Category: Money | Page 3

Ledn Review 2022 – Earn Interest and Take Dollar Loans With Your Bitcoin Holdings

Last updated: March 11, 20223 Comments

Cryptocurrencies are exponentially increasing in popularity. Since the epic rise of Bitcoin in 2017, cryptocurrencies caught the public eye. Serious investors began adding cryptocurrencies to their portfolios and exploring how to capitalise on their crypto investments.

From an insignificant start, crypto growth has been outstanding. There are now over 5,000 listed cryptocurrencies. In 2020, the combined cryptocurrencies had a market capitalisation of 193 billion US dollars. But, by the end of January 2021, the market capitalisation for cryptocurrencies was over 1 trillion US dollars.

Over the past few years, there’s been a growing number of online crypto lending providers where you can make the most of your cryptocurrencies. Ledn is one example of a digital financial platform allowing you to maximise your Bitcoin holdings by expanding how you can use Bitcoin for profits.

If you are holding Bitcoin, you may want to know how to get the most out of it. In the past, the only way to profit from Bitcoin was to sell it at a higher price than you bought it.

With Ledn, you can now earn interest on your Bitcoin and even access a loan against your holdings. You can also create a passive income stream with your Bitcoin. And you can increase your portfolio by buying more crypto assets.

Adam Reeds and Mauricio Di Bartolomeo founded Ledn in August 2018. They set out to build a world-class financial product platform with industry-leading rates to help people save on digital assets.

Their headquarters are in Toronto, Canada. They provide a global service through Bitcoin and digital assets.

In this review, I provide an in-depth analysis of the financial products available with Ledn. I will discuss the process of setting up an account with the Ledn platform so that you can start making passive income from your Bitcoin holdings or borrowing against the Bitcoin you currently own.

Remember that I also interviewed Ledn’s co-founder Mauricio on my podcast Mastermind.fm, so do check out that episode if you want to learn more about Ledn.

Ledn Products

Ledn has three flagship products –

Bitcoin and USDC savings accounts
Bitcoin-backed dollar loans
Bitcoin balance doubling service (B2X)

I want to guide you through each of these carefully as it is very important to understand what each product consists of and where it can be most useful. We need to keep in mind that these are relatively new products in the finance space, and therefore utmost diligence is required before you use them.

I am personally very bullish on such services, but as with anything crypto, the first investment you should do is in your own education. That will prevent you from making bad decisions.

Without further ado, let’s dive in.

Bitcoin and USDC Savings Accounts

Interest with traditional banks for fiat currency is hardly worth considering. But, if you have Bitcoin holdings, Ledn offers high-interest savings accounts, which they can do through their collaboration with Genesis.

Genesis Capital offers high-level service to elite groups of institutions, offering the ability to buy large quantities of digital currencies such as Bitcoin and USDC.

In 2019, Genesis processed over $3.1 billion in digital asset loans and has the best processing standards for lending and reporting. Ledn savings accounts have such high interest because they lend Bitcoin to Genesis.

Interest on Bitcoin and USDC saving accounts is paid monthly by Ledn with compound interest.

The potential interest on a Ledn Bitcoin savings account could be as high as 6.25% APY (annual percentage yield) paid in Bitcoin.

For USDC savings accounts, the potential interest is 9.25% APY and paid in USDC.

Note that these rates can change at any point due to market conditions.

Ledn complies with high standards of consumer protection and privacy and, as such, is incorporated under Canadian Federal Laws. Ledn provides a purpose-built, highly-qualified platform for digital assets storage and has undoubtedly one of the most comprehensive insurance policies for the crypto industry.

Note: the Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation doesn’t cover USDC savings accounts. Nor are USDC savings accounts covered by any other deposit protection policies.

The Benefits of Bitcoin and USDC Savings Accounts

There is no minimum balance requirement, and your investment is not locked in, meaning you can withdraw your funds at any time. The beauty of this is the availability to all investors, not just those with significant capital investment.
Your savings aren’t affected by the traditional money market issues, such as market crashes etc.
You earn compound interest, meaning your savings account grows exponentially. Your compound interest payout is monthly.

Should you wish to send Bitcoin or USDC to another Ledn account, the transaction is free.

For the USDC savings account, there is a $10 USDC fee for withdrawals. There are no fees to use the Bitcoin savings account. When you withdraw, the transaction fee on the Bitcoin blockchain deducts automatically, and this is equivalent to the mining fee. Ledn does not charge any extra fees on withdrawals apart from the mining fee that applies to any BTC transaction. There is also a minimum withdrawal limit of 0.0005 BTC or $10 USDC.

Ledn savings accounts are available worldwide with the exception of a list of countries and a few US states. Refer to the Q&A section under the ‘Save’ menu for more details.

Bitcoin-Backed Dollar Loans

Bitcoin-backed loans facilitate liquidity for investors who are hodling (buy and hold) their assets. It’s an efficient and fast service to use your Bitcoin as collateral and receive dollars without selling your Bitcoin.

Loan terms are twelve months, but you can apply for an extension of the loan when the original loan term ends. The maximum LTV (maximum loan-to-value) ratio is 50%. So if you had $10,000 of Bitcoin as collateral for the loan, you could borrow up to $5,000.

On the Ledn website, you can access a Bitcoin-backed loan calculator. The minimum loan is $500.

You cannot pay off your Bitcoin-backed loan by instalments. When you pay the loan, you are required to pay the total amount owing. There are no penalties for early repayment.

There are multiple benefits to Bitcoin backed loans –

Your Bitcoin still belongs to you, and, as there is no sale, there are no taxable transactions. Most Bitcoin investors wish to hold long-term but want to access cash and build up their Bitcoin holdings. Once you pay the loan, your Bitcoin returns to you.
Your Bitcoin is safe. Ledn uses BitGo, the world’s first qualified, purpose-built custodian for storing digital assets. BitGo has one of the most comprehensive industry insurance policies and has recently been acquired by Galaxy Digital in the industry’s first $1bn+ acquisition.
Approval for Bitcoin-backed loans is fast, with funds available within 24 hours of approval from Ledn. There is no mandate for payment and no necessity for monthly installments. You can pay off your loan any time – with dollars or Bitcoin – without penalties.

How to Apply for a Bitcoin Backed Loan

It’s surprisingly simple to apply for a Bitcoin-backed loan. As you’d expect, you have to share your personal information to prove your identity. Ledn request the following four documents –

A copy of a government-issued document such as a driving licence or passport
An image of you holding the above
Proof of address, such as a recent utility bill
Your bank details

Subject to your documents being in order, the approval process is a matter of a few minutes.

What Happens if the Price of Bitcoin Drops?

Like all cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin is volatile. For instance, the Bitcoin price was $64k in May 2021 but promptly dropped to below $30k in less than a week. A similar drop occurred more recently, from $68k in November 2021 to $35k in January 2022.

Bitcoin is sensitive to media coverage by large investors.

Recently, the price of Bitcoin dropped 10% overnight, following a tweet by Elon Musk (owner of Tesla and a prominent investor of Bitcoin) regarding the energy-intensive resources of Bitcoin mining. He is concerned about the damage to the environment and consequently has removed Bitcoin payment options for vehicles until Bitcoin becomes less energy-dependant.

If a significant price drop like this occurs, Ledn asks you to add more collateral to your wallet or make an appropriate payment on the principal loan. If you fail to fulfil these requirements, Ledn has the right to sell part of your Bitcoin to meet the loan to value ratio levels. It’s similar to a margin call.

Therefore, before you consider a Bitcoin-backed loan, you must assess the risk for this potential scenario and have backup funds available if necessary.

If Bitcoin prices rise, you get to keep the gain in value, and the amount you owe for the loan does not change.

B2X: Bitcoin Balance Doubling Service

If you want to make the most from your Bitcoin, B2X is a Ledn service that allows you to increase your Bitcoin holdings through a Ledn Bitcoin-backed loan purchase and an equal purchase of Bitcoin.

The concept is simple. You apply for a dollar loan and then purchase Bitcoin equal to the value of your current holdings. The result is, you have twice as much Bitcoin and a Bitcoin-backed loan.

Who would Benefit from B2X?

If you believe in the value of Bitcoin increasing over the coming years, B2X doubles your exposure, potentially doubling your Bitcoin gains. If you already have a Ledn Bitcoin savings account, you can use funds from that. The process takes less than a minute.

You can check the B2X calculator on Ledn’s website. There doesn’t appear to be a minimum requirement for transfer, although a Bitcoin-backed loan requires a minimum of $500 of Bitcoin.

What are the Risks of B2X?

As you know, Bitcoin is volatile. If the price rises, your gains increase, doubling your Bitcoin. But, if the price of Bitcoin falls, you’re exposed to double the risk.

Should the latter happen, the procedure is the same as a regular Bitcoin-backed loan. You are required to add funds or pay off some of the principal of the loan. And, Ledn has the right to sell some of your Bitcoin holdings if you fail to take either of the above actions.

B2X is for the investor who is not risk-averse and has the capital to back up a shortfall in the price of Bitcoin if needed.

A few countries have B2X service-related restrictions. These details may be subject to change, but the current (February 2022) list is below.

Iran
Libya
North Korea
Syria
United States
Africa
Uruguay

The product is thus not available in those countries at the moment.

How to Register for B2X and Repayment Process

It’s easy to access B2X by simply opening an account with Ledn and verifying your user profile.

You can deposit any amount you wish into your Bitcoin savings account to use for your B2X loan. After making your deposit, go to the B2X products page to make your selections

Repayment of your B2X loan is hassle-free because you can repay the loan at any time you wish without penalties, but Ledn payment requirements are to pay the loan in full with one payment. In addition, interest accrues daily, so the quicker you pay off the B2X loan, the less interest you pay.

Proof-of-Reserves Standards

Before investing your Bitcoin in platforms like Ledn, the first question you should ask is if your investment will be safe. Ledn is the first to launch the Proof-of-Reserves standards initiated at the beginning of 2021.

Proof-of-Reserves allows Ledn to prove how much Bitcoin they could spend without exposing themselves to the risks of moving funds and without the need to generate a live transaction.

In short, Proof of Reserves means that Ledn is financially viable, with enough Bitcoin to support their platform.

Ledn assures their clients of Proof of Reserves Standards with their statement, “Ledn is the only digital asset lending company to have performed a Proof-of-Reserves attestation by an independent top-25 public accountant, Armanino LLP. As such, Ledn clients can take comfort that their bitcoin and USDC are being properly and accurately accounted for – to the satoshi, and to the cent, at all times.”

To check whether your Bitcoin assets are in the Proof of Reserves, log in to your Ledn account and look for the report’s details at the bottom of the page, where you will find a hashed ID and a link to Armanino LLP’s TrustExplorer website.

Enter your hashed ID to confirm your balance at the time of the Proof of Reserves attestation.

If you had assets on Ledn on 31^st January 2022, you were automatically included in the Proof of Reserves attestation.

Ledn plans to conduct independent Proof of Reserves attestations every six months. Ledn clients will receive timely notifications.

Ledn Customer Service

Customer service feedback and support is essential as a measurement of what you might expect as a client of Ledn.

I’m a happy user myself, and all my support interactions were pleasant and timely. To be fair, I haven’t needed much help as I’m used to such products. So let’s take a look at the next best thing to gauge customer service levels – TrustPilot.

