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What are reflection tokens and how do they work?

December 25, 2022 Coin Telegraph

BabyFloki

Reflection tokens allow holders to earn passive returns from transaction fees by simply holding onto their assets.

Yield farming, liquidity mining, and staking have become common practices in the crypto market due to the remarkable growth the DeFi ecosystem has witnessed in recent years. These features enable users to earn interest on their crypto holdings by locking them as deposits for specific periods.

The concepts sound appealing but there's one big risk: the potential decline in the valuation of the locked assets. In other words, users will see losses in U.S. dollar terms if the asset's value drops during the lock-in period.

These shortcomings have raised "reflection tokens" as a viable alternative. In theory, reflection tokenomics remove the necessity of locking tokens while still offering staking-like benefits.

What are reflection tokens?

The projects backing the reflection tokens charge a penalty tax (calculated in percentages) on each transaction. In turn, they give out the fee to all token holders depending on the percentage of assets they hold.

As a result, reflection tokens' holders do not need to lock their assets for a certain period to earn rewards. They earn their income almost instantly in most cases when a transaction is made, with the functions governed by a smart contract.

In addition, users can deposit their reflection tokens in third-party lending and yield farming contracts to earn additional yields. But while the combination of incentives for holding and staking theoretically reduces sell-side pressure, this has not been the case with most reflection assets.

Popular reflection tokens

Some of the most popular reflection tokens include: SafeMoon (SAFEMOON), BabyFloki (BABYFLOKI), FlyPaper (STICKY), MinersDefi (MINERS), and EverGrow Coin (EGC).

For instance, EverGrow Coin (EGC) 's price dropped nearly 98% after peaking at $0.0000039298 in November 2021. This project takes 2% of its network fee and distributes them in the form of Binance USD (BUSD) tokens across the EGC holders.

*EGC/USD weekly price chart. Source: TradingView*

The EGC weekly chart above shows its bearish price trend accompanying very low trading volumes, suggesting that the buying and selling on its network died down after the early hype. Less volume means lower rewards for EGC holders, which may have prompted them to sell their assets.

Risks associated with reflection tokens

Reflection tokens give holders the benefit of growing their passive incomes with immediate reward distributions. Nonetheless, they carry specific risks that could impact investors' profitability. Let's have a look:

Transaction tax

Projects asses transaction tax when users buy and sell reflection tokens. In other words, first-time buyers typically pay a transaction fee which they can recoup only if the project gains adoption. As a result, it could take months for investors to see profits.

Scams

Scammer can misuse the growing reflection token trend just as any other digital tokens. They could dupe investors into paying initial transaction taxes, only to abandon the project midway and abscond with all the invested funds.

Uneven returns

Reflection tokens do not guarantee consistent returns given the yields depend on the asset's day-to-day volume. There's a possibility that a token may generate zero yields in the event of no activity on its network.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Almost 50% of Gen Z and Millennials want crypto in retirement funds: Survey

October 26, 2022 Coin Telegraph

401(k) Retirement Plan

Nearly half of Gen Z and Millennials are also already invested in digital assets outside of their retirement funds and cited “inflation” as the biggest obstacle to early retirement.

Nearly half of Gen Z and Millennials want to see crypto become a part of their 401(k) retirement plans, according to an October survey from United States asset manager Charles Schwab.

Asking participants what they would like to see added to their 401(k) retirement products, the firm found that 46% of Gen Z and 45% of Millennials said they "wish" they could invest in cryptocurrencies as part of their retirement planning.

It shouldn't come as a surprise, as the survey also found that 43% of Gen Z and 47% of Millennials are investing in cryptocurrencies outside their 401(k) already, which could suggest the group's affinity for the asset class.

The asset manager surveyed 1,100 401(k) retirement plan participants aged between 21 to 70 to complete the 10-minute survey conducted between Apr. 4 and Apr. 19, 2022.

Participants of the survey needed to have worked for a company with 25 or more employees and be current contributors to their company's 401(k) plans.

Millennials generally refer to those born in the early 1980s to mid-1990s, with Gen Z generally born between the mid to late 1990s to the early 2010s.

The results are in stark contrast to the surveyed Gen X and Boomers — those born anywhere between the mid-1940s to late 1970s — with just 31% and 11% respectively wanting to invest in cryptocurrencies through their 401(k), and even less being current investors in the asset class.

Across the board, inflation was seen as the leading obstacle to retirement.

