Crypto Fight Global

With the cryptocurrency markets still in an uncertain position, many crypto investors are wondering if it’s time to sell in order to avoid further losses or if the market is going to recover soon.
Even though the crypto markets have so far always recovered from their bearish periods, every bear market has its “casualties” that never make a strong recovery. Therefore, it’s important to choose quality crypto projects that have a good chance of surviving the bear market and thriving in the future.
We’ve analyzed 200 of the top cryptocurrencies based on their liquidity and availability, technology, sector leadership, tokenomics and more key factors. You can read more about our criteria a bit further down in the article.
By doing so, we’ve narrowed the list down to 12 cryptocurrencies that present the most compelling opportunities at the moment. The top three coins on our list are updated weekly to reflect the most up-to-date developments in the crypto and blockchain sector. Here's our roundup of the best cryptocurrency to invesintegrations
Bitcoin – Decentralized peer-to-peer cryptocurrencyXRP – Highly efficient digital currencyPolygon – A suite of Ethereum scaling solutionsEthereum – The leading blockchain for smart contractsSolana – High-performance blockchain platform for smart contractsUniswap – The biggest DEX on EthereumBNB – A popular cryptocurrency utilized in the Binance ecosystemMina Protocol  – An extremely lightweight blockchainCosmos – A network of interoperable blockchainsLitecoin – A cheaper and faster alternative to BitcoinShiba Inu – The second-largest meme coin on the marketToncoin – Scalable blockchain with Telegram messenger integrations
Best Cryptos to Buy Right Now
Let’s start off by highlighting three cryptocurrency projects that have seen important developments recently or have big events coming up in the near future. We update these highlighted coins on a weekly basis to reflect the latest developments in the world of crypto and blockchain.
Before we dive into our list of the best cryptos to buy, we should note that choosing which crypto to buy is only the first step in your crypto investment journey. It's also important to choose the right platform to buy crypto, and you also have to decide how you will be storing your cryptocurrency.
In our opinion, the best way to invest in crypto is to transfer your coins to a hardware wallet after you buy it on an exchange. A great starting point is to buy cryptocurrency on KuCoin and store it in a Ledger hardware wallet.
1. Bitcoin
Bitcoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that was initially described in 2008 and launched in early 2009. Bitcoin was invented by a person using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity is still unknown.
Bitcoin introduced the concept of a blockchain and provides a fully decentralized digital currency that’s extremely secure. It implements Proof-of-Work to make it very difficult to alter the history of transactions or double spend coins. The network is secured by miners, who are rewarded with BTC coins for adding blocks to the Bitcoin blockchain.
BTC can be sent anywhere in the world on a 24/7 basis, and transactions cannot be blocked by any intermediaries. By holding their own private keys, users can self-custody their Bitcoin without requiring institutions such as banks.
Even though countless cryptocurrencies and blockchain platforms have been released after Bitcoin, BTC is still easily the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
Why Bitcoin?
Bitcoin has started the week on a bullish note, and the world’s largest cryptocurrency is not on the verge of setting new all-time highs. At the time of writing, BTC is changing hands $72,240, which is less than 2% removed from its $73,170 all-time high.
The positive momentum in the BTC markets is strengthening as we inch closer to the next Bitcoin halving. At the moment, most estimates are suggesting that Bitcoin block number 840,000 which will trigger the next halving, will be mined on April 18 or 19.
The halving will cut down the Bitcoin block reward from the current 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. With fewer new BTC coins entering the market from miners, the halving is generally anticipated as a very bullish event over the medium and long term, although short-term price movements right around the halving have been unpredictable historically.
While the halving is undoubtedly the dominant narrative in the Bitcoin markets at the moment (in addition to the activity related to Bitcoin ETFs in the United States), we certainly shouldn’t discount Ordinals and other protocols that effectively make it possible to issue tokens and NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain.
According to data from NFT aggregator CryptoSlam, Bitcoin was the most active blockchain for NFTs in the past week, facilitating $90.1 million in sales. The second-ranked Ethereum saw $63.3 million in sales during the same period.

This activity shows that the bullish sentiment on Bitcoin could continue even after the Bitcoin halving, which is this year’s most anticipated event in the crypto markets, is behind us.
2. XRP
XRP is a cryptocurrency that was launched in June of 2012. It was developed by David Schwartz, Jed McCaleb and Arthur Britto, who started a company called OpenCoin together with Chris Larsen. 80% of the XRP supply was gifted to the company by the developers of XRP. OpenCoin has since been renamed to Ripple, and the company has put the majority of its XRP holdings into escrow.
XRP provides very fast and low-cost transfers, making it suitable for use-cases like remittances. It uses neither Proof-of-Work nor Proof-of-Stake, but instead implements the XRP Ledger Consensus Protocol. Every participant in the XRP network can choose a set of validators that they trust to behave honestly.
Ripple has implemented the XRP cryptocurrency into its products, most notably On-Demand Liquidity (ODL). ODL works in partnership with cryptocurrency exchanges uses XRP to provide efficient cross-border money transfers.
Why XRP?
US fintech firm Ripple, which is the key player in the XRP Ledger ecosystem, has announced that they will be launching a new dollar-pegged stablecoin on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum platforms. The stablecoin will follow the traditional model of full backing using USD deposits, (short-term) US government treasuries and other cash equivalents.
To increase transparency, Ripple aims to publish monthly attestations conducted by a third-party accounting firm to demonstrate that the stablecoin is fully backed. 
David Schwartz, Ripple’s CTO and one of the original architects of the XRP Ledger, said that a USD-backed stablecoin on the XRP Ledger platform will be a “gamechanger” for both users and developers.

XRP investors can look forward to the stablecoin potentially boosting liquidity on the XRP Ledger’s built-in decentralized exchange functionality and introduce new cases for the XRP Ledger platform, which could certainly also benefit XRP as an asset

3. Polygon
Polygon is an ecosystem of layer 2 blockchain platforms designed to enhance the scalability of Ethereum. Currently, the most used platform in the Polygon ecosystem is the Polygon Proof of Stake (PoS) platform, which is an Ethereum-compatible blockchain that offers substantially lower transaction fees.
The Polygon PoS platform has attracted significant attention from leading mainstream companies venturing into the web3 space.
Notably, Nike has introduced its web3 initiative, .Swoosh, on the Polygon blockchain, and Reddit has chosen Polygon to power its Collectible Avatars NFTs, showcasing the platform's appeal and utility across diverse industry giants looking to innovate within the digital and decentralized landscape.
Beyond the PoS platform, the Polygon is actively developing a suite of Ethereum-centric solutions, such as the zero-knowledge technology based Polygon zkEVM and Polygon Miden solutions, as well as the Polygon ID identity system.
Why Polygon?
The Polygon ecosystem continues to see plenty of activity and partnerships. Recently, Polygon teamed up with web3 incubator and launchpad platform Seedify to enable Polygon-based projects to use the Seedify platform.
Meanwhile, holders of the SFUND token will be able to bridge their tokens to protocols in the Polygon ecosystem. The two partners also plan to collaborate on marketing, events and other initiatives, especially related to blockchain gaming projects.
In other Polygon-related news, Sony Bank, which is the banking subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, is reportedly using the Polygon blockchain to test a fiat currency-pegged stablecoin. Per a report from Nikkei, the purpose of the pilot is to test whether a stablecoin could be used to settle payments for various digital sales related to Sony Group’s games and other properties.
The development of the stablecoin, which will track the value of the Japanese yen, will be led by Settlemint, a blockchain development firm based in Belgium.
4. Ethereum
Ethereum is a blockchain that supports smart contracts, enabling more complex use cases such as decentralized lending protocols and non-fungible tokens. The Ethereum project was founded by Vitalik Buterin, who published the Ethereum whitepaper in late 2013. The Ethereum blockchain launched in July 2015.
One of the first use cases enabled by Ethereum that gained a lot of traction was the ability to issue custom tokens that could be transacted over the Ethereum blockchain. This feature was utilized by many projects to conduct fundraising through Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and other types of token sales.
Today, Ethereum has an extremely vibrant ecosystem of decentralized applications – including decentralized financial services, NFT marketplaces, publishing platforms, decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges, and more – which makes it a good investment in 2023, in our opinion.
ETH is the native asset of the Ethereum blockchain, providing an incentive for users to secure the network. The Ethereum network originally implemented a Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism but switched over to Proof-of-Stake in September of 2022.
Why Ethereum?
Asset management giant BlackRock has launched a tokenized fund on the Ethereum blockchain. The fund is called BUIDL (BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity), and investors can access it via the Securitize tokenization platform.
BUIDL aims to maintain a stable value of $1 per token while distributing dividends daily directly to investors' wallets in the form of new tokens monthly. The Fund commits all of its assets to cash, U.S. Treasury bills, and repurchase agreements, providing investors the opportunity to generate yield simply by holding the token on the blockchain.
An Ethereum address associated with the BUIDL fund has been funded with 100 million USDC tokens.

The address has received a large number of transactions since it has been identified as belonging to BlackRock’s fund, but these transactions appear to be spam transactions designed to promote various meme coins and low-cap altcoins. The wallet has made no outgoing transactions since it was funded with $100 million USDC.
Here’s what BlackRock’s head of digital assets Robert Mitchnick had to say about the launch of the new tokenized fund:
“This is the latest progression of our digital assets strategy. We are focused on developing solutions in the digital assets space that help solve real problems for our clients, and we are excited to work with Securitize.”

