ETHEREUM, Decentraland, and Basic Attention are all tokens that some experts think are poised for rebounds in 2022.
Contributors at Motley Fool think those three cryptocurrencies could see gains next year no matter what else happens with the highly volatile market.
"Ethereum stands out as a great crypto for 2022 and beyond," the outlet noted, but the site thinks BAT and Decentraland are good bets, too.
Bitcoin has remained the most dominant cryptocurrency in the world, adding more than 70percent to its value in 2021.
The coin went into this year trading at $32,000 per coin, and it surpassed $64,000 by April.
Despite the coin taking a hit from May until September, Bitcoin recovered and reached a new high of $69,044 in November 2021.
Read our cryptocurrency live blog for the latest news and updates…
- Jennifer Korn
Crypto losses and tax benefits
Investors can claim deductions on cryptocurrency losses that can lessen tax liabilities or result in a refund, according to Coindesk.
Any losses can be used to offset capital gains, and if you have no gains, you can claim a deduction.
The Coindesk article explains the IRS code and other ways to put cryptocurrency losses to work.
- Jennifer Korn
Record crypto investments, part two
The crypto industry blew up in 2021 with crypto exchanges, start-ups dealing with NFTs, and play-to-earn gaming all highlighted as factors by Fortune.
Increasing interest in the Metaverse also led to multi-million dollar investments.
- Jennifer Korn
Crypto investments top $30billion
Investors contributed a record $30billion to the cryptocurrency industry in 2021, according to Fortune.
The news outlet cited data from Bloomberg News that reportedly showed $7.2billion came from investors based in the United States.
The $30billion is almost four times the $8billion that investors spent with companies in the crypto industry in 2018, Fortune reported.
- Jennifer Korn
DogeZilla: The next meme coin
A newly-launched cryptocurrency, DogeZilla, exploded out of the gate.
Within its first eight days of existence, DogeZilla was said to have grown into a super microcap of $500million from just $50,000.
Billionaire Elon Musk also got involved with DogeZilla by posting a tweet.
Replying to a tweet about an underwater mud volcano, he wrote: “Cover story for Godzilla obv.”
- Jennifer Korn
What is Dogezilla?
Founded by someone with the alias of 9ZEROES, DogeZilla models itself as a community-based project.
DogeZilla claims it aims to make the crypto space safer for users.
According to DogeZilla’s whitepaper, it has a vault that verifies crypto launches.
It says: “Obviously, it is not a 100% fool-proof method because that simply doesn’t exist in this space, but reducing risk to the highest degree is the purpose of Vault.”
Moreover, users can gather DogeZilla tokens by holding.
Specifically, “5% Holder Rewards are dispersed to all token holders relative to their holding percentages,” DogeZilla claims.
For upcoming projects, DogeZilla is planning to launch an NFTs Invasion Series in early 2022.
Its logo features an amused dog in what appears to be a dinosaur costume.
- Jennifer Korn
Play-to-earn gaming, part two
The new play-to-earn gaming model that rewards gamers with cryptocurrency for playing isn’t technically free.
Gamers could have to spend $1,000 or more in order to start earning in the Axie Infinity universe, according to Forbes.
The popular platform for play-to-earn gaming requires beginners to have three “Axies,” which are available for purchase on the game’s Marketplace Dashboard.
Participants can then earn cryptocurrency for selling potions, breeding rare Axies, and playing various games.
- Jennifer Korn
What is play-to-earn gaming?
A unique model called play-to-earn gaming is driving non-fungible token (NFT) and cryptocurrency growth, Forbes reported.
Axie Infinity is the most popular platform for play-to-earn gaming at the moment.
It allows users to build a collection of “Axies” that players can use across its universe of games.
The company then uses Blockchain to reward players for gaming, according to Forbes.
Any digital assets earned by participants can be sold on the platform or traded outside Axie Infinity’s universe.
- Jennifer Korn
Dogecoin spikes after Tesla news
Dogecoin saw a more than 20 percent jump after Elon Musk announced Tesla would start accepting it as payment.
He said in a Tweet that Tesla would allow purchases of some merchandise with Dogecoin and “see how it goes.”
Dogecoin went from a fraction of a penny in worth at the start of 2021 to a record-high price above 74 cents in May, CNBC reported.
- Jennifer Korn
Elon Musk says Dogecoin is best for transactions
The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX says Dogecoin is the best cryptocurrency for transactions.
Elon Musk told Time Magazine that the meme coin is better suited to transact with over Bitcoin for two reasons.
He said the transaction volume of Bitcoin is low and the cost per transaction is high.
Musk said he believes Bitcoin is more suitable as a store of value while Dogecoin “encourages people to spend, rather than sort of hoard.”
- Jennifer Korn
Sending cryptocurrency on WhatsApp
WhatsApp, a popular messaging app, is testing a cryptocurrency payment feature for some users in the US.
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, owns WhatsApp and is letting some users send and receive Pax Dollars.
Pax currency is deemed a “stablecoin” because it’s connected to the US dollar.
The feature is powered by Novi, Meta’s digital wallet.
According to Novi, making payments will be easy, like sending other kinds of attachments in WhatsApp.
