1 Month Update:
Analysis:Cryptocurrency Bull Market:The cryptocurrency market remained bullish throughout the month. Pretty much any portfolio of any decent cryptocurrencies should of seen decent gains. I expect the rug to be pulled out from under the crypto markets soon. Definitely by the end of the year, more likely in the next few months, and even more likely in one months time or sooner. When the crypto market overall starts to adjust downward, I think you should be hesitant to buy on the way down and wait for it to fully bottom, as prices could go much lower than they are today in a years time.
CH Index PerformanceThe ALT coin bull market helped push the profitability of the CH index above holding Bitcoin alone, but holding only Litecoin or Ethereum (among others) outperformed the index. It is to be expected that some single coin portfolios will outperform the index with every update, as some are sure to be pumped here or there. I expect this difference to even out as more time goes by, and eventually for the fund to outperform most single coin portfolios.
Biggest Winners:Bitshares (BTS) +568.21%
Blocknet (BLOCK) +445.03%
Dogecoin (DOGE) +242.78%
Ardor (ARDR) +232.08%
Litecoin (LTC) +195.96%
3 out of the 5 biggest winners (Bitshares, Dogecoin, and Litecoin) are some of the older and more established ALT coins which had not yet been pumped too high in this ALT coin bull market. It was only a matter of time before they caught up with the rest of the ALTs. I would however caution buying at the top of these pumps, as what goes up will eventually go down. Really, the entire market is due for a correction.
Bitshares gained quite a bit of traction after their original developer Dan announced his new project named EOS. Jokingly referred to as Ethereum On Steroids, it is a synchronous smart contract platform which will process smart contracts more efficiently than any other currently existing solution. Details are scarce at this point. Other than that, Bitshares has also matured over the years with more volume on its DEX and more market makers providing market depth. I think the main reason for this is that market maker bots are starting to be publicly released, whereas in the past they have been run privately by individuals. I still remain long term bullish on Bitshares. Although I do not think Bitshares' DEX will end up being the most popular DEX due to it only trading derivatives and exchange-held assets, I still think bitUSD could prove to be its "killer feature". bitUSD's main competitor Tether is slowly losing market confidence and having issues due to its centralized nature. A crypto dollar derivative will become a valuable feature once real DEXs come to fruition and gain in popularity.
Blocknet has been flying under the radar until the past month. It is an older coin which has just recently begun to near the finish line with decentralized cryptocurrency to cryptocurrency exchanges on their test net. At present time, you need to download the full blockchain and wallet of each coin you want to trade and enter the RPC information. This is obviously rudimentary and inconvenient, but it is only a proof of concept. By utilizing SPV wallets and/or multicoin SPV wallets and/or integrating other coins' SPV wallets in with the Blocknet wallet, this inconvenience can be overcome. This project is still a long ways out from being usable enough to be popular enough to gain a decent amount of market depth and liquidity. However, I think this is one of the most undervalued ALT coins out there today and remain very bullish on the coin. I think this is the best DEX project out there, and besides that, Blocknet can empower many other things rather than just a DEX by allowing different blockchains to communicate with eachother.
Dogecoin recently caught up to the rest of the ALT coin bull market this past month. I don't have much to say about it, but I think it is still a decent investment. It reminds me of Litecoin back in the day... it is not super useful, but it has a fair distribution, a huge community, and is well established at this point. It was released during a time of many pump and dump scam coins, and Dogecoin has stood the test of time well. Meanwhile 99% of the other coins that were released during this time period have been dumped to page 9999 of coin market cap. Coins that stick around like this and don't die have a good chance of being more valuable one day (kind of like Litecoin after activating Segwit.) I am not sure what Dogecoin's purpose will be in the future crypto ecosystem, but I think the dog will eventually find its way home and its purpose will be realized sooner or later.
