitor, Ethereum , is 2 times behind it. Thus, when Bitcoin collapsed from $48.2 thousand to $28.9 thousand, it dragged down all the altсoins. Ether is down 52% since January 2022 and now costs $1,800, Solana is down 74% to $45.87, Cardano is down over 64% and costs $0.4909. If you're a newbie, then you might feel like it's a complete collapse of cryptocurrency. And seemingly with a good reason, because such a sharp and long drop in prices was a long time ago. However, the market has already faced crashes more than once. So we will look at the most important cases of bitcoin drops: The Largest Bitcoin Drops to Date It should be mentioned that any drop in prices is associated with their growth, and vice versa: a kind of swing that leaves no investor indifferent. 1: The Rollercoaster of 2011 The very first shock caused an unexpected rise of Bitcoin from $1 to $30 in early 2011. However, this wave of growth was followed by a staggering drop in the asset price in June 2011. During the period from June 8 to 11, the price of BTC fell by almost 50%, reaching $14.65. Such a sharp jump is explained by the sudden increase in the hashrate to unprecedented values. Also, mentions in some mainstream media played their role. On June 19, 2011, the Mt.Gox exchange was hacked , bringing down the price of Bitcoin to $0.01. It affected the accounts of 60 thousand users totaling more than $8.7 million. One week later, trade on Mt.Gox recovered, and the fall in prices after the hack became the largest in the history of Bitcoin. 2: The New Heights of 2013 The next shattering experience awaited investors for two whole years. In 2013, the volatility of major cryptocurrencies set new records. BTC set a new historical high of $1,147. Against the background of general euphoria among crypto investors, the coin did not stay above $1000 for long - very soon a bear trend began, during which the BTC fell to $694. The next time the cryptocurrency was able to overcome resistance again at the level of a thousand dollars only in January 2017. 3: The Final Misadventure for Mt. Gox In February 2014, the Mt.Gox site was hacked again, this time 744 thousand bitcoins were stolen. It is an absolute record and the biggest hack in the trade to date. As a result of the hack, Mt.Gox filed for bankruptcy and closed, creating panic in the bitcoin market. From that time on, the first prolonged fall of Bitcoin began, which is commonly known as the "cryptocurrency winter." 4: The Time When Even Your Grandma Learned About Crypto The end of 2017 is remembered for euphoria due to the achievement of a new peak in the price of Bitcoin. True, in the same month, the value of the main digital asset began to fall rapidly - a week after the formation of the historical maximum on the line of $20.000, BTC dropped to $13.000. 5: The Comedown of 2018 The fall continued into 2018 and marked a new crypto winter. In January, the coin fell to $9,800. The lack of centralized regulation left the question of safety open. In the first nine months of 2018, $927 million worth of cryptocurrencies was stolen from platforms of different countries, according to a CipherTrace report. Also at the beginning of the year, phishing mobile applications of larger exchanges were distributed, which stole customer data.  Great interest in cryptocurrency and the ICO market has led to the emergence of many scam projects. It all ended with the biggest social networks - Facebook, Instagram, Google, Twitter, Snapchat, Baidu, Weibo - rolling out a ban on any ICO ad, no doubt a blow across the industry. So on the 14th of November, BTC cost $6,359, and already on November 25, the rate was $3,729. 6: The Great Expectations (vs Reality) Another memorable crypto drop took place in late 2019. The main topic in the community was legal issues, the struggle of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with bitcoin-ETF, and hopes for the launch of the institutional bitcoin service Bakkt.  In September, Bakkt finally launched but did not attract much attention among institutional investors, triggering a drop from $10,036 to $6,657 in just a couple of months. To Sum Up High inflation in the US stock market and general global economic instability were naturally reflected in a decrease in risk interest among investors. In addition to the situational panic against the background of the fall of UST, the tightening of the monetary policy of the FRS and the end of the "bull" trend in the technology sector, which includes cryptocurrencies - the main current reasons for the fall of the market. The current market crash is not the largest in history, although due to large capitalization, absolute numbers are really large. The price of Bitcoin has been able to increase by several hundred to 60 thousand dollars, so you should not worry about short-term calendar cancellations.  On the other hand, there are some coins that have less correlation to BTC and it could be a fine new trend. For example, BNB with a well-built all-in-one ecosystem and Launchpad. BNB began to actively master one of the largest markets - the American one. As a result, the position of the currency will only strengthen, which makes it extremely promising for investment.  Clearly, the cryptocurrency will deal with all fluctuations - both minor changes during the day and severe monthly collapses.