A similar study by Investopedia in April found only 28% of United States-based Millennials and 17% of Gen Z’s surveyed expected to use cryptocurrency to support themselves in retirement, however.

The asset manager currently does not offer any cryptocurrency investments as part of its 401(k) retirement plans, though crypto-based retirement funds have been in the works since Feb. 2019.

In April, Fidelity Investment reportedly put plans together to open up Bitcoin investment for ts 401(k) retirement saving account holders, with savers allowed to allocate as much as 20% of Bitcoin (BTC) to their savings portfolio.

In Australia, Rest Super became the first retirement fund to offer cryptocurrency allocation as part of a diversified portfolio to its 1.9 million members in Nov. 2021.

While most digital asset retirement funds are offered in the form of Bitcoin or Ether (ETH), a North Virginian county speculated putting a proportion of retirees' pension funds into a decentralized finance (DeFi) yield farming account in May. 2022 — which was later approved in Aug. 2022.

But things can go wrong. A Quebec pension fund lost almost all of its $154.7 million which was heavily invested into the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius.

Controversies like this have left U.S. Senators divided on the seriousness of the risks involved with crypto-exposed 401(k) retirement plans.

Among those are Democrat Senators Elizabeth Warren, Dick Durbin, and Tina Smith, who’ve previously argued that it is a “bridge too far” to expose American’s “hard-earned” retirement funds to “cryptocurrency casinos.”

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EOS price jumps 20% for biggest gain in 15 months — what’s fueling the uptrend?

August 17, 2022 Coin Telegraph

ada

EOS attempts to become a fully decentralized network following a key "hard fork" in September.

EOS rose approximately 20% to reach $1.66 on Aug. 17 and was on track to log its best daily performance since May 2021.

Initially, the EOS rally came in the wake of its positive correlation with top-ranking cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), which gained over 2% and 3.75%, respectively. But the upside move was also driven by a flurry of uplifting updates emerging from the EOS ecosystem.

*EOS/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView*

EOS incentive program launch

On Aug. 14, the EOS Network Foundation (ENF), a not-for-profit organization that oversees the growth and development of the EOS blockchain, opened registrations for its upcoming "Yield+" incentive program.

The Yield+ is a liquidity incentive and reward program to attract DeFi applications that generate returns for their users. In doing so, the service attempts to compete with its top blockchain rivals in the DeFi space, namely Ethereum, Cardano (ADA), and Solana (SOL).

Since the beginning of Yield+ registration, the total value locked (TVL) inside the EOS pools has increased from 94.71 EOS to 102.18 EOS, showing a temporary spike in demand for the tokens. The TVL will likely increase in the days leading up to the reward activation on Aug. 28.

The Yield+ Launch Is Imminent!

Designed to build economic activity on $EOS through incentivizing DeFi dApps that increase TVL and generate yield.

August 14th — Registration opens
August 28th — Rewards for TVL begin

Get all the details here:
➡️ https://t.co/fFOZCOEG4y ⬅️ https://t.co/b6q4Xmlay7 pic.twitter.com/ePZPkEiu4I
— EOS Network Foundation (@EosNFoundation) August 10, 2022

EOS hard fork in September

In addition, EOS will rebrand to EOSIO later this week, followed by a v3.1 consensus upgrade called Mandel in September, according to Yves La Rose, the CEO of ENF.

The rebranding and upgrade serve as EOS's symbolic divorce from Block.One, the company that originally designed the network, nine months after the EOS community elected to stop the issuance of 67 million EOS (~$108 million) to it on malpractice concerns.

La Rose noted that the upgrade would occur via a hard fork, meaning that the new version (EOSIO) will not be backwards compatible with the original chain and will follow new consensus rules.

Rebranding EOSIO and hardforking #EOS is a necessary part of the comeback, and represents the start of a new chapter: #TheNewEOS

Under the leadership of the @EOSNFoundation, $EOS can finally break through its glass ceiling and reach its full potential!
— Yves La Rose (@BigBeardSamurai) August 15, 2022

A hard fork also means that in the event of a possible chain split, all the existing EOS holders will receive an equal amount of tokens on both chains. In theory, that could increase EOS demand among speculators in the days leading up to the hard fork as witnessed in the case of Ethereum.

Technicals hint at more upside

From a technical perspective, EOS's price eyes an extended bull trend in the coming weeks

The first major hint comes from a cup-and-handle formation on the EOS daily chart, confirmed by a U-shaped price trajectory followed by a downward channel trend. As a rule of technical analysis, a cup-and-handle breakout should send the price higher by as much as the pattern's maximum height.

