What is a Shitcoin and how to profit from it. - Crypto Academy / S5W8 - Homework post for nane15
Greetings everyone on this platform, it is an honour to be a part of the final week of season 5 of Crypto Academy. This week's lesson is about shitcoins, how to identify them, how they can be useful, and the dangers in investing in them. The professor gave some assignments which I would handle in this post. Without further ado, I would begin.
Shitcoins
Shitcoin is a compound word that contains the words "shit" and "coin", with the former used to describe anything that is of little or no use, and the latter used to describe a digital currency which is secured by cryptographic functions and can be traded on exchanges.
Shitcoins are basically useless crypto coins. They have no use cases and usually start off as a joke or an intended scam. Shitcoins usually start as a coin created around a hype, which would pull investors but would later be dumped after the price has risen to significant values.
Shitcoins can also start as a premeditated scam. In this situation, the coin creators would create so much hype around the token before it is launched. They can even create false partnerships with actual brands and petition for listings on minor exchanges in order to attract much interest in the coin. False info on redistribution of assets can even be spread. As the token is launched, large investments would be made. The creators and everyone involved in the scam would then sell of their investments, which would then cause a drastic fall in price, leaving people's investments in shambles.
This is a general cycle which shitcoins follow; the pump and dump process. Understanding of this cycle would aid investors in avoiding shitcoins.
Is it Possible to Profit from Investing in Shitcoins
It is very possible to profit from investing in shitcoins, but it is a risky venture just like every other investment, certainly more risky.
For an investor to profit from shitcoins, he first needs to understand the cycle that these shitcoins follow. Shitcoins are created around a hype with little or no backing of the project. There is usually no whitepaper that gives data and information on the coin. In a situation where there is a whitepaper, it is never detailed or explanatory.
When an investor understands this cycle, it would be possible and easy for him to profit from the shitcoins. The best time to obtain a shitcoin which has attracted much hype is during the token launch. This is because there would be much investments made during the launch of the token as a result of the hype that has been created around it.
The next thing to do is to sell the token to obtain profit when it has made a very significant rise in price. Another strategy is to sell the token as a drop in the price of the token is observed. It's better to be safe than sorry because shitcoins are not good long term investments.
Shitcoins should not be held for long. The moment a good profit target is reached, the token should be sold. This is because the dump process of shitcoins is very fast and sudden, and once it has started, the price is unlikely to rise again.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Shitcoins
Although shitcoins are basically jokes or scams, investing in them has both advantages and disadvantages just like every other investment.
Advantages
Investing in shitcoins can yield profit to investors who are smart and have knowledge on how to identify shitcoins
It gives individuals knowledge on investing because there are so many risks involved in dealing with shitcoins.
It also give knowledge on how scams can be identified in the crypto space in order to make better decisions in the future.
Disadvantages
Shitcoins are a risky venture and can lead to a loss of all assets invested in them.
The price movement of shitcoins cannot be predicted because it is controlled by speculations. As a result of this, a sudden fall in price cannot be foreseen.
It is not a good long term investment. The hype around shitcoins can last as little as a few days or a week.
Examples of Shitcoins that Turned Out To Be Scams
There are a number of shitcoins that turned out to be scams. In this section, I would mention three of these shitcoins, some of which I fell victim to.
Wealth Finance Token (WFT)
Wealth finance token is a token that was launched with the vision of developing Africa as a continent. It promised to lead to the decentralization of certain financial and economic aspects of the continents which include real estate, shopping, telecommunication, manufacturing, etc.
WFT has an official website with the address https://wealthfinance.finance/. This process offered 3% redistribution to it's holders. The project even has a roadmap and partnerships with minor business enterprises.
The WFT token was launched in 13th July 2021 and it has a market cap of $13,845 and current price of $0.000000000138.
I purchased this coin with $14 at the time and since then, the value of my purchase asset has dropped to an estimated $0.22.
