A Comprehensive

Guide
for Beginners

1
Introduction
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” -
Benjamin Franklin

2
 Prelude
Getting into this latest digital revolution equals early retirement or relatively
instant success. This is particularly true for those who have been into the
action during its early years back in 2009 to 2010 and held their coins up to
the present. It does not end there, however, as a growing number of people
are finding financial freedom through Cryptocurrency... even those who have
only started this year. How so?

There is an increasing interest in learning how to trade in cryptocurrency

exchanges. Within various social media groups like Facebook and Bitcointalk,
questions arise such as:

▪ “How do I buy OMG or NXS?”

▪ “How do I convert Litecoin into Bitcoin?”

▪ “Where can I buy NEO?”

▪ "Which Altcoins would you suggest?”

Trading adds more value to a person’s crypto assets as compared to keeping

them safely tucked away. It’s been highly rewarding for a lot of people - thus
the uptrend of interest in cryptocurrency trading. It, however, remains risky.

Let’s focus a little bit on the risks. In simple terms, a lot of people would rather
keep their investments for the foreseeable future. Fear of trading loses fuels
the fear. You read that right! It all boils down to fear. Those who mastered it
could do so by learning the tricks of the trade.

3
This eBook aims to do just that - to help you gain your grounds in the world
of Cryptocurrency by understanding underlying rules and concepts. In effect,
this could enable you to trade with confidence and increase the number of
coins you currently hold.

To begin, the next chapter will contain a relatively short background and
definition. What is Cryptocurrency and why was it created in the first place?
Although not recommended, feel free to skip this if you wish to dive right into
trading. It may be beneficial to jump right in and get your hands dirty.

4
 How This Book is Organized
This is a linear approach to Cryptocurrency, starting with an overview of the
concept and the surrounding phenomenon. The book proceeds as a guide
for beginners including how to for buy your first Cryptocurrency. Next, an
overview of differences between trading and investing. The section outlines
when to apply specific techniques during each session.

Further down the road, we will give an overview of exchanges and the different
sections. The aim is to teach a newbie how to place a Trade - be it a BUY or a
SELL order. Follows is tips and techniques, a citation of real-world scenarios
and examples. These demonstrations help newbie traders avoid pitfalls or
poor decisions.

The sentences and paragraphs are so that it will seem that the author is talking
directly to you, the reader, which is what the author intends to do. There will
be instances when the author will refer to a third-party trader or investor in
citing example scenarios.

The words chosen for the book are easily understood by laymen. Nevertheless,
there will be technical terms or jargon alongside descriptions and footnotes.
More references are within each chapter. The last area will contain various
cryptocurrencies with a general description and link to more resources.

5
 Disclaimer
This book is a combination of research and personal experience and is NOT a
complete authority on the subject. Its primary aim is to compile and organize
information gathered from various websites and eBooks. It speeds up the
learning curve of anyone starting out in the world of Cryptocurrency Trading.
As a person who plans to invest real money into cryptocurrency, it is YOUR
duty to do your homework. Due diligence and do further research with this
book is a great starting point.

Take note, the trading strategies or techniques found in this book are not
100% foolproof, even though they worked in a lot of instances. The decision
to do an actual trade falls on you, the reader. This stipulates that any gains
you produced shall be at your own disposal. Furthermore, any losses that
incur are your sole responsibility.

To sum it up, this book and all the entities associated with it make no
representations or warranties as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness
of all information presented herein. All content is a source of information and
is not intended to constitute investment advice. It recommended that readers
should consult a professional financial advisor before making any investment
decisions. Whether based on this book or on any other research materials.

The only completely guaranteed advice the author can give is:

“Only invest what you are ready to risk losing.”

6
A Brief History of
Cryptocurrency
“I will tell you how to become rich… Be fearful
when others are greedy, and greedy when
others are fearful” - Warren Buffett

7
 The Existing Financial System
Before cryptocurrency ever existed, we only used fiat money (i.e. USD or EUR)
as official forms of currency. Fiat money served as legal tender used in the
exchange of one commodity, whether goods or services, for another. At some
point in history, most Fiat currencies were backed by a country’s gold or silver
reserves... also known as the Gold Standard. The amount of gold a country
holds determines the value of the fiat money .

Eventually, the Gold Standard system was replaced by the Fiat Money system .
The move caused inflation and irregularities. Printing more fiat money without
real backing causes the money to lose its value; this is inflation. As a result,
products that we used to buy at $1 may suddenly cost $5 or more.

Arguably, the Fiat Monetary system led to the global fiscal crisis of 2008 . This
period saw many financial institutions needing bail-outs or going bankrupt
altogether. This may also have to do with the Fractional Reserve banking policy
wherein banks can use up to 90% of a depositor’s funds for profit-oriented
opportunities . In the case of 2008 crisis, these efforts were a total failure. In
turn, the people who relied on these institutions - to store and protect their
money - ended up losing their savings and trust in the financial system.

8
 The Birth of Bitcoin
Bitcoin, dubbed as the “best investment in recorded history by a shocking
margin ”, was initially introduced on October 31, 2008, by an entity who goes
by the name Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi released an 8-page white paper with
the title “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System ”. The timing of its
release in the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis allowed it to gain an
audience from those looking for a safer means to store value.

Bitcoin’s release started the path towards a system of decentralized trust and
secure electronic transaction. It allows “online payments go directly from one
party to

1
http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/09/gold-standard.asp

2
https://www.thoughtco.com/overview-of-the-gold standard-1146298

3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis of_2007%E2%80%932008

4
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fractionalreservebanking.asp

5
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@benyu/man-who-s-made-over-usd400-000-investing-in-
bitcoin-reveals-his-strategy-part-ii

6
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

another, without going through a financial institution”. Confirmation of each

transaction is possible via decentralized nodes. These decentralized nodes
come from a huge pool of CPU power interconnected and simultaneously
mining as they confirm each transaction.

Instead of relying on financial institutions to be witnesses of transactions,

computer servers that have duplicates of the bitcoin ledger blockchains are
used.

9
 Bitcoin Compared to Gold
There are a few requirements for something to be treated as a currency or
store value. They include:

1 Its composition must be identifiable and differentiated from others

2 It should be relatively immutable or unchanging

3 It should be rare or limited supply

4 It should be easily traded

5 It should gain national or global acceptance

Gold passed these requirements, which is why it was used during the Gold
Standard system and as a currency. Bitcoin on another hand emulates all
the positive characteristics of gold. Additionally, bitcoin improves on certain
issues that revolve around the use of gold such as:

1 The manner of dividing gold into exact portions

2 Gold is physically mined putting risk on human lives

3 Mining gold requires a lot of resources

4 The consistency of gold content if melted and molded into a currency coin
along with other elements

5 The inconvenience of carrying around weights of gold

7. ttps://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/08/02/should-central-banks-buy-
gold/why-gold-came-to-be-a-currency

8. Page 2: Transactions, https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

6 The chance of manipulating lab analysis results or samples to

fake the existence and volume of gold

10
Bitcoin addresses each problem using the following:
1 Bitcoin has a precise division... right down to 8 decimal digits. The lowest
fraction of a Bitcoin is called 1 Satoshi . 100,000,000 Satoshis make up
one Bitcoin.

2 Mining Bitcoin places no risk on human lives

3 Mining Bitcoin requires fewer resources than mining gold

4 Bitcoin is controlled by a specific set of characters or code and cannot be

misrepresented by generating random or formula based code. It cannot
mix with other codes, either, or else it will not be recognized .

5 Bitcoin’s digital form removes the weight limits. Carrying it is as easy as

loading a wallet app on a mobile device. Transactions are completed by
simply scanning QR codes and tapping in the amount paid .

6 Bitcoin requires proof-of-work and confirmed by all the CPUs that are part
of the segregated witnesses (computers). The existence of Bitcoins cannot
be faked due to the distributed cryptographic ledger of transactions.

11
 The Future of Cryptocurrency
The future is an unknown domain but can be projected based on certain
fundamentals found in its history and present conditions. This topic
presents both negative and positive outlook about cryptocurrencies through
news reports, statements by investment professionals, and statements of
cryptocurrency executives.

Bubbles and Regulations

Recently, China’s ban of Cryptocurrency exchanges and Initial Coin Offerings
(ICOs), plus JPMorgan CEO’s statement that Bitcoin is a ‘fraud’ helped bring
the price of Bitcoin down - from the all-time-high (ATH) value of $5000 last
September 1st to $3975 (September 12th). Technical Analysts, on the other
hand, have a different take on the downward

9. Page 6: The Bre-X Story, http://www.infomine.com/library/publications/

docs/Meech.pdf

10. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1368756.0

11. Page 4: Incentive, https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

12. Page 3: Network, https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

13. Page 5: Simplified Payment Verification, https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

14. Page 3: Proof of Work, https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

12
trend . Analysts have been saying that the upward surge of Bitcoin price is
unnatural. A correction is likely to occur that pulls the price down by 25% to
30% (Fortune.com).

China has a good reason for her actions. Cryptocurrency has pierced through
Chinese society so much that even old ladies are giving up their retirement
funds to jump on the bandwagon. The problem is, a lot of new, unregulated
cryptocurrency popped up in China just within 2017 alone. New additions
caused “serious disruption in the economic and financial order of the nation. ”

These cryptocurrencies introduce themselves through ICOs and the Chinese

committee working on this issue voiced concerns that many were “scams
and pyramid schemes .” In short, China along with other nations regulate
cryptocurrencies to avoid irregularities.

Jamie Dimon’s JP Morgan statement, on the other hand, was viewed as a

“market manipulation tactic”. A recorded leaked transaction shows a lot of
Bitcoins were bought under JP Morgan Securities Ltd . A spokesman responded
and clarified that it was not JP Morgan but a client using JPMorgan pipelines.

Other investing experts believe Bitcoin, the oldest of all current cryptocurrencies,
is in a speculative bubble. Some speculate that the justifiable price would be
half or one third of its price at the time of the interview.

Despite their statements, no one was able to say when this “bubble” will burst.
One interviewee stated it could even go up to a value of $20,000.00 before
ending badly.

13
Is Cryptocurrency Here to Stay?
15. http://fortune.com/2017/09/04/bitcoin-price-fall-5000/

16. http://www.pbc.gov.cn/goutongjiaoliu/113456/113469/3374222/index.html

17. https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/04/chinas-central-bank-has-banned-icos/

18. https://twitter.com/IamNomad/status/908831764457672709/photo/1

Despite negative feedback from investment experts, there are others who
believe in the technology behind cryptocurrencies. Logically, these are
invested executives speculating Bitcoin’s market capitalization to hit $5 Trillion
within the next 10 years. This puts the value of one Bitcoin in the ballpark of
$250,000.00.

Other financial forecasters saw the price hitting $5000 (or more ) as early as
three months before it happened. One of them stated that the upward price
trend “still has a long, long way to go before it gets to bubble territory.”

Arguably, cryptocurrency continues to gain acceptance due to its inherent

aim to improve the existing financial system. Manipulation and corruption of
these systems ultimately affected the public, who entrusted their hard-earned
resources to these institutions.

Use Cases

A major driving factor for cryptocurrency’s acceptance by the public is behind

the same technology that brought it to existence... the blockchain. Changing
the way the world financial system operates, blockchains use the execution
of smart contracts, among other faster and cheaper financial transactions
, to direct transactions. These peer-to-peer transactions only involve two
individuals or larger transactions between banks or corporations.

14
A New Financial System

As human society continues, technological advancements within financial

system are also evolving. The world is currently at the threshold of an Internet
of Things revolution. Sooner or later, most payments will be online using
decentralized methods of financial transactions using one or more gold-like
cryptocurrencies working as the standard.

19. https://qz.com/1047848/btc-price-the-case-for-5000-bitcoin/

Furthermore, citizens that were otherwise unable to open bank accounts due
to various requirements have found ways to secure their earnings through
cryptocurrency.

Furthermore, citizens that were otherwise unable to open bank accounts due
to various requirements have found ways to secure their earnings through
cryptocurrency.

15
Other examples include:
▪ Twitter allowing Verge to be sent from one account to another

▪ TenX company who aimed to partner with VISA and made a debit card that
will allow a select number of cryptocurrencies be used to spend on real-
world products in over 50 countries worldwide

▪ Microsoft’s acceptance of Bitcoin as a payment on their platform

▪ A rumor that Amazon will announce acceptance of Bitcoin as payments on

its earnings

Be warned, the age of cryptocurrency is still in its infancy (with less than 10
years backing it) and a lot of those that exist now may eventually fade away
if they are not able to deliver uses that nurture its growth in value. Doing
extensive research - as to each cryptocurrency - is an essential activity to find
the ones that could stand the test of time.

conference call this coming October 26th, 2017.

16
 Chapter Summary
1 Cryptocurrency is an answer to problems encountered within the current
financial system.

2 Cryptocurrencies are encrypted codes made up of a set of characters

(signatures) and used to digitally store monetary value.