5. Solana
Solana is a smart contracts platform with a unique architecture that allows it to process thousands of transactions per second while keeping costs extremely low. Solana achieves this by utilizing a unique Proof-of-History algorithm and a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. SOL is among the cheapest cryptos to transfer on the market, as users pay less than $0.001 per transaction on average.
Solana was founded in 2018 by Anatoly Yakovenko. The platform’s mainnet launched in March 2020, and saw a huge boost in adoption in 2021. While SOL has lost a lot of its value in the 2022 bear market, Solana still has one of the most impressive ecosystems in the cryptocurrency sector.

Why Solana?
The Solana blockchain is the epicenter of the current meme token bull market, as the platform’s low fees and streamlined user experience have made it a popular destination for users speculating on new meme token launches on decentralized exchanges. Tokens such as Dogwifhat and Bonk have triggered by meme token frenzy by displaying massive price surges that new meme tokens are now attempting to replicate.
Last Friday, the daily trading volume on Solana-based decentralized exchanges almost hit $3.8 billion, according to data from DeFi Llama.
Meanwhile, data from Google Trends shows that Google search interest for the term "Solana" is currently at its all-time highs, which suggests new crypto investors are interested in getting involved.

The price action of SOL has reflected this heightened activity, as the coin has gained 39.3% in the last week and surpassed the $200 mark for the first time since December 2021. SOL has advanced to the fourth spot in the cryptocurrency market cap rankings, surpassing BNB.

6. BNB
BNB is a token that was launched by the Binance cryptocurrency exchange in 2017. BNB serves two primary functions. Holders of the token get access to special benefits when using Binance – this includes lower trading fees, access the exchange’s Launchpad and Launchpool programs, cashback on Binance Visa card purchases, and more.
The token is also used as the native asset of the BNB Chain blockchain. BNB Chain is a variant of Ethereum that offers significantly lower transaction fees to users, and it allows developers to easily deploy EVM-compatible decentralized applications. Previously known as Binance Coin, BNB has now gone through an extensive rebranding.
Why BNB?
The Binance cryptocurrency exchange has been on a streak with its Launchpool platform, as three different Launchpool projects have been announced in very quick succession. The most recent announcement came on December 27, when the exchange unveiled the Launchpool program for the Sleepless AI project.
Since BNB is the only non-stablecoin crypto asset that can be used for Launchpool staking, the Launchpool announcements have significantly boosted demand for BNB. At the time of writing, BNB is posting a +38.5% change against the US dollar.
Users can stake their BNB via Binance Launchpool to earn tokens from upcoming blockchain projects. The BNB can be unstaked at any time, which means that users can receive a nice perk by getting some new tokens while assuming relatively low risk (holding BNB or stablecoins for the staking period).
In the coming days, it will be worth following Binance to see if they will perhaps be announcing another Launchpool program or perhaps even a new Launchpad program. If they do, we could see another increase in the price of BNB.

7. Uniswap
Uniswap is a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange that introduced and popularized the AMM (automated market maker) model. This unique design removes the need for order books, providing an elegant way for swapping between different tokens directly on the blockchain without relying on intermediaries.
The Uniswap protocol is decentralized, and anyone can create liquidity pools for any token. This means that the newest crypto assets are often traded on Uniswap before they make their way on centralized cryptocurrency exchanges.
The model introduced by Uniswap has been adopted by many decentralized exchanges on different blockchain platforms. However, Uniswap remains the most active decentralized exchange in terms of trading volume.
Uniswap is governed by holders of the UNI token, who can submit and vote for proposals. UNI was distributed to past users of the Uniswap protocol via an airdrop in 2020, and the token is now available for purchase on a variety of both decentralized and centralized trading platforms.
Why Uniswap?
The Uniswap Foundation has submitted a proposal to use the protocol’s fee mechanism to reward UNI token holders who stake and delegate their tokens. According to the proposal, the change is designed to incentivize "active, engaged and thoughtful delegation" in the Uniswap governance process.
If the community vote approves the proposal, it would allow for the automatic and unrestricted collection of protocol fees, which would then be distributed evenly among UNI token holders who have staked their tokens and delegated their voting rights.
The market has received the proposal very positively, as UNI’s price spiked from $7.16 to $12.27 (+71%) in a little more than an hour after the proposal was published. Although UNI has seen a price correction since, the token is till trading at $10.56 at the time of writing, which is significantly above its pre-spike levels.

8. Mina Protocol
Mina Protocol is a project that’s building an extremely lightweight blockchain. With the help of zero-knowledge technology, the size of the Mina blockchain is kept at just 22 kilobytes at all times.
The Mina Protocol’s version of decentralized applications is called zkApps. The smart contracts these applications are built with support zero-knowledge proofs, which can allow users to prove ownership of their data without disclosing the data itself to the party they’re interacting with. zkApps can also source data from any website privately, providing easy access to real-world data instead of relying on complicated oracle systems.
Why Mina Protocol?
Zero-knowledge technology is likely to become a very important trend in the crypto and blockchain space moving forward, and Mina Protocol could be positioned very well to take advantage of this.
In addition, the lightweight design of the Mina Blockchain makes it easier to participate in the network, which is especially relevant for mobile devices. If we’re going to see widespread adoption of blockchain technology, it’s most likely that a large number of people will be using blockchain through mobile devices. This could make Mina a candidate to become one of the next cryptocurrencies to explode.

9. Cosmos
Cosmos is a network that’s designed to allow different blockchain platforms to interoperate with each other. The Cosmos network is coordinated by the Cosmos Hub, a Proof-of-Stake blockchain. The Cosmos Hub is also designed to facilitate connections with blockchains outside of the Cosmos ecosystem, for example Bitcoin and Ethereum. The different blockchains that make up Cosmos communicate through a protocol called IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication).
The Cosmos Hub and other blockchains in the Cosmos network are built using the Cosmos SDK framework. Blockchains launched on Cosmos benefit from a robust Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, fast transaction times (about 7 seconds) and low transaction costs (about $0.01 per transaction).
The native asset of Cosmos is called ATOM. Users can stake their ATOM tokens to contribute to the network’s security as well as earn staking rewards and a portion of the transaction fees collected by the network.
Why Cosmos?
The Cosmos community has approved a proposal to cap the inflation rate of the ATOM token at 10%. The current inflation rate is at about 14%, while the cap is set at 20%. Once enacted, the proposal will reduce the amount of new ATOM tokens entering circulation. However, it will also reduce the APR of staking ATOM tokens from about 19% to roughly 13.4%.
According to the proposal, research indicated that the Cosmos Hub blockchain is currently overpaying for its security. The proposal also argues that reducing the inflation of ATOM could have a positive influence on decentralized finance protocols and money markets in the Cosmos ecosystem.
The vote was quite contentious, as the "Yes" option received 41.1% of the vote. The "No" option received 31.9% of the vote, the "Veto" option received 6.6%, while the remaining 20.4% of the votes were for the "Abstain" option. Interestingly enough, this proposal saw the highest voter turnout in the history of the Cosmos ecosystem.

10. Litecoin
Litecoin is a cryptocurrency that was initially launched in October 2011, making it one of the oldest “altcoins” on the market. Litecoin is heavily based on Bitcoin, as it started off as essentially a modified version of Bitcoin’s codebase.
Litecoin has a maximum coin supply of 84 million, which is 4 times larger than that of Bitcoin. Its targeted block time is 2.5 minutes, which is 4 times faster than Bitcoin’s targeted block time. Just like Bitcoin, Litecoin also uses Proof-of-Work to reach consensus about the state of its Ledger. While Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 hash function, Litecoin uses the scrypt hash function.
Sometimes, Litecoin has been used as a proving ground for technologies that were later implemented into Bitcoin. For example, SegWit was first implemented into Litecoin before it went live on the Bitcoin network. However, Litecoin also has some unique technological aspects to it, most notably its support for MimbleWimble privacy technology.
Litecoin fans often describe Litecoin as the “silver to Bitcoin’s gold”. LTC transactions are cheaper and faster than BTC transactions, making Litecoin a more suitable option for everyday payments.
Why Litecoin?
The next Litecoin halving is expected to take place on August 2 at 1:30 PM UTC. Litecoin has been a strong performer in the past couple of months as traders have been accumulating their LTC positions ahead of the upcoming halving. LTC is up +38% since the start of the year and is currently the 11th largest digital currency by market capitalization.

According to blockchain analytics firm LunarCrush, Litecoin has had “the strongest combined social and trading activity across the crypto market” as of late. “Social engagement continues to spike higher, indicating increased community activity and participation within social posts,” LunarCrush wrote about the trending coin.
In addition to the excitement surrounding the halving, the institutional investor narrative has been very strong in crypto as of late – firms like Blackrock, Fidelity, and several others filed Bitcoin ETF applications over the past couple of weeks, signaling that institutions consider crypto as a part of their long term strategies. In the midst of this mounting investor interest, LTC has been listed on the EDX Markets exchange as one of the four cryptocurrencies on the platform. EDX Markets is a cryptocurrency trading platform backed by financial industry heavyweights, including Fidelity and Citadel Securities.
Another reason why Litecoin has been doing well as of late could be that LTC doesn’t appear to be in danger of being labeled an unregistered security by U.S. regulators. In its recent lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase, the SEC has alleged that several cryptocurrencies offered by the exchanges are unregistered securities, but didn’t mention Litecoin as one of them.

