Cryptocurrencies have been the best performing asset class of 2021 with its market capitalization gaining over 200%, from approximately $774 billion at the start of the year to currently stand at $2.39 trillion as of the time of this writing. The market traded as high as $2.94 trillion in November, almost clinching the $3 trillion mark.
Due to Bitcoin’s market dominance, which currently stands at 40.9%, almost all altcoins react to the price action of Bitcoin in both bullish and bearish situations. This is because the cryptocurrency space is relatively new and mass adoption is yet to take place as data from TripleA reveals that the estimated global crypto ownership is a little over 300 million and when this is compared with the entire world population of 7.753 billion as of 2020, it brings the rate of crypto adoption at 3.9%.
Although 2021 saw a lot of push back from government agencies like the SECs and the Central Banks that has negatively affected the adoption of cryptocurrencies around the world, we also saw progress in developed and developing economies who are trying to create a regulatory framework around cryptocurrencies, in other to ensure participants protection.
Many in the cryptocurrency community are beginning to see cryptocurrencies as a long-term investment. Considering this, coupled with a growing trend of gifting investments to loved ones, many are wondering what cryptocurrencies they can gift to their significant other, which would give real value in the future. Luckily, this is a good time to buy cryptocurrencies because in the last 3 weeks, the market has experienced a downturn which can be considered as ‘holiday sales’ for those who are looking to ‘buy the dip’. Below are four cryptocurrencies to considering gifting that special person this holiday season:
Ripple’s XRP
Usually referred to as the ‘bankers coin’ and with a market capitalization of approximately $46 billion, XRP is a token to consider gifting a loved one. Many have argued that the price of the XRP token has been suppressed due to the ongoing case with the United States, Security and Exchange Commission, who alleged that Ripple Labs, CEO Brad Garlinghouse and executive chairman Chris Larsen in December 2020, underwent an unregistered securities offering to the tune of $1.3 billion. Although there is light ahead of the tunnel as Brad Garlinghouse stated in a CNBC interview that the case with the SEC will conclude in 2022. He stated that the company is making good progress despite “a slow-moving judicial process.” He further stated, “Clearly we’re seeing good questions asked by the judge. And I think the judge realizes this is not just about Ripple, this will have broader implications.” Asides from this, another thing to watch out for from Ripple is their plan to go public after the case with the SEC is settled. These plans were shared by the CEO shared in an interview, earlier in the year.
XRP trades 96 cents, down 2.48% as of the time of this writing.
Reserve Rights’ RSR
Reserve Rights is a dual token stablecoin platform that was launched in May 2019. Reserve Rights’ dual token setup includes a stablecoin known as the Reserve stablecoin (RSV), which is backed by a basket of assets managed by smart contracts. The second token is the Reserve Rights token (RSR), which is used to keep the RSV stable at its $1.00 price target through a system of arbitrage opportunities. Unlike RSV, the Reserve Rights (RSR) token is volatile and it is charged to help maintain the stability of RSV. Asides from this, it can also be used to vote on governance proposals, which helps holders shape the future of the Reserve Rights ecosystem. Reserve Rights plans to back the Reserve stablecoin by an increasingly diverse basket of assets, and eventually move it away from the U.S. dollar peg, thereby creating an alternative reserve asset where RSV tokens instead represent fractional ownership of the collateral pool. The platform’s major defining feature is its Reserve Rights token, which is minted and sold when the RSV stablecoin loses its peg with the U.S. dollar. The funds generated by selling RSR tokens are used to replenish the RSV collateral pool. When RSV is valued at above $1, the additional collateral will be used to purchase and burn RSR from the secondary market, driving down the supply. Due to the unique nature of this token, it makes it one to gift a loved one for the long term.
RSR trades 3.2 cents, up 7.77% as of the time of this writing.
Polkadot’s DOT
Polkadot is an open-source sharding multichain protocol that facilitates the cross-chain transfer of any data or asset types, not just tokens, thereby making a wide range of blockchains interoperable with each other. Polkadot started its parachain slot auction in November 2021 and the first batch of auctions have been complete. The winners include Acala, Moonbeam, Astar, Parallel Finance and Clover Finance. They all won the first 5 slots and have already been onboarded on the Polkadot ecosystem on the 17th of December 2021. The 5 projects were able to raise 99,113,469 DOT tokens which would be locked for two years and using the current market price, puts the dollar value at approximately $2.9 billion. In November, DOT hit an all-time high of $55 at the start of November but has quickly retraced as a result of price action from Bitcoin’s market dominance. With its current price and the second batch of the auction which started on the 23rd of December, more and more DOT tokens will be taken out of circulation, thereby reducing its circulating supply. This makes DOT a real good token to gift a loved one. The 6th auction is currently led by Efinity, with 4.6 million DOT contributed so far.
DOT trades $29.10, up 6.46% as of the time of this writing.
Sandbox’s SAND
Metaverse tokens have been trending in the world of cryptocurrencies especially since Meta (formerly Facebook) underwent a name change to show the social media giant’s change in focus to creating metaverse experiences.
Sandbox is a blockchain-based virtual world allowing users to create, build, buy, and sell digital assets in the form of a game using its native token called the SAND token. Sandbox was launched in 2011 by Pixowl and is built on the Ethereum ecosystem. It combines the powers of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), to create a unique decentralized platform for a thriving gaming community.
Sandbox closed a $93 million Series B funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The firm stated that the project has been in development for four years and will launch its Metaverse in “phased stages” moving forward. The fund raised, according to the platform, will reportedly go towards scaling The Sandbox via developing new games and live experiences, and seeking out additional partnerships with popular brands and intellectual properties. On the 29th of November the platform opened up part of its metaverse to 5,000 players for the first time via a multi-week, play-to-earn (P2E), Alpha event called The Sandbox Alpha.
As an NFT-based open metaverse, The Sandbox is known for its partnerships with over 165 brands, which includes the likes of Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, The Smurfs, Care Bears, Atari and CryptoKitties.
Binance, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Socios, the Winklevoss twins and CoinMarketCap have all bought digital land in the metaverse of The Sandbox. Adding to this list is PwC Hong Kong, an international subsidiary of the global PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) organization, who announced on the 23rd of December that it had acquired a piece of digital land in the Sandbox metaverse. This makes SAND a token to gift a loved one for the holidays.