3 Cryptocurrency Ledgers are called Blockchains and contain all transaction

records of the coin. They are validated by computers connected to the
network (nodes).

4 Bitcoin was created to mimic the exceptional characteristics of gold while

addressing problems encountered when using gold as a standard.

5 The use-cases and adoptions that are already happening in various

financial and economic sectors make it seem like cryptocurrency will
become a global financial system to contend with.

6 Cryptocurrency is still in its infancy and requires critical analysis from

those who wish to invest. Such analysis is required to find coins that
could have the potential of getting absorbed by the mainstream and
becoming integrated into the global economy.

Additional Readings
Should You Own Bitcoin or Gold?

What, Exactly, Backs Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is the New Gold - Forbes

Banking the Unbanked

17
The Monetary Phenomenon
Surrounding Cryptocurrencies
“If you don’t take a hard look at risk, it will take you.” - Larry Hite

18
T
his chapter aims to present data
and analysis on the incredible
rise in the value of Bitcoin and
various Cryptocurrencies in general.
A relentless push on the upward trend
throughout the years has left a lot of
investors rich . Speculators are in awe
while others appalled - so much that
Bitcoin has been dubbed the biggest
bubble of all time, or as a fraud . Many
others have the urge to capitalize on
the pattern.
19
 Skyrocketing Price Increase
Before writing more about this phenomenon, let me first show you a comparative
table of how various cryptocurrencies’ value increased this past year (as of
September 15th, 2017 ).

CURRENCY VALUE INCREASE RATE

A YEAR AGO TODAY ALL TIME HIGH ATH / 1YR AGO

Bitcoin $610.23 $3387.13 $4975.04 815.270%

Ethereum $11.98 $234.15 $414.76 3,462.100%

Ripple $0.008765 $0.177808 $0.43517 4,964.860%

Litecoin $3.84 $46.24 $92.07 2,397.660%

Monero $10.53 $92.81 $154.58 1,467.996%

ETH Classic $1.31 $10.52 $24.62 1,879.389%

Dash $12.74 $260.57 $409.77 3,216.405%

Nem $0.005748 $0.195542 $0.349178 6,057.376%

Nexus $.038305 $2.82 $3.72 9,711.526%

NEO $0.308181 $16.78 $48.01 15,578.507%

21. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-04-10/meet-the-bitcoin-
millionaires

22. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/12/bitcoin-is-the-most-crowded-investment-in-
the-world-right-now.html

13. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-27/investing-legend-calls-
cryptocurrencies-biggest-bubble-lifetime-there-catch

24. http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-is-a-bubble-mark-cuban-
says-2017-6

25. http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-worse-than-tulip-bulbs-2017-9
26. https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/

20
Cryptocurrency values from September 15, 2016 to Date (via Coinmarketcap.com)

Here’s a chart that shows Bitcoin’s rise in value since its introduction .

YEAR VALUE Description

Jan 2009 – Mar 2010
Without exchanges or
market, users were mainly
cryptography fans who were
sending bitcoins for hobby
basically none purposes representing low
or no value. In March 2010,
user "SmokeTooMuch"
auctioned 10,000 BTC for
$50 cumulatively, but no
buyer stepped forward.

On 25 Apr 2010, the now-

defunct BitcoinMarket.com
Apr 2010 $0.003 exchange is the first one that
starts operating.

On 22 May 2010, Laszlo

May 2010 less than $0.01 Hanyecz made the first real-
world transaction by buying
two pizzas in Jacksonville,
Florida for 10,000 BTC.

In five days, the price grew

$0.08
July 2010 1000%, rising from $0.008
to $0.08 for 1 bitcoin.

Bitcoin takes parity with US

Feb 2011 – April 2011 $1.00
dollar.

top of first “bubble”, followed

8 July 2011 $31.00 by the first price drop

27. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_bitcoin

21
YEAR VALUE Description

Dec 2011 $2.00 minimum after few months

Dec 2012 $13.00 slowly rising for a yea

11 April 2013 $266 top of a price rally, during which the

value was growing by 5-10% daily.

from October $150–$200 in

November, rising to $1,242 on 29
Nov 2013 $350 — $1,242 November 2013.

Price crashed to $600, rebounded to

$1,000, crashed again to the $500
Dec 2013 $600 — $1,000 range. Stabilized to the ~ $650–$800
range.

Price spiked to $1000 briefly, then

Jan 2014 settled in the $800–$900 range for
$750 — $1,000 the rest of the month.

Price fell following the shutdown of Mt.

Gox before recovering to the $600–
Feb 2014 $550 — $750 $700 range.

Price continued to fall due to a false

report regarding bitcoin ban in China
Mar 2014 and uncertainty over whether the
$450 — $700
Chinese government would seek to
prohibit banks from working with
digital currency exchanges.

The lowest price since the 2012–2013

Apr 2014 $340 — $530 Cypriot financial crisis had been
reached at 3:25 AM on 11 April

The downtrend first slow down and

May 2014 $440 — $630 then reverse, increasing over 30% in
the last days of May.

22
YEAR VALUE Description

Mar 2015 $200 — $300 Price fell through to

early 2015.

Large spike in value

Early Nov 2015 $395 — $504 from 225–250 at the
start of October to the
2015 record high of
$504.

Large spike in value

May–June 2016 $450 — $750 starting from $450 and
reaching a maximum of
$750.

Price stabilized in the

July–September 2016 $600 — $630 low $600 range.

As the Chinese Renminbi

October–November 2016 $600 — $780 depreciated against the
US Dollar, bitcoin rose to
the upper $700s.

January 2017 $800 — $1,150

Price fell 30% in a week,

5-12 January 2017 $750 — $920 reaching a multi-month
low of $750.

Price broke above the

November 2013 high of
2-3 March 2017 $1,290+
$1,242 and then traded
above $1,290.

April 2017 $1,210 — $1,250

23
YEAR VALUE Description

Price reached an all-time high

of $3,000 on 12 June and
May–June 2017 $2,000 — $3,200+
is oscillating around $2,500
since then. As of 6 August
2017, the price is $3,270.

Price reached its maximum in

August 2017 $3800 —$4600+ the history of bitcoin, an all-
time high of $4,683.87 on 31
August.

Price reached its maximum on

September 2017 $5000 1 September 2017.

Chinese regulations banning

ICOs and Cryptocurrency
14 September 2017 $3,154.95 exchanges; JP Morgan “fraud”
statement against Bitcoin

Average Price at
19 September 2017 $4081.56 Coinmarketcap.com

24
 Possible Drivers of Price Fluctuations

Cryptocurrency is designed as a unit of exchange and a place to store assets

without relying on central financial institutions. The continuous climb in its
perceived value makes it one of the best investment choices for a lot of people
. As more and more investors get into the frenzy , speculations have been
made on the reasons for its highly volatile price. Here are some described
below - with Supply, Demand and Risk Factor leading the trail.

Supply

A cryptocurrency with a limited supply could command a higher value

per coin. Whether a coin gets mined, its circulating supply will influence how
much is its perceived value relative to its usefulness.

28
https://www.quora.com/Did-Jamie-Dimon-just-kill-Bitcoin-Will-the-price-crash-stop
29
https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-is-becoming-a-popular-investment-for-middle-class-
americans/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-16/some-investors-see-bitcoin-
30.

better-than-gold-morgan-stanley-says

25
Bitcoin, for example, currently has 16.5 million coins in circulation and will have
a maximum supply of 21 million when the last Bitcoin is mined. Considering
(1) the number of years it’s been around, (2) its current use as a form of
payment, and (3) as the base currency in cryptocurrency exchanges, it can be
inferred how Bitcoin was able to gain such value.

On the other hand, Ripple (XRP), even though has a great positive impact on
the banking industry, does not command a price as high as Bitcoin primarily
due to the circulating supply (currently at 38.34 billion).

Demand
A coin’s demand could be based on its use-cases (or real-world applications),
ease of access, management, and the level of barriers to entry as shown below:

1. How easy or hard it is to acquire or buy a coin

2. How easy or hard it is to download and install the wallet or blockchain

3. Security measures in place to keep the coins safe

4. ow many and what type of businesses accept the coin as payment

5. How easily accessible are write-up materials or discussions about this

coin

26
Risk Factor
The risks involved in cryptocurrency is
something that requires a lot of attention and
has bearing on demand. Risks can include a
regulation that changes over time, possible
technology dead ends, security breaches,
scams/ponzis, and more.

Below are short explanations of the risk

factors mentioned above.

27
 1 Government Regulations

Positive or negative regulations have a major effect on value. An example

is a current downtrend in prices due to Chinese government banning ICOs
and cryptocurrency exchanges. Cryptocurrencies vying for attention from the
Chinese market and have already gained a significant rise in price prior to this
new regulation. This latest announcement has a negative effect and pulls its
price downward .

In times like this, it is a good habit to look back at the price trends of a
certain cryptocurrency. Judging by the starting point, the price dip could be
significant or a naturally occurring correction of overvaluation.

2 Technological roadblocks
A defining factor for a coin’s value and seen when Ethereum started
executing its ICOs (Ethereum price peaked). Eventually, everyone realized
the network traffic became so congested that it took days for transactions to
complete (scaling issues). This in effect pulled Ethereum price downward.

Technological roadblocks could mean the possibility of developers to

come across hard-to-solve programming problems or get stuck with some
bugs that prevent them from reaching their milestones on time. In turn, this
reduces the trust level of investors, which end up selling their coin holdings
even at a loss - especially when negative hype gets floated around.

31
http://www.businessinsider.com/ethereum-price-plunging-2017-9

28
 Security Breaches, SCAMS, and PONZI
3 Schemes
These are issues such as exchanges getting hacked , or users getting
tricked into giving out their private credentials (phishing) , or SCAM Initial
Coin Offerings who don’t follow through with their promises also affects the
whole cryptocurrency industry - pushing people to decide against investing
and instead become bearers of negative feedback.

Ponzis are fraudulent groups that offer get-rich-quick mechanisms with

multi-level marketing aspects wherein the first investors become profitable
out of the funds provided by later investors. On the bright side, there are
groups who dedicate their time to identify these forms of ICOs .

Despite these factors, there are still a lot of investors pouring funds into
this market. As of this writing, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization is
$114,079,297,759 with $55,758,094,722 invested in Bitcoin as shown here.

29
 Market Capitalization and Liquidity

Market Capitalization is the total supply of coins that are available and
traded in exchanges (the market), multiplied by the coin’s current price.
Liquidity is the volume of coins traded over a specific time-frame, usually 24
hours. The combination of these two factors helps define a coin’s price at any
given time.

32
http://www.thedailybeast.com/behind-the-biggest-bitcoin-heist-in-history-inside-the-
implosion-of-mt-gox
33
https://cointelegraph.com/news/exploits-hacks-phishing-ponzi-are-on-the-rise-on-
ethereum
34
https://etherscamdb.info/scams/1/

30
 Media Coverages, Rumors, and Hype

Like other commodities worldwide, media coverages have a major effect

on the perceived value of a cryptocurrency. Rumors and hype circulated on
social media groups move readers to buy or sell depending on the contents.
It is a normal condition for the price of a coin to go up when a positive rumor
comes out and is talked about. In cases like this, many people will want to buy
coins in hopes of earning a profit.

In the same manner, the price of the coin goes down once the actual
news hits the press. Early adopters sell their coins to latecomers who still
want to get in (fear of missing out). On the other hand, negative rumors or
news could push traders to sell... thus pushing the price to go down.

Big Investors or Traders

Large traders , dubbed as whales due to a large amount of fiat they are
ready to invest or the sheer volume of coins they hold, could control the price
during both upward or downward trends. A trader, for example, can buy a
huge volume of coins that would cover 10 or 20 lined up sellers’ prices (from
lower to higher) - thus pushing the price upwards. That same trader could
also sell the coins to the top 10 to 20 lined up buyers, which in turn will push
the price downward.

35
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/comparing-digital-currencies-market-cap-doesn-
t-tell-the-whole-story-1482418052/

https://bitconnect.co/bitcoin-information/10/how-is-the-price-of-cryptocurrency-
36

defined

31
 ABOVE: The long green bar (candle) shows a huge buy order has been
filled, which raised the value from 3000.00 to about 3170.00 in just a 5-minute
period. It could be inferred that someone (possibly a whale) immediately
placed a huge buy order around 15:00 hours because of the two prior green
candles that were placed 10 minutes earlier.

Competition

Due to the positive results of previous initial coin offerings, and all the hype
surrounding cryptocurrencies that led millions of dollars of investment, more
and more developers want to take part in their own Decentralized Applications
or cryptocurrencies. This led to the creation of coins or applications that
perform similar functions.

Depending on how well a coin gets developed and promoted, that coin
may gain more public acceptance and thus get more investment funds and
higher price tag but without much marketing traction. This could be seen in
the likes of Monero (#8) and Verge (#64) .