11. Shiba Inu
Shiba Inu is a meme cryptocurrency that was launched in 2020 by a person using the pseudonym “Ryoshi”. The project is heavily inspired by the Dogecoin cryptocurrency, and also features the Shiba Inu dog breed in its branding. In contrast to Dogecoin, which has its own blockchain, Shiba Inu is issued on the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC-20 token.
During the SHIB token launch, half of the supply was sent to Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin (who is not involved with the project in any way). The project framed this as a token burn. Buterin did eventually burn the vast majority of his SHIB holdings and sold the rest of his tokens to fund charitable donations.
SHIB saw a significant spike in popularity in 2021 and became the second largest meme coin by market cap, second only to Dogecoin. In addition, SHIB is one of the most popular penny cryptos at the moment.
Why Shiba Inu?
The team behind the Shiba Inu project is trying to obtain the .shib Top-Level Domain (TLD). TLDs are domains such as .com, .org, .net and .io, and they are used to organize websites based on categories such as use case and geographical location.
The Shiba Inu team has partnered with web3 domain project D3 in their attempt to obtain the .shib TLD. The implications of .shib being added to the global Domain Name System go beyond just vanity websites. D3 explains that current crypto domain names like .crypto don't natively function across platforms, whereas Shib aims for true cross-compatibility with services people use daily.
If Shiba Inu is successful in obtaining the .shib domain, this could enable websites, personalized usernames and even email addresses ending in .shib.
Whether the .shib TLD will be approved or not will depend on ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). In any case, the results of the collaboration between Shiba Inu and D3 won't be immediate, as it can take between 3 and 5 years for a new TLD to receive approval.

12. Toncoin
Toncoin is a blockchain project that’s continuing the development of a blockchain platform that was initially designed by the team behind the Telegram messenger. While Telegram was forced to abandon the project due to legal trouble with securities regulators in the United States, community members saw potential in Telegram’s blockchain vision and resumed development under the name Toncoin.
The development of Toncoin is led by an organization called the TON Foundation, which has no formal association with Telegram. However, the Telegram team is integrating various solutions powered by the Toncoin blockchain into their messenger. For example, the Telegram app now allows users to access the TON Space wallet.
From a technical perspective, Toncoin is a scalable blockchain with smart contracts functionality and a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. However, the initial distribution of TON was performed through a Proof-of-Work model to ensure a fair launch.
Why Toncoin?
The TON Foundation has announced that the first season of their Open League initiative will be launching on April 1. The initiative, which will be conducted through monthly seasons, will distribute 30 million TON (around $160 million at current prices) in total rewards to both development teams building on the TON blockchain as well as the platform’s users.

Projects participating in the Open League will be divided into a Major League and a Minor League. Projects will be competing with each other to reach certain KPIs (key performance indicators), with the best performers receiving rewards and a promotion to the Major League and the worst performers being “relegated” to the Minor League.
Meanwhile, users will be able to earn TON rewards through activities called “quests”, as well as by participating as LPs in certain liquidity pools.
Another interesting development for Toncoin is the launch of a TON-based ETP (exchange-traded product) on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The product, which has the ticker TONN, was launched by crypto asset manager 21Shares AG. Notably, the ETP allows investors to benefit from staking rewards, which is a rarity when it comes to crypto investment products that are available on traditional stock exchanges.
Best crypto to buy for beginners
If you're a new entrant in the cryptocurrency space, it's probably best to stick to cryptocurrencies that have been around for a longer period of time and have a well-developed ecosystem of resources for users. This will make it easier for you to set up your wallet and find answers if you encounter any problems along the way.
If you're a beginner, consider sticking to cryptocurrencies that satisfy the following criteria:
The coin has a significant market capitalization ($1 billion and up)The coin is listed on many cryptocurrency exchanges and can easily be exchanged against fiat currenciesThe coin has solid liquidity (at least $100 million in 24-hour trading volume)The coin is already a working product and is not based on future promises
If you stick to coins that meet these criteria, you'll automatically be filtering out a lot of low-quality projects and reducing your chances of falling victim to scams. You will also easily be able to sell your coins and convert them to fiat currency if you ever decide to do so.
Here's a few examples of cryptocurrencies that are worth considering for beginner investors in crypto. These coins have a lot of liquidity, well-developed ecosystems and a lot of educational resources and tools that will help beginners get up to speed.
BitcoinEthereumLitecoinPolygonSolana
Please note that cryptocurrencies are risky investments and typically display a lot of price volatility. This is true even for established cryptocurrencies with multi-billion dollar market capitalizations. Never invest more than you are willing to lose.

Best crypto to buy for long-term investors
Many crypto investors prefer to passively hold their cryptocurrencies over the long term instead of actively trading them. Frankly, this is a good decision if you don't want to put a lot of time and effort into following everything that's happening in the crypto and blockchain space.
If you're trying to invest in crypto for the long term, we recommend that you only stick to the most established cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. While they are still risky, their fundamentals are much more robust than projects that heavily depend on just a few developers and community leaders.
In order to invest in crypto successfully over the long term, we recommend that you store your coins safely using a hardware crypto wallet. Although there's plenty of high-quality hardware wallets out there, Ledger's devices stand out as the best choice overall in our opinion.

How we chose the best cryptocurrencies to buy
With thousands of different cryptocurrencies on the market, it can be challenging to narrow down the list to only about a dozen coins. When creating this list, we aimed to showcase a variety of cryptocurrency projects, ranging from well-established projects to more speculative projects that could potentially have a lot of upside. Here's the factors we considered when deciding which cryptocurrencies to feature.

Availability
It's important for a cryptocurrency to be easily available across a variety of cryptocurrency exchanges, including both centralized and decentralized options. We also considered whether the cryptocurrency can be traded directly against fiat currencies, which makes the process of buying and selling much more straightforward.
Market capitalization
The coins featured on our list of the best cryptocurrencies to buy in 2023 are all among the 100 largest crypto assets by market capitalization. By itself, a large market capitalization doesn't mean that the project is of high quality. However, it is a good indication that there's a lot of community interest in the project, and coins with a larger market cap are more resilient to market manipulation attempts as moving the market requires large amounts of capital.

Sector leadership
The cryptocurrency market can be divided into several sectors. For example, we have Proof-of-Work cryptocurrencies and Proof-of-Stake cryptocurrencies, which represent two of the main approaches towards achieving decentralized consensus. We can further identify other sectors such as decentralized finance, non-fungible tokens, layer 2 projects, meme coins and others.

We attempted to highlight projects that are leaders in their respective sectors in order to showcase the variety that can be found in the crypto and blockchain space.

Working products
It's important that the cryptocurrency we're featuring has a working product already and isn't simply based on future promises. When it comes to cryptocurrencies, we generally avoid highlighting coins that don't have a working mainnet yet. When it comes to tokens, we try to focus on tokens that are used as utility tokens in a working product or as governance tokens in an actively used decentralized protocol.

Occasionally, we will highlight coins that are about to launch their mainnet or key product soon. However, we try to limit this only to top tier projects that are highly anticipated by the crypto community.

Team and development
Most high-quality crypto and blockchain projects are transparent about their team and their credentials. We prefer to highlight projects developed and managed by highly qualified individuals. In addition, we put a lot of value on activity. If a project is being developed actively, we're much more likely to feature it over a project that is only improved occasionally.

Of course, a project's team or founders being anonymous is not a dealbreaker in every single case. After all, we still don't know who created Bitcoin.

The bottom line: What crypto to buy now?
What is the best crypto to buy now is mostly dependent on your own individual risk profile and investment goals. If you are interested in cryptocurrencies that have long-term potential, then staples like BTC and ETH are probably the right choice for you.

If your risk appetite is greater, you can try to pursue investments in cryptos under 1 cent or participate in the latest crypto presales if you are feeling especially frisky.

In any case, please keep in mind that the cryptocurrency market is highly volatile and that investing in cryptocurrency is subject to considerable risk. Always do your research and consider your financial situation before making any investment, and never invest more than you are willing to lose.