Ledn opened a TrustPilot account in October 2020 and since then received 433 reviews.

Overall, the reviews for Ledn’s service and support is good. They currently have a TrustPilot score of 4.5-star compared to a score of 4-star in early 2021. Happy customers are delighted with their service and customer response. Notably, if a difficulty occurs, Ledn is quick to solve it, even if it’s a user error.

For instance, Ledn quickly resolved an account holder issue when a client couldn’t access his account. The client reported the efficiency and helpfulness of Ledn support staff.

Upon scanning through the negative reviews it seems that lately there have been a number of instances where clients claimed they have not received their referral bonus. I am not sure what happened in this case but I did notice that Ledn’s customer support followed up a number of these claims. In this regard I suggest that prior to giving a referral you double check on the terms of the referral program directly with Ledn.

Other customers who posted one-star reviews failed to grasp how Ledn works, such as thinking they were borrowing Bitcoin with a Bitcoin-backed loan. As a result, they were upset when they received dollars but admitted they hadn’t clarified the details before requesting the loan. This information is fully transparent to readers on the Ledn website. The latter negative reviews are unfair as they are due to user ineptitude rather than Ledn’s service.

I would recommend that Ledn’s customer service team keep tabs on their TrustPilot and respond to reviewers, especially those who had a perceived negative experience. This would enable other visitors to understand better what went wrong and be able to judge for themselves whether there is any valid concern with Ledn’s offering or not.

Is Ledn Secure?

Ledn is a security-centric platform, and they take the privacy of their clients seriously. They have two-factor login authentication and for specific actions on the platform when logged in.

The website has AES-256 website encryption. Ledn addresses all the layers that could possibly fall prey to security threats.

Ledn does not want to monetize client data. They offer a high level of client protection, so your data is not stored on Ledn local servers. Instead, your data is stored in private networks with strong security protocols.

What index does Ledn Use for Bitcoin Prices?

Ledn uses the Coindesk Bitcoin price index to determine loan-to-value ratios for Ledn loans. Therefore, before investing your Bitcoin with Ledn, you can check the current Bitcoin price with Coindesk.

How do I Open a Ledn Account?

Opening an account with Ledn is easy.

To register for a Ledn account, click on join at the top of the page and enter your first and last name, email address and phone number. You then have immediate access to your account.

From that point, once you choose the desired service, you will need to provide proof of identity with the documents detailed on how to apply for a Bitcoin-backed loan earlier in the article. In addition, you may also have to provide your date of birth.

Ledn Alternatives

Ledn is one of the best options for a Bitcoin-specific loan or savings account. They are committed to Bitcoin and do not offer other crypto offerings. While this can be a negative point to some, I appreciate the fact that they are not going after the shiny (but less secure) crypto flavors of the day and focusing on Bitcoin. This allows them to focus all their energies on securing one cryptocurrency, which makes sense to me.

For other cryptocurrencies, my favourite crypto lending platforms are YouHodler and BlockFi.

Similarly to Ledn, you can earn interest on your crypto holdings with a savings account with YouHodler or BlockFi, or use your crypto as collateral for a loan. Thus, if you are HODLing other cryptocurrencies, YouHodler and BlockFi are also excellent platforms for making the most of your crypto holdings and generating a passive income.

BlockFi is a more conservative platform than YouHodler when it comes to cryptos and services offered, and so I believe they are more of a direct competitor with Ledn. Check out my head-to-head review of the two services where I determine which one is best for what.

I believe that all top platforms end up specialising in certain products or services, and therefore it’s important to understand that it’s not a winner-takes-all situation but rather a case of choosing the right platform for your needs. I personally use both BlockFi and Ledn, for example. One straightforward reason for using Ledn over BlockFi that I could mention is that rates on Ledn for Bitcoin deposits are significantly higher than BlockFi’s if you are depositing bigger sums of BTC. So if you only hold Bitcoin and have significant sums, it pays to use Ledn instead of BlockFi.

Of course, you could also play the hedging game and decide to split your holdings between 2 or 3 platforms to protect against the unlikely case of one of these platforms having problems in the future.

Ledn Review – The Verdict?

Ledn is a robust and secure platform where you can maximise your Bitcoin holdings, earn more Bitcoin or secure a loan against your Bitcoin without selling it.

With crypto industry experts predicting that Bitcoin could one day hit $500,000 or more, a platform such as Ledn is a superb way to build your Bitcoin holdings from earning interest or doubling up your Bitcoin with the B2X.

Ledn’s fees are low, but their security is high, and they have insured custody from industry leader BitGo and the backing of Genesis Capital.

Ledn is one of the leading Bitcoin lending services available today. Regardless, when investing your assets with any third-party services, you should always perform due diligence and proceed with caution.

You can access Ledn services via the website or by downloading the Ledn app from the Google Play store or Apple’s App Store.

Whilst I have described every aspect of Ledn in this guide, always check the current details on the Ledn website.

Open a Ledn account

Please note that the above information is not providing advice on tax, investment, or financial services. I offer the above information without consideration for risk tolerance and a specific investor’s financial circumstances.

Trading or investing in Bitcoin may not be suitable for all investors. It does involve risk and the possibility of a loss of capital.

How to Evaluate NFT Projects – My Methodology

Last updated: March 20, 20224 Comments

how I evaluate NFT projects

It’s essential to research an NFT project properly before investing. In this article, I’ll share some of the things I consider before investing in any NFT project.

While it is possible to list and describe key indicators that you should look out for when doing your research, I will also add that experience is also a key factor in my opinion.

After you spend a few months living and breathing NFTs on a daily basis and spending hours of focused learning, talking to project founders, and investing in different projects, you will most likely develop a kind of sixth sense for things. You will also probably make a lot of mistakes, but this is an essential part of the journey.

A quick look at most new projects will give me a gut feeling that almost always turns out to be correct. A word of warning, though. Being right about a project’s value in an objective way does not mean you’ll be right about the direction the floor price will take.

The floor prices you see for NFT projects, in general, are hard to fathom for most non-participants in the space, but even once you do understand the value proposition behind NFTs, you will struggle to understand why certain projects rise to dizzy heights when your objective analysis points to the other way. Conversely, you will see extremely interesting projects flounder price-wise.

So there’s definitely an element of luck involved, and perhaps it could be said that hype trumps any other indicator to a project’s success, but it really is extremely hard or impossible to predict the floor price trajectory in my experience.

Read more: The best NFT trading tools

The only way to counteract this fact is to be invested in several projects. That will help you to stay invested in good projects whose prices take a long time to take off (PunkScapes and Party Degenerates are good examples in my case), while you can enjoy the profits and success from others (Doodles would be my best example).

This will also give you the ability to let go of projects that really go nowhere or end up being a rug pull. Being well-diversified helps you to avoid being too hard on yourself and just write off these problematic projects, knowing that some of your other bets will cover those losses.

With that said, let’s proceed with the top key indicators that I use to evaluate NFT projects.

What is the Project About?

What’s the product being sold? Is it an art NFT? A crypto gaming play? A metaverse project? Or even music NFT? Is the token really the end product or is it just the ticket to access the actual product, maybe a community or software? There are many different use cases for NFTs, and you need to be clear about what the product is.

Originality is also extremely important. There are a million copycats for every successful project, so make sure you don’t invest in one of those copycats, as they usually go to zero after a few days of hype, if they even manage to gather that initial traction. Unfortunately, lots of people who for some reason or another miss out on minting the successful project think they can get some exposure by buying the copycat since it is cheaper and more accessible, however, 99% of the time that doesn’t work out.

While early NFTs were mostly PFP experiments, and also generative art, in 2022 the focus seems to be shifting heavily towards extra utility, community access, real-life perks, and metaverse gaming.

Typically, you will want to own an NFT for any of the following reasons:

access to a strong network e.g. punks, apes
status symbol (any blue-chip PFP or gen art project)
early access to other NFTs through whitelist collabs
access to future cashflow/airdrop e.g. apecoin from BAYC

Look for projects that disrupt the norm in some way. Some might be too early (for example banner NFTs in 2021) but others will hit at the right time, disrupt the market and be your runaway winners.

Do I Like and Understand the Product?

If it’s artwork, as in the case of generative art, or PFP projects, does it look good to me? This is subjective, but I think I’ve developed good taste over the years, and more importantly, a good idea of what resonates with NFT investors.

Red flags here would be using copyrighted works, or derivatives of other projects when the original project’s license explicitly prohibits this.

If it’s something else beyond artwork, I ask myself whether I understand the niche enough. If I don’t, that’s a show stopper for me, unless I make the decision to spend significant time understanding the niche first. For example, generative music and crypto gaming are not really my favorite areas, so I avoid buying NFTs that fall in those niches as I can’t value them in any credible manner and thus justify an investment.

I’ll also note that one of the good things about NFTs is that they’ve led me to explore many emerging niches that I was either unaware of or that I hadn’t given serious time to. So I might sometimes make an investment in a new niche for me as a kind of carrot to get me interested and informed through the project and its community.

Team

Having a great founding team is very important for the project.

Sometimes the founders are famous, but this is not a requirement. If they don’t have a big following, however, they need to make up for it with some other relevant background and a ton of work prior to launch.

Is the team doxxed? Meaning do we know their names, work experience, ages, location etc? There’s a lot of fanfare about being anonymous in Web3, but to me, it’s still a significant downside. It’s not a deal-breaker, but I definitely prefer a doxxed team.

Ideally, I want to be able to judge the team properly and have a look at their track record, including a check on their ethics, as it ends up being one of the crucial elements to a project’s success.

Roadmap

Some of us who have been around for a few years remember the ICO days were every company was promising the most outrageous stuff but then so few ever delivered. It’s always important to look beyond a project’s artwork and learn about what they actually plan to do with the money they raise from selling the tokens.

I like original roadmaps; projects that are trying to do something different, but also very realistic. Tying in with the previous point about the team, I want to make sure that the team has the credentials to actually deliver on what they’re promising in the roadmap.

Roadmaps can change and frequently do once a project launches, but it’s important to see what the initial idea is, because it gives me an idea of what the founding team’s intentions are and what they are capable of dreaming up.

Community

When you buy into an NFT project, you are placing a bet on the community and the team. This is why it’s critical to spend some time in an NFT project’s Discord before making purchasing decisions.

Discord channels are usually open at least a few weeks before minting begins, so even for new projects, you can get a feel of things. For well-established projects, it is very easy to understand what kinds of people are active in the community and if the project has any serious future plans to add more value.

If I see inflated Discord and Twitter numbers my alarms start sounding, so if I confirm that they’ve used bots to inflate the numbers, I’m out.

If, on the other hand, I encounter real people and high engagement, with an interesting mix of intelligent themes being discussed, that’s a positive sign.

Mint Price

It is important to know what the mint price is and what gas fees were like at minting, because this is one of the most important aspects for determining the floor price in the early days.

As I mentioned in my post about NFT analytics tools, you can use Etherscan to verify the mint price and average gas fees paid by minters.

Over time this ceases to be an important factor, but if you’re buying off the secondary market in the first few days or weeks after product launch, you should have a good idea of this price that people paid when minting in order to assess what kinds of returns they are seeking and how much of a quick flip the project is versus a long-term hold.