32
 ABOVE: These figures show the coin ranking (via Coinmarketcap) of
Monero and Verge, two coins that target a higher level of privacy compared to
Bitcoin’s.

37
https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/6yt0rk/monero_vs_verge/

Trend Riders
There are a lot of instances when traders (scalp or day traders) refer to the
Markets dashboard of an exchange and look for cryptocurrencies (or altcoins)
that could give them quick profits. Based on skills, they may find indications
that one or more altcoins are about to rise in value. They will then look at the
altcoin’s chart, and upon confirming their initial speculation (through use of
Technical Analysis tools), they place BUY orders - thus pushing the price to
go up.

33
 ICO or Token Sale
Initial Coin Offering (or Token Sale ) is cryptocurrencies version of Initial
Public Offering (IPO crowdfunding ). This became a trend due to how much
digital currency gets raised in just a matter of minutes. A lot of investors like
ICOs due to speculations that they will command a higher value once released
to the public.

SunContract Tokens (SNT), for example, could be bought at the ICO for
1 Ethereum (ETH) to 10,000 SNT. Others also gained some early bird bonus
pushing the total SNT acquired up to 11,500 per 1 ETH . This means that
1 SNT token is worth between 0.0001 ETH to 0.000087 ETH. The moment
SNT started trading at a cryptocurrency exchange, the trading price shot-up
to more than 4 times its ICO value (0.0005 ETH) as shown on the following
screenshot. Follow up waves hurled the price further up to about 9 times its
ICO value (0.0009 ETH), before it corrected and settled at the current rate of
0.000123 - still a little above its ICO value.

ABOVE: SunContract Token’s opening day on HitBTC exchange show a 5-times

increase, possibly due to traders who missed out on the ICO.

38
More about Markets Dashboard are found on the chapter “How to Start Trading Cryptocurrency”
39
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial coin offering
40
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/initial-coin-offering-ico.asp
41
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1934763.0

34
 ABOVE: SunContract Token’s opening day on HitBTC exchange show a 5-times
increase, possibly due to traders who missed out on the ICO.

Risks: Scams, Hacking, and Phishing

Due to the ease of creation, the number of ICOs dramatically increased
and along with it are SCAM ICOs. It is important to do a due diligence of
researching everything about a cryptocurrency before putting in any money
in. In turn, a well-researched ICO that keeps its promise of delivering gives out
high rewards in the end.

Exchanges
Cryptocurrency Exchanges also have their share of risks and rewards
as previously mentioned in passing. Mt. Gox, for example, who handled
about 70% of all Bitcoins circulating during that period, got hacked and lost
approximately 850,000 Bitcoins (then valued at more than $450 Million) . The
best thing to do is to only place cryptocurrency you are willing to risk losing
on exchanges, and keep the rest on your external wallet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Gox
42

35
 Bittrex cryptocurrency exchange on the other hand, is currently being
subject to PHISHING attacks directed at its users. A scammer creates a website
with the same look and feel of Bittrex.com website and then buys a domain
name that looks and spelled almost like Bittrex except they may change the
letter ‘i’ into a small letter ‘L’ (Blttrex.com). They would then post a search
engine (Google, Bing, etc.) advertisement for searches on Bittrex. The owner
spends quite a hefty amount of money into it so the ad goes on the top 1 of all
searches for Bittrex.

ABOVE: Looking closely, the URL for the official Bittrex website is almost like
the fake one except for the exchange of one letter - ‘i’ to small letter ‘L’.

36
IMPORTANT
About Phishing Attacks
Being subject to a Phishing attack does not equate to an unsafe
trade that lacks the necessary security measures. Phishing attacks
are done outside the domain of the exchange and are tricks played
on users to divulge credentials for fraudulent entities.

Here’s a Guide on How to Stop Getting Phished

37
 ICO Due Diligence
Before participating on Initial Coin Offerings, check out the following guide:
ICO DUE DILIGENCE

The screenshot above shows another Phishing attempt aimed at Bittrex

users where the domain name has an extra small ‘i’ before the letter ‘B’. These
attacks could also be done by sending warning emails about problems with
exchanges, requiring the user to immediately log in, or even change username/
password credentials.

ICO Community Groups

One of the favorite ways for fraudulent phishing individuals is through
the Slack messaging platform. In this way, they pretend to be officers of a
certain coin, pretending to give out bounties or bonuses, or warning users

38
of emergency problems with the system (or wallet) and requiring unknowing
victims to log into fake sites to capture the submitted login credentials. They
then log into the real site to steal coins held by the victim.

ABOVE: An example of a scam message using the Slack platform and sent via
email

39
 How Not to Fall Prey to Phishing Attacks
Below are some safety measures to avoid becoming a victim of phishing attacks:

1. Always be vigilant whenever you access any website that asks for your username and
password combination. Triple check each letter of the URL.

2. Make sure the URL shows HTTPS before the domain name so that the username/
password you send out over the internet is encrypted.

3. Do not click on any link on emails asking you to login or reset your username/
password/2FA or to claim some sort of reward.

4. If the email or message mentions alarming info (like security breaches on their servers,
or airdrop rewards) then it is 99% a phishing attack.

5. Whenever in doubt, reach out to the community (Facebook, Slack) related to your
exchange or cryptocurrency before supplying them your private credentials.

6. Since MyEtherWallet website is one of the most common targets of Phishing attacks,
make sure you know and remember the official website URL as follows https://www.
myetherwallet.com/

7. The official website has the MYETHERWALLET LCC (US) Certificate shown on the left
of the domain name as shown in the screenshot below. All other domain names with
the word Myetherwallet on them are frauds and used for phishing.

8. Similar attacks are being done on other coin communities. Familiarize with their
modus to avoid becoming a victim.

40
 Mined vs Pre-mined (PoW versus PoS)
There are two ways of producing cryptocurrencies - through Mining (in the
case of Bitcoin), or by creating a predefined number of coins (in the case of
Ripple).

Mining is done by setting up a high-powered computer to do the required

computations based on specified formulas to generate a set of codes that
would comply with the pre-defined set of patterns that would signify the
existence or creation of a coin. Mining utilizes the Proof-of-Work (PoW)
protocol. For a person to gain a new Bitcoin (for example), that person must
set up a computer that would perform the required computational work over a
period until the computation arrives at the pattern (hash code) that represents
a coin (a Satoshi), which forms the reward aspect of mining.

Pre-mined coins, on the other hand, are created by the developer prior to the
release to the public and utilizes the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol. In this
protocol, the computer earns coins by processing (minting) transactions to
the network’s blockchain (ledger) and thus gaining a portion of the fee. In
Proof-of-Stake, no coins are mined whenever a new block gets created.

Chapter Summary
The hype and truths behind Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies have
created a lot of trading and investing success stories in a short enough timeline
that would otherwise take more years to occur. Their highly volatile nature
makes it the first choice for a lot of developers, traders, investors, and even
criminal elements (scammers, hackers, phishers).

Price volatility is brought about by supply, demand, risk factor, market

capitalization, media coverage, investors, and competition.

Cryptocurrencies could be acquired through exchanges, participating in

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), or by investing in a high-end computer for an
activity called mining.

41
Getting Your First
Cryptocurrency
“In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the
long run, it is a weighing machine.” -Benjamin Graham (on value
investing)

42
 Before Buying Your First Cryptocurrency
Generally, most people start with Cryptocurrency by getting themselves
Bitcoins. In the same manner, this chapter will start off by providing information
on how to acquire your first Bitcoin. Take note, you do not need to buy one (1)
whole Bitcoin. A division down to eight (8) decimal digits allows people to buy
smaller portions.

Safety Measures
As a first step in coin acquisition, it is important to take note of the
following security measures.

Secure Your Computer

You may not be aware, but your computer may already have malware
that is ready to capture all your keystrokes, waiting for important credentials
to profit from. Check by installing an antivirus with an updated database of
viruses and malware definitions.

Avoid Visiting Scam-looking Websites

These could be sites that offer free downloads, MP3s, videos, torrents
and other sites that don’t have reputable contents. There are sites that
have a lot of pop-up advertisements and chances are, malwares are hiding
somewhere within those pages. Take note, you will be using your computer to
store valuable investment information including your private keys and wallet
addresses.

43
 Avoid Re-using Your Password or Email Address
Use a different email address and password combination for exchanges
than the one you use for Facebook, LinkedIn, or other social media sites. This
reduces the chance of security breaches to your email address in case one of
the social media sites get hacked. Similarly, avoid using the same email address
and password combination on different exchanges, in case one exchange gets
breached.

Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

When Creating an Account
Two-factor authentication puts an additional level of security on your
account. Even if your username and password is discovered, the random
number generated by 2FA will require access to your mobile phone. DO NOT
USE 2FA with keys sent as a TEXT message to your mobile phone.

44
 Avoid Accessing Exchanges via Mobile Device
Use a different device to access the website, other than the device you
have your 2FA keys installed on.

Secure Your Mobile Device

If possible, use a different device for accessing various areas of the internet
than the one you have your 2FA keys installed on. It is also recommended that
you do not bring your mobile device wherever you go, keeping it safe in the
workspace where you do your buying or trading.

Avoid Accessing Using Public Internet Access

Although there are encryption protocols in place, there are public WIFI
connections that are insecure . There is a risk that the private keys you send
out through that internet connection will be captured by malicious individuals.
43
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0014-tips-using-public-wi-fi-networks

Be Careful When Searching for an

Exchange’s Website
As previously mentioned, there are phishing fraudsters that post
advertisements pretending their website is the official one. If you already have
an account on an exchange, make sure to copy and save the URL so you do
not have to searching for it each session.

Do A Small Test Transaction Before Going Big

This reduces the payload for mistakes. Once you gain 100% assurance
that the transaction pushed through, that’s the time to send the rest.

45
 Getting a Bitcoin Wallet
Now that you’ve pretty much covered a lot of grounds with regards to
security and safety, it is time to get a Bitcoin wallet.

Software Wallets
These are programs that let you generate your Bitcoin address and allows
you to store, send or receive Bitcoins. First time buyers usually get a software
wallet from trusted providers. There are a lot of software wallets available and
some of the ones most used are as follows:

1 Coinbase
Coinbase is one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges today through their
partner GDAX. Coinbase offers a way for people to buy bitcoins through their
platform. The service is available in 19 countries all over the world, and works
great for those who just started. Users must have a registered account.

WEBSITE: https://www.coinbase.com

PROS: Setting up a wallet is beginner-friendly

CONS: Your funds are on a server and may take some time before you receive
the Bitcoins you purchased. It is not available in all countries.

2 Exodus
Exodus provides a downloadable wallet for desktop that allows storage of
Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Dash and Ether.

WEBSITE: https://www.exodus.io/

PROS: Allows exchange of one type of coin to another using ShapeShift. Self-
hosted (via your computer) and good customer support.

46
CONS: Only available for desktop computers.

3 Jaxx
Jaxx is another self-hosted wallet that is easy to install and works best as
a mobile app. The app allows storage and exchange of several types of
coins.

WEBSITE: https://jaxx.io/

PROS: Self-hosted and allows conversion of coins via the exchange. Works on
multiple platforms

CONS: Some issues reported for their desktop and Linux versions

4 Copay
Created by Bitpay, Copay is a multisig wallet (multiple users allowed) ideal for
maximum security. Corporate accounts require multiple signatures to confirm
a transaction.

WEBSITE: https://copay.io/

PROS: Available for desktop, mobile and web-interface; allows for improved
security and multiple users.

CONS: No support and can be a bit overwhelming for inexperienced users

5 Electrum
A fast and lightweight desktop app that supports older and less powerful
computers to store Bitcoins.

WEBSITE: https://electrum.org/

PROS: Advanced security and privacy features. Wallet can be recovered via a
secret key phrase.

47
CONS: Reliance on external servers could pose security threats. Suited for
advanced users.

Hardware Wallets
A hardware wallet is recommended for those who are already familiar
with Bitcoin and intend to buy larger amounts of Bitcoins.
Known as the most secure wallets, hardware or cold wallets are physical
wallets that look like dongles or external flash drives and plug into a USB
port. Currently, there are two reputable companies manufacturing and selling
hardware wallets - Trezor and Ledger.

1 Ledger Wallet
A physical device that connects to your computer and acts as another source
of protection.

WEBSITE: https://www.ledgerwallet.com/
PROS: Beginner friendly, very secure, great support
CONS: Costs money (58 EUR, 229 EUR)

2 Trezor Wallet
Perfect for storing large levels of Bitcoins, Trezor is a combination of world
class security and flexibility, making it suitable for both experts and newbies
alike.