Hong Kong’s HashKey crypto exchange launches global platform with aim of overtaking Coinbase in 5 years
Hong Kong’s biggest licensed cryptocurrency exchange operator has launched a global trading platform, but it is not available in the US or ChinaHashKey COO Livio Weng says overtaking Coinbase will not be hard, points to advantages of ease of use and regulatory compliance
Hong Kong’s biggest licensed cryptocurrency exchange operator, HashKey Group, has launched a new global trading platform that it hopes will help the company overtake US-based crypto giant Coinbase in trading volume within five years.
The new cryptocurrency exchange, HashKey Global, operates with a Digital Asset Business licence issued in Bermuda. It is now available globally with one big caveat: for regulatory reasons, certain markets like the US, mainland China and Hong Kong cannot use it, HashKey Group chief operating officer (COO) Livio Weng said in an interview on Saturday on the sidelines of the Hong Kong Web3 Festival, a crypto conference organised by the company.
The company, established in Hong Kong in 2018, operates the local HashKey Exchange, which was approved by the city’s securities regulator last August to serve retail investors under the city’s new crypto regulatory regime. The exchange can so far only offer bitcoin and ether for retail trading.
HashKey Exchange now has more than 170,000 registered users, Weng said on Saturday. It hosted about US$35 million in 24-hour trading volume on Monday, according to market tracker CoinGecko, which ranks the platform 15th according to a trust score that tries to measure legitimacy of trading data. However, HashKey’s volume is still a trickle compared with some of the world’s largest exchanges.
Binance had US$6.3 billion in 24-hour normalised trading volume by mid-day on Monday, while OKX recorded more than US$2.1 billion, CoinGecko shows. HashKey is hoping that a new global exchange will supercharge its market position. Weng said the company intends to have more trading volume than Coinbase, the largest US crypto exchange, across all HashKey Group platforms by 2029.
We have seen their data and we don’t think that’ll be difficult,” Weng said.
The global exchange could be particularly appealing to overseas Chinese and investors across Asian markets that do not block offshore crypto exchanges, according to the COO. Facing intense competition from existing crypto exchanges around the world, HashKey Global has an advantage as a compliant platform that also offers a smooth experience, Weng said. Most of the world’s major exchanges are either “easy to use but not compliant”, or “compliant but hard to use”, he said.
HashKey Group – whose businesses include the investment firm HashKey Capital and an asset-management arm – is among a range of cryptocurrency companies banking on Hong Kong’s embrace of the virtual asset industry. While public perception of the sector took a plunge last year following high-profile scandals – including the collapse of FTX in late 2022 and a local fraud involving the lesser known JPEX exchange a year later – confidence has rebounded in recent months after a surge in bitcoin prices in the new year. It hit a new record of more than US$73,000 last month. Apart from a mandatory licensing regime for crypto exchanges, Hong Kong is also moving to regulate stablecoins and over-the-counter cryptocurrency shops. Many are also anticipating an imminent approval of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the city.

Futures investing is found in a variety of markets, such as stocks and commodities, but it’s not for beginners.

Nerdy takeaways

Futures are derivative contracts to buy or sell an asset at a future date at an agreed-upon price.

Futures contracts allow players to secure a specific price and protect against future price swings.

You can buy futures on commodities like coffee, stock indexes like the S&P 500 or cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Leverage and margin problems are risks of futures trading, which is less regulated than stock trading.

What are futures?

Futures are derivative contracts to buy or sell an asset at a future date at an agreed-upon price.

That asset might be soybeans, coffee, oil, individual stocks, exchange-traded funds, cryptocurrencies or a range of others. Futures contracts can be used by many kinds of financial players, including investors and speculators, as well as companies that actually want to take physical delivery of the commodity or supply it.

Oil, for example, is a commodity that can be traded in futures contracts. Investors can also trade S&P 500 futures contracts — an example of stock futures investing.

What is a futures market?

A futures market is an exchange where investors can buy and sell futures contracts. In typical futures contracts, one party agrees to buy a given quantity of securities or a commodity, and take delivery on a certain date. The selling party agrees to provide it. Most participants in the futures markets are consumers, or commercial or institutional commodities producers, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Commodity futures and options must be traded through an exchange by people and firms registered with the CFTC.

To decide whether futures deserve a spot in your investment portfolio, consider the following.

Using futures

Futures contracts allow players to secure a specific price and protect against the possibility of wild price swings (up or down) ahead. To illustrate how futures work, consider jet fuel:

An airline company wanting to lock in jet fuel prices to avoid an unexpected increase could buy a futures contract agreeing to buy a set amount of jet fuel for delivery in the future at a specified price.

A fuel distributor may sell a futures contract to ensure it has a steady market for fuel and to protect against an unexpected decline in prices.

Both sides agree on specific terms: To buy (or sell) 1 million gallons of fuel, delivering it in 90 days, at a price of $3 per gallon.

In this example, both parties are hedgers, real companies that need to trade the underlying commodity because it's the basis of their business. They use the futures market to manage their exposure to the risk of price changes.

But not everyone in the futures market wants to exchange a product in the future. These people are futures investors or speculators, who seek to make money off of price changes in the contract itself. If the price of jet fuel rises, the futures contract itself becomes more valuable, and the owner of that contract could sell it for more in the futures market. These types of traders can buy and sell the futures contract, with no intention of taking delivery of the underlying commodity; they're just in the market to wager on price movements.

With speculators, investors, hedgers and others buying and selling daily, there is a lively and relatively liquid market for these contracts.

Stock futures investing

Commodities represent a big part of the futures-trading world, but it's not all about hogs, corn and soybeans. Stock futures investing lets you trade futures of individual companies and shares of ETFs.

Futures contracts also exist for bonds and even bitcoin. Some traders like trading futures because they can take a substantial position (the amount invested) while putting up a relatively small amount of cash. That gives them greater potential for leverage than just owning the securities directly.

Most investors think about buying an asset anticipating that its price will go up in the future. But short-selling lets investors do the opposite — borrow money to bet an asset's price will fall so they can buy later at a lower price.

One common application for futures relates to the U.S. stock market. Someone wanting to hedge exposure to stocks may short-sell a futures contract on the Standard & Poor’s 500. If stocks fall, they make money on the short, balancing out their exposure to the index. Conversely, the same investor may feel confident in the future and buy a long contract – gaining a lot of upside if stocks move higher.

What are futures contracts?

Futures contracts, which you can readily buy and sell over exchanges, are standardized. Each futures contract will typically specify all the different contract parameters:

The unit of measurement.

How the trade will be settled – either with physical delivery of a given quantity of goods, or with a cash settlement.

The quantity of goods to be delivered or covered under the contract.

The currency unit in which the contract is denominated

The currency in which the futures contract is quoted.

Grade or quality considerations, when appropriate. For example, this could be a certain octane of gasoline or a certain purity of metal.

If you plan to begin trading futures, be careful because you don't want to have to take physical delivery. Most casual traders don't want to be obligated to sign for receipt of a trainload of swine when the contract expires and then figure out what to do with it.

The risks of futures trading: margin and leverage

Many speculators borrow a substantial amount of money to play the futures market because it’s the main way to magnify relatively small price movements to potentially create profits that justify the time and effort.

But borrowing money also increases risk: If markets move against you, and do so more dramatically than you expect, you could lose more money than you invested. The CFTC warns that futures are complex, volatile, and not recommended for individual investors.

Leverage and margin rules are a lot more liberal in the futures and commodities world than they are for the securities trading world. A commodities broker may allow you to leverage 10:1 or even 20:1, depending on the contract, much higher than you could obtain in the stock world. The exchange sets the rules.

The greater the leverage, the greater the gains, but the greater the potential loss, as well: A 5% change in prices can cause an investor leveraged 10:1 to gain or lose 50 percent of her investment. This volatility means that speculators need the discipline to avoid overexposing themselves to any undue risk when investing in futures.

If such risk seems too much and you're looking for a way to shake up your investment strategy, consider trading options instead.

How to start trading futures

It's relatively easy to get started trading futures. Open an account with a broker that supports the markets you want to trade. A futures broker will likely ask about your experience with investing, income and net worth. These questions are designed to determine the amount of risk the broker will allow you to take on, in terms of margin and positions.

There's no industry standard for commission and fee structures in futures trading. Every broker provides varying services. Some provide a good deal of research and advice, while others simply give you a quote and a chart.

Some sites will allow you to open up a paper trading account. You can practice trading with “paper money” before you commit real dollars to your first trade. This is an invaluable way to check your understanding of the futures markets and how the markets, leverage and commissions interact with your portfolio.

If you’re just getting started, we highly recommend spending some time trading in a virtual account until you’re sure you have the hang of it.

Even experienced investors will often use a paper trading account to test a new strategy. Some brokers may allow you access to their full range of analytic services in the paper trading account.

Currently, both centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency trading platforms offer a wide range of types of trading. While beginning traders are usually advised to start with spot trading as a simpler and more straightforward option, the cryptocurrency derivatives market should not be overlooked. Over the past few years, it has grown manifold.

One of the most popular derivatives among others is futures. Understanding the differences between spot and futures markets is one of the first steps to becoming an experienced crypto trader. In this article, we will explore the features of both spot and futures trading and compare them in several ways.

What is Crypto Spot Trading?

Spot trading is the purchase or sale of cryptocurrency with immediate delivery (payment “on the spot”). This type of trading allows the exchange of any assets — cryptocurrencies, NFT, fiat currencies and others.

Spot trading is the most common and simplest type of cryptocurrency trading. The essence of spot trading strategy is buying cryptocurrency at current market prices and selling it later it at a higher price.

Spot transactions take place on a wide variety of platforms, from centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges, to common Telegram chatbots/bots. All cryptocurrency spot exchanges operate 24/7, unlike traditional stock exchanges.

Advantages of Spot Trading

Spot trading has several important advantages which make it so popular:

First, it is extremely easy, even for beginners;

Spot market traders take ownership of the purchased assets;

The risks are minimal due to the absence of such complicated notions as margin, leverage, expiry, and liquidation.

Disadvantages of Spot Trading

However, spot trading is also associated with some disadvantages:

Since the trader takes the ownership of the cryptocurrency, they are burdened with  its storage;

Leverage trading is not allowed on the spot market, which reduces the opportunities for greater profits;

For the owners of the purchased cryptocurrency, it is possible to make income only at a rising market. Thus, during the bearish trend, the investor's assets will lose their value.

The Types of Spot Market

Spot trading occurs in two different markets — OTC markets and cryptocurrency exchanges such as Redot.