If you’re minting, you should understand where the mint price falls on the spectrum. There’s a wide range of minting prices, depending on the type of project in question, but a mint price that is too high might mean that the team is more focused on the initial sale rather than the long-term vision.

Royalty Percentage

Royalty percentages can also vary quite a bit, but at the end of the day you might end up paying 10% or more on every secondary market sale between royalties and platform commission.

OpenSea charges 2.5% on every sale, while project royalties tend to range between 2.5% and 10%. Keep it in mind when trading NFTs, as you might end up losing money when you factor in the royalties, platform commission and Ethereum fees, even if you are selling at a higher price than what you had bought at.

Current Floor Price

If I’m not buying at mint or shortly after, then I want to make sure that I look at how the price has evolved over time. I avoid buying when a project is pumping. It’s very tempting to buy when a project is experiencing a big moment, but it’s best to practice restraint. There will be multiple entry points over the life of a project, and if not, there are many other projects at different stages of their lifecycle that you can focus on.

The best timing is when/if you manage to find a period of suppressed floor prices combined with an upcoming release or announcement of a new game-changing utility. These events are usually priced in by the time they’re announced, so in order to anticipate them, you need to put in the work of being in the Discord, talking to the founders, proposing new ideas etc. It’s not easy or even always possible, but that’s the ideal scenario.

Artificial floor price maintenance by the founding team is usually a red flag. Some project founders regularly sweep the floor in order to maintain or achieve the desired floor price. Even worse is the shaming of Discord members who list their tokens, or any other artificial incentive that is encouraging holders to delist their tokens from secondary markets

Holder Distribution

You can see a list of holders for any ERC-721 NFT project by looking at the contract in Etherscan, and clicking on the “Holders” tab.

There are several tools that will also give you this information, for example, Dune, Nansen and ICY Tools. It’s best if you don’t see too many tokens in any one wallet, as top holders will eventually exit or sell off many tokens (typically at the first floor price pump) and affect prices and confidence.

Keep in mind that the same person or fund might have used several wallets during the buying process, so this metric can be inaccurate or purposefully gamed.

The best projects tend to have a 2:1 ratio. So for example, if it’s a 10k collection, you’d want to see number of holders being in the 5000-6000 range.

Whale Watching

NFT projects will usually start off with a few whales taking strong positions, tying into the previous point. In the early days, it is important to not only watch the distribution but also the actions of these whales.

If they start dumping and listing many of their tokens at the floor or even lower, things are looking grim (at least short-term) for the price of that project. What they are signifying is that they are only in the project for some quick flipping profits, or that they lost confidence in the team somewhere along the way.

Since whales hold a lot of tokens and have tied up a lot of their ETH in those tokens, they are incentivized to dump at the slightest inkling of a project turning sour, else they are risking losing all their money. Again, tools are your best friend for analyzing this action.

On the other hand, if you see that whales are delisting their tokens or listing them at high prices, that is a positive sign that shows that they are in it for the long run and have no anxiety to sell.

Who is Promoting the Project?

I always look for how many artists are promoting/mentioning the project. Whales and influencers are also good to have behind a project, however, you should keep in mind that these are typically in projects to turn a profit and seldom have diamond hands.

If you follow some of the best NFT experts (not the typical influencers who only hype projects in exchange for money or tokens) a quick metric I use when looking at new projects is to see how many of the people I respect have followed the project I’m looking at. If I see several following, and even better, tweeting intelligently about them, I take it as a good sign.

Is the team sending free NFTs to influencers and celebrities? Are they paying people to advertise it? This is not necessarily a bad thing, but can indicate using marketing as a crutch rather than being supported with a strong team, community, and roadmap.

As I mentioned earlier, if a new project has an unusually large amount of followers on Twitter or members on Discord, that could be a red flag, especially if they got those followers in a very short time or they’re specifically using those numbers as part of their hype strategy.

Liquidity

Some projects, especially the generative art ones (for example some Art Blocks collections) shoot up to very high prices but are extremely illiquid.

It is quite normal to see no sales at all happening in certain months, with the most liquid months having a few sales at best. These are dangerous territories unless you are both super-rich and want to hold on to that artwork for life.

Rarity Mechanism

I keep a very close eye on how rarity influences the value of each token. However, not all NFTs are very dependent on rarity. For example, HeadDAO tokens theoretically are all worth the same, as they only exist to give you a stake in the DAO. In fact, the artwork is not original, it just reuses the Nouns artwork as it is open source.

If rarity is indeed an important factor, then it becomes one of my major reasons for buying one token over another. On launch/reveal I use tools like Trait Sniper to understand the value of the tokens I own (in the case that I had minted some) and also to snipe underpriced ones.

When sniping, I tend to pick up ones with relatively high rarity but close to the floor, and I also monitor the top 200 to find ones where I really love the art and where the token also looks underpriced. In these cases, I would be ready to hold long-term since I’d really love the art and would use it as a PFP or hang it in my house.

For a new collection, it is generally advisable to favor liquidity, thus buying and flipping (if that’s your thing) items at the floor. This has proven to be more profitable than acquiring rare items and hoping that someone comes along with sufficient wealth who really likes your particular token and wants to buy it at a high price.

Some people base their trades on trait floors, but from my conversations thus far it seems that it is easier to turn a profit around trading near the collection’s overall floor.

If I have the liquidity, all other factors excluded, I will try to go for the very top in rarity, meaning the uniques (most projects have a few of these). I usually plan to use them as PFPs or hold onto them for a long time unless an incredible offer comes along. Then I would also buy a few common but good-looking ones that I can resell on the way up.

If there’s a project I really want to get into but have limited liquidity, I prefer to get a couple of floor tokens rather than one premium one.

How’s the Overall Crypto Market Doing?

At the end of the day, most participants in the NFT space are there to make more money, and by this, we mean more ETH, which is the currency most commonly used to purchase NFTs.

History shows that when ETH is steadily climbing and/or other altcoins are pumping, NFT activity plummets. The reasons are twofold.

Because a lot of altcoin trading happens on DEXes, this drives up the gas fees on Ethereum. With ETH 1.0 we are seeing that there are a lot of scalability issues, so when some application heats up, gas fees go through the roof. This makes the trading of NFTs prohibitively expensive, and thus eliminates a big chunk of potential market participants.

It’s particularly rough on new projects, as the minting process typically results in higher fees being paid for gas than for the NFT itself. Most projects actually delay their launch when gas prices are especially high, but a launch can’t be delayed more than a few days without losing a lot of momentum and reputation.

Secondly, if altcoins are pumping, traders are likely to be looking at moving their ETH (seen as a low-risk and stable store of value) into riskier coins and ride the wave to ultimately move back to ETH but end up with more of it. Thus, altcoins are a more attractive trade than NFTs in those situations. Gas fees on crypto trades are also lower than minting or trading NFTs (the latter also usually involves a royalty to the creator and a fee to the marketplace).

Moreover, those who are just passively holding ETH see that their investment is growing in fiat-terms and thus feel happy and have no real anxiety to pursue riskier investments in a bid to grow their wealth in fiat-terms.

What Values Does the Collection Champion?

I left this for last as it’s a personal criterium of mine that is not really necessary for you to be successful (read: make money) with NFTs.

There are a lot of evil-looking artwork projects that I don’t see myself ever owning. Jungle Freaks would be one example. I love to involve both my wife and son in my purchase decisions, but I love to especially explain to my son what I’m doing and to get his input on the looks of one NFT over another. I like to print my favorite NFTs and display them around the house too, and with two very young kids around, you don’t want anything scary on your walls.

Scariness aside, some projects are just much more family-friendly than others.

Doodles just give off a very positive vibe and have some lovely animations planned.

Robotos frequently has art competitions and provides downloadable coloring sheets, which my son loves to color up and eventually see me hang them in my office.

Kumo’s World features a storybook in its roadmap.

Cosmic Cowgirls has a strong focus on empowering women within the NFT space, which I think is a good aim (although it can’t be the only aim of the project), and Curious Addys not only tries to help women break into the space but actually is built for the sole purpose of helping onboard more people into NFTs and crypto in general.

The PunkScapes community is incredibly humble and helpful, and there are constant initiatives to reward members for their participation.

All these features or goals feel wholesome to me and make me want to be part of each of these projects’ communities.

Conclusions

The above are the key indicators that I keep in mind for every NFT project I invest in. Over time, I’ve learned to make this analysis intuitively and I can rapidly conclude whether a project is right for me or not. Note the key point here – a project can be a top project, but unless I have the confidence in my ability to understand all its facets then my strategy is to sit it out.

Given that I make a significant investment into every project I get into, making several purchases, I don’t want to gamble and instead want to be able to be in a position where even if the project fails after some time, I can look myself in the mirror and honestly say that I did my research and the failure was beyond my control, or at least not something I could anticipate with the knowledge I had at the time.

What I don’t want is to find myself ruing the fact that I threw good money after some hyped project that I didn’t research properly myself. That’s just a recipe for regret, and I want to minimize those feelings as much as possible.

The best way to gain an edge in NFT investing is to actually put in the work and digest a ton of information, be humble and learn from your mistakes and others’ success, and manage your own emotions.

As for prices, remember that in this space, the main currency is attention. If a project can generate attention, it will be able to sustain a healthy volume (many transactions per day) and over time more people will want to own that NFT, hence the supply will be squeezed (demand > supply) and the price will rise. This is the hard truth of the NFT space currently works. Whatever opinions you have of a project or the space in general at any point, make sure you never forget this rule.

Do you agree with my key indicators for evaluating NFT projects? Let me know in the comments section below.

Is Stock Picking Right for You? – My Favorite Stocks

Published: January 19, 20222 Comments

For most people, it is a better idea to just own a general stock market index. However, I like taking risks and love learning about companies and taking bets on their futures, so picking stocks suits my profile better.

On the other hand, I do use stock market index funds instead of keeping my money in the bank. Granted, that is also a risky strategy for most people, but I’m aware of the implications and am comfortable with the choice.

Buy stocks on DEGIRO

The way I look at the markets, I see 5 categories of stocks:

1. Growth Stocks

These are my favorite kind of stock. That doesn’t mean they’re the best or the right choice for you. I have a very high risk tolerance and love the feeling of ambitious growth, and these companies tick those check boxes for me. These are companies that reinvest all of their earnings into themselves to facilitate the growth of short/long term internal projects or acquisitions.

The best examples are classic tech stocks (also an area in which I have direct expertise), but with time, pretty much every company is becoming a tech company. What I mean by that is that if you look carefully at how companies operate, you will find that most companies already have their main asset and moat lying in the technology they’ve developed to help run their business, even though the end product or service might not be a highly technological one.

Examples: Shopify, Zoom, Facebook, Netflix

2. Cyclical Companies

These are stocks that are highly correlated with the overall state of the economy, because they provide services and goods that are elastic, meaning that people buy more of them when things are good and less when times are tough. Interestingly, over the COVID-19 lockdown period, we’ve seen some of these companies, especially those related to logistics and shipping) move inversely to the prevailing economic climate. Danaos was one such stock.

Apart from a few specific plays that I’ve made, like Danaos at the start of the lockdowns, I generally avoid these stocks.