WEBSITE: https://shop.trezor.io/
PROS: Extremely secure, easy to use interface, supports additional wallets
and altcoins
CONS: High price tag (currently at $89)

48
 Paper Wallets
There is a third kind of wallet, which is more secure than software wallets
but requires a unique way of storage. These are called Paper Wallets. Just like
the name, paper wallets require one to generate a wallet address, print all the
information that goes along with it, and safely store the printed wallet.

To know more about how to create a paper wallet, check out the following link:

https://99bitcoins.com/create-99-9-secure-bitcoin-paper-wallet/

Dissecting A Wallet Address

Once a wallet address is created, you will find the following parts:

▪ A Public Key - the actual wallet address used and supplied to other
exchanges or merchants. The Bitcoins you purchase will be sent to you
via that address.

▪ A Private Key - Store this in a safe place where you can easily recover.
This is used to access your wallet and manage its contents.

▪ A Public key QR code - scanning your public key QR code works in the
same way as copy-pasting your public key or wallet address.

▪ A Private key QR code - this works the same way as your Private key.

IMPORTANT
Do not share your Private Key or Private Key QR code to anyone, nor post
them anywhere online.

49
ABOVE: Example of a paper wallet

The Buying Process

Now that you have selected and created your Bitcoin wallet, it is time to
buy some Bitcoins. A few options are listed alongside a brief review.

IMPORTANT
Buying Bitcoins from exchanges has less risk than direct buyer to seller
transactions.

50
 Bitcoin Merchants
Below are three examples of exchanges that sell Bitcoins.

1 Coinbase
Coinbase not only allows one to create a Bitcoin wallet, it also allows users to
buy Bitcoins, Litecoins, and Ethereums from them. The problem with Coinbase
is that they charge a lot per transaction (4% base fees) .

There is a way to acquire Bitcoin without getting charged by Coinbase even

if you start your acquisition process through the platform. This is done by
transferring fiat to your Coinbase account, then transfer it again to your GDAX
account (Coinbase Cryptocurrency Exchange Partner; login using Coinbase
account), and then buying Bitcoin. In this way, the transaction fee is greatly
reduced (0.25%) .

WEBSITE: https://www.coinbase.com

PROS: Relatively high transaction fee that can be lowered

CONS: Slow customer support, transaction may take days before getting
credited

2 CEX.io

Established in 2013, CEX accepts credit cards and allows trading. Bitcoins
may be bought using USD, EUR, and RUB

WEBSITE: https://cex.io
PROS: Reputable company and high buying limits
CONS: Limited countries available, higher transaction fees

51
 3 Bitsofgold

A reputable company in Israel for buying and selling Bitcoins

WEBSITE: https://www.bitsofgold.co.il/

4 Coins.PH

Bitcoin buying in the Philippines made easy through peso Cash-ins and easy
conversion to Bitcoins via Coins.PH app.

WEBSITE: https://coins.ph

PROS: Easy to use interface available (desktop, Android and iOS), API
integrations with companies in the US, Hong Kong and mainland China

CONS: Slow customer support, Confusing transaction fees (may be subject to

double charges)

Other options for buying Bitcoins all over the world could be found by following
this link.

IMPORTANT
When buying Bitcoins, make sure you have a copy of your wallet address.
To avoid typographical error, select or highlight the whole wallet address
(click-drag), then copy-paste to the form field marked as “destination
wallet address.”

ADDITIONAL READING: A Beginner’s Guide to Bitcoin

44
https://support.coinbase.com/customer/portal/articles/2109597-buy-sell-
bank-transfer-fees
45
https://www.gdax.com/fees/BTC-USD

52
 Chapter Summary
1. The reason why Bitcoin was chosen as an example for buying cryptocurrency
is that it is being used as the base currency for trading different altcoins
(other cryptocurrencies) in various exchanges. By owning Bitcoins, you
open yourself to the opportunity of being able to acquire these other coins.

2. Before you set out to buy your first Bitcoin, make sure all the safety measures
are in place - from securing the computer you will use, to the device you will
store your 2FA.

3. Acquiring cryptocurrencies requires a learning curve, but it is not so hard.

In fact, it only takes three steps to do so:

a. Creating a Wallet

b. Buying the cryptocurrency

c. Transferring the acquired cryptocurrency to your wallet

4. Other cryptocurrencies have their own sets of procedures for wallet creation
and coin acquisition, but do not stray far from the procedures of buying
Bitcoins.

5. Whatever coins you plan to buy, it is best practice to try acquiring a minimal
amount or enough risk that you are willing to take to see how the process
works. Once you become familiar with the transaction flow, you can be
more confident in placing more funds into it.

6. Make sure to understand the difference between the Public Key (Wallet
Address) and the Private Key. DO NOT EVER show your private key or Private
QR code to anyone.

53
7. If you plan to trade all your coins then
keep them on a software wallet. If you
plan for a long-term investment then
store your coins in hardware or paper
wallet.

8. Only trade coins you are willing to lose.

54
Trading vs Investing
“Investment psychology is by far the most important element, followed
by risk control, with the least important consideration being the question
of where you buy and sell.” - Victor Sperandeo

55
 Before we proceed with the next stage of cryptocurrency trading (Choosing
the Coin to Put Money On), let us take a break to analyze the difference between
Trading and Investing. A good understanding of these two concepts will help
us make informed decisions once we get to acquire various altcoins. In short,
there are coins that are best held over the long term and there are others that
suit short-term holdings.

Investing and Trading are two opposing methods to profit in the financial
market in terms of their inherent goals.

IMPORTANT
In a nutshell, investing uses Fundamental Analysis while Trading uses
Technical Analysis .

Investing
Investing aims to “gradually build wealth over an extended period” done
through buying and holding of cryptocurrencies. Investments are often held
for years and an investor’s mindset includes riding out the downtrends with
the expectation that the price of the cryptocurrency will recover and eventually
be worth more in the future.

As Fundamental Analysts, investors try to determine a cryptocurrency’s

value by measuring its intrinsic value using existing information. These include
the coin’s Market Capitalization, Amount of coins in Circulation, Whitepaper,
Official Developer’s Communication Channel (Slack, Blog), and Online
Communities (Bitcointalk, Facebook) contains feedback or sentiments of
existing investors as well as a response from the developer’s representatives

46
http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/12/difference-investing-trading.asp
47
http://www.investopedia.com/university/technical/techanalysis2.asp

56
 Trading
Trading involves the more frequent buying and selling activities of
cryptocurrency pairs , with the aim of generating a greater profit than the
typical buy-and-hold strategy done by investors. In this manner, a trader
becomes an active participant in the volatile market and takes advantage of
the downtrends (time to buy) and the uptrends (time to sell) in shorter periods
of time (as short as a period of 5 to 30 minutes).

For example, an investor expects an annual increase of a coin’s value

by 50%. A trader, on the other hand, will want to dramatically increase that
rate by riding the hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly price trends. A trader can
increase the number of coins he holds through the consistent application of
this certain processes called Technical Analysis.

Trading requires a good understanding of Technical Analysis (TA) and

the application of TA tools. Speculations rely on the results from the use of
these tools.

Trading Styles
Trading styles fall into four categories depending on the length of time a
trader holds a certain asset or coin. These are:

1. Position Trading, wherein positions are held for months or years

2. Swing Trading, wherein positions are held for days or weeks

3. Day Trading, wherein positions are held throughout the day only with no
overnight positions

4. Scalp Trading, wherein positions are held for seconds to minutes with no
overnight positions.

57
 Trading and Investing: A Comparative Analysis
Say, for example, an investor and a trader both started with 1 BTC in
January 2017 with a value of $1500. The investor believes BTC will rise in
value and become $5000 by December 31st, 2017. So, the Investor’s $1500
would triple.

A trader, on the other hand, decides to sell every time BTC’s value
spiked dramatically. This prompts the trader to do a technical analysis; upon
speculating, if the price is in an overbought condition the trader decides to
sell. Once sold, the trader will then place a BUY order at another TA-backed
speculation as to where the price will drop. If the speculation is correct, then
BTC will fall to the desired price, and the trader’s order will be fulfilled. In this
manner, the trader will end up buying more amounts of BTC.

To make the example clear, say the first spike brought the price of BTC
to $2000 and the trader sold at that rate. Afterwards, BTC price went down to
$1750.00. If the trader placed a buy order at that price and it got fulfilled then
the trader will end up buying 1.1428571 BTC - thus increasing the amount
of BTC held. If the trader continues doing the same process again and again
in a successful manner, then the trader will end up having more BTC to sell at
$5000 by December 31st, 2017 as compared to the Investor’s 1 BTC. Both
cases earned profit but one of them earned much more than the other.

48
Cryptocurrency Pairs are quotations featuring/comparing values of the two paired
currencies

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/12/difference-investing-trading.asp
49

58
 Chapter Summary
Learning how to Trade using Technical Analysis gives a bigger return on
investment than just plainly investing using of Fundamental Analysis.

Nevertheless, the world of cryptocurrency investment requires the combined

strategies of both investor and trader depending on the situation. Logically,
fundamental analysis is required if one is to investigate a newly identified coin
(if the coin just got created or is already on the market for months or years).
Once all the fundamental aspects have been tackled and a decision is made
to put money into that coin, Technical Analysis kicks in, unless the person
decides to stay within the boundaries of an Investor mindset.

59
Choosing the Coin
to Put Money On
“Buy the rumor, sell the news.” - traders anonymous

60
 First Things First
In this chapter, we will start putting the theories in action using previously
mentioned coins to put money on. The first thing to do is to search for the
coins. Chances are, you have already heard or read about certain coins -
starting with Bitcoin, including some or all the rest of the most prominent
coins such as Ethereum, Litecoin, NEO or Monero. Press Releases about ICO
success or failures (hacking incidents) also help spread the word about newly
created coins.

Where to Find Information About the Top Coins

If you have a list of coins you are interested in the best place to start this
quest is by going to COINMARKETCAP.COM to check out all the information
available about your chosen coin.
CoinMarketCap is a website that tracks Bitcoin and most of the alternative
coins (Altcoins) that has hit the market and satisfied certain criteria. The
information found on each coin includes:
1. Market Capitalization

2. Average Price of each coin at any given day

3. Price History of the coin

4. Price Chart of the coin

5. The coin supply (circulating, total and maximum)

6. The markets where the coins are being traded or exchanged

7. Links to additional information about a certain coin as provided by

developer

61
 Playing It Safe
The safest bet among all the coins listed at Coinmarketcap are the ones
listed on the Top 10. For those who already have a list, check to see how well
your coin(s) fare on the list. If the coin cannot be found immediately then try
searching for it using the search bar at the top right area of Coinmarketcap’s
homepage.

ABOVE: Coinmarketcap’s top navigation menu (left area) and search bar (right area)

If the coin did not show up at all, there is a chance that the coin
is not gaining enough market activity or did not satisfy the criteria for getting
listed. In such cases, there is a chance the coin leans towards a scam or a
Ponzi scenario.

Coinmarketcap Analytics
If the coin is listed then check to see its ranking and click its name to view
more details about it. Once clicked, the newly loaded page will contain general
statistics about the coin as follows:
Current value in BTC, USD or other currencies

1. Market Cap - Price X Circulating Supply

2. 24 Volume - shows how much is being traded in the last 24 hours

3. Circulating Supply - Number of coins in existence available to the public

4. Max Supply - Approximate amount of coin that will ever exist

62
 5. Official website

6. Blockchain Explorer - To track transactions for that coin

7. Announcements - Latest developments

8. Price Charts

9. Markets - Exchanges that allow trading of the coin type

10.Social Media

11.Tools - Widgets / APIs

12. Historical Data - Daily price since day 1 (Genesis)

IMPORTANT
Once you locked on to your chosen coin, you must start doing your due
diligence.

Doing your Due Diligence

There are various guides on how investors gauge the viability of a cryptocurrency.
For this book, listed below are the things to look for when analyzing a coin’s
potential .

Concept

1. Know the coin’s purpose and whether it solves a real-world problem or

not.
2. Analyze if the problem it solves has a big scope or just targets a small
market.
3. Check if the whitepaper aims to educate or looks like it is aimed to be a
marketing tool aimed to build hype.
4. Check if the coin is backed by prominent investors.

50
https://coinmarketcap.com/faq/
51
https://masterthecrypto.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/COMPLETE-GUIDE-TO-
CRYPTOCURRENCY-ANALYSIS-4.pdf

63
Development Team and Operations

1. Know who are behind the project (developers and advisers) and see if
they have good educational or professional backgrounds in line with their
project.

2. See if the project’s governance is centralized or decentralized.

3. Understand how the coin works (is it Proof-of-Work or Proof-of-Stake?).

4. Check the coin’s roadmap (milestones) and whether they are on track,
delayed, or are transparent to their investors.

5. If they already gained funding (via ICO or by other means) then check
how they manage the funds.
Market Analysis

1. See if the coin is the first of its kind or if there are others that have already
gained good ground.

2. If there are, see if the coin has an advantage over the existing one(s).

3. Check if the coin’s usability complies with existing rules and regulations.

Coin Supply

1. Check how big or small its current market capitalization is to know how
many have already invested.

2. Check if the coin has a Hard Cap (or maximum circulation supply) or not.

3. Check how much is allocated to the founders/developers and whether

they have a lock-in period or not.