Market Exchanges

Cryptocurrency exchanges are the backbone of the cryptocurrency industry. That is why, spot trades are executed mainly on cryptocurrency exchanges. Moreover, cryptocurrency exchanges also allow for generating passive income through staking assets.

Transactions on exchanges are made through a trading terminal with the order book or an automated market maker. The exchanges can be centralized (CEX) and decentralized (DEX). Centralized exchanges are in fact the organizations, which provide intermediary services between the buyer and the seller. Decentralized exchanges, on the other hand, are blockchain-based. The trades are executed directly between the seller and the buyer without intermediaries.

Over-the-Counter (OTC)

OTC or over-the-counter trading refers to transactions on P2P (peer-to-peer) platforms. The assets are exchanged directly between individuals or organizations. OTC trading usually takes place on aggregator sites or telegram bots, with the sufficient number of sellers and buyers.

Source: WallStreetMojo

OTC platforms offer a higher level of anonymity than centralized exchanges (though more and more platforms now require KYC). However, with many exchanges introducing an escrow mechanism, OTC trading can be considered a fairly reliable way to buy cryptocurrencies.  

It is important to note that OTC markets attract not only small investors seeking to remain anonymous, but also the “whales”. The big players make purchases on the OTC market so that their large transactions do not affect cryptocurrency charts.

What are Derivatives?

Besides spot, there are other financial instruments available in the crypto market. One of them is crypto derivatives. They are essentially contracts for buying or selling an asset at a particular time in the future. Traders do not take the ownership of the underlying assets, but have a right or obligation to execute the contract.

Derivatives allow using leverage trading, which can potentially result in higher profits. However, one should keep in mind that derivatives are quite a complex instrument. They should only be used after gaining enough knowledge of this instrument. Otherwise, traders are facing higher risk of the loss of funds and incurring debt.

What is Crypto Futures Trading?

One of the most popular cryptocurrency derivatives are cryptocurrency futures. They are contracts that reflect the value of the underlying cryptocurrency. Buying a futures contract is not equal to buying its underlying asset. You become the owner of the contract with an obligation to buy or sell the underlying asset in the future at a predetermined fixed price.

For example, when you trade a BTCUSD contract, you are not actually buying or selling BTC, but rather trading at the value derived from BTC. You are betting on whether the price of the underlying asset (BTC) will increase or decrease. The profit or loss will depend on how accurate your prediction is.

Futures trading is a high risk, high profit activity, which is more suitable for experienced traders and investors. Above all, this is due to the possibility of using leverage, which allows opening much larger positions with borrowed funds. Thankfully, the risks of margin trading are to some extent covered by the mechanisms of protection and risk management, such as insurance funds.

Advantages of Crypto Futures Trading

Futures trading has a number of advantages: First of all, in good hands, it is an excellent tool for hedging risk;

All futures can be sold short, giving the chance to make a profit on the bear market;

Leverage allows entering into transactions for amounts traders do not have to increase profit;

Futures are among the assets with high liquidity, as they are quite popular among traders.

Disadvantages of Crypto Futures Trading

Among the disadvantages are high complexity for beginners to enter the futures market and high risks, especially when using leverage. Short-term fluctuations in the value of the underlying asset can lead to position liquidation and significant losses. Also, futures do not give owners privileges. Investors cannot benefit economically from staking, for instance, because they do not own the underlying cryptocurrency.

Crypto Spot VS Futures Trading

Both spot trading and futures trading are two of the most popular ways to trade cryptocurrencies. So, what's the difference between spot and futures trading?

Leverage

When talking about futures vs spot, the concept of leverage is the major difference between the two. Leverage is used in futures trading to increase capital efficiency. For example, if you want to purchase 1 bitcoin (around $20,000 worth), but have only $1000 on your account, you can borrow the remaining $19,000 from the exchange (20x leverage).

Spot trading, on the other hand, does not offer leverage. You simply exchange your existing assets for other assets at the current market price. Therefore, to buy 1 BTC on spot market you will need exactly $20,000. At the same time, on futures market, only 10-15% of that amount is required to open a position for 1 BTC.

Spot Price VS Future Price

All transactions on the spot market are made at the current price, which is calculated depending on supply and demand.

The futures price consists of the basic spot price plus the futures premium. The futures premium can be either positive or negative. A positive premium indicates that the futures price is above the spot price. Conversely, a negative premium indicates that the futures price is below the spot price. A change in the balance of supply and demand can result in a change in the futures premium.

Counterparty Risk

Since a futures contract is essentially a contract for a future transaction at a specific price, there is a possibility that on the date of the settlement, one party will fail to fulfil their obligations.

In the spot market the settlement takes place automatically here and now where the exchange has the role of the guarantor. And in the case of the OTC market in a P2P transaction, there are protective mechanisms, such as escrow service.

Long or Short Flexibility

After buying assets on the spot market, you can only make money by increasing the assets’ value. Futures, on the other hand, are a more flexible instrument. They allow you to earn even on the bearish market. In this case, you can make money by opening a short position. This feature also allows you to use futures contracts to hedge against market volatility.

Fork ownership

Since you have the ownership of the cryptocurrencies purchased on the spot market, you are entitled to all the rights connected to the asset, including forks, staking, and airdrops. In case of a cryptocurrency fork, you will receive the coin of the new blockchain branch. For example, in 2017 for each bitcoin (BTC), an owner got 1 Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Of course, futures traders are not entitled to forks, since they own contracts, not the underlying assets.

In both spot and futures markets, there are two main parties involved in the transaction: the buyer and the seller. Spot transactions can be executed without intermediaries. For instance, P2P platforms allow for intermediary-free trading.

Futures transaction require an intermediary because of the use of leverage. The intermediary is usually a centralized exchange or a smart contract if the position is opened on the DEX.

Trading Fees

Typically, commissions for spot trades have a simple structure. For example:

Trading fee = 1 BTC * 0.1% = 0.001 BTC

However, the amount of fee depends on your order type. If you place a limit order, then you will be a maker. Most platforms offer either zero or very low fee for makers. Makers are rewarded with lower fees as they add liquidity to the exchange by filling the order book.

If you trade using market orders, then you are a taker. Higher fees apply to takers as they take out the liquidity from the order book.

The maker/taker rules apply to the futures market as well. However, the fee structure is a bit more complicated. Traders pay a fee both for opening a position and for closing it. Thus, the Notional Value of the position is included in the fee calculation equation:

For example, Commission Fee = Notional Value * Fee Rate;

Notional Value = (number of contracts * contract size) / open/close price.

Date of Delivery

While a spot transaction is settled here and now, futures’ settlement time may vary. The settlement usually occurs at or close to the expiration date. For example, monthly futures expire and settle on the last Friday of each month, while quarterly futures — on the last Friday of each quarter.

When the contract expires, buyers and sellers do not exchange the underlying asset directly. Instead, the futures exchange delivers all open positions at the settlement price (the price of the last hour moving average based on the index).

It is worth mentioning that futures can come without any delivery date (expiration). They are called perpetual futures or “perps”. With perps, users do not need to monitor the futures calendar. Position can be held indefinitely — until they are liquidated.

Conclusion

Both the spot and the futures market have many fundamental differences, despite the fact that both are extremely popular. Which one to choose depends primarily on your needs, experience, and trading strategies.

If you prefer long-term investing and are an active user of cryptocurrencies, the spot market is more suitable for you. But if you prefer to speculate on the price of cryptocurrencies, futures contracts might be your best bet. Experienced traders may exploit the opportunities of both markets.

In a spot market, traders can immediately exchange their cryptocurrency for fiat currency or another cryptocurrency by placing a buy or sell order.

Since their inception, cryptocurrencies have seen rapid growth and widespread market adoption, as evidenced by the assets tied to crypto assets that have started to appear in the portfolios and trading methods of numerous asset managers. The process of purchasing and selling cryptocurrencies to profit is known as cryptocurrency trading. 

Trading in cryptocurrencies can be defined in terms of its objective, mode of operation and trading approach. For example, the asset being exchanged, or cryptocurrency, is the goal of cryptocurrency trading. The manner in which cryptocurrencies are traded depends on the type of transaction, such as futures, options or perpetual contracts that take place on the market.

An investor’s trading strategy for cryptocurrencies specifies a set of predetermined guidelines for buying and selling on cryptocurrency exchanges. One of the basic trading methods to invest in cryptocurrencies is spot trading, in which traders buy assets with the hope of selling them at a higher price in the future.

What is a spot market in crypto?

The base market, where crypto assets are instantaneously exchanged and settled, is known as a spot market, and trading in this market includes buying digital currencies like Bitcoin or other altcoins and hodling them until their value rises.

It is called spot trading because the transactions are settled “on the spot.” Furthermore, spot markets include sellers, buyers and order books. Sellers make an order with a specific ask or sell price, and buyers place an order for any cryptocurrency token with a particular bid or purchase price. The bid price is the highest price that a buyer is ready to pay, and the ask price is the lowest price that a seller is willing to accept as payment.

The order book has two sides: The ask side for buyers eager to buy and the bid side for sellers willing to sell. The order book records bids and asks in the order book. For instance, in spot trading, if Bob makes an order to purchase BTC, this transaction will instantly go to the bid side of the order book. When a seller from the crypto spot trading platform is selling at the same specifications, this order is automatically filled.

The transaction continues to the ask side of the order book when Bob enters an order to sell BTC in the above crypto spot trading example. The orders in green in the order book reflect purchasers of a specific token, while the orders in red represent sellers of that token.