Examples: Cruise liner stocks, airline stocks

3. Blue Chip Companies

Blue chips have been around for a long time, typically 25 years plus, have stable earnings and probably also have a stable to slowly rising dividend. with excellent reputations who have been around for a long time, have stable earnings and typically pay out dividends to investors.

They’re great if your goal is to achieve passive income to either supplement your salary, or to retire completely from your day job. You’ll find many blogs online about these kinds of companies. Just search for “dividend investor” and similar keywords. They’re probably the favorite investment of those who are enamored with the FIRE Movement.

Blue chip companies are not a personal favorite of mine, at least not for the time being. However, I think they’re a great option when you’ve reached your net worth target and want to derisk and live off your wealth.

Examples: IBM, Coca-Cola, 3M

4. Speculative Stocks

These are also favorites of mine. Such companies are characterized by having large potential upsides but also downsides. They are companies whose stock price tends to be extremely volatile and they will add definitely add extra risk to your portfolio.

I would only recommend investing in these types of companies if you are comfortable taking risks, have taken precautionary measures to protect your family’s wealth, and you don’t mind following the companies and their stock prices closely, in order to sell if the stock price pumps beyond your target price (I wouldn’t set limit sell orders as you might end up selling too early). I also think that you need to understand what the company does at a deep level in order to have any real conviction about the future of the company or the sector, else you’re just gambling away your money.

Examples: Mobility stocks like Tesla, Nio, Blade, biotech like CRISPR, and crypto plays like Microstrategy, Hut 8 Mining, Riot Blockchain.

5. Defensive Stocks

Defensive stocks are stocks of companies that have a solid reputation, have existed for many years, and provide non-cyclical products or services that people not only want but need. Thus they can be considered to be mostly impervious to the ups and downs of the market cycle.

I like having a few of these stocks sprinkled in my portfolio, and as my total stock valuation grows I expect that I will buy more of these and less growth or speculative stocks.

Examples: Walmart, McDonald’s, AT&T, Verizon, Proctor & Gamble

My Favorite Stocks

Now let’s move on to my favorite stocks, most of which are to be found in my portfolio. Note that I have many stocks that I like and follow, and will continue adding to this list, but I decided to publish the article rather leave it pending.

As I mentioned while describing the different kinds of categories of stocks, my favorites at the moment are growth and speculative stocks. You’ll see that most of my portfolio consists of these stocks, and most of them are tech-related, as that’s my area of expertise.

This is by no means a guide to what you should invest in, and I am sure there are a million arguments against my choices, but this is what works for me. When investing in any asset class, my strategy is to invest in businesses or assets that I like, because that is the only way to get myself interested in learning about them and provide enough enjoyment to invest on a long-term basis.

While my stock category preferences and individual sticks might not be a good fit for you, I really recommend taking the time to think about what excites you and whether you even want to be hands-on at all with your stock investments. If you have zero interest in stock picking and monitoring, you might be better off just picking an index fund and letting the market do its magic over time.

I will try to update this section at least once a year so you’ll have an idea of what I currently hold. I do move my allocations around and can sometimes exit a company altogether, sometimes for good, and sometimes temporarily when I consider that funds are better allocated elsewhere for a certain time period.

Activision Inc. (pending acquisition by Microsoft)

Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) is a video games company. They have a large portfolio of successful games, including Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Diablo and Overwatch.

The company has been regularly issuing dividends over the past years. The yield is below 1%, however, there have been raises announced and the company has a growing cash pile ($5.9 billion as at end of Q1 2021).

Alibaba Group

Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) is China’s largest e-commerce company and the top cloud-infrastructure service provider. It’s basically the Amazon of China. The group comprises several big names in the Chinese market, including Aliexpress, which is probably the most known e-commerce brand in the West.

The Alibaba stock tumbled in late 2020 and 2021 due to regulatory headwinds and fines decreasing investors’ confidence in the company. However long-term prospects are good as the company continues to expand its reach in different market sectors. The big risks are the US-China tensions as well as the regulatory risks in both the US and China for this company.

An alternative stock could be Baozun which is less subject to regulator scrutiny due to the nature of its business, or even Baidu, which can be thought of as the Google of China. More Chinese stock ideas can be found here, and you can also buy the EMQQ index ETF that includes not only many of the best Chinese tech companies but also those of other emerging markets.

Alphabet Inc.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is an American multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mountain View, California. It was created through a restructuring of Google on October 2, 2015, and became the parent company of Google and several former Google subsidiaries. The two co-founders of Google (Sergey Brin and Larry Page) remained as controlling shareholders, board members, and employees at Alphabet. Alphabet is the world’s fourth-largest technology company by revenue and one of the world’s most valuable companies.

The main subsidiary holding is Google, but there are other notable companies in the group including YouTube, DoubleClick, Waze, Fitbit and Nest.

In 2021 they posted excellent results with a huge increase in revenue compared to the previous year. This is one of those stocks that I plan to continue piling cash into on a long-term basis as it has all the characteristics of a solid company with significant moats and a great leadership team.

Apart from being a solid financial bet, I also like this stock as Alphabet owns several companies that are a bet on the future. I’m the kind of person who is more likely to stay interested in something if I’ve got real money invested in it. So if you want to keep updated on what’s coming next, owning Alphabet gives you an extra incentive to stay informed. For example, one of the companies under Alphabet is Calico, which does a lot of research that aims to solve aging. That’s something that I think a lot about and a topic that I’m extremely interested in, so I love the fact that I can own a part of this company through my Alphabet holding

There can also be an argument made that owning Alphabet can be a good entry into startup investing. This is due to the fact that Alphabet also features two companies that focus on startups: GV and Google Capital.

GV is Alphabet’s early-stage venture arm. Formerly known as Google Ventures, GV has more than $4.5 billion under management and has invested in more than 400 companies, including Uber, Lime, and Slack.

Google Capital — now known as CapitalG — is Alphabet’s growth equity investment fund. Its mission is purely financial returns, but unlike GV, CapitalG focuses on later-stage startups. Some of its investments include Airbnb, Glassdoor, and Thumbtack.

As a potential risk for this stock, you should look at the lawsuits that the company keeps getting hit with, mostly concerning anti-competitive practices. On the other hand, the company has a huge cash hoard and its core businesses have a sustainable future ahead with lots more growth potential.

Amazon.com Inc.

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is another stock that I plan to continue investing in regularly over the next months and years. I think founder Jeff Bezos is an exceptional entrepreneur and leader and I am a big user of Amazon’s services myself since the early days. This means that I have become really familiar with its products and services over the years.

Amazon also has several branches like AWS and Whole Foods, apart from the Amazon.com online retailer site we all use. Like Alphabet, this is a stock that I consider a blue-chip stock that I can keep investing in every few months whenever I have any spare cash, without needing to do a ton of research before I put in the money.

Apple Inc.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is another stock where I’m a big fan of the company’s products and services, and while it feels more restricted in terms of its range of business when compared to Alphabet and Amazon, I also feel very comfortable DCAing into it over time.

Blade Air Mobility

Now here’s an interesting one. Blade (NASDAQ:BLDE) is one of my big bets for the future. Blade offers air transport, currently using helicopters, from the city centers to the airports of major American cities. There is lots of growth potential with this company, although a substantial risk too as it’s a novel concept that has also been hurt by the pandemic’s effect on travel. I acquired this stock while it was underperforming the S&P 500 index, but as I said I’m quite bullish on its growth prospects.

The company’s CEO, Rob Wiesenthal, has loads of experience. Until June 2012, Wiesenthal was Executive Vice president and Chief Financial Officer of Sony Corporation of America, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer, Sony Entertainment Inc., and Group Executive, Sony Corporation, leading corporate development, and mergers and acquisitions. From 2012 to June 2015, he was Chief Operating Officer of Warner Music Group. Read more about the company on the Blade Air Mobility website.

Coinbase Global

The Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) IPO was one of the most anticipated IPOs of 2021, but it ended up being a flop, as the price tanked soon after the IPO, probably due to unfortunate market timing (the Bitcoin price suffered a huge dip soon after the IPO). Nevertheless, I strongly believe that this company has a great future ahead. It’s been one of the early pioneers in the crypto space, building an exchange that was and is friendly with regulators. While other exchanges have chosen to operate on the edge of legality or to seek lax jurisdictions, Coinbase operated from the US and was happy to comply with all the required regulations, while also being cautious about which coins to list.

Over the years it has also diversified its services, and while most of the revenue still accrues from retail trading activity on the exchange, services like custody will probably play a bigger part in the future, especially since institutions feel comfortable about working with Coinbase, given its sterling reputation in the space.

ConocoPhilips

ConocoPhilips (NYSE:COP) is an energy play, specifically in the oil sector. I bought it following the dip due to COVID, with the idea that demand would return, production would resume and oil prices would re-stabilize, which is what eventually happened. I love to spot opportunities like these where temporary situations in the market hammer a company’s prices, because it’s usually an easy win if I’m able to wait a year or two. It has a huge cash position and will be distributing this back to shareholders through share buybacks and dividend distributions. Longer-term I see this being a cash cow for many years.

CRISPR Therapeutics

Headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP) is a long-term play in the gene-editing therapy niche. This company is one of the pioneers of gene editing. Gene-based medicine is one of the big life improvements that I look forward to in the next decades, but these are still early days. Therefore I’m not counting on this company for stable returns in the coming years, but only use it in order to diversify my portfolio and because I am interested in the technology and its applications, hence owning a stock will increase my incentive to keep tabs on what’s happening in the space.

Danaos Corp.

Danaos (NYSE:DAC) has been one my best-performing stock picks so far, although it came as a surprise. I didn’t expect it to perform as well as it did. Based in Greece, the Company is an international owner of containerships, chartering its vessels to many of the worlds liner companies. This purchase was one that was clearly driven by the COVID issues in the supply chain. It was a bit of a wild bet but it certainly paid off so far.

Enbridge Inc.

Enbridge (TSX:ENB)(NYSE:ENB), in my opinion, is a great income and growth stock and I consider it to be a long-term investment that is on the safer side.

Enbridge hauls a quarter of all crude destined to the U.S. market, as well as one-fifth of the natural gas consumed by the U.S. market.

The company issues a nice quarterly dividend, has growth potential both in its core competency of energy pipelines as well as renewable energy.

In recent years, Enbridge has invested heavily in renewables, making it a significant player in this new market as well, where growth is to be expected.

Certainly, for those who are excited by yield-generating investments, Enbridge woul be a top pick.

Fastly

Fastly (NYSE:FSLY) is an edge computing and CDN provider. It has been a losing bet for me so far, since it lost most of its price momentum and went on a downward spiral this year. However, I remain bullish on the company. It’s clearly a growth stock that has performed better in the past thus driving up the price, while now the prospects don’t seem as hot anywhere, but it’s still a growing market and Fastly is a good company in terms of management and services offered.

Fidelity National Financial

Fidelity (NYSE:FNF) is an insurance provider in the US. It is actually one of the biggest companies in the housing market but it is overlooked by many inestors. This creates an opportunity as Fidelity is involved in nearly one-third of all home purchases and refinances in the United States. As the housing market is expected to remain hot for quite a while, Fidelity National Financial should continue to see large growth in its business. While the stock has outperformed the broader market over the past year, it still trades near its steepest discount in years, so I will probably hold this for a while.