4. If possible, check to see if the coin is well distributed or is controlled by

the rich few that could cause price manipulation.

RED FLAGS

1. Check to see if the coin is based on an MLM structure (Ponzi scheme).

2. Check if the coin or its founders/developers have been linked to scams or

criminal activities.

64
 Chapter Summary
Despite cryptocurrency’s infancy, more and more people and news outlets
are talking about it. Chances are you already know the names of a few coins
and are interested to put money into them.

As a matter of principle, doing your due diligence is a must. Knowing the

coin’s concept, dev team, market, supply, and red flag indicators are necessary.

Coinmarketcap is a good starting point to learn what a coin is all about.

As a beginner who is yet to understand the whole cryptocurrency ecosystem,
it is best to get yourself initiated by investing on the top-rated coins.

It is also important to keep yourself updated on the latest developments

regarding a coin by joining the community of investors backing it. They are
usually found on Facebook, Slack, Bitcointalk, or referenced on their official
website.

65
How to StartTrading
Cryptocurrency
“To be a good trader, you need to trade with your eyes open, recognize
real trends and turns, and not waste time or energy on regrets and wishful
thinking.” - Alexander Elder

66
 Choosing an Exchange
By now you already have some Bitcoins stashed away in your wallet. The
next thing you need to do is look for a good international exchange that caters
to various altcoins. These exchanges may or may not accept fiat deposits but
allow Bitcoins.

When choosing an exchange, consider the following factors:

Location

Check to see if an exchange allows transactions from your country.

Furthermore, check to see if the country of origin has a stable economy and
pro-cryptocurrency policies.

Trustworthiness

Research the exchange through forums, blogs, and published legitimate news
to see whether the exchange are subject to scam, hacking, or other criminal
activities.

Responsiveness

Research about how fast the exchange process transfers from your account to
a bank account or cryptocurrency wallet. Be on the lookout for user feedback
through various social media communities.

Fees

Always put into consideration the fees per trading transaction to make sure
you are Buying or Selling at a profit. Transferring fiat money to exchanges
usually incurs higher fees.

Liquidity

Check to see if there is high liquidity. This is a measurement of the volume of

transactions that take place daily.

67
 List of Exchanges

Here is a shortlist of exchanges that only accepts Bitcoins for deposits:

1 Bittrex
One of the larger exchanges that allow trading of more than 200 pairs (BTC
pairs, ETH pairs, USD/CNY pairs), with a total liquidity of $252.498 Million.

WEBSITE : https://bittrex.com/

PROS: High Security, Easy to use Interface, 258 trading pairs

CONS: Poor Customer Support and users are target for Phishing

2 Bitfinex
Bitfinex is dubbed the most liquid exchange in terms of USD trading volume.
It currently accounts for 10% of the global USD trading market. Due to a
previous hacking incident, they have reinforced and beefed up their security -
thus regaining the trust of their customers.

68
WEBSITE: https://www.bitfinex.com/

PROS: Great user Interface, Good customer support, average security ratings,
cheaper fees

CONS: Only 35 trading pairs, History of hacking incident deters inexperienced

users

3 Binance
Binance is a newly established platform based in Hong Kong and currently
caters 35 trading pairs. For a new exchange, Binance shows a high liquidity
rate (US$10 Million a day) ensuring orders get filled quickly.

PROS: Low transaction fees (halved if using Binance Token), bounty promos
for users, and good customer support (via Facebook Page)

CONS: Only 35 trading pairs (but are slowly increasing in number)

4 Other Exchanges
For those who do not have access to the exchanges listed above due to country
restrictions, check the following link to see if there is an exchange near you.

WEBSITE: https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/exchanges/

52
Cryptocurrency Pairs are quotations featuring/comparing values of the two paired
currencies
53
https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/bittrex/
54
https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/trading/bitfinex/

69
 Opening an Account at an Exchange
Opening an account for your selected cryptocurrency exchange is
like registering a new GMAIL or Facebook account. The only difference is
the verification process, wherein the exchange may require submission of
documents - such as a photo of your passport. There are tiers of memberships;
higher tiers are unlocked as a member is verified. Lower tiers may have lower
deposit and withdrawal limits.

Two-Factor Authentication
As mentioned above and in previous chapters, security is of utmost
importance. The verification process adds more security for members in case
hackers access the account. Two-factor Authentication (2FA) helps further
the security by requiring a randomly generated number, which expires after
60 seconds, to also be typed in prior to gaining access to the account. There
are also exchanges (like Bittrex) that allow users (through 2FA) to whitelist
IP addresses and Wallet Addresses to disable access or withdrawal to other
wallet addresses.

IMPORTANT
It is best to know how to transfer your authenticator in case you need to
replace your mobile device that holds these keys. Visit the following link
to find out how to do so:

How to Move Google Authenticator to a New Device

55
https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/bitfinex/
56
https://themerkle.com/binance-review-a-pretty-good-platform-for-its-young-age/

70
 Vigilance is a Must
Again, it is very important to always be vigilant when accessing your
account. Even if an exchange has high security against hackers, these malicious
individuals may instead target users who are unaware of their modus and
tricks them to divulge their information. Attacks coming from Phishing of
private social media messages, email warnings, and more.

Always refer to the list of security measures under the chapter Getting
Your First Cryptocurrency and be aware that these incidents do occur. If
you have not read any news info about such incidents then please visit the
following:

http://fortune.com/2017/08/28/ethereum-cryptocurrency-stolen-bitcoin/

Understanding the Markets

Now that you have an account, it is time to check out the different areas within
an exchange - starting with the Markets Dashboard. To do so, login to your
account.

IMPORTANT
Do not send any Bitcoin to your account or buy any altcoins using fiat if you
have not fully understood the different areas of your selected exchange;
particularly if you have not enabled 2FA. It is highly recommended that
you get yourself verified .

57
Getting verified will give you an advantage in case you need to contact support for
account related issues (login issues, withdrawal issues, etc.)

71
 Logging In
Logging into an exchange for the first time can be intimidating. A user
is usually shown tabulated numbers and graphs that crowd the whole screen
(the likes of Bittrex and HitBTC). There are exchanges that offer a more relaxed
landing page that shows only a couple of currency pairs (such as Binance).
Some exchanges offer ways to familiarize with the different sections by
providing a Demo section (Bitfinex).

To make it easier for beginners, this chapter identifies and describes all
these tables, numbers, charts and figures by using two exchanges as examples
- BINANCE.COM and BITTREX.COM. The processes and basic principles are
the same across all other exchanges.

There is a notion that once a couple of examples are presented, broken

down into parts, and defined, the reader will have a clearer understanding of
exchanges. So, let’s get to work.

Finding the Markets Overview

Binance

Binance.com takes a user to the account dashboard upon login. To access the
Markets, the Binance logo (upper left corner) must be clicked.

72
Bittrex

Bittrex takes a user straight to the Markets section and is also accessible by
clicking on the Bittrex logo (upper left corner).

Tickers
Binance.com

Once the logo is clicked and the page is loaded, the user gets to see three
featured Tickers lined up in a row right below the splash screen.

58
Ticker - a brief report on a coin’s price along with other general information
59
Cryptocurrency Pairs are quotations featuring/comparing values of the two paired
currencies

73
Binance Ticker Symbols

Each of these featured Tickers contain the cryptocurrency pair name identifier
or SYMBOL, which is usually comprised of three capitalized letters on the left
(representing the altcoin symbol) followed by a slash “/” sign, then another
three capitalized letters (representing the market symbol). Looking at the
tickers above, we can identify that all three falls within the Bitcoin (BTC)
market.

Volume

The volume represents the total amount of BTC traded in the last 24 hours
through the BUY and SELL process.

Line Graph

The line graph right below the Volume represents the trend or change in value.

Fiat Equivalent

The fiat equivalent ($0.74 for BNB/BTC, $18.70 for NEO/BTC, $9.33 for OMG/
BTC) represents the fiat value of the last price that just got traded (either on
a BUY or on a SELL order).

Last Price Value

The numerical value with the largest font represents the BTC value of the last
order that got fulfilled.

24 Hour Change and Rate

The smaller numerical value right below the Last Price Value represents the
change in price based on its previous value in the last 24 hours. To the right
of this is the rate of change.

74
Bittrex.com

The Bittrex Markets page (or dashboard) shows featured coins on the top-
most area. Top 4 coins with the Biggest 24-hour Gains (%) and Highest 24-
hour Trading Volume gets listed.

Bittrex Ticker Symbols

The way Bittrex tickers are presented on their featured coins slightly varies
with Binance’s, but both contain the essential elements.

Coin Logo, Name and Ticker Symbol

On the leftmost example above, Rise is the Coin Name, and RISE found inside
the open and close parentheses is the Ticker Symbol. Next to it is Edgeless
(Name) and EDG (Ticker Symbol). The logo is placed on the left area.

Volume

The BTC value right below the coin name and ticker symbol represents how
much BTC has been traded (fulfilled from the BUY and SELL orders) for the
specified coin in the last 24 hours.

Rate of Change (%)

The rate of change - found below the Volume indicator - gives a general idea
whether a coin increased or decreased in value in the last 24 hours. Computed
in terms of percentage rate, a positive rate means it increased.

75
 The Markets
The markets are simply the groupings of the cryptocurrency pairs
represented by the tickers. Majority of exchanges have a base currency of
Bitcoin for the BTC market, Ethereum for the ETH Market, and a USDTether
for the USDT market. In each of these markets, the base currency is compared
or traded against the altcoin it pairs with.

Binance.com
On Binance, a truncated list of cryptocurrency pairs - from the three available
markets - is shown in the row right below the featured tickers, along with a
brief list of tickers. A small arrowhead can is seen at the bottom of both the
BTC and ETH markets; clicking these will show the rest of the cryptocurrency
pairs.

ABOVE: A brief list of Binance Markets (BTC, ETH, and USDT)

76
Binance Market Details
Four details are found on each entry on the markets. These are

Four details found in each market entry:

1 Cryptocurrency Pair

2 Last (fulfilled) Price - it is either a price sold, or a price bought (more on

these on the next chapter)

3 Change - the rate of change in the value of the coin within the last 24
hours. This is with respect to the base currency (market) it is on. So, on
ETH market it is compared to the value of an ETH coin.

4 Volume - How much was traded in the last 24 hours.

Bittrex.com
Bittrex shows a list of all coins on each of the three markets they offer, right
below the featured coins. If the number of coins does not fit the list, the page
number navigator (at the bottom right of each market listings) will be clickable.

Below are screenshots of all the initial list of coins for the BTC, ETH and USDT
/ BITCNY markets.

60
Cryptocurrency Pairs are quotations featuring/comparing values of the two paired
currencies
61
USDTether or USDT is a digital representation of the US Dollar and each USDT garners
the same value as a dollar.

77
62. BITCNY - Digital currency representation of Chinese fiat money on Bittrex

78
Bittrex Market Details
By default, Bittrex arranges the list according to the 24-hour Volume column.
Aside from the four details shown at Binance markets, BIttrex also shows the
24-hour Highest Price and 24-hour Lowest Price the coin has been traded for,
as well as the % Spread and the date the coin has been added to the exchange.

% Spread
This is calculated by subtracting the top-most listed SELL (ASKS) price by the
top-most listed BUY price, then dividing the difference by the top-most listed
BUY (BIDS) price and multiplied by 100

From the screenshots above, % Spread can be calculated by subtracting

0.00010495 BTC by 0.00010331 BTC, then dividing the difference
(0.01587455231827 BTC) by 0.00010331 BTC (BID/BUY price). Finally, the
quotient (1.64 ×10^-6) is multiplied by 100%, thus arriving at a result of
1.587455231827% or rounded up to 1.59%.

Importance of % Spread
For scalp traders, a bigger spread means that one may place a Buy order at
the first line of orders. Once fulfilled, the bought coins may then be placed at
the first line of Sell Orders, speeding up the liquidity (or conversions).

79
 Exchange Dashboards
To complete the offered services, Exchanges created a couple of other
dashboards that complements the Markets section. All in all, these dashboards
are:

1 Account Settings - where users manage login credentials, set up 2FA, and
whitelists

2 Wallets - where users create cryptocurrency wallets to send or receive

coins

3 Orders - where all pending or fulfilled BUY or SELL orders are shown

4 Markets - contains all the cryptocurrency pairs

5 Cryptocurrency Pair - the dashboard where real-time trading activities

take place

6 News - useful updates and late-breaking news related to the exchange

Additional areas/dashboards depend on the scope of service an exchange

offers . Nevertheless, the ones listed above are what makes up a basic
cryptocurrency exchange service.