What is spot trading in crypto?

The goal of spot trading is to buy low and sell high in order to make a profit, but it's not sure that this tactic will always work to the traders’ advantage considering the volatility of the crypto market.

The spot price, trade date and settlement date are the three crucial concepts in spot trading. The current price of any asset is called the spot price, and the traders can sell assets under consideration immediately at this price. Additionally, one can buy or sell cryptocurrencies with other users on various exchange platforms.

The spot price changes as new orders are placed and old ones are filled. The trade date initiates and records the transaction and represents the day the market actually carries out the trade. The assets involved in the transaction are actually transferred on the settlement date, also known as the spot date.

Depending on the sort of market being traded, there may be one day or several days between the trade date and the settlement date. For cryptocurrency, it usually happens on the same day, though it may differ among exchanges or trading platforms.

How does crypto spot trading work?

A market order on an exchange allows traders to purchase or sell assets at the best available spot price. A spot market typically offers a variety of currencies, including BTC, Ether, BNB and even fiat. There are numerous methods for purchasing and selling coins on many cryptocurrency exchanges, and spot traders frequently use a variety of fundamental and technical analysis approaches to make trading decisions.

One can spot trade at centralized exchanges, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) or over-the-counter (OTC) markets. You must first fund your account with the cryptocurrency you want to trade to use a centralized exchange. On centralized exchanges, fees are often levied on listings, trades and other trading activities.

Blockchain technology is used by DEXs to match buying and selling orders, and crypto spot trading strategies can be done directly from a trader's wallet thanks to smart contracts. Trading can occur directly on OTC platforms, through brokers that execute trades on behalf of their clients, or even over the phone in the internet age.

Pros and cons of crypto spot trading

When you purchase an asset at the spot price, one truly becomes the asset owner, allowing traders to sell it or relocate it to offline storage as they like. In addition, spot trading enables traders to use their cryptocurrency assets for additional functions like online payments or staking.

Moreover, spot trading is substantially less risky than margin trading, i.e., one can invest in crypto assets without worrying about losing money due to price changes and dealing with margin calls. As a result, the trader does not run the risk of contributing more of their own money or losing more money than they already have in their account because there are no margin calls.

However, the biggest drawback of spot trading is that it does not offer the advantage of any potential return amplification that leverage in margin trading might provide. Moreover, due to the absence of leverage, potential gains in the spot market are lower than those in margin trading.

How to spot trade crypto on Binance?

Once you’ve created a Binance account, spot trading on the platform is a straightforward procedure. Crypto spot trading fees on Binance for BTC and BUSD spot trading pairs is 0%. The steps to spot trade on Binance are as follows:

On the Binance site, select “Trade” and then “Spot” to access the spot trading platform.

The trading view interface, which has a few exciting elements, will now be visible to you.

The cryptocurrency trading pair and other market data, such as the daily price change and volume, are displayed at the top.

All open purchase and sell orders for an asset are listed in the order book, sorted by price. One can customize the historical price data in this chart view. TradingView, already included in the window, provides access to a comprehensive range of technical analysis tools.

One can search for different trading pairs in the top right corner. By clicking on the tiny stars, one can save your favorite cryptocurrency pairs and select the cryptocurrency pair one wants to trade on the spot market.

One's purchase or sell order will be created in this section. They can select from the various order types: limit, market and stop-limit orders to conduct a spot trade transaction.

Is crypto spot trading profitable?

Traders generally apply a dollar-cost averaging strategy and wait for the next bull market to profit from spot trade. However, rewards come at the cost of patience, and nothing is instant in the volatile crypto market. Moreover, before trading in any crypto assets or utilizing spot trading strategies, it is wise to conduct due diligence and exercise risk management to avoid suffering losses. But, is crypto spot trading good for beginners?

Each investor has a different risk-return profile, and given the highly volatile cryptocurrency market, one should weigh the pros and cons of the trading strategy (in this case, spot trading) of their choice. This means that traders must use caution when deciding which assets to trade and must be well-versed in the market before they begin.

SHIB has reached an important new milestone that speaks of its fast-growing adoption and utility level. Over the past 24 hours, the number of SHIB holders has increased significantly, while such coins as LINK, MATIC and others lag behind.

SHIB number of holders spikes

According to CryptEye data, the number of wallets holding SHIB has increased by 1,679 since yesterday morning. At the same time, LINK has added 548, MATIC's number of holders increased by 707 and MANA's rose by 151.

Over the past hour alone, SHIB has gained 35 new holders. Over the past week, the increase totals 10,142. The overall number of SHIB holders now stands at 2,368,030.

This is not the only metric that has risen, indicating increased SHIB utility. According Puppyscan, the overall number of transactions on the Shibarium testnet has reached 27,615,568, while the number of connected wallets is equal to 17,061,117.

SHIB burns turn green

Shibburn explorer data demonstrates that over the past 24 hours, SHIB burns have managed to enter the green zone, although the rise is marginal – merely 7.76% compared to what was burned yesterday. A total of 7,966,120 SHIB has been removed from the circulating supply since yesterday morning.

So far, there have been only three transactions of 2,726,653 SHIB; 4,165,357 SHIB and 1,074,109 SHIB, sending these meme tokens to unspendable wallets.

Per the Shibburn website, by now, a total of 410,650,486,211,291 Shiba Inu meme coins have been burned (moved to dead-end wallets), with the circulating supply standing at 579,109,631,311,495 SHIB. A total of 10,239,882,477,213 Shiba Inu coins are currently staked, which means they are out of circulation for the time being as well.

Big rise in SHIB daily wallets observed

As reported by on-chain data vendor Santiment, its analytics team has noticed a massive uptick in new Shiba Inu wallets created on a daily basis.

During the last two weeks, this metric has jumped to 2,500 of new daily SHIB wallets created on the network. This has been happening despite the staggering price underperformance of the second largest meme cryptocurrency.

😺 #ShibaInu has seen a big rise in new daily addresses created, consistently over 2,500 per day in the past couple weeks. Despite the underwhelming price performance, our latest insight covers why there's promise behind one of 2021's favorite #memecoins.

You're working hard for that money! Like most of us, you probably have a regular job that you clock in and out of to keep your financial stream of income flowing. It might not be the same ol' 9-to-5 of yesteryear, but it keeps the lights lit, the roof over your head, and food on the table.

Because the punch-in, punch-out of work has changed so much in the last few years, we're now living in what's now commonly referred to as "The Gig Economy." That is, many workers don't even have a full-time job; rather, they provide their time and service to contract jobs or independently make their own work via opportunities provided on a case-by-case basis from employers.

But what if there was a way to do both? Keep your full-time job and earn a little extra cash on the side? GOBankingRates reached out to some experts to find out what the best gigs and side hustles are outside of your regular job to make an extra $50, $100, or sometimes more daily.

Testing

No need to go to a clinic to be a guinea pig in a new drug trial. This testing is all done at home and requires only the use of your fingers without endangering them to bodily harm. That's because this is testing apps and websites.

"The tasks usually include the evaluation of new apps, programs, or software, focusing on UX, visual appeal, and consistency," says Derek Sall, Founder and lead of Life And My Finances. "You can find opportunities on websites such as User Testing, UTest, or Enroll, which require you to take a few practice tests to qualify."

Sall points out that the potential earning rate can be anywhere "from $13-$41 an hour."

"This is a great and easy way to start making a couple of extra bucks since you don't need in-depth programming knowledge beforehand," Sall notes.

Transcribing

Do you have your listening ears on and can type fairly accurately? Then you might be able to make some sweet side cash transcribing sound into written documents.

"With transcription work, you'll listen to audio clips and type what you hear into written text," says Holly Hanna, The Work at Home Woman. "For these independent contracting positions, you'll need fast and accurate typing skills, good command of the English language, and excellent listening skills."

Hanna describes that the majority of transcription gigs pay per audio minute or hour, which is not the same as per minute or hour worked.

"However, these side jobs are totally flexible as long as you can meet the requested deadline. Some companies you can explore are eScribers, GMR Transcription and Daily Transcription."

Print on Demand

If you have a working printer and enough storage space for all that toner, you might be able to set up a print-on-demand shop.

"For people who are great graphic designers or artists, print on demand presents a terrific opportunity," says Stacey Marmolejo is a career transition coach and creator of Franchise Prep Academy.

"Artists can design their image and upload it to Etsy (or other platforms), where buyers can download a digital file of the art upon payment. It is then up to the buyer to take the design to their local print shop for printing and framing," Marmolejo explains.

She also notes that print on demand is a side job where you can potentially see daily earnings and not just ones that accrue over time. Marmolejo uses the example of how an artist or designer can sign up for an print-on-demand service which puts the majority of expenses on them, not the printer.

"When someone buys the design, the order is automatically sent to the print house for fulfillment," Marmolejo describes. "The business owner does NOT carry inventory, so upfront costs are significantly lower."

Virtual Assisting

More and more of us are working from home these days. That doesn't just mean the CEO or head of the company -- it means all the support team they have as well. And just because we're in the WFH era doesn't erase the need for valuable assistants.

"Most virtual assistant jobs require assistants to be available during regular business hours," Hanna mentions, including the fact that some companies allow flexible hours, day or night, for virtual assistants to get their tasks completed.

For some companies, such as Byron, that hire virtual assistants, you do need to have some qualifying criteria on your resume.