*EOS/USD daily price chart featuring cup-and-handle breakout setup. Source: TradingView*

As a result, EOS's upside target comes to be near $2.45, up almost 50% from today's price

Nevertheless, as a note of caution, the breakout risks losing its momentum near EOS's 200-day exponential moving average (200-day EMA; the blue wave) at $1.79. Such a pullback could have EOS test the 50-day EMA (the red wave) at $1.21 as its next downside target, almost 25% below the current price.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Fairfax County highlights the value in the ‘short-term nature’ of yield farming

July 8, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Fairfax County continues to invest public retirement funds in the cryptocurrency space, highlighting the 'short-term nature' of yield farming as an appealing portfolio diversifier.

Virginia’s Fairfax County continues to be a prominent public institutional investor in the cryptocurrency space and is set to diversify its portfolio with a move into yield farming.

As previously reported, global asset managers VanEck announced that the Fairfax employees’ and police retirement systems will invest $35 million into the firm’s crypto lending fund. It’s the latest investment move by the two county-run funds in the cryptocurrency space since their original foray began in 2018.

Cointelegraph reached out to Andy Spellar, the chief investment officer of Fairfax's employees' retirement system, to unpack their investment in VanEck's crypto lending fund and the reasoning behind it.

Spellar confirmed that the employees' retirement system (ERS) had committed $25 million to the fund while the police officers' retirement system (PORS) had pledged $10 million. The investment will take place between July and September this year, depending on market conditions.

An initial tranche has already been received by VanEck, with Spellar revealing that the ERS and PORS have invested $10 million and $5 million, respectively for the month of July.

The move is certainly good news for the cryptocurrency space, which is currently enduring a severe downturn alongside conventional stock markets worldwide. The Decentralized Finance (DeFi) sector has arguably suffered the most, with the collapse of algorithmic stablecoin Terra causing a cascading effect throughout the space.

As the wider cryptocurrency ecosystem weathers the storm, investment schemes and funds like Fairfax County’s ERS and PORS continue to see the value offered by the sector, as Spellar told Cointelegraph:

“We have looked at the space as a diversifier with our credit/high yield portfolios and particularly performance periods like the very short-term nature (1-3 months) of the positions.”

Spellar offered food for thought on the current market conditions, noting that a risk-adjusted basis outlook suggests that cryptocurrency markets haven’t sold off any more than high growth sectors like tech, life sciences or government bonds:

“We have not seen anything to counter the long-term thesis that more things than less will be digitized in the future, including traditional assets themselves. These types of markets shake out weak players and technologies and are overall healthy for markets and industries.”

The ERS and PORS funds have managed to fare well amid broad market sell-offs due to their broadly diversified portfolios. Spellar noted that both are top-performing public funds across short and long-term time domains and expects the latest quarter of the year to be no different in terms of performance.

Despite the first six months of 2022 being one of the worst performance periods on record, Fairfax expects both systems to be top decile performers over the period. Spellar said the digital asset segment of their portfolio was very small, with the vast majority made up of traditional venture capital equity investments.

What is crypto lending and how does it work?

April 12, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The borrower and the lender are two distinct actors in the crypto lending transaction. Borrowers put up cryptocurrency as collateral to secure a loan from a lender.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a deleterious effect on the returns from the conventional instruments of investments such as stocks, gold and real estate, driving investors in hordes toward crypto. Individuals and institutionalized investors alike have tried their luck in the industry that has rolled out decent returns even during the worldwide economic slump that horrified many investors.

Despite an intense debate raging about cryptocurrency offering a great window to grow wealth with alacrity and its extremely volatile ways, there is no denying the fact the industry has grown rapidly over the last two years. It is still innovating, trying different ideas and breaking more barriers in the process. One of these areas is crypto lending.

What is crypto lending?

Crypto lending is an ingenious instrument to obtain the cash you need quickly, as it allows you to utilize your crypto holdings as security to get secure loans. If you are wondering how do I borrow crypto, collateralized crypto lending is a viable solution. It allows borrowers to use their crypto assets as collateral to get a fiat or stablecoin loan.

This enables you to get the money without having to sell your coins, use the cash to fulfill your objectives and then repay to get back the hold on your assets. Crypto loans allow you to use digital assets you hold to generate dividends by lending out part or whole of the holdings.