Galaxy Digital

Galaxy Digital (TSX:GLXY), spearheaded by the charismatic Mike Novogratz, is the type of company I like. It’s involved in several aspects of cutting-edge technology, mostly in the crypto space. Galaxy Digital is a merchant bank that offers multiple cryptocurrency-focused services for institutional investors. The firm recently bought crypto custodian BitGo (another company I followed closely) for a whopping $1.2 billion.

Galaxy’s platform includes principal investing, asset management, trading, advisory services, and bitcoin mining. Galaxy has also partnered with Morgan Stanley and is in the process of getting listed on a US exchange. I’m very bullish about this company along with the crypto space in general.

Roblox

Roblox (NYSE:RBLX) is a company that sits at the intersection of gaming and the creator economy. This is a new and novel way of creating games at its core. While traditional computer games can take years and millions of dollars to produce, Roblox is allowing its own players to craft the game. Almost all of Roblox’s games come from its 8M creators.

There are two main elements that make up the Roblox experience:

A game engine called Roblox Studio used by creators and developers to create games, social experiences and customization items.
A game client and an app store called Roblox Client used by players to manage their friends’ relationships, customize their avatar and access an apps store to pick the next game they want to play.

It’s not a new company, having been founded in 2004 and launched the first version of the game on PC in late 2006. However, it has achieved a big yearly rise in popularity since 2016.

Nowadays it has 43M daily active players, half of which are under 12 years old (interestingly, almost with a 50/50 split in genders). These kids are hanging out with their friends in Roblox instead of on social media. While you might be concerned about these kids and think that maybe they would be better off socializing in the real world, I’d argue that socializing within a game is better than on social media anyway.

Here are the top 10 savings wish lists for American kids:

Lego
Phones
Fortnite
Roblox
Nintendo Switch
PlayStation
Dolls
Xbox
Computer
Bike

I think that list is enough evidence that gaming is huge and therefore I definitely want to make some heavy investments in the gaming space. Gaming has several sub-niches, with the metaverse being probably the newest.

Roblox is definitely a metaverse play for me, as I’m very bullish on metaverses within the next decades. Roblox is in a great position to be one of the first big players in this space. The fact that this company has been building its product for 17 years is a very important thing for me, since the dawn of a new niche in the economy is always filled with lots of hype and projects that never go anywhere. Roblox has what it takes to go all the way.

Zillow

Zillow (NASDAQ:ZG)(NASDAQ:Z) is a group of nine brands that cover almost every aspect of buying and selling houses.

I love how open the property market is in the USA, and Zillow is a prime example of how easier it is to do real estate transactions in the US compared to Europe, for example.

Selling a house to Zillow is pretty simple. Any willing party can jump on the website, type in their address, answer a few questions, and within days receive a “Zestimate.” If it’s satisfactory, the company conducts a free in-person evaluation, and if both parties agree, it will make a cash payment to close the deal.

That to me sounds like a huge saving in stress and bureaucracy. The overall ibuying trend has proven to be on a growth curve as well, so prospects for Zillow look good.

The stock has been punished in 2021 but long-term prospects remain good. While in the past the company has not been profitable as it focused on growth, this year we might see some profits. I’m happy to take a wait and see approach on this stock and remain confident for the coming years.

Zoom Video Communications

Zoom (NASDAQ:ZM) became a household name in 2020 during the pandemic, as education and workplace meetings moved online, relying on Zoom and similar tools.

However, I only invested once the pandemic was well underway, and ended up making some big losses after the stock tanked.

Growth for Zoom is slowing, and that is the major reason why the stock price has tanked, even though the company posted good profits.

I’m not sure about the stock’s future prospects to be honest. Maybe Zoom will get acquired by one of the big tech names like Facebook or Microsoft, or maybe it will find ways to continue growing spending among existing customers.

Other Favorite Stocks

I’ll list more favorites here and write about them in more depth when I have time:

Block – payments and crypto rails
Duolingo – language learning
Hut 8 Mining Corporation – Bitcoin mining
Interactive Brokers – stock broker
JD.com Inc. – eCommerce
Marathon Digital – Bitcoin mining
Mastercard Inc. – payment technology
Mazda Motor Corporation – motor vehicles
Mercadolibre Inc. – eCommerce in latin america
Meta Platforms Inc. – aka Facebook
Microsoft Corp. – software
National Atomic – uranium producer
Netflix – home entertainment
Nike – sportswear
Nio – electric vehicles
Nvidia – graphics cards
Organon – women’s health
Pinterest – social media
Riot Blockchain – Bitcoin mining
Robinhood Markets – stock broker
Shopify Inc. – eCommerce platform
Silvergate Capital – bank
Snowflake Inc – cloud computing
SoFi Technologies – financial services
Squarespace Inc. – web publishing
Taiwan Semiconductor – chip maker
Teladoc Health Inc. – virtual healthcare
Tesla Inc. – electric vehicles
Unity Software – gaming
Visa Inc. – payment technology
Walmart Inc. – retail
Wix.com – web publishing

Let me know your thoughts on whether I’m missing out on your favorite stocks or whether you disagree with my picks. All comments welcome.

The Best NFT Trading & Analytics Tools in 2022

Last updated: March 23, 202211 Comments

As the world of games/entertainment/fun and money continue to merge, NFTs are possibly the most accessible way for the average person to participate in the crypto space, enjoy themselves, and make money.

However, make no mistake, the NFT traders who consistently make profits are doing it on a professional level. They have a lot of knowledge on how NFTs work and what drives their value, and most importantly, they have the right tools at their disposal.

I’ve spent more than $500,000 on NFT projects over the past year, and have spent countless hours analyzing projects and trying out various tools to try and gain an edge in the market.

In this article, I’ll focus on NFT trading and analytics tools and why you need to use them if you hope to make money as an NFT trader.

Luckily, since all data related to NFT transactions is publicly available on the blockchain, we can have a very accurate picture of market conditions, provided we are using the right tools and we know what to look for. In that sense, the NFT market is very transparent and doesn’t give anyone a significant advantage when compared to the rest of the players.

As for tools, you’ll find a good mix of free and premium tools. I would recommend you pay for the tools you need, they usually more than pay for themselves within a few days if you’re an active trader. Even if you aren’t active on a daily basis, they will help you avoid costly mistakes and help you do enough research so as to allow you to invest in a project from a very informed position.

Remember that before you dive into the specialized tools I mentioned in this post, you should really be following conversations on Twitter, Discord, and YouTube, where most NFT platforms and enthusiasts spend their time. Oftentimes spending time on these platforms is what enables you to reach conviction about a project. Then you can follow that up with the tools to find the right tokens at the right time.

Read more about how to evaluate an NFT project, I share all the key indicators I use in that post.

Token Trackers

Token trackers are the most direct window into a blockchain and all the token transactions that are happening in real-time, as well as all historical transactions that have ever been done. As the blockchain is open, you can look up any transaction or address and view all the details about it. Token trackers also give us the ability to read smart contracts, which is important if you want to audit a contract before interacting with it, or if you simply want to take a look under the hood and check a few important parameters about a project.

Etherscan

Etherscan is perhaps the most technical tool in this list. It’s a block explorer at its essence, allowing you to view the details of any transaction that goes onto the Ethereum blockchain in real-time. It also offers a token tracker for any Ethereum based tokens, and it provides access to all ERC-721 token (the non-fungible token standard) contracts.

The latter is useful, for example, if you want to mint NFTs directly from a project’s contract. I’ve sometimes gone down this route and many advanced NFT traders prefer to mint this way as they can verify that the contract is the right one, and fees might also differ slightly.

I highly suggest you learn how to read a smart contract if you’re going to be getting serious about NFTs. I discuss smart contracts and other technical details of NFTs in my podcast episode with Jalil from PunkScape.

How to read a smart contract—and why you’d want to in the first place. 🧵

— cantino.eth (@chriscantino) January 9, 2022

One frequent use case for Etherscan for me is to check the gas fees paid by myself or other NFT buyers. The amount of these fees can really make a dent in the potential profitability of any flips, and you should really learn how to control gas fees parameters in MetaMask if you are not already familiar with those settings.

I also like to use Etherscan to look up a token’s metadata. For my NFTs, I like to ensure that the image associated with the NFT is either stored on-chain (rarely the case, except for a few notable exceptions such as Crypto punks, Nouns, and Chain Runners. I also like to check if there is any mention of the license within the contract itself. Although most NFT investors don’t care about the license of the NFT they are buying, I give a lot of importance to it, and seeing it hard-coded into the contract gives me a lot of assurance about knowing exactly what I’m buying into. I haven’t yet seen this in any project I’ve looked at, but I hope it will become more common in the future.

Most if not all of the tools I will be referencing in this article can be thought of as a more user-friendly interface built on top of Etherscan, and many of them use the APIs provided by Etherscan to feed their tools with the latest data.

Etherscan

Analysis Tools

By analysis tools, I mean tools that allow me to get a nice overview on the overall state of the market, or to look into the numbers behind a particular collection. These are essential tools for every collector and NFT trader and you should use them daily. In my ideal setup, I’d have a few monitors constantly displaying some of my favorite dashboards.

Dune Analytics

This is possibly the most well-known tool when it comes to free NFT analytics. It’s a free tool that makes complex queries more accessible to the non-technical person and handles all the background tasks of actually fetching the data. So all you need to do is play around with that data and build a dashboard that suits your needs. You can also customize other people’s dashboards.

For example, you can take the Interactive NFT Floor Tracker dashboard and set up all your favorite projects so you can then easily track their floor prices.

Having said that, it’s not exactly beginner-friendly, you will need some querying skills when building a dashboard of your own. On the other hand, most projects already have user-built dashboards, so you can just find a ready-made dashboard and use it in most cases.

Dune Analytics

Nansen

I consider Nansen to be the industry-standard analytics tool in the Ethereum space, but it’s squarely aimed at professional investors and traders. The pricing reflects that, and you need some skills to use it as well, since it’s a generic tool that is not tailored specifically for NFTs.

This works like a regular web2 web app, so you’ll need to subscribe to one of the three available tiers and pay monthly or yearly in USD or crypto. The standard tier costs $149/month, VIP is set at $1,490 and Alpha is subject to a waitlist and costs $3,000/month. For most people, Standard is sufficient, but then you hit some limits really quickly, for example, you can only have 3 custom smart alerts. For NFT traders, this really is a big limitation as they typically like to follow many more wallets and contracts to see what the big guys are doing before the market realizes it.

Apart from these gripes, this really is a super polished analytics tool, and you’ll find good research pieces and a blog on their website as well. As you’d expect, they also have a Discord server, although it’s pretty quiet, especially for NFTs, so I wouldn’t say it adds much value.

Nansen

ICY Tools

This is possibly the closest analytics tool to Nansen. It’s more specific to NFTs and significantly cheaper.

You can either buy a weekly pass or buy an ICY Founders Club NFT that gives you lifetime access, plus you can trade it on OpenSea. Login is in typical web3 fashion, so you’ll need to connect your wallet in order to get access to the premium features.

As a free user, you can get a taste of what the tool can do, but it really comes to life once you’re on a subscription or hold the Founders Club NFT.