"[At Byron] this independent contracting position requires at least five years of experience and a college degree, but you can work as little or as much as you'd like and choose which projects you'd like to work on," Hanna says. "The pay rate for this role is $20-$28 per hour."

Renting Supplies

You might have a surplus of items in your home that maybe you can lease to those who need them, but don't want to pay the full cost of owning them or want them around their house forever. A growing rental item market is in baby supplies.

"It's actually a thriving home business, and, well, most people with kids probably have some baby products lying around," says Sall. "Renting these out can potentially earn you $172-$227/hour!"

All you really have to do is find your market and customer base. Luckily, there's plenty of websites and companies looking to link up baby supply renting customers with baby supplies owners.

"There can be many situations in which people may find a use for rented baby products, one of which could be during holidays, away from home," Sall mentions. "A platform such as BabyQuip allows people with baby gear to rent the supplies, pairing up with potential clients. The platform also provides liability insurance, protecting the supplies from any damage." #dyor

Tether’s USDt, the world’s most liquid, secure, and transparent stablecoin, has successfully launched on Cosmos via Kava, marking a significant milestone in the expansion of the Cosmos DeFi ecosystem.

The integration of Tether’s USDt on Kava makes deep stablecoin liquidity across Cosmos’ Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) ecosystems easily accessible. With native USDt issued on Kava, the Cosmos ecosystem’s limited growth, fragmented liquidity, and exaggerated volatility get addressed by the addition of natively issued USDt for users and developers. Native USDt brings Cosmos dApp and appchains, and EVM dApp users a secure and universally adopted canonical stablecoin.

Scott Stuart, Co-Founder of Kava, expressed his excitement for the successful integration, “Our support for Tether’s USDt integration unlocks much-needed stablecoin liquidity across the Cosmos and EVM ecosystems. Tether’s choice makes Kava a key support and a strong ally for Cosmos ecosystem projects building out the Internet of Blockchains.”

Unlike external third-party bridge solutions which create fragmented pools of wrapped assets, with the launch of Kava 14, USDt natively issued on Kava can move between IBC and EVM blockchains via an ‘internal bridge’ with tight access controls and restrictions that greatly reduce attack vectors. Kava makes moving assets across chains fast and highly secure and provides users with an efficient mechanism for stablecoin liquidity provision and transfer.

As a result, this integration could potentially catalyze a significant expansion of the DeFi economy on Cosmos, providing a compelling solution to the liquidity problem that has been challenging since the collapse of Terra’s UST in Q1 2022. Deploying Tether, a stablecoin with a strong market reputation and ~65% dominance, will also offer increased security and reliability to users and developers alike.

Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Tether stated, “The Kava network is a unique and widely followed blockchain with a robust track record of four years with zero security issues, which is essential to protecting USDt users. Together, we aim to reshape the future of decentralized finance, fostering a robust and inclusive ecosystem that benefits users worldwide.”

About Kava

Kava (kava.io) is a secure, lightning-fast Layer-1 blockchain that combines the developer power of Ethereum with the speed and interoperability of Cosmos in a single, scalable network. Committed to fostering innovation and growth, Kava is a trusted choice for developers and users worldwide.

Bitcoin was hovering near the $30,000 level to start the weekend, as markets continued to digest the latest U.S. nonfarm payrolls report. Payrolls came in at 209,000, less than the 225,000 expected, putting slight doubt in a potential July rate hike. Ethereum continued to trade below $1,900 on Saturday.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin (BTC) started the weekend consolidating around the $30,000 level, following the latest U.S. nonfarm payrolls report.

BTC/USD dropped to an intraday low of $30,094.87, a day after trading at a one-year high above $31,000.

The price has marginally increased following today’s earlier row, and is now trading at $30,240.85.

Overall, it appears that a failed breakout of a ceiling at 58.00 on the relative strength index (RSI) was the catalyst of this drop.

Price strength is now tracking at the 57.63 level, with a support point at 55.00 a possible target for traders.

Should it reach this point, it is highly likely that BTC will move below $30,000.

Ethereum

Ethereum (ETH) also started the weekend consolidating, with the cryptocurrency once again moving below $1,900.

Since hitting a peak at $1,957 on Thursday, ETH/USD has failed to trade above $1,900, with today’s drop taking price to a low of $1,854.92.

After reaching a two-month high on June 3, ethereum has struggled, with price falling lower in consecutive sessions.

These declines have pushed price strength to a floor at 47.00, however this support point has so far been stable, helping to stop the prior bleeding.

The index is now tracking at a reading of 49.59, with an upcoming resistance level of 51.00 the next test for traders.

In the event they pass this test, the next destination for price will likely be back above $1,900.

Solana extended recent gains on Saturday, as the token rose for a third straight session to start the weekend. Today’s move came following a breakout of a key price level, despite the global crypto market cap consolidating. Avalanche also rallied, climbing by as much as 10%.

Solana (SOL)

Solana (SOL) was a notable gainer in the crypto market for a third straight day, with today’s move taking price to an eight-week high.

Following a low of $20.19 on Friday, SOL/USD jumped to an intraday peak of $22.40 to start the weekend.

As a result of the surge, solana raced past a ceiling of $22.00, hitting its highest point since May 6 in the process.

From the chart, the move occurred as the relative strength index (RSI) jumped beyond a ceiling at the 69.00 mark.

At the time of writing, the index is tracking at 70.70, with the next visible point of resistance at 75.00.

Should the index reach this point, there is a good chance that SOL will climb to $23.00.

Avalanche (AVAX)

Another notable gainer on Saturday was avalanche (AVAX), which rose by nearly 10% in today’s session.

AVAX/USD climbed to a high of $13.85 earlier in today’s session, a day after trading at a low of $12.60.

The move resulted in avalanche jumping to its strongest level since June 9, after breaking out of a resistance level of $13.50.

One of the catalysts of this rally was the 14-day RSI breaking out of its own ceiling at the 57.00 mark.

The index is now tracking at 58.73, and looks to be making strides for a higher point of resistance at 62.00.

Additionally, the 10-day (red) moving average has just avoided a downward crossover, with momentum once again shifting upward.

Larry Fink, the CEO of the world’s largest asset manager, Blackrock, says bitcoin is an international asset and crypto can be used instead of gold to hedge against inflation, the onerous problems of any country, as well as currency devaluation. Blackrock, which has a near-perfect track record of getting exchange-traded funds (ETFs) approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said it is working closely with regulators to get its spot bitcoin trust ETF filing approved.

Blackrock’s Larry Fink on Bitcoin, ETF Filing, and Crypto Democratization

Larry Fink, the chairman and CEO of the world’s largest asset manager, Blackrock, discussed bitcoin, crypto investing, and his company’s spot bitcoin trust exchange-traded fund (ETF) filing in an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday.

The world’s largest asset manager filed an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch a spot bitcoin trust ETF on June 15. Since then, the price of bitcoin has soared as the crypto community is optimistic that the securities regulator will soon approve the first spot bitcoin ETF in the U.S. Last week, Blackrock resubmitted its application, naming the Nasdaq-listed crypto exchange Coinbase as the custodial surveillance partner for the spot bitcoin trust. Blackrock has a track record of getting ETFs approved, with only one rejection out of its 576 filings.

Commenting generally on the odds of a Blackrock ETF getting approved by the SEC, Fink said: “We try to do it right for the long-term investor, and I think we have a good track record working with our regulators and trying to make sure we are thinking about all the issues around any filing.” He added:

We work really closely with our regulators, and we want to hear from the regulators — what are their issues and how can we fix those issues around that.

“We hope that, like in the past, we could be working with our regulators and get the filing approved one day, and I have no idea what that one day will be, but we’ll see how that all plays out,” Fink clarified.

The Blackrock executive proceeded to talk about bitcoin. “Specifically on bitcoin, as I’ve said in the past, we are a believer in digitization of products,” he described. “ETFs was a big revolution for the mutual fund industry; it’s really taking over the mutual fund industry. We do believe that if we can create more tokenization of assets and securities, and that’s what bitcoin is, it can revolutionize again finance.” He further stressed: “We hope our regulators look at these filings as a way to democratize crypto.”

Reflecting on his initial skepticism towards bitcoin, Fink acknowledged that his skepticism arose due to the prevalent association of the cryptocurrency with “illicit activities” during its early usage before BTC became more accessible. The Blackrock boss additionally noted:

Also I do believe the role of crypto is digitizing gold in many ways — instead of investing in gold as a hedge against inflation, a hedge against the onerous problems of any one country, or the devaluation of your currency, whatever country you are in. Let’s be clear: Bitcoin is an international asset. It’s not based on any one currency and so it can represent an asset that people can play as an alternative.

When asked whether he owns any bitcoin, Fink declared: “I don’t own anything other than mutual funds and ETFs.”

Commenting on the utility of bitcoin’s underlying technology, Fink explained:

I actually believe that the underlying technology is fantastic.

He detailed that “the blockchain will help you accelerate the processes of transactions” and “will help you identify.” Fink noted that with the knowledge of who the buyers and sellers are, “we don’t need custodians anymore,” adding that this would result in a breakdown of the entire financial process and intermediaries. Nonetheless, the Blackrock executive acknowledged: “We are not close to there but it’s an advancement of technology. It’s no different than the spirit around AI and what AI can do.”

What do you think about the statements by Blackrock CEO Larry Fink about bitcoin and crypto? Let us know in the comments section below.