Minereum BSC
Minereum BSC is one of the most popular shitcoins which turned out to be a crypto scam. Although it has been around for a while, more people keep falling victim to this scam.
Minereum BSC has the official website with an address https://bsc.minereum.com/. The process to obtain this coin is very simple. All that is required is to copy the contact address to a wallet an 150,000 tokens would be sent to the address, which is very absurd.
The official website for Minereum BSC states that the mining process of the token is automatic and the wallets that have this token would keep mining it automatically.
Minereum BSC is listed on coinmarketcap and it has a current price of $0.02747.
Although listed on coinmarketcap, there is no useful information on the Minereum BSC. There is no whitepaper or project team that has been produced for this project. The project has also seen no development and there are no exchange listings and TradingView chart despite having a trading volume.
The token also requires an upgrade with real money so that withdrawal can be enabled for each user.
Airdrop Finance Token
Airdrop token is a shit coin with no data, no exchange listings and absolutely no information on the token. The launch date is not stated on the platform and it was just launched as a scam for creators to raise price and profit from the scam. It has a current price of $0.00000887 and it's chart shows price movement similar to every other scam token.
Examples of Successful Shitcoins
Although shitcoins are known to be scams, some of them turn out to be successful over time.
SafeMoon
SafeMoon is a token built on the Binance smart chain. It was launched in March 2021 and it was inspired by the phrase "To The Moon". The token offers 5% redistribution to token holders and charges 10% transaction fees. These were put in place to encourage more users to hold the token and discourage transfers.
As of the time of writing, SafeMoon has a current price of $0.002621 and a trading volume of $1,673,410 . It has an all-time high of $0.007232 and all-time low $0.0000002149.
Baby Cake
Baby cake is a meme token that was copied from the pancakeswap token. This token was launched on 17th July 2021. The token does not have any project backing it. As a result of this, the price of the token is derived from speculations and hype around the token.
Baby cake offers it's token holders rewards every hour, but this is only inclusive of token holders who own at least 200,000 tokens.
Baby cake is listed on coinmarketcap and has a current price of $0.00001782.
Historical Analysis on SafeMoon
SafeMoon was launched in March 2021. The CEO of the project is John Karony and the project name was inspired by the saying, "To The Moon".
SafeMoon has two versions which are V1 and V2. In the V1, the token price is $0.00000215 and the 24hr trading volume is $32,561,045 which shows high trades involving this asset. The chart is seen to be volatile with drastic lows formed at intervals. Irrespective of the drastic lows, the price always bounces back to a specific range of values. This shows the ability of the asset to maintain control of price.
The V2 of SafeMoon is proof of the urge to improve on the network. SafeMoon has stated that it will soon launch its own blockchain, exchange and wallet, and the token would soon have use cases. The V2 has a price $0.002621 and a 24hr trading volume of $1,673,410 which shows high trading volume for a token with little price.
My Prediction on the Future Development of SafeMoon
SafeMoon has moved from the first version to the second version and the tokens in both versions have different values. I would like to believe that this is the first step in the proper development of the SafeMoon project as the developers have claimed to be working on a blockchain, wallet and several other projects for SafeMoon.
Also, the price movement in the V1 shows the effort of SafeMoon in maintaining price stability despite it's high volatility.
I believe that SafeMoon would become much more than being termed a "shitcoin" because there is sufficient evidence of the effort that is being put into achieving this goal.
Conclusion
Shitcoins are mostly scams that are brought into the crypto space for the creators to gain profit from. Some of these shitcoins eventual end up becoming successful projects while the majority are left as just scams.
An investor can profit from shitcoins if he has understanding of the cycle that these coins follow. Shitcoins are very risky ventures because of the high probability of these projects to be a scam.
Shitcoins are also not suitable for long term investments because the pump and dump process observed in these projects occur very quickly. As a result of this, the losses incurred from these ventures are mostly impossible to recover.
It is best to do thorough research on a coin before making any investments to avoid profitless investments.
Cc: @nane15