The first crypto winter was registered in 2014-2015 and lasted 427 days. At that time, the bitcoin exchange rate decreased by 87%, which negatively affected altcoin quotes. The situation was repeated in 2017-2018, when the growth of the bitcoin exchange rate, which began in the fall, was replaced by a sharp decline — from 20 thousand dollars per coin to 8 thousand, or even less. For several months now, experts have been speculating about the possible onset of crypto winter. New assumptions appeared almost every week, and the deadlines were constantly pushed back. It looks like it happened after all. However, the market is cyclical — a period of growth is always followed by a fall and vice versa. Any downturn creates enrichment opportunities, so in this article, we will look at the topic of investing in cryptocurrency. I will point out that we are not giving financial advice — we’re just collecting information about the main investment strategies, the main market participants, and patterns that may be useful. Crypto Investment Strategies There are different approaches to making money on investments in digital assets. We offer you to get acquainted with the three most popular strategies. Hodl Hodl is a popular term in the crypto community, which network users employ to denote the purchase of cryptocurrency for its long–term retention. Working under this scheme implies earning on the growth of the asset rate for a long time. For example, investors who purchased 1 bitcoin 6 years ago, as of the time of writing, were able to increase their investments by 17547%. Scalping The term scalping usually means income from short-term changes in the exchange rate of an asset. Most often, the influence of news on the digital asset market is used to make money using the scheme. Here's how it can work: An investor saw that a couple of minutes ago, Tesla published a report stating that the organization invested a large amount in bitcoin. It can be assumed that the news will positively affect the behavior of the cryptocurrency exchange rate. To make money on the market reaction, the investor buys bitcoin. At the moment when the cryptocurrency exchange rate starts to rise, the investor gets the opportunity to sell the asset at a higher price. The difference in the cost of buying and selling will become his profit. Also, for scalping, you can use technical analysis of the behavior of the asset rate according to the schedule. Averaging The essence of the strategy is to purchase an asset for an extended time on a certain day of the week/month (or with other frequency), regardless of the current position of the cryptocurrency. Market participants who choose this strategy believe that this approach allows them to earn money by averaging risks. Staking This term refers to the intentional retention of assets in the account, to organize a source of passive income. In the staking market, you can find offers with high profitability. One of them is available on the ROY Club platform. Within the walls of the site, up to 40% of new coins can be generated monthly on the UMI cryptocurrency staking. At the same time, you can start earning in a few minutes after registering in the system. All the steps that you need to go through to start earning are accompanied by detailed instructions. If necessary, the user will be able to get advice on working in a dialog box on the site. How to Increase the Efficiency of Investments in Cryptocurrency Many investors have their secrets to improving the efficiency of investments in cryptocurrency. Among them, there are several universal tips. Here are some of them: Investments should be diversified. A distributed portfolio of assets reduces the likelihood of losing all investments due to a sudden drop in the exchange rate of one cryptocurrency. There is no need to buy digital assets with the last money. The market can be unpredictable. It is worth investing only what you can afford to lose. Investments need to be planned. It is worth determining in advance how much you are willing to invest in cryptocurrency. Also, experienced market participants are advised to keep records and record all their operations in the market, so that, if necessary, they have information at hand to analyze the effectiveness of solutions. There are different investment strategies for users who want to make money on the movement of the cryptocurrency exchange rate. For those who are not in a hurry, the hodl scheme is suitable. Users who are ready for increased risk for the sake of instant earnings should pay attention to scalping. Those who want to combine the high profitability of different strategies with the security of investments may be interested in staking. Ways to Analyze Digital Assets Technical Analysis Technical analysis is based on historical market data because history develops in a circle and repeats itself. It includes an overview of past pricing trends. Technical analysis aims to identify recurring patterns and make calculated forecasts for the growth or decline of trends. The main assumption here is that prices are not random and they can be foreseen if you look into the past. Although technical analysis performed correctly can be quite useful and effective, it does not always work. In most cases, the success of technical analytics depends on the person conducting the research. That's why some people prefer fundamental analysis of crypto. Fundamental Analysis Fundamental analysis aims to cover a somewhat broader picture compared to technical analysis. It takes into account both qualitative and quantitative factors that can