80
 Account Settings Dashboard
Account Settings Dashboard contain ways to manage a user’s account
including the ability to Change Password, Submit Verification Documents,
Enable/Disable 2FA, View Login History, Setup API keys, and Setup Whitelists.

63
Through whitelists, users can limit which addresses or IP address will gain
access to the exchange account.
64
Other exchanges offer margin trading, but was not recommended for beginners
due to its level of risk and learning curve involved

cco nt e ific tion

Unverified accounts have lower deposit/withdrawal limits as compared to
verified accounts. Verification may require submission of a photo of valid ID
(or passport).

Login History
This may list information such as Login Date, IP Address used, Computer type
used, Activity executed, and Location from where the user accessed from.

API Keys
These are keys a user adds if one wants to access the exchange account via
third-party trading apps (i.e. Blockfolio, TabTrader)

Two-Factor Authentication
It is a must to enable two-factor authentication. Prior to your first time of
enabling, make sure you save a copy of the Secret Key and QR code shown on
the screen. Selecting the Secret Key and doing a COPY+PASTE process into a
notepad for safekeeping is recommended. Once saved, keep it safe (perhaps
on a flash drive). QR codes may be saved by taking a screenshot of it and
saving in a secure place.

81
IMPORTANT
1 2FA Secret Key and QR Code usually show up ONLY ONCE - during the
first time it gets enabled, therefore, it is important to save it there and
then.

2 There is a chance that exchanges take a lot of time before resetting 2FA
for customers.

3 DO NOT DISABLE 2FA if you have cryptocurrencies on your exchange’s

account. It is wise to withdraw the coins and move to your private
wallet(s).

4 If you have multiple types of cryptocurrencies and do not have a

corresponding private wallet for some of them then convert those back
into BTC or ETH before moving them out of the exchange (do not do this
when converting will put you at a loss).

5 Do not enable 2FA using your mobile phone. Hackers exploit programs
used by telecom companies to send verification codes to mobile numbers.

Whitelists
There are exchanges that allow whitelisting IP addresses and Wallet Addresses.
This means that those IP addresses not on the whitelist will not be able to gain
access to the account. Withdrawal addresses that are not on the whitelist will
not push through.

Below are layouts of how an account dashboard looks like at Bittrex and
Binance

82
ABOVE: Binance.com Account Dashboard accessible by clicking the Account
menu link at the top right area.

ABOVE: Bittrex.com Account Dashboard accessible by clicking the Settings

menu link at the top right area.

83
 Wallets Dashboard
The Wallets Dashboard contains a list and amount of all cryptocurrencies
a user holds along with the corresponding value (in BTC). This section
is accessible by clicking on the Funds > Deposits Withdrawals menu link
(Binance), or Wallets menu link (Bittrex). Other exchanges may have their
Wallets dashboard named differently.

Once clicked, the user will be shown the following dashboard

ABOVE: Wallet area on Binance platform

84
ABOVE: Wallet area on Bittrex platformw
Bittrex wallet also shows Pending Deposits and Withdrawals, as well as Deposit
and Withdrawals History as shown in the screenshots above and below.

85
Depositing Bitcoin to Exchange
Depositing Bitcoin can be done by searching for the Bitcoin entry on the
list of cryptocurrencies on the Wallets Dashboard.

Once Bitcoin is found, click the PLUS SIGN ‘+’ - on the leftmost part of
Bitcoin’s row - will pop up a smaller window showing your Bitcoin address at
the exchange (Bittrex in the example below).

Clicking the MINUS SIGN ‘- ‘ will pop up a window that would ask for the
Bitcoin address of the recipient.

86
LEFT: Binance’s Deposit and Withdrawal buttons.

Find Binance’s Wallets Dashboard by clicking on the “Deposits

Withdrawals” link. Each coin on the list has a Deposit button and a Withdrawal
button on the right side, which performs the same function as the PLUS and
MINUS signs on Bittrex.

Orders Dashboard
The Orders Dashboard contain a list of all the orders placed. They fall
into two categories: Open Orders and Fulfilled Orders.

OPEN ORDERS
This is the list of unfulfilled orders that a user has placed on various
Cryptocurrency Pair Dashboards.

87
TRADE HISTORY
This lists all the fulfilled orders, accessible by clicking Orders Trade History.
The “Export Complete Trade History” will allow the user to download a table
of all completed orders in CSV format and is viewable through a spreadsheet
software or app.

BITTREX

OPEN ORDERS
Similar with Binance, the Bittrex Open Orders table lists all the placed and
unfulfilled BUY or SELL orders. Depending on the trading strategy, this list
could change quickly (in a matter of minutes) or slowly (in days, weeks or
months).

88
ORDER HISTORY
Unlike Binance, the Order History or List of Completed Orders are on the same
page as the Open Orders. Clicking on the “CSV” button downloads a list of the
latest completed orders. Clicking the “Load All” will download all completed
orders since the start of using the exchange.

89
 Markets Dashboard
An overview of the Markets Dashboard has already been discussed
previously except the process of choosing a cryptocurrency pair to start
trading. To do so, the user simply must click on the Ticker of the chosen pair.

ABOVE: Binance Tickers with cursor placed over BNB/BTC cryptocurrency pair

ABOVE: Bittrex Tickers showing cursor over a selected cryptocurrency pair

(BTC-NEO).

90
 Cryptocurrency Pair Dashboard
Also referred to as the Trading Area, the Cryptocurrency Pair Dashboard
is the most exciting section among all listed. Upon clicking on a cryptocurrency
pair, the user sees the trading area where all the trading activity takes place.

BINANCE.COM EXCHANGE
The topmost portion of Binance’s trading area contains a list featured pairs.

Right below is where the real-time trading is shown, parts which are numbered
and will are later described.

91
01 Order Book
The Order Book contains the order of the Last Price fulfilled, which is the
green-colored number with bigger font that’s found between the red-colored
numbers above it (the SELL orders) and the green-colored numbers with a
smaller font size found below it (the BUY orders).

02 Price History Chart

The Price History is presented using Japanese Candlestick Chart technique and
shows prices going up (green candles) and prices going down (red candles)
for each trading period (represented by 1 candle). Japanese Candlestick is
discussed more thoroughly in the next chapter, “Trading Tips and Techniques”.

03 Trading Form
This is what a trader uses to place a BUY order or a SELL order. Each placed
BUY or SELL orders are seen on the ORDER BOOK and arranged in descending
order - wherein the lowest SELL order price is placed nearest the Last Price,
and the highest BUY order price is placed nearest the Last Price found at the
center (refer to 1. Order Book above).

04 Trade History
All the fulfilled BUY or SELL orders arranged according to the time when the
orders got fulfilled (Latest Price is on top). The color-code shows whether the
fulfilled order is from the BUY order book (green) or SELL order book (red).

92
05 News Updates
Although not normally found in trading dashboards, Binance includes a news
updates feed.

06 Ticker Bar
This is just the same as the featured Ticker and contains an overview of the
cryptocurrency pair traded.

Shown below the trading area are the tables containing OPEN ORDERS the
user placed and the 24-hour completed trades.

BINANCE.COM PRO
Users of Binance Exchange will find two version of the Trading Dashboard.
These are EXCHANGE and PRO. Access links to the two are at the right side of
BINANCE logo at the top of the page.

The differences between the two dashboards are as follows:

93
1
The EXCHANGE uses white page background while the PRO uses black (refer
to the screenshot below)

The tickers are not featured on the top area but could be found by clicking the
pull-down menu via the cryptocurrency pair’s symbol.

94
3

Sections (i.e. Chart, Order Book, Trading Form) within the trading area are
rearranged.

BITTREX.COM
Bittrex has only one dashboard layout for the trading area of all its
cryptocurrency pairs. Using BTC-NEO as the cryptocurrency pair, the trading
dashboard is divided into the General Information section, Trading forms,
Order Book (for both the buyers’ BIDS and sellers’ ASKS), Open Order(s) of
the logged in user, Market History, and My Order History. Screenshots and
descriptions are written below.

IMPORTANT
You may notice a difference in jargons or terms used by Binance and Bittrex
but the areas perform the same trading functions, same as in all other
exchanges.

01 General Information
This section contains the price history chart (defaults at 30-minute periods
per candle), the currency name, currency ticker, the Last Price fulfilled, total
BTC volume, highest BID (buyer) price, lowest ASK (seller) price, 24-hour
highest price, and 24-hour lowest price.

95
02 Trading Forms
The left area of the trading form is where the user types in the values to make a
buy (BID) order and requires available base currency (BTC) to work. The right
area is where the user types values to make a sell (ASK) order and requires
available altcoin currency (NEO) to work. In this example, there is only a small
amount of BTC (base currency), not even enough to place the minimum worth
of buy order.

03 Order Book
The Order Book contains all the placed BUY orders (BIDS) and SELL orders
(ASKS). Like how Binance arranges their order book, Bittrex arranges these
orders as follows:

A. Highest BID price gets placed on the top of the list and gets fulfilled first.

B. Lowest ASK price gets placed on the top of the list and gets fulfilled first

96
04 Open Orders
Open Orders section contains all the orders the logged in users placed for this
particular cryptocurrency pair.

05 Market History
Market History shows the list of all the fulfilled orders, arranged from the
latest to the oldest.

06 My Order History
My Order History lists all the orders currently logged by the user that were
fulfilled. This is arranged (by default) from the latest transaction to the
oldest. Clicking the CSV button downloads a CSV spreadsheet of the latest
transactions. Clicking the Load All downloads all the transactions for this
cryptocurrency pair since the creation of the account at this exchange

97
 Executing Your First Trade
Now that the Cryptocurrency Pair Dashboard (Trading Area) has been
identified, it is time to have an overview of how to execute a trading process - in
this case, a BUY order that will trade your Bitcoin to an Altcoin. As mentioned
earlier, the Trading Area has two forms - one for placing a BUY (BID) order and
another for placing a SELL (ASK) order. Depending on the trader’s strategy
, an order could be placed on the BUY or the SELL form. Let’s look at some
examples.

Placing A Buy Order

To understand more about these forms, check out the following screenshots
of the Binance BUY forms followed by Bittrex BID form.

ABOVE: Binance BUY forms featuring WTC/ETH pair

Buying is straightforward, one just needs to be careful and be sure the

correct preferences are selected. Once an order has been placed and fulfilled
(someone agrees to sell you at the price you want to buy), there is no turning
back.

65
A trader could be working with a group and plan to increase the coin’s value, thus
buying at the SELL (ASK) price would be the logical thing to do. On the other hand, an
independent trader may want to buy at the cheapest rate possible and will choose to
place a BUY (BID) order instead.

98
ABOVE: Bittrex BUY (BID) form featuring BTC-NXS pair

Notice the red button marked “Limit” on the Bittrex platform. This button
allows Stop-Loss instructions, which is something advanced traders use. For
beginners, this is usually left as is, along with the other red button marked
“Good ‘Til Cancelled,” which means your order will not be removed from the
order book until it gets fulfilled.

The Units area is where the amount of altcoin is typed. Clicking on the
Max button will compute the max amount of coins one can buy, based on how
much BTC is available.

The Bid (Price), as previously mentioned, is where you type in how much
you are willing to buy per unit of the altcoin.

Once done, click Buy (lowest blue button) and confirm the order on the
pop-up window that will soon follow.

For a video tutorial on how to use this, visit https://www.youtube.com/

66

watch?v=SiKjCA40Q1I

99
 IMPORTANT
The process of placing BUY or SELL orders is easy; one just needs to
be careful about where to place the necessary values. This could be
accomplished by always double checking the figures before confirming
submission of the forms.

Placing A Sell Order

Like Buy Orders, Sell Orders are done by using the SELL FORM found right
beside the buy form. Below are the Sell Forms that could be seen in the two
example exchanges.

ABOVE: Binance Sell Forms featuring WTC/ETH pair.

ABOVE: Bittrex SELL FORM featuring BTC-NXS pair

100
Chapter Summary
67. rading starts by creating an account with a cryptocurrency exchange.
68. When creating an account, one must put the most focus on securing the account
-specifically by enabling two-factor authentication and securing the mobile device
dedicated for this use.

96. All exchanges contain standardized dashboards and these areas are used in support
of the actual trading activity done on the cryptocurrency pair’s trading dashboard.

70. The Markets Dashboard shows all the available cryptocurrency pairs supported by an
exchange, along with brief details such as Ticker Symbol, the Last Price fulfilled, Total
Trading Volume, Highest Price, Lowest Price, Buy/Ask Price, Sell/Bid Price.

71. The cryptocurrency pair’s dashboard is also known as the Trading Area, and contains
the pair’s price history chart, general information (like what’s shown on the Markets
dashboard), forms to place an order at (for both Buy and Sell orders), List of Open
Orders, List of all completed orders (Market History), and list of all the fulfilled orders
of the logged in user.