There’s no word on when the cryptocurrency payment feature might roll out to more users and countries.
- Jennifer Korn
Donating with cryptocurrency
Churches are starting to see more donations made using cryptocurrency, according to Christianity Today.
James Lawrence told the news organization that donations made on his platform Engiven using the virtual currency were slow in 2019 and 2020.
By fall of 2021, the platform had processed cryptocurrency donations for more than 700 nonprofits.
The list of recipients includes well-known organizations like The Salvation Army and Ronald McDonald House Charities.
Up to 400 recipients were churches, Lawrence said, as more congregations move to accept the digital currency.
- Jennifer Korn
What is fiat?
If you’ve ever seen the word fiat used in the cryptocurrency world, know that it was not in relation to the car brand.
Fiat is a term used to refer to government-issued currency.
Cryptocurrency, or virtual money like Bitcoin, is not backed by governments or standards typically associated with fiat, which is why investors warn of crypto’s volatility.
- Jennifer Korn
Gifting NFTs and digital assets, part two
Some young investors are looking forward to gifting friends their first digital asset this year.
A San Francisco-based 26-year-old told CNBC that she plans to gift close friends and family digital assets like Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domains and NFTs.
A domain for the Ethereum blockchain represents an investor’s cryptocurrency address, appearing like “YourName.eth”.
It’s personalized rather than the random string of letters and numbers that typically signifies a user’s wallet.
- Jennifer Korn
Gifting NFTs and other digital assets
Young investors told CNBC that they plan to gift cryptocurrency, NFTs and other digital assets this holiday season.
A 23-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, said she will get her sister and parents an NFT of a digital land lot to share in the metaverse.
She also plans to buy collectible NFTs from projects that aim to empower women, like World of Women and Crypto Coven.
The digital gifts could cost thousands of dollars depending on factors like metaverse game, demand, and size, CNBC reported.
- Jennifer Korn
Risks of investing in cryptos, part five
Finally, the truth in marketing materials is a risk in investing in cryptos.
Firms may overstate the returns of products or understate the risks involved.
- Jennifer Korn
Risks of investing in cryptos, part four
Another risk of investing are the charges and fees.
Consumers should consider the impact of fees and charges on their investment which may be more than those for regulated investment products.
- Jennifer Korn
Risks of investing in cryptos, part three
A third risk of investing in cryptocurrencies is product complexity.
The complexity of some products and services relating to cryptoassets can make it hard for consumers to understand the risks.
There is no guarantee that cryptoassets can be converted back into cash.
Converting a cryptoasset back to cash depends on demand and supply existing in the market.
- Jennifer Korn
Risks of investing in cryptos, part two
Another risk of investing is price volatility.
Significant price volatility in cryptoassets, combined with the inherent difficulties of valuing cryptoassets reliably, places consumers at a high risk of losses.
- Jennifer Korn
Risks of investing in cryptocurrencies
We rounded up five risks of investing in cryptocurrencies.
The first is Consumer protection.
Some investments advertising high returns based on cryptoassets may not be subject to regulation beyond anti-money laundering requirements.
- Jennifer Korn
Crypto scams and dating apps
Some cryptocurrency scam operations have started using dating apps to reel in potential targets.
In some reports, scammers pose as a long-distance love interest sharing a hot new cryptocurrency opportunity.
About 20 percent of the money lost through dating scams in the last year reportedly involved cryptocurrency.
- Jennifer Korn
Fake websites and crypto
One fairly widespread scamming technique involves websites that appear to be a new cryptocurrency mining operation or investment opportunity.
The sites encourage investors to wire in money, sometimes offering investment “tiers” and promising greater returns.
But when users attempt to withdraw their cash, they are unable to and told to input even more cryptocurrency.
- Jennifer Korn
How to check for blockchain scams
Cryptocurrencies operate on blockchain networks.
Scammers often claim their blockchain is “in development” or “about to be released,” but all legitimate cryptos will have an accompanying website to verify the currency.
Users can type the name of the crypto into any search engine with the phrase “blockchain explorer” or “blockchain scan” to find the connected blockchain, if it even exists.
- Jennifer Korn
What is a blockchain?
A blockchain is where encrypted data can be transferred securely, making it nearly impossible to duplicate or counterfeit.
This ledger is the foundation of any cryptocurrency transaction.
The cryptocurrency allows people to trade currency or assets digitally outside of any government or bank.
- Jennifer Korn
Major meme coins, part 2
Another dog meme that has picked up traction this year has been Saitama inu, whose logo appears to feature a wolf surrounding a human face.
“Tokens like Shiba Inu, Dogecoin and newest gainer Saitama are all a part of the evolution of digital finance in their own unique way,” Chris Kline, chief operating officer and co-founder of Bitcoin IRA, recently told The Sun.
Separately, Tiger King is a meme coin that has picked up strong momentum off the past month, which is based on the popular Netflix series.
- Jennifer Korn
The major meme coins
The surge of the meme coins this year all started with Dogecoin.
That was then followed by Shiba Inu, which both feature the same dog breed in their logos.
The image became a popular internet meme called doge, and it features the dog surrounded by text in the comic sans font with words like “much wow.”
Both Shiba and Dogecoin have been popular dog meme coins this year.
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