The ICY Founders club consists of a collection of 1,700 generative membership cards that the 1,649 early access buyers lifetime access to icy.tools with a transferrable NFT. The remaining 51 will be used for promotions and giveaways in the coming months and years.

The ICY Tools Discord server is a valuable resource for people using ICY Tools, and even more so if you hold a Founders Club token. Only those holding the token will be able to gain access to the Founders Club channels. Access is granted automatically once you connect to the server using the wallet that contains your membership card. The server uses Collab.land for verification, so there are no security concerns when connecting.

The community is fantastic and is a perfect learning resource for anyone who wants to take NFT investing seriously and use tools to their maximum advantage. Keep in mind that the NFT space moves extremely fast, and one of the best ways to ensure you become successful as an investor is to get information fast, or to have superior data at hand compared to the rest of the market. The ICY Tools app coupled with the Discord community gives you both of those elements.

Moreover, as I mentioned, ICY Founders Club tokens are tradeable on OpenSea, and I expect them to rise in value as the NFT space grows and more features are added to ICY Tools. I really like the artwork, even though that is not the main feature of this NFT of course, so that’s another bonus. You can use them as your background banner on Twitter or other socials, for example, and they come with a number of traits and rarity levels, which you can rank and compare on Trait Sniper.

One other benefit of the Founders Club NFT is that you get a say in what features get developed next. By holding the NFT, you become a stakeholder in the success of the project, therefore aligning you with the incentives of the developers. It makes sense for the holders and developers to work together to ensure everyone’s needs are covered.

The Discord community server has many channels where you can glean alpha on new projects, be alerted of new mints and upcoming drops, get access to whitelists or ask questions and discuss relevant topics. Honestly, access to all these channels are enough to justify the club token’s cost, even though the main product is the app. It’s just a no-brainer for me to get the lifetime membership.

Again, you can also pay by the month but I’d really recommend the lifetime membership if you can get hold of one.

ICY Tools | Twitter | Discord

Spr3adsh33t’s Insights

BAYC holder and bot developer Spr3adsh33t is behind this unique project, that relies on Discord bots to provide the analytics that NFT collectors and traders seek. Discord bots can be quite powerful and for those NFT traders that spend most of their days roaming around Discord, it’s super comfortable to have access to analytics right within Discord. The best way to understand how the Spr3adsh33t’s Insights Discord server and bots work is to check out the Quickstart Guide.

Spr3adsh33t is also a generative artist, and he created the PERLINs collection, which you can mint for 0.05 ETH or buy on OpenSea.

The premium membership to the Discord server costs $20 per month or $200 per year. If you hold a PERLIN NFT you will get a free month. Upgrading to premium gives more information, utility, and insights than Basic Bots. Some bots are also only available to Premium Members – including the Interactive Bots.

The bots can also be rented out to alpha Discord servers, so reach out to Spr3adsh33t if that’s something you’re interested in.

Spr3adsh33t’s Insights

NonFungible

I like keeping an eye on the Market History area of this site, as it gives me a very good overall picture of the NFT space during the past week. I can quickly see what the top sales were, and more importantly, whether market volume is trending upwards or downwards, as well as which projects are doing really well.

NonFungible

NFT Stats

NFT Stats includes a lot of free and easy-to-read data about NFT collections, including sales charts and a rarity explorer. I like to keep an eye on the pages of the biggest projects I’m invested in, as it easily shows me some important data like the overall price and volume chart as well as the top-selling items in the last 30 days. Here’s the Doodles project page, as an example.

NFT Stats

Moby

Moby offers real-time NFT minting insights, wallet watch lists, instant notifications and price trends.

I see it as somewhat of a competitor to ICY Tools, but to me Moby is not yet as useful as its main competitor.

Moby

NFT Charts

This is one of the newest analytics tools in the NFT space and is extremely polished. I love having a look at the charts and information available about every project here. I use this for monitoring the projects that I am most committed too. Typically these are projects where I have a significant portion of money invested and I need to be sure of where things are going, either to take evasive action or to double down by potentially buying more tokens. Incredibly, this is a free tool.

Unfortunately, there are relatively few projects included in this platform. A similar site is Flips.Finance, and that one includes many more projects.

NFT Charts

Discovery Tools

It is a known fact that the biggest profits accrue to those who go in early in projects, especially if they manage to do mint their tokens and not buy on the secondary market. This requires you to know exactly which are the best upcoming projects well in advance, giving you the time to study the artwork/utility, get involved in their community, and possibly get on the whitelist. This is the area where I feel there is the most noise and is dangerous territory for new entrants, as they typically don’t know how to evaluate projects. Given that they don’t even have the volume and floor price reference that builds up when a project is already trading on the secondary market, the discovery stage can be really hard to figure out.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, while there are a number of tools to help us out, this remains one of the most human-intensive parts of the job, and while I own and use the tools below, I’d really like to see them improve as I still spend too much time on this work.

Cryptoscores

Cryptoscores is my favorite project discovery tool. Before discovering Cryptoscores, I never used such tools as they were too noisy for me, and I am very well-connected in the NFT space, meaning that it is very rare that I miss any upcoming good NFT drops. However, now that I have Cryptoscores, I check it daily. The upcoming projects list gives me an idea of where the space is going, and which types of projects are launching. But more importantly, it’s not just a firehouse of upcoming projects. The team behind Cryptoscores have a background in data mining and statistics, which enabled them to produce a tool that is great for NFT quantitative analysis.

You can see some of these innovations in the upcoming mints section. Whereas other calendar websites just blast you with an infinite list of unsorted projects, Cryptoscores applies some algorithms on each project to find out which are most likely to sell out and gives them a rating. You can then use these scores to figure out which ones you want to spend time researching and trying to get whitelist for.

Cryptoscores

NFSea Tools

NFSea is an NFT deal finder; a hybrid of (and a simpler version of) Nansen, Trait Sniper and NFT Calendar. It’s a site you can use to find new projects, analyze revealed and unrevealed projects and it also shows indicators of higher or lower probability to become profitable.

Comparing to its counterparts it comes at a cheaper price while doing a few more things that others don’t. Free users can stay updated with trending, minting, upcoming drops while paid users can see charts, graphs, and second by second updates. NFSea takes real-time information directly from the blockchain and does the number crunching for you to generate actionable statistics.

I personally like using the Mints tab that shows me which projects have been minting, and most importantly, the % of total tokens that have been minted. This gives me an idea of how successful the project launch has been, and is information that I can then use to decide whether I should also mint or not.

NFSea Tools

NFT Go

I’d say that NFT Go is another take on discovery. This website adds several layers of context to the usual analytics that you’d expect to find, for example, whale tracking, drop curation, and a very nice dashboard that gives a user-friendly snapshot of what’s happening in the space. I also like its portfolio/address analysis page. Another very cool page is the profit leaderboard.

The very top of the homepage gives you a 30-second update on what’s happening in the past 24 hours, so it’s a good thing to check at the start of your day.

NFT Go

NFT Evening

This is a site that showcases upcoming NFT-related events and NFT drops. It also provides news and big announcements, as well as the possibility to subscribe to a very decent newsletter.

NFT Calendar is another similar website that is just a real-time list of upcoming projects. The problem with these kinds of websites is that they are not curated and thus a new person to NFTs wouldn’t be able to distinguish the good from the bad in most cases.

Even worse, they are usually filled with promoted projects who pay for the top spots. Low quality or scammy projects are the ones primarily incentivized to use such sites to promote their drops as they rely on pre-release hype to make their money.

I prefer NFT Evening over NFT Calendar due to the fact that it at least offers some beginners guides about NFTs for newcomers and filtering facilities. For example, you can filter just upcoming conferences, or upcoming metaverse NFTs.

NFT Evening

Automation Tools

Trading NFTs can be very time-consuming, and it can also be a very time-sensitive job. By having things automated, you can go to sleep, knowing that you’ve already set up a bot that will do your bidding while you take a rest, spotting and snapping up good deals according to the parameters you had previously set.

NFT Pirates

NFT Pirates is an OpenSea bidding bot. Unfortunately, this is a Windows-only tool, so if you use a Mac you’re out of luck unless you’re familiar with setting up a Virtual Machine to use this tool.

While there are many traders using such software (I receive tons of automated offers below floor for my NFTs daily), it was surprisingly difficult for me to find a decent one for sale, in fact, this is the only one I found so far that delivers on its promises.

So how does this work?

There are two pieces of software you can buy from NFT Pirates – a Bid bot and a Sniper Bot.

With the Bid Bot the idea is fairly simple. The goal is to get a discount on the floor price. So you use the bot to make multiple automated bids on many tokens of a project, all below floor. If a holder gets shaky feet, your offer might be enough to tip him over into selling to you at a great price. This is known as paper handing in the NFT space.

Pricing for the Bid bot range from 0.75 to 2.5 ETH, with the higher tiers including 1 on 1 Support and Mentoring, which is incredible for those who are just starting out.

The Sniper Bot, on the other hand, is used to immediately purchase any listing below a certain price. There are many holders that question the ethics of using such a bot, but it is totally legal and not against OpenSea terms. The reason why these bots are so disliked, is that their users regularly get incredible deals when people fat-finger their OpenSea listings. For example, you will find many stories of BAYC holders forgetting a digit when typing in a price, for example putting in 7 instead of 77 ETH. A sniper bot, set to buy anything below the BAYC floor (say 50 ETH) would immediately buy that 7 ETH listing without giving the holder the chance to realize his mistake and cancel the erroneous listing.

Pricing for the Sniper bot range from 1 to 1.95 ETH, with the higher tiers including 1 on 1 Support and Mentoring, which is incredible for those who are just starting out.

NFT Pirates

Rarity Tools

This is the most famous rarity tracker. It is so well-known that new projects actually pay to get listed there, as it serves to give exposure to a project. As an interface, it’s not my favorite, but since many projects collaborate directly with the platform to release their rankings, it is often the most accurate tool to get the rarities checked.

Unlike Trait Sniper, Rarity Tools is not useful for new projects when you want to snipe mispriced items, as new collections typically appear several weeks after launch. Rarity Sniffer, Golom, and Moby are similar sites.

Rarity Tools

Sniping Tools

Sniping is perhaps the most exciting aspect of being an NFT trader. I’ve always loved finding good deals, and tools like the ones below make it very easy to dial in the parameters to find the best deals on the market. Professional NFT snipers use these tools mainly when a project reveals, as they want to be among the first to find rare items, buy them up, and immediately put them back on sale at a healthy profit.

For long-term collectors like me, on the other hand, these tools are still handy. While all the data they show you is available on OpenSea itself, they repurpose that data to make it easier to find deals and understand what’s happening on a second-by-second basis.

Trait Sniper

Trait Sniper is an essential tool if you want to access rarity rankings right after a project’s reveal. While there are many such rarity trackers, this is one of the fastest in getting new collections online. The Discord channel is very active, so you can report bugs or request your favorite projects to be analyzed, and the founders will get back to you in no time.

The main use of this tool, as the name indicates, is to snipe mispriced NFTs. That is why it is so important to have the rarity ranks shown as fast as possible after reveal, before holders have the chance to realize that they hold rare items and adjust the sale price on OpenSea.

