{"id":23553,"date":"2017-11-27T14:38:45","date_gmt":"2017-11-27T09:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/?p=23553"},"modified":"2019-12-25T00:10:48","modified_gmt":"2019-12-24T13:10:48","slug":"getting-smart-with-cryptocurrencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/getting-smart-with-cryptocurrencies\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Smart With Cryptocurrencies: A Brief Outline"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nowadays, you\u2019d be hard pressed to go a day without reading or hearing about cryptocurrencies, and for good reason.<\/p>\n<p>2017 proved to be the year of cryptocurrencies. Popular instruments achieved unprecedented growth, smashing record after record.<\/p>\n<p>A universe once ruled by Bitcoin has seen a new band of cryptocurrencies emerge, such as Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin cash.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Bitcoin (BTC\/USD)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Bitcoin (BTC), first published in 2009 in a cryptography mailing list by Satoshi Nakamoto, has evolved into the most capitalised and traded cryptocurrency in the world. Bitcoin is a form of digital exchange, with each transaction logged on Bitcoin\u2019s public database (blockchain). As things stand, Bitcoin\u2019s volume is a staggering $5,653,320,192 (CoinMarketCap), seizing more than 50% of the overall market volume.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, Bitcoin boasts gains in excess of 850% so far this year. Not bad for a year\u2019s work.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Ethereum (ETH\/USD)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Despite Ethereum (ETH) only being on the cryptocurrency stage since 2015, it controls the second largest market share of volume at $1,396,480,000 (CoinMarketCap). Ethereum is like Bitcoin. It operates using the same principles, though has its own unique technology.<\/p>\n<p>While Bitcoin has witnessed exponential growth this year, it has been outperformed by ETH, which, at a current price of $480.36 (CoinMarketCap), is up more than 5500%. Absolutely monstrous gains by any stretch of the imagination.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Litecoin (LTCUSD)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Released in 2011, Litecoin (LTC) is often referred to as being the \u2018silver\u2019 to Bitcoin\u2019s \u2018gold\u2019, as it\u2019s technically identical, despite being cheaper. As of current price ($91.60), Bitcoin\u2019s younger brother controls 2.95% ($429,591,008) of the overall market volume (CoinMarketCap).<\/p>\n<p>Although controlling only a small piece of the crypto cake, Litecoin is up an astounding %1900 this year. Investing only $1000 at the start of the year, your account would now stand at a cool $19,000.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Bitcoin cash (BCH\/USD)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Bitcoin cash (BCH) is essentially a duplicate of the Bitcoin blockchain, with one additional feature: extra block size capacity.<\/p>\n<p>Released this year in August, the instrument trades at $1,622.57 (CoinMarketCap).<\/p>\n<p>As of writing, BCH currently boasts a market cap of $27,300,835,485 and a volume reading of $1,391,459,968 (CoinMarketCap).<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Specifications:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/SPECS.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-38288 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/SPECS.png\" alt=\"Cryptocurrencies \" width=\"582\" height=\"482\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/SPECS.png 582w, https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/SPECS-300x248.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 582px) 100vw, 582px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Bitcoin example:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A 10-pip Bitcoin move: 5877.00 &#8212; 5878.00 = 10 pips.<\/li>\n<li>Margin calculation: current price (5877.00) * BTC size 1 \/ 20 leverage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Jump aboard the cryptocurrency train with IC Markets<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Aside from crypto\u2019s rapid price movements, offering mouth-watering return on investment, here\u2019s some other great reasons to trade cryptocurrencies with IC Markets:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Structured platform. As opposed to some cryptocurrency exchanges, IC Markets is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), and is among the leading Australian brokers.<\/li>\n<li>IC Markets cryptocurrency products trade as a CFD, allowing clients to trade both long and short \u2013 a feature not available on most cryptocurrency exchanges. This means traders get exposure to cryptocurrency prices without worrying about the risks related to storing it, and counterparty risks from the exchange.<\/li>\n<li>Signing up for an IC Markets account is a simple process and can be opened with as little as $200.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">[wpi_designer_button id=23284]<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dashcoin or Bitcoin cash against the US dollar in three simple steps:<\/strong><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Register for an IC Markets account here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/open-new-live-account\/.\">IC Markets Open Live Account<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Deposit funds.<\/li>\n<li>Select which cryptocurrencies CFDs you wish to trade.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\">[wpi_designer_button id=23298] or [wpi_designer_button id=23206]<\/h4>\n<p>Cryptocurrencies are, undeniably, attention-grabbing instruments, with analysts forecasting further upside. Therefore, this is an exciting time to think about getting involved with these products.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Notes:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/coinmarketcap.com\/\">https:\/\/coinmarketcap.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nowadays, you\u2019d be hard pressed to go a day without reading [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[220],"tags":[328,313,267,265,318,325,326,329,239,222,234,327,264,275],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23553"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23553"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38317,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23553\/revisions\/38317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}