Crypto lending platforms play a key role in dispensing such loans. Generally, you can borrow up to 50% of the value of your digital assets, though some platforms might allow you to borrow even more. Crypto loans generally don’t have a concept like EMI and borrowers may repay when they can before the fixed term ends. As for the interest rates, it is approximately 4% on Celsius Network on popular non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies.

As for the question, is lending crypto profitable, it depends on a string of factors. If you default on your debts, you end up losing your assets. Inconsistencies integral to crypto assets have led to more takers to stablecoin lending. On Celcius Network and Nexo, stablecoin lenders can earn 8%, while on Compound Finance — a decentralized crypto lending platform — the lending annual percentage rate (APR) for Dai (DAI) and USD Coin (USDC) is 12% and 9%, respectively.

How does stablecoin lending work?

When it comes to interest rates, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and borrowing models are closely influenced by the supply and demand scenario. A high volume of loans coupled with a low supply from lenders means high returns for lenders. However, if the demand for crypto loans is low and the supply from lenders is high, the interest rate for borrowers will be low to attract the borrowers.

If you are considering why do stablecoins have high-interest rates, this section may come across as quite informative. The principle idea of supply and demand leads to stablecoin lending, providing annual returns in double digits. Stablecoins are still a budding industry, being just 2-3% of the total crypto market capitalization.

On the lending platforms, a substantial amount of the lending supply comes from stablecoins. Many buy these coins only to lend them on these platforms, but it’s alarmingly low compared to the supply of the top cryptocurrencies. Take the case of Compound Finance, where Ether (ETH) has 50% more gross supply than DAI and USDC combined.

Contrast it with the demand and you will find the figures are staggering. On Compound Finance, the demand for DAI trumps that of ETH by nearly 40 times. Large institutional traders and cryptocurrency payment processors are behind the huge demand for DAI. Institutional traders include the hedge funds and market makers clubbing on crypto loans for speculation purposes.

How does crypto lending work?

Just like a securities-based loan, a cryptocurrency-backed loan collateralizes digital currency. Basically, it resembles a mortgage loan. You give hold of your crypto assets to get the loan and repay it over a predetermined time. These types of loans can be obtained through a crypto lending platform or a crypto exchange. Though you still retain ownership of the collateralized crypto, you forego the right to make transactions using digital coins.

Crypto loans come across as a viable option because of several advantages such as low interest rates, choice of loan currency, lack of credit check, fast funding and the ability to earn passive income on your crypto that is otherwise lying idle. Moreover, you can lend your own digital coins and receive a high APY (more than 10%) on several crypto platforms.

All crypto lending transactions have two distinct parties: the borrower and the lender. It is for the borrower to deposit crypto assets as collateral to secure the loan from the lender. The arrangement works to mutual advantage, as the borrower receives an immediate loan in return for their crypto assets while the lenders earn interest on the amount released as a loan. If the borrower defaults, they dispose of the underlying crypto assets to realize their money.

Steps of crypto lending explained

Whether you are looking for crypto lending on Binance, Coinbase or any other platform, the basics remain the same. Borrowers have to go through the following steps.

For the lenders, the steps to lending are provided:

Things to know before getting into crypto lending and borrowing

Crypto lending is a replication of collateralized loans in fiat. You need to be careful of a few factors when dealing in cryptocurrencies.

Should you lend crypto?

You may be eager to know if crypto lending is safe. Before you go active on a crypto platform as a lender, make sure you are well-versed with the specifics. When you move your crypto to any platform for lending, they hold access to the keys to the cryptocurrency — not you. You just have the bond issued by the smart contract. Check the auditing standards of the smart contract, the history of the project and its team can help you guide your decisions.

If you begin lending with your eyes closed, do not be surprised if your crypto disappears. QuadrigaCX, for instance, is nothing less than a horror story. A Netflix documentary discussed the suspicious death of Gerald Cotton, the founder of QuadrigaCX, the Canadian cryptocurrency exchange and how he misappropriated customer funds. About $190 million worth of digital assets kept on the exchange were lost.

To sum up, you need to do your due diligence before taking a call on the platform you’d be using for lending and borrowing. Regardless of the lending platform, knowing your game and limitations is extremely important when it comes to successful innings. A mistake might prove costly, so better put in the best of your exploratory skills to work.

Income generation on DeFi, explained

March 7, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain

DeFi enables users to earn passive income without undergoing complex measures.

What platforms can I use in this case?

Modern tools can improve the earning process by diversifying asset exposure and empowering AI for quicker reaction times.