72. Carefulness in placing BUY or SELL orders is a must. Recklessness could lead to
buying at a huge price or selling at a loss.

101
Trading Tips and Techniques
“Never let a win get to your head, or a loss go to your heart.”
- Chuck D

102
Congratulations!

You covered a lot of ground by reaching this stage. That IS amazing! Let’s
recap everything that you’ve accomplished.

In the past chapters, you (1) had an overview of what cryptocurrencies are, (2)
learned how to acquire your first Bitcoin or Satoshis, (2) learned how to secure
yourself a wallet, (3) learned how to choose other cryptocurrencies to invest
on, (4) got an overview of the difference between Investing and Trading, (5)
learned how to set up your account at your choice cryptocurrency exchange,
and (6) learned how to place your first BUY or SELL order.

This chapter will bring us beyond those theories and concepts related to
cryptocurrency trading and put us more into actual applications and trading
scenarios- starting with the two (2) emotions that have caused pain to a lot of
traders old and new.

Trading Emotions, Beware

Irrational trading is said to be driven by two primal human emotions - FEAR

and GREED. To succeed as a trader, one must be aware of and be able to
control how these emotions manifest. Getting overwhelmed by any of these
two could be costly - putting a trader at a loss of either time or investment
value.

Greed

Greed is defined as an “excessive desire.” In trading, this could mean the desire
to get rich quick. This may, in turn, trigger the urge to put all bets (Bitcoins) on
a coin that has already risen 50% to 100%. Backed up by hearsay or rumors,
a greedy trader will have a false hope that the rise in value will reach 300%, or
will go to the “moon ,” only to realize afterward that s/he got subject to FOMO

103
(fear of missing out) and bought at the peak.

Fear

Fear is defined as the awareness and resolve to avoid anticipated danger .

As cited above, Fear combined with Greed could be disastrous (FOMO ) to a
trader’s strategy. Chances are, a trader may become dumbstruck the moment
the mistake was identified, thus missing out the opportunity to cut some losses
. This may then lead to another fear-induced decision - selling at a huge loss
once the trader realize the price is not going up any sooner, and the coin
continues to lose its value (which could go up to -50% or more of the coin’s
worth if the trader bought at the peak of a 100% price increase).

Solving the Case

In the above examples, if the newbie trader accepts the mistake and gained
control of the situation, one logical way to exit is to cut some losses (assuming
the trader bought at the peak) and buy again at the dip . If that looks too risky,
another option is to HODL and ride out the dip - without selling at a huge loss
- until the price goes back up and above the price where s/he bought the coin
at. It is highly recommended to understand the price trend of the invested
cryptocurrency (assuming the coin passed all the Due Diligence checklist) to
understand the peaks and dips associated with them. This helps reduce the
fear associated with the price fluctuations.

Psychology of A Market Cycle

67. Moon is the term used to refer to a cryptocurrency’s explosive increase in value.

68. http://www.investopedia.com/articles/01/030701.asp

69. Fear Of Missing Out

70. Cutting losses (cut loss) is selling at a small % loss, to free up the investment funds.

71. This is not recommended for beginners because it requires a level of mastery in
technical analysis

72. HODL is a crypto trading jargon and play on the word “hold”

104
Attached below is an infographic (via wallstcheatsheet.com) of various
emotions and thoughts that traders may feel as a market (cryptocurrency
pair) goes through its normal fluctuations or up and down cycles. This is a
good reference to check whenever traders feel so strongly about a certain
stage of the cycle, to keep the emotions in check and avoid hasty decisions.

ABOVE: Infographic on the Psychology of a Market Cycle (via wallstcheatsheet.com)

105
 More Tips for the Newbies
Below is a brief collection of additional tips that “could be” handy for beginners.
1 Do not panic over market fluctuations. It is normal . Cryptocurrency is still in its
infancy causing the prices to be highly volatile, which could be -38% today, and
+61% tomorrow . To avoid making wrong decisions, just HOLD.

2 Cryptocurrency Trading (and Investing) is a long-term game .

3 Stick to sound investment decisions based on fundamentals and technical analysis .

4 Do not follow market sentiment, or as Warren Buffett said, “Be fearful when others
are greedy, be greedy when others are fearful.”

5 Buy on the dip, sell high and at profit .

Trading Processes and Strategies

In this section, we will start diving deeper into the actual trading process
and will start using Technical Analysis. For this task, we will focus on the
Cryptocurrency Pair Dashboard (Trading Area) and the sections found within.
Unlike the previous chapters where you get to see two different exchanges
alternately for each subtopic, we will focus all our current subtopics on one
exchange - Bittrex. Let’s start.

Entering a cryptocurrency trade may vary depending on the given

conditions. These conditions are often found in the Chart, which is why this
lesson will give an overview of the Chart found within the trading area. Below
is an example.

73. Advice posited by Joe Blackburn, co-founder, Crypto Coin Trader (Facebook Group)
74. Advice based on a similar post from CCT (Facebook Group)

75. It took Bitcoin 8 years to reach the value of approximately $3500 from less than
$0.01 a unit.

76. http://www.investopedia.com/articles/01/030701.asp

77. Buy Low, Sell High

106
The Trading Chart
Shown in the screenshot above is the chart for the BTC-UNB pair as
indicated by the crypto pair's symbol within a small gray box on the upper left
area. The horizontal axis represents the Time (hours) and indicators shown
on the bottom row (present time at the right). The vertical axis represents the
BTC value of UNB and the indicators are in the rightmost column (highest at
the top).

Japanese Candlestick
The graph above uses the Japanese Candlestick charting method wherein
the Green Candles (Bars) represent price movement from the base of the green
rectangle or BODY (Open), to the upper edge of the body (Close, or the last
traded value for the period). Red Candles, on the other hand, mean that the
traders started trading on the upper edge of the body (Open), and the price
lowered up to the body’s base (Close). The thin lines that protrude above and
below the upper and lower edges are called tails (or wicks) and represent the
highest and lowest values the cryptocurrency traded for that period.

78. https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-read-a-candlestick-chart-1031115

107
 IMPORTANT
Today, the Japanese Candlestick method of chart presentation is
standard across all cryptocurrency trading platforms (exchanges) and
may only vary slightly in where the time and value indicators are placed.

Timeframe
The upper left corner (cross reference the
screenshot above to the prior chart) shows the
period that covers each of the shown red or green
Bars or Dashes called Candlesticks. By default,
Bittrex shows a 30-minute period to represent
one Candlestick. This simply means that each
Candlestick represents all trades that occurred
within that timeframe (30 minutes). The cropped
example below shows the Candlesticks around
the 9:00 hour up to the point before 21:00 hour.

The shapes vary from horizontal lines, thin or thick dashes, vertical red
bars, vertical green bars, a red hammer (a T-shaped candle), a vertical green
bar with a small tail (at the bottom), a green hammer (an almost square green
bar with a long tail almost twice the bar’s size).

108
ABOVE: Take a couple of minutes familiarizing each of the shapes as mentioned
on the previous paragraph.

Finding an Entry Point to Buy

Indicator #1: Steady Price Over Periods of Time
A series of dashes on the candlestick chart - that stay at relatively the
same price point - for a long-time period is a good BUY indicator. On the above
screenshot, these are the periods from 9:00 to 15:00. The dashes indicate
the price has settled on the said price range and is ready to start going up,
assuming the coin has an enormous potential based on its fundamentals (due
diligence is required). On the other hand, if there are negative rumors or news
surrounding the cryptocurrency, the price may instead go down from this
stable stage.

Indicator #2: Hammer Candlestick

Entry Point #2 could be identified through a series of candles starting

with a hammer. A hammer is a candlestick that usually indicates a reversal
of movement (from a downward trend) or the start of an upward movement.
It relies on the existence of confirmation green candles - on an upward trend
- that follow it. The RED hammer could be seen right after 15:00 hour, and
followed by four green candles. This was halted by a red dash candle (indicating
trader(s) selling a position at a BUY price), but was over forced by buyers who
kept accepting the SELL (ASK) prices - as can be seen by the green dash (after
the red dash), and the three green candles going in an upward direction.

79. The opposite of a hammer is a hanging man and is found at the peak of an upward
movement.

109
Based on this indicator, a BUY order could be placed on the second green
candle right after the red hammer, or on the second green candle right after
the movement start going upward.

IMPORTANT
Newbie traders usually BUY and HOLD for a longer period than seasoned
traders to familiarize themselves with the price movement and test
trading theories or strategies.

Indicator #3: Fibonacci Retracement

Entry point #3 requires the use of a simple tool called Fibonacci. This
could be accessed via the SELECT TOOL pull-down menu right between the
Time Period indicator and the crypto pair's symbol (check the screenshot
below). Clicking this will show many tools including the Fibonacci option,
which allows the trader to place checkpoints to predict how far the price of an
altcoin will go up before going down. Similarly, it helps project how far down a
price will drop after it reaches its peak on the current upward price movement.

110
 In theory, once a price reverses direction, it continues its new trend
(movement) until it reaches the area near or exactly on the three (3) retracement
points. In a nutshell, Fibonacci plots three retracement values: 50%, 38.2%
and 61.8%.

80. http://www.fxacademy.com/learn/fibonacci-retracement-levels/how-to-draw-fibs

Depending on whether the price trend was upwards or downwards, retracements

are done in opposite direction.

The screenshot above shows the same cryptocurrency pair after seven
more 30-minute periods occurred. The Fibonacci retracement shows how
the price points are divided by the highest value (peak) to the lowest value
(bottom). To the right are five percentile figures: 0%, 38.2%, 61.8%, and
100% - where the 0% is plotted at the peak. Fibonacci Retracements are best
plotted when price starts reversing after reaching a certain peak and uses the
highest and lowest points as endpoints.

Since the Fibonacci (in this case) was plotted after the candlesticks were
generated, we are basically doing a hindsight analysis. In this analysis, we
can see that the lowest point where the price went down and settled at the
61.8% Fibonacci Retracement.

81 Retracement is the exact term used because the price phenomenally gets attracted
to the Fibonacci values.

82 Looking back at the price history in order to study the price movements

111
 If the Fibo retracement was plotted around 7:00 when the price starts
going down after the long green candle, the trader may be able to place a
buy order at the 61.8% area and gain profit for when the price went up again
(refer to the second longest green candle at 12:00 at the screenshot above).
Indicator #4: What Goes Up Comes Down
As you’ve noticed, when a price surges up quickly, it is bound to go down
again and settle into one of the retracements. This is another way to view
the chart above and works together with Fibo retracement as well as other
charting tools.

The tricky part is to foresee when the price reversal will occur. In the
example above, the price seems to be on a reversal trend and may go down
again to one of the Fibo support levels. This highly depends on the general
psychology coursing through the traders at that time. If they lose faith in the
altcoin’s value, then a price reversal will occur.

The following screenshot shows how the price faked the downward
movement, and instead continued its climb upwards - reaching a price increase
of at least 130% (if computed from the 61.8% retracement to the peak). If
the trader placed a buy order at the 61.8% support for .1 BTC, then that will
be worth at least .2 BTC if the trader decides to sell somewhere on the upper
area of that longest green candle. The screenshot further shows a BUYING
TREND (also known as a BULLISH trend).

112
 IMPORTANT
Sudden price increases (like in the example above) are dubbed “bubbles”
and are expected to break (pop) and reverse movement. Experienced
traders often see these movements and opt out of buying when the
price is already that high.

Below are additional screenshots following the price movement of the BTC-
UNB pair.

83. Retracement falls into two categories: Support (if price is going down) and Resistance
(if price is going up).

113
114
 Notice that the price started to reverse (indicated by the red candle). At
this point, a new Fibo retracement should be plotted to project how low the
price could go (assuming the price do not go down all the way to the initial
61.8% value plotted earlier). The new Fibo could be plotted against the lowest
point (the start of the uptrend), and the newest peak as the highest point
(refer to the screenshot below).

Finding an Exit Point to Sell

Indicator #5: Price Reversal

Based on the above example, the obvious indicator of the exit point should
be at the start of the downtrend. Since the initial stages of a reversal may be
overtaken by buyers, it is best to wait out until a couple more minutes (since
we are using a 30-minute timeframe). Price reversals are best analyzed by
also looking at the movements on the Order Book and the Order History.

Indicator #5a: Order Book

If the Order book shows a lot of movement on the (BUY) BIDS table such that
all the topmost orders are closed or fulfilled, then most of the time it means
the sellers are willing to let go of their altcoins at the price asked by the buyers
(instead of waiting for the buyers to accept their selling costs).

115
Indicator #5b: Order History

If the Order History has a lot of SELL orders, then it clearly shows that there is
a selling trend (called Bearish trend).

Indicator #6: Bollinger Bands

Bollinger Bands is a technical analysis study that plots two standard deviations
(values) above and below an Exponential Moving Average . Prices that go out
of (either above or below) the standard deviations tend to move back inside -
unless there is a compelling cause for a change in price trend.