affect the value to understand whether an asset is overvalued or undervalued compared to its current market price. Since there are no public financial statements that can be verified on the cryptocurrency market, it is more difficult to do this type of analysis, especially for beginners. It is necessary to take into account the volume of transactions, user activity, the unique functions of the cryptocurrency, and even some global economic events that can significantly affect the cryptocurrency market. It is better for a beginner to learn how to use both methods. Understanding cryptocurrency fundamentals will help you make smarter decisions, plan your strategy both in the short and long term, and ultimately become a better investor. Choosing the Best Crypto to Invest In Polygon ( MATIC ) This is a level 2 cryptocurrency for Ethereum decentralized application platforms. Polygon is a promising blockchain ecosystem designed to develop infrastructure and help scale the Ethereum network. The Matic Network and the Polygon token also offered a second-level solution — transferring transactions directly on the Ethereum network to another coin platform. This allowed the Matic network to reach a speed of 7,200 transactions per second (TPS). For comparison, the throughput of Ethereum does not exceed 15 transactions per second. In 2021, the network was rebranded — it became known as Polygon. But in addition to the new name, it also has new functions. Now it is a platform for creating interconnected blockchain networks. In other words, with the help of Polygon, everyone can write their blockchain for any purpose. In the future, Polygon will become the basis of web3 networks. Loopring (LRC) A promising cryptocurrency of the decentralized exchange of the same name. To make DEX more scalable and reduce the commission, ZK accumulative packages are used. Loopring gives DEX the ability to choose between storing transactions on-chain or off-chain at any given time. This on-chain data availability (OCDA) combined with ring miners and order rings provides greater scalability of DEX. Loopring offline storage provides 16,400 transactions per second (TPS). Chainlink (LINK) It is the digital currency of the decentralized Oracle programming network. The goal of Chainlink is to solve the problem of securely connecting smart contracts to real events. Smart contracts are code fragments that embody a given business logic (for example, when to pay interest on loans). Ripple ( XRP ) This promising cryptocurrency project from San Francisco has become a truly global crypto intermediary (bridge currency) used in cross-border settlements. We are talking about multibillion-dollar transactions mainly between financial institutions, corporations, banks, and payment systems of all countries of the world ("payment corridors"). The second advantage of XRP is the phenomenal speed of financial transactions conducted in the Ripple ecosystem. It is more than 10 thousand operations per second (in particular, in Ripple Net the hash rate is at least 50,000 TPS). Cardano (ADA) It is a fully decentralized platform operating on the principle of open source. The distinctive features of Cardano are complete anonymity, the absence of restrictions, and other complicating circumstances such as KYC . It was created in 2017 and became one of the first ecosystems operating on the PoS (Proof-of-stake - "proof of ownership") network protocol. It is actively used in the architectonics of smart contracts and Dapps. The recommended investment horizon is from one year. Stellar (XLM) This is a promising cryptocurrency that is used in various systems — from gaming platforms to online stores. It was created in 2014. The main feature is the unification of various ecosystems and blockchains. Stellar is a universal medium of exchange with minimal fees for financial transactions. The cooperation of the platform with IBM and MoneyGram International. Criteria for Selecting Promising Blockchain Projects In 2009, Bitcoin was the only cryptocurrency on the market. Today, the number of digital tokens has exceeded 1000. In such an assortment, it is easy to get lost even for experienced investors, not to mention beginners. When choosing the optimal cryptocurrency for long-term investment or earning on exchange rate fluctuations, we were guided by the following criteria: The fame of the project and its reputation; Capitalization size; The number of exchanges on which the selected cryptocurrency is traded; The number of coins in circulation; The volatility of the exchange rate and the dynamics of quotations; Technical data of the network; Social activity. Cryptocurrencies that are actively discussed on forums and in chat rooms have more prospects for growth. Conclusions It is quite possible to be friends with the risks that the volatility of digital assets carries. By carefully monitoring and analyzing all small price movements, experienced traders have learned to extract income from them by buying and selling coins at the right moment. Such a flair comes with practice, but at the same time, it is backed up by knowledge — studying trading tools, helps not only not to go into negative territory, but also to make a profit. Is crypto a good investment? The cryptocurrency market is volatile and unpredictable, and many experts do not recommend it for long-term investment. But bitcoin has been around for more than 10 years — and this is much longer than the same experts predicted. And although we are seeing periodic ups and downs, in the long term, the crypto market is still expected to grow consistently.