Although DeFi returns appear promising, investors must continue to air on the side of caution and remember even in DeFi, “get-rich-quick” schemes do not exist. Instead, a minimum level of awareness on topics such as how the blockchain works and what an automated market maker (AMMs) is are necessary for users to deploy passive income generation methods. Furthermore, early DeFi projects required users to be highly experienced while having adequate capital at their disposal.

SingularityDAO is one of the few platforms that generate yield by trading cryptocurrency assets through an AI-powered DeFi portfolio, giving users access to a diverse range of crypto tokens.

These tokens exist as DynaSets, which are sets of assets managed by a combination of professional traders and artificial intelligence. After assets are deposited in a DynaSet, users can allocate LP tokens representative of their share of a DynaSet. The Dynamic Asset Manager option will manage the assets, trading coins based on market info and trends, with the intent to generate yield.

The company claims DynaSets products’ performance exceeded the numbers of popular digital assets –– Bitcoin (BTC) by as much as 13.6% and Ethereum (ETH) by 18%.

Since smart contracts power Dynasets, users have the advantage of immediate reaction time and trade execution across multiple liquidity pools. The result is increased efficiency, fewer fees, and a slippage limit, all without creating an account.

Learn more about Singularity DAO

Disclaimer. Cointelegraph does not endorse any content or product on this page. While we aim at providing you with all important information that we could obtain, readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company and carry full responsibility for their decisions, nor can this article be considered as investment advice.

And what about lending?

In comparison, lending allows users to become a liquidity provider by depositing their funds into a lending or borrowing platform like Aave (AAVE). Another user can then borrow those funds at, say, a 9% interest rate. The lender is likely to earn 8% after fees are paid, a notable interest payment, especially when compared to traditional vehicles. The pay increase can be likened to the foundation for these protocols. Here, a decentralized exchange (DEX) will generate a liquidity pool containing a series of token pairs that anyone can pay liquidity into. Users are then issued LP tokens, each representing the user’s share in the pool. Tokens can later be redeemed alongside a share of the swap fees. APY’s are typically higher than other DeFi platforms, although they often hold slightly more risk since lending can be met with impermanent loss.

What are some of the methods to earn passively?

Within DeFi, yield farming, staking and lending have proved to be profitable methods for passive earning.

Several income generation methods have emerged since DeFi was born three years ago. Now, investors are likely to stumble across various decentralized protocols and other smart contract applications, each promising different reward opportunities. Among the most common passive income opportunities are yield farming (liquidity mining), staking and lending.

Yield farming or liquidity mining takes a user’s existing cryptocurrencies and invests them to earn more. The strategy requires investors to stake some of their holdings in a smart-contract-based liquidity pool, where funds will be redistributed through DeFi protocols to other projects. The fees required for use are passed forward to the user through rewards.

Perhaps the simplest to understand is that staking enables users to earn passive income by locking their tokens in a smart contract, allowing them to earn more of the same token.

At its core, the process is similar to a traditional bank, where a user might deposit their traditional funds. The main difference is the fewer middlemen who will cut a user’s interest payment along the way. Users can then accumulate additional income in direct proportion to their existing asset balance. The benefits of this model further extend to the DeFi project itself, which can then encourage their users to lock assets over a longer period of time and receive a portion of revenue earnings.

Why are DeFi yields so high?

A combination of increasing demand and reduced fees taken by a middleman results in higher reward opportunities for investors.

Use cases around decentralized finance have opened up several new avenues for earning passive income. Much like a bank will pay interest when users commit their funds to a savings account, DeFi protocols hold digital assets as resources to confirm transactions and execute processes over the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.

High yields then become a possibility due to the high demand for leverage, available through native tokens and protocol fees. As the DeFi ecosystem matures and adoption grows, many users are becoming aware of the abundance of opportunities, further spurring the growing industry.

What is DeFi?

DeFi is a broad concept looking at global finance without a central authority, a process that is said to lower the barriers to entry and provide new opportunities for investors to profit.

DeFi, an acronym short for “decentralized finance,” is an all-encompassing term for financial services made available through public blockchains, the most common being Ethereum (ETH).

With DeFi, users can perform the same tasks they would with the bank, such as earning interest, borrowing, lending, buying insurance, or trading assets, but without a third party. In practice, users will typically engage with decentralized apps (DApps), which require users to begin transferring assets without ever opening an account.

The benefits of DeFi are a lower barrier to entry, especially for the unbanked population, and higher earning opportunities with rewards being transferred directly from the user paying significant fees to those operating the platform.

yield farming