84. https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=bollinger+bands&oq=bollinger+bands

85. A succession of averages, https://www.google.com

phsearch?q=moving+average&oq=moving+average

116
 Bollinger bands theorize that if the price goes beyond the upper or
lower deviations, it will do a correction and move back to stay within the two
deviations . In case of the example above, the price went beyond and thus
moved back inside - reaching the 50% Fibonacci retracement. This study
could be accessed by clicking the STUDY pull-down menu (at the upper right
area of the chart) and clicking on the Bollinger Band option.

86. http://www.investopedia.com/articles/technical/102201.asp

117
 IMPORTANT
Bollinger Bands may also be used as an indicator on finding Entry Points
if the chart shows an opposite set of values (where the price continues
a downtrend as reflected by long red candles). Furthermore, this study
will not work if there is a sudden change of price trend - such as when
the price starts to reach a new higher high and higher low price.

Other Entry and Exit Indicators

Indicator #7: RSI

Another commonly used indicator useful for beginners (and seasoned

traders alike) is the Relative Strength Index (RSI) . This study is a price
momentum indicator that shows whether a price is already on an “overbought”
or “oversold” condition. It uses a gauge of 0 and 100, such that when the
price’s RSI goes above 70 or 80, it to be overbought and would likely go down.
On the other hand, if the RSI goes below 30 or 20, then it is to be oversold and
may cause a trend reversal.

Going back to the BTC-UNB example above, if we look at the chart with
an enabled RSI study, we can see that the area where the price peaked is in an
“overbought” condition

87. https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=RSI

started to fall and

118
ABOVE: The upper horizontal line of the RSI chart is set at a score of 80, while
the lower line is set at 20. As seen above, the highest peak fell above the 80
RSI.

IMPORTANT
Just like other studies, RSI aims to show where the price trend is heading
but does not and reaching an overbought or oversold condition that
may signal a price reversal.

Indicator #8: Simple Moving Averages

Simple Moving Averages or SMAs are among the most basic studies
used in technical analysis. Getting the values for this is done by adding the
closing prices of an altcoin on several time periods, and then dividing by the
total number of time periods. Some of the commonly used time periods are
10, 20, 50, and 200. Enabling the SMA study will generate a line that passes
through each of the time periods and may serve as support or resistance lines.

87. http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sma.asp

In the screenshot below, three SMAs were plotted - the 10 (white line),
30 (yellow line) and 50 (red line) SMAs. As seen, the price falls closest to the
10 SMA, and although it shoots off higher than the 10 SMA during the highest
peak, the price moved back downwards to touch it. The next screenshot shows
how the price pierced through and reached the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement.

119
120
ABOVE: Notice how the price continued to move downward hitting the 200
moving average (red line) along with the decrease in Volume (bottom green
and blue bars).

Indicator #9: Volume

Volume shows how many altcoins change hands in a trading period and
helps identify whether a certain cryptocurrency garnered enough interest. It
is used in conjunction with price analysis such as confirming trends, spotting
potential price reversals, and confirming breakouts . In the example above,
the volume is in the lower area (green and red bars lined beside each other).
It shows that volume was at the highest at the time when the price was also at
its peak - indicating that a lot of traders feared of missing out and thus rallied
and bought at the high price - thus exhausting the number of buyers .

Indicator #10: Support Lines

Support lines serve as barriers on price movements and prevent the price
from continuing its downward movement. These are identified by plotting a
straight line connecting all the lowest points of the prices from many time
periods.

89. http://traderhq.com/analyzing-trading-volume-ultimate-guide/

90. http://www.investopedia.com/articles/technical/02/010702.asp

Indicator #11: Resistance Lines

Resistance Lines are the opposite of Support Lines and serve as barriers
on price movements - preventing the price from continuing its upward trend.
These are identified by plotting a straight line connecting all the highest points
of the prices from a series of time periods.

121
Support and Resistance Examples
In the following screenshot (featuring BTC-NEO trading pair), the
Support Line is plotted by connecting the lowest point (right after 9/19), and
the farthest low point (right after 12:00). The Resistance line, on the other
hand, connects the highest point (at 9/20) to the lowest high points (right
before and after 12:00). As you can see, no prices fell below these two lines.
This meant that for some reason, no traders decide to buy or sell above (in
case of the Resistance Line) or below (in case of the Support Line) these price
points.

Additional Readings
How to Draw Fibonacci 13 Common Chart Patterns Introduction to
Japanese Candlesticks Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study
Gann Techniques

122
 Signals
There are websites and groups that offer to give BUY or SELL signals.
This is not recommended, though, until one already has a grasp on Technical
Analysis tools and a myriad of studies. Furthermore, signals may be manipulated
by Pump and Dump Groups - thus there is an elevated risk especially if you
are part of a Free Signals group, which have a Premium (Paid) Signals. In such
cases, there is a huge chance that they will signal the members of the free
group after the paid group already bought. So, the paid group end up selling
to the free group. Signals groups often use Telegram and Facebook, but may
also use Twitter and other social media websites.

Pump and Dump (PND)

This is an organized activity done by a group of traders to increase the
value of a cryptocurrency - done in a few minutes or in days - with the objective
of enticing other traders to also buy (tricking them that it is an organic growth
of the altcoin’s value). Unaware of the PND, new traders may get hit by FOMO
(Fear of Missing Out) and buy even if the altcoin has already been pumped
50% or more, and end up buying the altcoins bought by the PND organizers
. At most cases, when a trader buys a coin with an already highly pumped
value, the trader will be shocked to see the price fall way below the price he/
she bought for. One way to mitigate losses is to use the advanced Stop-Loss
strategy.

123
 Chapter Summary
This chapter concludes all the concepts and preliminary studies about
Cryptocurrency Trading. It started by introducing the emotions involved that
affect the way

traders handle cryptocurrency pairs and price trends. It encapsulates

these into two primal emotions - Fear and Greed.

This chapter also featured trading scenarios using Bittrex.com exchange

as the source of examples. These examples were cited with the objective of
introducing and applying various Technical Analysis studies and tools - with
Japanese Candlestick as the charting method of choice. Following these
Indicators, beginners know when are the good instances to BUY or SELL
cryptocurrencies.

It is recommended to use multiple indicators and not just rely on one

form of data interpretation.

91. https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0426/investing-pink-sheets-fraud-stock-
scam-madoff-spot-pump-dump.html

124
Leading Cryptocurrencies

2017 Guide

125
 With hundreds of cryptocurrencies backed by pump and dump schemes,
a lot of newbie traders get enticed by the sudden price increases upon looking
at markets overview for all altcoins - only to be left stressed up and shocked
how the price fell right after they bought. As discussed, the best place to
check whether a coin legitimately increased in value - and is not just getting
subject to PNDs - is by searching it up on Coinmarketcap. The website takes
and averages the latest values from various cryptocurrency exchanges to
provide the latest unbiased set of analytics to base an informed decision from.

For this report, Coinmarketcap.com’s Top 10 Cryptocurrencies -

based on market capitalization - are listed below, along with relevant links,
dates to remember and general information.

126
 Bitcoin (BTC)

An innovative payment network and a new kind of money, Bitcoin uses

a peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority (i.e. banks).
Transactions and issuance of new coins are collectively carried out by a
network of computers (nodes) who serve as witnesses and recorders of all
transactions via its publicly viewable ledger called a “blockchain.” Its open-
source design gives birth to new cryptocurrencies that offer various other
use-case solutions other than the ones that Bitcoin offers.

Websites: https://bitcoin.org/en/ and https://www.bitcoin.com/

Blockchain: http://blockchain.info/ | https://blockexplorer.com/

Latest Updates: SegWit2x Hard Fork from Late-October to Mid-November

2017

127
 Ethereum (ETH)

Currently holding the second biggest market capitalization, Ethereum

is “an open software platform based on blockchain technology that enables
developers to build and deploy decentralized applications . Unlike Bitcoin,
which focused on the peer-to-peer electronic cash transfers, Ethereum focused
on running the programming codes of decentralized applications developed
under its hood.

Website: https://www.ethereum.org/

Blockchain: https://etherscan.io/ | https://etherchain.org/ | https://live.

ether.camp/

Latest Updates: Release of Metropolis on October 17, 2017

Ripple (XRP)

A pre-mined cryptocurrency that connects banks, payment providers,

digital asset exchanges and corporations via RippleNet to provide cheap and
frictionless experience in sending money globally. It provides custom solutions
for three target markets - xCurrent for banks, xRapid for payment providers,
xVia for businesses who want to plug into the RippleNet system.

Website: https://ripple.com/

Blockchain: https://ripple.com/graph | https://bithomp.com/explorer/

Latest Updates: Ripple Insights

128
 Bitcoin Cash (BCH)

A clone of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash came into existence on August 1st, 2017,
after a verbal agreement of a fork from Bitcoin to provide a bigger block size
capacity . As a clone, it provided 1 free Bitcoin Cash for each Bitcoin stored
on a qualified wallet.

Website: https://www.bitcoincash.org/

Blockchain: https://blockchair.com/bitcoin-cash/blocks | http://blockdozer.

com/insight/ | https://www.blocktrail.com/BCC

Latest Updates: Bitpay Adds Bitcoin Cash Support

93. http://www.investopedia.com/news/bitcoin-cash-new-king-cryptocurrency/

129
 Litecoin (LTC)

Initially created with the object to be the silver cryptocurrency compared

to Bitcoin (gold), Litecoin is the result of a collaboration of developers (via
IRC) to create an alternative currency to Bitcoin and was launched on October
13th, 2011 .

Website: https://litecoin.com/ | https://litecoin.org/

Blockchain: http://explorer.litecoin.net/chain/Litecoin | https://chainz.

cryptoid.info/ltc/ | https://live.blockcypher.com/ltc/

Latest Updates: Litecoin News

DASH (DASH)

Formerly known as Darkcoin and XCoin, Dash is an open-source peer-

to-peer cryptocurrency that offers the same features as Bitcoin as well as
advanced capabilities such as instant transactions, private transactions, and
decentralized governance - making it the first decentralized autonomous
organization.

Website: https://www.dash.org/

Blockchain: https://chainz.cryptoid.info/dash/

Latest Updates: Dash Force News

93. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=47417.0
94. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash_(cryptocurrency)

130
 NEM (XEM)

NEM is an innovative peer-to-peer blockchain technology project written

in Java and JavaScript with 100% original source code. NEM has a stated goal
of a wide distribution model and has introduced new features in blockchain
technology in its proof-of-importance (POI) algorithm. NEM also features
an integrated P2P secure and encrypted messaging system, multi-signature
accounts and the Eigentrust++ node reputation system.

Website: https://nem.io/

Blockchain: http://nembex.nem.ninja/ | http://explorer.ournem.com/

Latest Updates: NEMflash.io

NEO (NEO)

Dubbed as the ‘Ethereum of China,’ NEO is the result of Onchain, one of the
earliest blockchain projects in China. First organic Chinese Blockchain project
to work with both Microsoft Azure and the Hyperledger Project. It’s the
rebranded version of Antshares, upgraded to be known as the “Distributed
Smart Economy Network.”

WEBSITE: https://neo.org/

Blockchain: https://neotracker.io/ | http://antcha.in/ | https://neoexplorer.

co/

Latest Updates: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1571738.0

131
 IOTA (MIOTA)

A decentralized and self-regulating peer-to-peer network where consensus is

no longer decoupled but is instead an intrinsic part of the system. The main
innovation behind IOTA is a revolutionary new blockless distributed ledger
called Tangle. This scalable, lightweight technology makes it possible to
transfer value without any fees.

WEBSITE: https://iota.org/

Explorer: http://www.iota.tips/ | https://iotasear.ch/ | https://thetangle.org/

Latest Updates: IOTA via Bitcointalk

MONERO (XMR)

Monero is a secure, private and untraceable cryptocurrency where accounts

and transactions are kept private from prying eyes. It uses ring signatures
and rings confidential transactions to obfuscate the amounts, origins,
and destinations of all transactions. Monero provides all the benefits of a
decentralized cryptocurrency, without any of the typical privacy concessions.
Sending and receiving addresses as well as transacted amounts blurred by
default. Transactions on the Monero blockchain cannot be linked to a user or
real-world identity.

WEBSITE: https://getmonero.org/

Explorer: http://moneroblocks.info/ | http://chainradar.com/xmr/blocks

Latest Updates: https://forum.getmonero.org/

132
 ETHEREUM CLASSIC (ETC)

A contract platform that gave birth to Ethereum ETH, Ethereum Classic is the
continuation of the original Ethereum Blockchain, free from external interference
and subjective tampering of transactions. Smart contracts developed on ETC
are applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of
downtime, censorship, fraud or third-party interference.

WEBSITE: https://ethereumclassic.github.io/

Blockchain: http://gastracker.io/

Latest News: ETC via Bitcointalk

133