Their Discord server is a great way to learn your way around sniping. You will see other snipers sharing their profit-sharing screenshots on a daily basis so you can learn from the strategies they used. There is also a daily calendar, reveal alerts, and all the other features you’d expect from a community that is focused on putting you in the best position to snipe the best deals.

If you have a good amount of ETH and you’re interested in sniping, this tool, like many others on this list, will easily pay for itself within a few days providing you put in the work to study and and be there when projects launch. Sniping on project reveals, unfortunately, is not something that can be automated. There is a lot of human subjectivity when sniping, but that’s why I like it, as once you’re competing with automated bots, it’s hard for anyone to make profits. When you need to use your research skills, it’s more likely that you can get some type of edge over others and nail consistent profits.

Logging in to the app is done using your wallet, and subscriptions cost 0.2 ETH for 1 week and 0.65 ETH for 30 days. There is no lifetime option, unfortunately.

Lastly, Trait Sniper also has a downloadable Chrome extension available, which is immensely helpful to me while I browse OpenSea. It shows the current floor price and also the rank of an item. These details are overlaid onto the normal OpenSea display for convenience. You can also use the extension to calculate the value of your portfolio based on floor price.

Trait Sniper | Discord | Twitter

NFT Nerds

This is another essential tool for those who take trading NFTs as serious business. It was built by mathematicians and coders who aspire to create the best tool in the NFT space. Having provided substantial feedback to the team, I can verify that they are very enthusiastic and keen to incorporate new features requested by their users.

Unlike Trait Sniper, which frequently requires the user to ask the team to refresh a collection to get the latest data, NFTNerds charts are always a reflection of live conditions; syncing happens automatically under the hood.

Not all projects can be found on this site, but you can request which next ones will be included by joining the Discord server of NFTNerds. The server is a great way to meet other NFT enthusiasts and learn from their trading experience. The profit-sharing channel, in particular, can be very inspiring and shows what you can do once you have a strategy in place and work hard.

There is also an Academy category within Discord which has several subchannels that focus on teaching you how the tool and the NFT space in general work.

I use this tool to get a real-time view of what’s happening within a project. By looking at the dashboard of a project I can quickly get a feel for where things are going, and it’s not the first time I snipe an item priced below the OpenSea floor as soon as it gets listed. OpenSea sometimes takes longer to show new listings, while NFT Nerds shows them faster. So the floor you’re seeing on OpenSea might actually be lower than what’s shown, and NFT Nerds allows you to see the real floor.

You can purchase directly from NFT Nerds, which takes roughly 4 seconds from spotting a listing to approving the transaction.

Rarity rankings are also built into the app, and usually use the official rankings. This means one less tab to check, and the ability to make faster trades.

NFT Nerds can also be used to discover trending collections, which is a great way to make sure you don’t miss out on any new collections, especially if you’re an active NFT day trader. You can also monitor the current gas prices directly within the app, and use custom gas fees for your purchases if you want.

To start using the premium version of NFT Nerds, you need to purchase a pass and then use your wallet to login and unlock the premium features. Genesis Passes can be found on OpenSea.

This is a tool that still has many more features to come, but is already extremely useful. Judging by the speed at which Genesis Passes get sold every time a new batch is released, I’m not the only one to love NFT Nerds.

If you can get hold of a Genesis pass I would highly suggest you buy one.

NFT Nerds | Discord | Twitter

SuperSea

The free SuperSea Chrome extension adds a number of features to make it more convenient, fun, and profitable to browse the OpenSea marketplace:

Floor Prices – floor prices for your tokens and portfolio value calculation.
Skip OpenSea Cache – fetch asset images directly from source (OS takes long to update on reveal).
Listing Notifications – get notified the precise moment an asset within your given price range is listed.
Scam Protection – extremely useful when buying bundles, as scams are so common.
Mass-refresh and Mass-reveal – mass-Queue items for OpenSea metadata refresh and automatically load all images from source while OpenSea is updating their cache.

With the premium version, you will get access to more features like Rarity Ranks and Quick Buy and enhanced Listing Notifications.

You can buy lifetime access on OpenSea (or mint it for 0.5 ETH while they last), or a monthly subscription for 0.1 ETH.

SuperSea

Ninjalerts

Ninjalerts is a smartphone app that can track all sorts of parameters. It is most commonly used to track the wallets of whales, influencers, and media personalities in order to know before everyone else what they’re doing.

With that information in hand, you can, for example, understand which project is going to experience a hype cycle and take a stake before the prices claim. As always, the data can only take you so far, you also need to put in a dose of your interpretation skills in order to profit consistently.

The nice thing is that it’s a mobile app, which in my view makes it very convenient to get alerts through push notifications.

Right now you can only buy a lifetime license from OpenSea, but they will also have a monthly subscription option in the future.

Ninjalerts

Portfolio Valuation Tools

It’s very easy to lose track of how much you spent on NFTs, and whether you are in the green or in the red at a particular point in time. That’s why it is essential to keep on top of your portfolio.

The two main tools you need for this purpose are a valuation tool, and another tool that gives you a history of all your transactions, including gas spent. There will always be some work involved when compiling data for paying your taxes or even calculating accurate profit figures, but having good tools will turn this task from impossible to manageable.

NFT Bank

This is a good tool to get an overall valuation of your portfolio, as well as to find any discounted NFTs. It only supports a select number of projects, usually the bigger ones, but the team has great plans for this tool, and its one of the only ones I know that are focused on portfolios and valuations.

It’s a nice tool to keep track of your purchases and sales too, and the corresponding profits or losses made, so it can help you prepare your taxes.

NFT Bank

WGMI

WGMI is one of the top tools for managing your listings on marketplaces. You can easily monitor floor price changes, as well as look into all your listings and check whether someone else has undercut your price, based on the most valuable traits of your tokens.

This tool has been created by BAYC member @NFTommo and is also a perfect tool for calculating the value of your portfolio. You can use the project’s floor price, the best trait price, or an average of the two when calculating each individual token’s value. Due to its customizability, it’s the tool I use most for calculating my portfolio’s value. It also provides a handy CSV export facility.

Once you get the hang of using this tool, it can become one of the most important dashboards to keep open at all times, as it gives you a great overview of everything that’s happening in the market and also in the projects you’ve invested in.

Lifetime passes are available on OpenSea, or you can pay for access on a monthly or yearly basis.

WGMI

DappRadar

DappRadar is one of those DeFi tools that can be used to manage your overall portfolio. I use it to check what airdrops I can claim and also to keep an eye on my NFT portfolio. DappRadar can estimate the total value of your NFT portfolio and also give you more information about each individual project you invested in, for example the total amount spent, current holdings and P&L. Right now the financial view is generated using floor price but a more accurate value estimator based on trait floor will be added soon.

You can also swap tokens directly from DappRadar instead of going to a separate DEX.

DappRadar

Zerion

Zerion is similar to DappRadar in that it can manage your overall portfolio and connect you to DeFi. If you dabble in both NFTs and DeFi then I would highly recommend you use one of these tools. I’m not a DeFi power user, but I do have a few farming strategies going on, chief of which the $LOOKS token. Apps like Zerion and DappRadar automatically fetch the data related to such farmed strategies and display them in your overall portfolio.

Of course, you can also view your NFTs, although this is not the best feature of Zerion at the moment. What is a very cool feature, on the other hand, is the ability to show off your NFT collection directly from your iPhone home screen.

Users can now create custom widgets showcasing their favorite NFTs from the Zerion iPhone, iPad and macOS apps. This ‘NFT gallery’ widget works just like our portfolio monitoring and gas price widgets and lets you set your NFTs to rotate so your collection is always on display!

Crucially, only NFTs owners can display NFTs. When you connect your wallet to Zerion containing your NFTs, we verify your ownership to ensure that if (and only if) you own it, you can display it.

Zerion

Zapper

Zapper is one more alternative to Zerion and DappRadar. You can basically pick one of the three according to which one you like best.

I think the best feature of Zapper as it relates to NFTs is the History tab, as it gives you a very clear picture of all the transactions you’ve done. I especially like the fact that the gas fee is shown separately in a very clear way.

If you’re using MetaMask with multiple addresses, Zapper picks them up automatically, so you don’t have to worry about that, and of course, it shows you your balances on multiple chains.

As an overall dashboard, this is my favorite of the three I mentioned.

Zapper

Peer-to-Peer NFT Trading Tools

You will want to use a P2P trading tool when you reach a deal with someone else to swap NFTs or to make a private deal in exchange for ETH (or another cryptocurrency).

Typically, you would have reached the deal by meeting someone in real life, say at a conference, or online via project Discord channels, or even by directly reaching out to someone who has NFTs that you’re interested in listed on a marketplace. Some NFT collectors include their details (Twitter, Discord username etc.) in their marketplace profile, making it easy to reach out to them and broker a private deal.

If you’re just selling or gifting NFTs to friends where trusting the other party is absolutely not an issue, you can just do a manual transfer via MetaMask or OpenSea as it will be cheaper. When you use the tools in this section, you will be interacting with a smart contract, whose aim is to take out the trust element from the transaction, but since there is a more complex transaction involved you will need to pay a higher gas fee than for a simple transfer.

SudoSwap

Sudoswap was created by well-known developer 0xmons in April of 2021. I use SudoSwap whenever I reach a private deal for an NFT transfer with a user off OpenSea. Typically this happens over Twitter DMs or in Discord channels. Once we agree on a price, the seller sets up a swap, shares the trade code and the buyer completes the trade. There are no fees for using this service.

You can trade multiple items at once and the assets never leave your wallet until the swap is accepted by both parties. You only pay gas for approves and the swap itself, so it’s quite gas-efficient, and definitely cheaper than transacting within OpenSea.

Sudoswap uses the open-source 0x protocol to create and settle swaps between any combination of ERC20, ERC721 and ERC1155 tokens.

This is the cheapest way to make a private swap in terms of gas fees, when compared to the other tools available. The platform doesn’t even charge any fee for swaps, you only pay for gas. However, the interface might not be the easiest to use, as it’s got a very retro feel and needs a slight learning curve. I’m very comfortable using it however, and found it pretty straightforward to figure out, so it’s my default choice.

SudoSwap

NFT Trader

NFTTrader was the first P2P NFT trading platform as it was launched in January of 2021 by a team of four founders. The team created their own custom asset-swap smart contracts that allows users to swap any combination of ERC20, ERC721 and ERC1155 tokens, as well as ETH.

The NFT Trader website is pretty cluttered in my opinion, as they promote their own NFTs. These NFTs are pretty worthless, so don’t waste your time on them, unless you make many swaps, as holders of the Trade Squad NFT pay no trading fees. Even then, though, SudoSwap gas fees would be cheaper.

NFT Trader

Swap.Kiwi

Swap.kiwi is the youngest platform of the bunch as it was created in June of 2021 by ape punk niftynaut.

It’s backed by a registered company that developed its own smart contracts to execute swaps between any combination of ERC721 and ETH, and I think it’s easily the most user-friendly swap tool out there. Apart from having a very slick interface, it also provides tutorials for people who are newer to Web3 and NFTs.