As we wrap up the initial six months of 2023, the Bitcoin network inches closer to a significant milestone — the impending block reward halving, which lies just under 300 days ahead. Projections indicate that this event is slated to take place between April 21 and 27, 2024, leading to a substantial reduction of 50% in the earnings of mining participants. Such a development is bound to bring about a significant transformation in the landscape of mining distribution, as miners will witness a substantial decrease in the amount of bitcoin they receive compared to previous cycles.

Balancing Act: Can Bitcoin’s Halving Strike a Sustainable Equation for Miners and Network Security?

In just nine months, the Bitcoin halving will make its presence known, presenting the mining industry with a formidable challenge — a substantial decrease in revenue, particularly if market prices remain stagnant or decline. Typically, the price of bitcoin (BTC) experiences a noteworthy surge roughly six months to a year before the halving event.

In the span of six months, bitcoin (BTC) has already soared by over 80% in 2023. At present, approximately 900 brand new bitcoins enter the market each day (144 blocks), generating a daily sum of around $26 million for miners, alongside transaction fees, based on current exchange rates.

However, in a mere nine months, if prices were to remain within the same range, mining participants would witness a sharp decline, earning a reduced daily amount of $13 million, in addition to fees. Statistics show miner fees have accounted for only a small portion of the revenue earned by bitcoin miners.

According to data from July 7, 2023, fees represented 1.89% of the earnings generated from 144 blocks. In June, bitcoin miners collectively earned $783.76 million in revenue, with block rewards alone (excluding fees) amounting to $745.45 million. In May, miners acquired a total of $919.22 million in revenue, with $793.3 million coming from the block subsidy, according to the data.

The fees collected for May amounted to $125.92 million, a relatively high figure considering fees had not exceeded $20 million per month from December 2021 until March 2023. While fees reached $246 million in April 2021, the increase compared to May was only $121 million. The miners’ highest monthly fee revenue to date was in December 2017, when they earned $297 million.

A low ratio of fees carries several implications for the network’s long-term sustainability as rewards decline with each halving. Some proponents argue that fees must rise to achieve a higher fee-to-rewards ratio to avert potential issues. For instance, as the block reward diminishes, bitcoin miners may grow less incentivized to engage in network participation, particularly if mining costs surpass potential rewards.

Reduced mining participation could result in a decline in hashrate, thereby increasing the network’s susceptibility to potential attacks like a 51% attack. Larger mining operations may be the sole entities capable of sustaining mining activities, potentially concentrating power in the hands of a few. If smaller miners exit the market, there are two potential solutions to compensate for the lack of hashpower: either the price of bitcoin must increase significantly, or the mining difficulty must decrease by the same magnitude.

The 2024 halving will test the theories more than any previous halving. This time, the reward will decrease from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block after the halving. Following the halving, the annual inflation on the Bitcoin network will drop from the current 1.7% to 0.84%. If the hashrate declines due to the next halving, block intervals are likely to remain at the average of 10 minutes when the network difficulty adjusts to the lower hashrate.

Whether it’s the 2024 halving or the subsequent one, there is a finite supply of 21 million bitcoins, so the low fee ratio may need to rise to compensate miners. To address these concerns, finding a balance between reducing the block reward and ensuring adequate incentives for miners is crucial for the Bitcoin network. This balance may involve factors such as transaction fees, network scalability, and overall adoption to maintain the network’s long-term sustainability and security.

What are your thoughts on the upcoming Bitcoin halving and its potential impact on miners and the overall sustainability of the network? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.

Taylor Swift, a pop icon and 12-time Grammy Award winner, did sign an agreement with bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, new reports claim. However, FTX executives reportedly convinced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) to reconsider and abandon the $100-million deal with Swift.

Taylor Swift Reportedly Signed Agreement With FTX

Taylor Swift, a famous singer-songwriter who has won 12 Grammy Awards from 46 nominations, reportedly signed a deal with the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, contrary to previous reports. The Financial Times reported that the size of the deal was approximately $100 million.

Adam Moskowitz, one of the attorneys spearheading a $5 million class-action lawsuit against 16 celebrity endorsers of FTX, disclosed on the Block’s Scoop podcast in April that Swift sought legal advice when approached by former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). According to him, the famous singer inquired: “Can you assure me that these assets are not unregistered securities?” Moskowitz’s comment led to headlines that Swift subsequently decided to withdraw from the deal.

However, the New York Times confirmed Thursday that Moskowitz said he had no inside information about the talks between FTX and Swift. Citing three people with knowledge of the deal, the news outlet detailed that in reality, Swift signed a tour sponsorship agreement with FTX after more than six months of discussions while turning down some promotion options. In addition, the people told the publication that it was Bankman-Fried who pulled the plug at the last minute, leaving Swift’s team frustrated and disappointed.

CNBC described Thursday, independently citing a person familiar with the matter:

Swift did ultimately agree to the deal … The signed agreement was sent to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s email inbox, where it remained unanswered for a period of a few weeks.

The publication added that “ultimately, a group of FTX executives persuaded Bankman-Fried not to follow through with the reported $100 million deal.”

FTX filed for bankruptcy protection in November last year. Bankman-Fried is currently facing multiple fraud and campaign finance violation charges. Three other FTX executives, namely Gary Wang, Caroline Ellison, and Nishad Singh, have pleaded guilty to various charges. Meanwhile, the new FTX management is seeking to relaunch the crypto exchange internationally.

Tom Brady reportedly lost $30million in the collapse of cryptocurrency company FTX.

Under an agreement the retired NFL quarterback made with FTX in 2021, he received $30m in now-worthless stock for his work pitching the company in television ads and at its conference, The New York Times reported Friday.

The NFL legend and seven-time Super Bowl winner served as an 'ambassador'. 

In step with him at the time was his then-wife, Gisele Bundchen, who received $18m in stock, per the report.

FTX filed for bankruptcy last November. Its former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, is facing federal fraud-related charges.

Tom Brady reportedly lost $30million in FTX collapse while his then-wife, Gisele Bundchen, 42, received $18m in stock

The NFL legend and seven-time Super Bowl winner served as an 'ambassador'

And Brady also faces legal peril on top of the financial losses. 

Both Brady and Bundchen, who officially divorced last October, are being sued by FTX investors who want repayment from celebrity endorsers. 

Basketball Hall of Fame member Shaquille O'Neal also has been sued in the FTX case, as have Larry David of 'Seinfeld' fame, tennis player Naomi Osaka and NBA star Stephen Curry.

'None of these defendants performed any due diligence prior to marketing these FTX products to the public,' according to the lawsuit, obtained by the Times. It was filed in federal court in Florida.

Before the collapse of FTX, it was valued at $32billion, including $48m in shares held by Brady and Bundchen, per the Times. Now, it has no value.

Brady, 45, ranked No. 50 on Forbes' 2023 list of the World's Highest-Paid Athletes with earnings of $45.2 million in football salary and endorsements.

Meanwhile, the former NFL quarterback did get cozy with someone at Fanatics mogul Michael Rubin's Hamptons Fourth of July White Party last weekend – but DailyMail.com has exclusively revealed that it wasn't Kim Kardashian.

Instead, he spent the evening glued to the side of the reality star's friend, model Emily Ratajkowski, 32.

A well-placed source who attended the event told DailyMail.com: 'I don't know why there are all these rumors about Brady and Kim Kardashian – they barely interacted at all.'

The source added: 'He actually spent the evening with Emily Ratajkowski – they were together most of the night and looked very cozy.

'They didn't leave together but if anyone was getting close, it was them.'

DailyMail.com has approached Ratajkowski and Brady for comment. 

Binance logo is seen in this illustration taken March 31, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo

July 6 (Reuters) - A string of executives have quit Binance, according to their tweets and media reports, the latest blow for the world's biggest crypto exchange as its battles a slate of legal and regulatory headaches.

Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Hillmann said in a tweet on Thursday that he was leaving the exchange, citing personal reasons. Steven Christie, a compliance executive who joined Binance in May 2022, also tweeted on Friday that he was leaving, saying he was "tired" and that he needed to "lose some weight."

General Counsel Hon Ng has also quit, Fortune and Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, with both outlets citing a person familiar with his departure. Yibo Ling, Binance's U.S.-based chief business officer, has also left, Bloomberg reported.

Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the resignations. Neither Ng nor Ling immediately replied to LinkedIn messages form Reuters.

Last month, U.S. regulators sued the crypto exchange and its CEO Changpeng Zhao for allegedly operating a "web of deception." Binance has said it would defend itself "vigorously."

The exchange is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department over possible money-laundering and sanctions violations, Reuters has reported.

Fortune, citing a person at Binance familiar with the situation, reported that the executives quit over Zhao's response to the Justice Departure probe. Reuters could not independently confirm this.

Zhao, a billionaire who is one of crypto's most powerful figures, said in a tweet on Friday: "Yes, there is turnover (at every company). But the reasons dreamed up by the "news" are completely wrong."

Hillmann, who joined Binance in 2021 as its top communications executive, became its chief strategy officer in October last year. After Zhao, he was Binance's most outspoken advocates on social media.

"I've taken this company through a lifetime of industry crises and regulatory challenges," Hillmann tweeted, citing a string of corporate failures to hit crypto last year. "Despite all of these challenges, the company has continued to grow and thrive."

Reporting by Tom Wilson in London and Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru, Editing by Louise Heavens