Ardor is a more efficient and scalable reincarnation of the well established Nxt coin. Although Ardor does not yet exist, over the past month Ardor has been extensively tested on its test net and an initial public release seems imminent. To be honest... of the 5 best performing coins in the CH index during the past month, I am least bullish on Ardor. I am not sure scalability alone is a good enough feature to make an ALT coin valuable. Mainly because this space is heavily contested. There are many projects which are working to solve the same issues. Ardor will also have all of the features Nxt has, but these features were not enough to keep Nxt towards the front of the pack either. Most of the features in Nxt are half baked, and it seems to me that they were more interested in adding as many features as possible for marketing purposes rather than focusing on one or a few of those features and doing them exquisitely well. I still think it has potential, but if I had to cull my portfolio by 5 or so coins, then I don't think Ardor would make the cut.
Litecoin was boosted quite a bit by the successful activation of Segwit. Before Segwit activation, market sentiment and the community's expectations for Litecoin was nearing an all time low, but I think Segwit activation has really solidified Litecoin's place as a top contender for one of the best ALT coins. I think interest from buyers will continue once Segwit and the Lightning Network are active on the Litecoin main net, and remain overall bullish on the long term prospect of Litecoin. LN/Segwit also allow for a lot of cool features that will spark more interest in Litecoin as they are released into the wild.
Biggest Losers:Noblecoin (NOBL) -68.96%
Nushares (NSR) -58.35%
Both of these coins were highly affected by the recent Poloniex delistings. I think they both would have performed around the median of all the coins in the index if they both had not been affected in this way. Even in this crazy bull market there were two losers in my portfolio, which I think highlights the necessity of diversifying an ALT coin portfolio. Putting all your eggs in one basket can end up disastrous for your crypto investment. I think it is important to have a stop loss on coins in your portfolio also, and these two have reached mine. I am now bearish on the longterm prospect of Noblecoin and Nushares.
Coins I Am Reconsidering:Pepecash (PEPE):
I initially saw value in Pepecash due to two factors. I saw a resemblance of Dogecoin in Pepecash, and I like that it is deflationary due to coins being burned when people buy rare pepes. I am starting to reconsider my position on Pepecash though, as I think the Pepe meme is not nearly as popular or widespread as the Doge meme. Due to that, even with a deflationary supply, I am not sure that long term demand will remain for Pepecash. A cryptocurrency simply being deflationary is not enough for it to rise in value. Cryptocurrencies must sustain demand to increase in value (deflationary or not), and I'm not sure if demand for Pepecash is sustainable. Consider me bearish on Pepecash at the moment, but I haven't completely made up my mind one way or the other on it.
Nexus (NXS):
The idea of providing free internet which runs via cube satellites in space and mesh networks is novel and a great idea. And tying Nexus into that equation could prove to be lucrative. However, the idea itself seems a little far fetched and I am not sure it will ever come to fruition the way it is advertised. Even still, if it does actually come to fruition then I think it will be one of the biggest successes of the crypto industry. It will either moonshot or fall on its face and lose all of its value. Right now I am leaning towards the latter, but who knows what will happen. I think it is an OK coin to have in your portfolio, but I would only consider having it as a very small percentage of your portfolio. I am near term bearish until this project starts showing signs that it can deliver on its road map.
PIVX
I am starting to become more and more convinced that this was a pump and dump. There were many people speaking its praises on its rise up after the ICO, but most of those people seem to have disappeared by now. Furthermore, Dash tech is not really the creme of the crop anyways. At least it is much more fairer than Dash, so we will see what happens. I will remain bearish on PIVX in the meantime.
vTorrent
Although it is a good idea, I am not fully convinced that the developer of vTorrent has the shareholder's best interests in mind. There is very little communication and proof that he has actually developed what he claims to have developed thus far. All he has provided are a few screenshot here and there, and screenshots and/or dummy interfaces are quite easy to create. It is possible that he does not have any innovative developments implemented at all, and is just stringing along the community so he can sell tokens at a higher value. Until open source software is released I will remain bearish on this project.