Swap.Kiwi

Miscellaneous Tools

Genie

Genie allows you to batch list and batch buy NFTs. This saves you time and gas fees. It’s one of my most frequently used apps as my investment strategy regularly sees me go for 3-10 items at one go when buying. Since NFTs are spread across several marketplaces (OpenSea, LooksRare, Rarible etc), and will be even more so in the future if my thinking is correct, having the ability to use a tool that scans all the marketplaces is great.

With certain projects, you can also perform bulk swaps. Let’s say I want to get into the Doodles project and want to buy 3 NFTs from that collection, but I don’t want to use or don’t have the necessary ETH to do so. However, I do have several other NFTs that I wouldn’t mind getting rid of. So what I can do with Genie is to pool my ETH plus the NFTs I want to sell, and on the other side select the Doodles I want to acquire. If the tool can find the right match for the amount I have (ETH + NFT valuation), I can go ahead and perform the swap in one transaction.

My biggest use for this tool, however, is to batch list items. I usually list my NFTs for a few days at max, and things can get really tedious when you own many tokens and want to relist them every few days. Genie allows me to make short work of that task.

Genie

Fees.wtf

Here’s another cool and sobering tool that builds upon the Etherscan (and CoinGecko) APIs to show you how much gas fees you’ve spent since you’ve been trading NFTs.

All you need to do is connect your wallet and the fees are calculated in a second. You can also claim the WTF token based on the amount of fees you paid in the past. That token can then be staked, and you can also claim an NFT that can be then used to access forthcoming premium features on this site.

Fees.wtf

Paperhands

This is a tool that makes it easy to calculate your worst and best trades as well as celebrate your long-term holdings. You have three options to select once you connect your wallet:

worst trade (paper hands)
best hold (diamond hands)
biggest profit take

This is an interesting way of viewing your trading activity. The worst trade is not necessarily the one where you made a realized loss. For many collectors, it turns out to be an NFT that they sold too early.

For me, it is a mutant ape that I sold after just 2.5 days as I was trying to play the flipping game. I made a nice profit in just two days, but I missed out on a huge run in the next month or so, meaning I would have been much better off just holding off to that token.

On the other hand, by far my best play in the NFT game is my entering the Doodles project with total conviction early on and holding on to my purchases even as the floor price rose.

This tool, in combination with the previously mentioned fees.wtf, makes it obvious to me that I’m much better off being a collector than a flipper. When you factor in the risk, time, fees, and missed opportunities versus holding, it just doesn’t work out that well for me.

It might be a different case for you, and I definitely enjoyed the experience and the adrenaline rush of flipping, but long-term holding is better suited to my skills and character.

Paperhands.gg

Honorable Mentions

Sunspot – alerts you in real-time when NFTs are listed and sold on OpenSea, depending on the parameters you set.

Wrapping Up

Do you use any other tools that are not listed in this article? Let me know, I’d love to check them out and possibly add them to this list.

The Best Crypto Podcasts in 2022

Last updated: March 15, 2022Leave a Comment

One of the main ways that I keep updated with all the stuff that’s happening in the crypto space is through podcasts. I also run my own podcast at Mastermind.fm.

Here are my favorites, categorized based on the majority of the topics they cover.

The Rabbit Hole

These are podcasts that are ideal for understanding the overall reasons why the crypto revolution is happening and will continue to grow in the coming years.

What is Money – Robert Breedlove
Excellent to get you started down the many rabbit holes that Bitcoin can lead you down. Will turn you into a rebel if you aren’t one already.
The Bitcoin Standard Podcast – Saifedean Ammous
A good way to learn about Austrian economics, sound money and a number of controversial topics addressed in a no-nonsense way.
On the Brink – Matt Walsh and Nic Carter
Explores the political, ethical, and economic significance of Bitcoin and other public blockchains. Very solid stuff but not for beginners.
Odd Lots – Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway
Useful for understanding the general macro environment and financial history leading to today’s issues.
Bitcoin Rapid-Fire – John Vallis
Leads you to see the world with new eyes through Bitcoin and its associated ideas.
Fed Watch – CK and Ansel Lindner
Bitcoin, Macro Economics and politics
Wake Up – Aleks Svetski
The world as seen from the eyes of a Bitcoin maximalist. Good if you want to have some of your conventional ideas challenged.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the precursor to everything else that has happened in the crypto space, and in my opinion, it is essential to understand the philosophy and principles of Bitcoin before moving to anything else. These podcasts will help you on your journey.

What Bitcoin Did – Peter McCormack
The best way to get learn about Bitcoin over time while keeping up to date with the latest game-changing events in Bitcoin history.
Stephan Livera Podcast – Stephan Livera
Deals with intermediate to advanced topics and the philosophical underpinnings of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Audible – Guy Swann
The best way to consume Bitcoin articles for those with no time to read.
Bitcoin Fixes This – Jimmy Song
A mix of Bitcoin philosophy and technical topics on how Bitcoin internals work.
Speaking of Bitcoin – Adam B. Levine
Analysis and discourse by the host in addition to Andreas Antonopoulos and others. Very level headed and great if you want to level up in your Bitcoin knowledge.
Swan Signal
Tales from the Crypt – Marty Bent
Fairly advanced Bitcoin topics ranging from the technical to the philosophical. Expect a healthy dose of maximalism.
Rabbit Hole Recap – Marty Bent and Matt Odell
Bitcoin news. For advanced Bitcoin enthusiasts.
Citadel Dispatch – Matt Odell
Hardcore Bitcoin topics, great if you’re mostly focussed on Bitcoin as a hodler.
Bit Buy Bit – Max Buybit
More hardcore Bitcoin topics. Expect anti-government vibes and controversial topics discussed. This is what makes Bitcoin special after all.
The Keyvan Davani Connection – Keyvani Davani
Bitcoin technical topics coupled with economical and political underpinnings of the Bitcoin movement.

Crypto

A selection of podcasts that deal with various topics in crypto. I use these to keep abreast of all the new facets of this technology.

Unchained – Laura Shin
Covers big topics in crypto in a no-nonsense way. One of the most high-quality consistent podcasts over the past years.
Bankless
The best podcast about Ethereum and DeFi. I’m also a paying subscriber to the Bankless newsletter and community.
The Breakdown – Nathaniel Whittemore
Probably the best podcast to keep up with crypto news.
Uncommon Core – Su Zhu and Hasu
One of the best podcasts for understanding how big investors are looking at the space.
The Pomp Podcast – Anthony Pompliano
One of the biggest podcasts in the business and crypto space. Not exactly my cup of tea but I do listen to it when there’s a particular topic that really interests me and hasn’t been covered elsewhere.
The Delphi Podcast – Tom Shaughnessy and Piers Kicks
Interviews with the best brains across the digital asset industry. For intermediate to advanced listeners.
Blockcrunch – Jason Choi
One of the best podcasts in the DeFi niche.
WAGMI – Luke Martin
Good for crypto traders and investors who want an analysis of current market fundamentals and what might be coming next.
Epicenter – Various hosts
In-depth conversations about the technical, economic and social implications of crypto. Mostly intermediate to advanced topics.
The Wolf of All Streets – Scott Melker
Ex-DJ Scott Melker talks about important crypto topics with distinguished guests.
Economics Design – Lisa JY Tan
Advanced tokenomics discussion. Not for beginners and not for casual listening, but very interesting and unique.
Zima Red – Andrew Steinwold
Covers DAOs, Web3, Metaverse and NFTs.
Modern Finance – Kevin Rose
Kevin Rose is an internet OG and covers various topics, mostly based on his prevailing interest at any point in time.
Mastermind – Jean and Joe Galea
My own podcast. We tackle whatever topic I’m deep-diving on at the moment.

NFTs

NFTs are one of my major passions and thus I also have a selection of podcasts focused on this topic. However, I get most of my info from Discord channels or other avenues rather than podcasts.

NFT365 – Brian Fanzo
Great walk-through of many of the topics that beginners need to familiarise themselves with. I don’t necessarily agree with most of his project picks though.
NFTs WTF! – Jamie Burke
A deeper dive into NFTs and how they are changing finance and other sectors.
Probably Nothing – Alexis Ohanian and T Zhongg
NFT news, deep dives, and interviews. Alexis is the founder of Reddit so he brings in a lot of clout to this show.
Proof – Kevin Rose
In-depth NFT coverage with Kevin Rose, who is one of the most influential people on the web. He is the founder of Digg, for those who remember that site’s glory days.
Overpriced JPEGs – Carly Reilly
An offshoot of the Bankless podcast focussing specifically on NFTs.
Mint – Adam Levy
Good breakdowns on social tokens, NFTs, DAOs etc.
Future of NFT – Anonymous
Join the host’s journey to learn about NFTs. Mixes beginner topics with thoughts on future NFT trends.
Two Bored Apes – Jaime Musings and Zeneca
Zeneca is a legend in the space. Great show to keep updated about BAYC and other big projects, but can also contain a lot of extra talk.
The Cutting Edge with gmoney – gmoney
Talks with big names in crypto. Good to know what the next big thing might be.
NFT Catcher – Jennifer Sutto and Michael Keen
Mostly news-related. I listen to it only when there is a major item that catches my attention and seems important to understand.
The First Mint
Mostly focussed on NBA Top Shot (which I’m not personally interested in) but some occasional great topics about the wider NFT space.

What are your favorite podcasts? Let me know in the comments section below if I’ve missed any good ones.

Ledn Products

Bitcoin and USDC Savings Accounts

The Benefits of Bitcoin and USDC Savings Accounts

Bitcoin-Backed Dollar Loans

There are multiple benefits to Bitcoin backed loans –

How to Apply for a Bitcoin Backed Loan

What Happens if the Price of Bitcoin Drops?

B2X: Bitcoin Balance Doubling Service

Who would Benefit from B2X?

What are the Risks of B2X?

How to Register for B2X and Repayment Process

Proof-of-Reserves Standards

Ledn Customer Service

Is Ledn Secure?

What index does Ledn Use for Bitcoin Prices?

How do I Open a Ledn Account?

Ledn Alternatives

Ledn Review – The Verdict?

What is the Project About?

Do I Like and Understand the Product?

Team

Roadmap

Community

Mint Price

Royalty Percentage

Current Floor Price

Holder Distribution

Whale Watching

Who is Promoting the Project?

Liquidity

Rarity Mechanism

How’s the Overall Crypto Market Doing?

What Values Does the Collection Champion?

Conclusions

1. Growth Stocks

2. Cyclical Companies

3. Blue Chip Companies

4. Speculative Stocks

5. Defensive Stocks

My Favorite Stocks

Activision Inc. (pending acquisition by Microsoft)

Alibaba Group

Alphabet Inc.

Amazon.com Inc.

Apple Inc.

Blade Air Mobility

Coinbase Global

ConocoPhilips

CRISPR Therapeutics

Danaos Corp.

Enbridge Inc.

Fastly

Fidelity National Financial

Galaxy Digital

Roblox

Zillow

Zoom Video Communications

Other Favorite Stocks

Token Trackers

Analysis Tools

Discovery Tools

Automation Tools

Rarity Tools

Sniping Tools

Portfolio Valuation Tools

Peer-to-Peer NFT Trading Tools

Miscellaneous Tools

Honorable Mentions

Wrapping Up

The Rabbit Hole

Bitcoin

Crypto

NFTs

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