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The cryptocurrency industry saw the worst first three months of 2018 when the market capitalization fell from $830 billion in January to under $300 billion at the beginning of February.

Yet, despite the issues regarding regulatory concerns, the potential threat of money laundering, and cryptocurrency exchange hacks, it doesn’t appear to be denting enthusiasm from investors. So much so, that aside from traders putting money into the more popular digital currencies — Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin — they are now turning their attention to other coins to broaden out their portfolios.

And now there may be a solution for investors that makes it easier to do so.

Creating a platform that combines fiat and tokens

Cryptology.com is a next-generation cryptocurrency exchange that makes fiat and cryptocurrency trading easy and secure. Its user-friendly web platform provides attractive conditions for professionals and offers an option of a mobile app for those wanting to trade on the go.

A basic web version has gone live this month. An advanced professional version of the trading platform with margin trading is planned to be launched in Q3 2018. The official launch of the iOS and Android app took place in March and users can now trade cryptocurrency wherever they are.

According to this blog, ‘it’s the first cryptocurrency exchange to combine tokens with easy fiat transactions’ such as Visa and Mastercard deposit options. Wire transfers for Europe are also on allowing for easy and secure trading.Combining tokens and fiat transactions at the same time, Cryptology’s aim is to provide a user-friendly platform where newbies and experienced traders can use a credit card.

Some of the problems that the team are striving to solve include the complexity of fiat transactions, hard-to-get rare tokens, high commissions, sluggish and complicated account verification, inactive customer support, lack of security, and cluttered interfaces, to name a few.

“We strive to create a single platform bringing together fiat transactions and a variety of tokens,” the exchange said. “Complex procedures will become a thing of the past, as users will be able to buy tokens with fiat currencies. Everything you need will be available on a single platform. You won’t have to deal with high commissions on fiat transactions, difficult KYC [Know-Your-Customer] procedures and slow support.”

Cryptology’s key advantage is an agreement with a payment system that permits it to manage fiat transactions in addition to offering its users competitive service fees. Other advantages include a 0 percent token withdrawal fee, 0 percent maker fee for token pairs, fast verification (just 30 seconds), and live support.

The web version is comfortable to use and absolutely intuitive. All the trading operations are secure and easy to carry out both for experts and newbies. Verification is quick and not complicated with support team on 24/7 to immediately handle any issue occurred. Trading with a minimum order size of just 0.01 EUR is open with 100% secure and quick transactions on cryptology.com.

Crypto withdrawals fees for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin are charged at 0.0005 and 0.002 for Ethereum. A maker fee will be listed at 0.15 percent and a taker fee at 0.25 percent. There are no minimum deposits and no withdrawal limits. The minimum order size is as low as 0.01 in fiat currency or the equivalent of $0.01 in cryptocurrency.

Delivering a range of tokens on one platform

Operating out of Singapore, the digital currencies users can trade on the exchange are bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash and litecoin. These cryptocurrencies are also paired with the USD, Euro and USDT with more to be added in the future.

Several ERC20 tokens are also available on the exchange for trading, depositing, and withdrawal, with many more to be added. The goal is to offer a wide variety of tokens on a single minimalistic platform in a portfolio that is easy to manage.

With offices being opened in different parts of the globe Cryptology are working at building a truly international exchange. Services will first be offered to users in Europe, with plans to expand to the Japanese and US markets.

As the cryptocurrency market continues to grow, with new investors putting money into the industry, knowing where to go to expand a user’s portfolio is somewhat limited. Cryptology is aiming to fill this gap with their exchange that intends to provide mass access to the space that is fast and easy through a marketplace that caters to their every need.



This post is brought to you by The Cointelegraph and shouldn't be considered investment advice by TNW. Yes, TNW sells ads. But we sell ads that don’t suck.

BUYING AND SELLING, BUT NOT SPENDING. In 2013, San Francisco-based cryptocurrency company Ripple began releasing its coin, named XRP. Today, XRP is the third most popular cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization (an asset’s share of the total crypto market), lagging only behind only bitcoin and ether.

But Ripple has a problem, according to a report by The New York Times: While people will trade XRP, they won’t use it.I SEE XRP ALL AROUND ME. By use, we mean do anything other than buying or selling as speculative investments.

Since you can’t exactly use crypto at your neighborhood grocery store quite yet, Ripple is primarily focused on getting people to use their XRP to conduct international money transfers.

If I have US$2,000 that I want to send to my friend in London, I would convert my dollars to XRP, send it to my friend in the UK, who would then convert it to Euros (or whatever currency they want). Ripple has already partnered with banks and other financial institutions to make this happen.


One way to get people to use a currency? Make sure they have a lot of it. And Ripple is making sure people have a lot of XRP by giving it away. In March, Ripple donated $29 million worth of XRP to a charity to buy classroom supplies for U.S. schools.

During an appearance on Ellen in May, actor/Ripple investor Ashton Kutcher presented $4 million worth of XRP to The Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund on behalf of Ripple.Ripple isn’t just donating XRP to charities, though. It’s also rewarding people who use XRP.

In October 2017, the company put $300 million in XRP into the RippleNet Accelerator Program, a program designed to reward financial institutions that use XRP.  Then, in May, Ripple created Xpring, an initiative that helps fund the development of XRP-focused start-ups.FLUSH WITH XRP. Ripple can play such a big role in how people use XRP (and how much there is) because of how the coin is generated.

While the number of bitcoin transactions determines the number of bitcoins in the world (more transactions = more mining = more bitcoins), all the XRP in the world was simply created in 2013. At that time, Ripple generated 100 billion XRP, keeping 80 percent for itself.

This has led to allegations that the company can and has artificially influenced the XRP market, but it also means Ripple has plenty of XRP to throw around.Now, no one can say for sure whether Ripple’s many initiatives will actually help XRP move from a speculative investment to a often-used asset.

But given the bad publicity Ripple has recently faced — including criticism in a U.K. court and a class-action lawsuit in the U.S.— giving millions to charity should help the company improve its public image if nothing else.

READ MORE: Here’s Some Cryptocurrency. Now Please Use It. [The New York Times]

Brady Dale   


 Apr 11, 2018 at 12:45 UTC  |  Updated  Apr 12, 2018 at 04:08 UTCThe average crypto enthusiast isn't likely to get their hands on grams - Telegram's crypto token - anytime soon.While half of the ambitious $1.2 billion the messaging giant hoped to raise was supposed to come from an ICO open to public investors, recent SEC filings confirm Telegram has already raised $1.7 billion from two private sales.

Now, sources with knowledge of the deal believe the company is likely to scrap its public sale altogether.The reason? Raising money from the public could be way more trouble than it's worth.For one, Telegram's blockchain, called the Telegram Open Network (TON), hasn't been built yet. (To be clear, no one has received any grams.) As such, Telegram is selling what basically amounts to IOUs for future grams under the Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT) framework.


That means - as displayed by the company's SEC filings - the company is selling a security, which cannot be sold to non-accredited investors (except under some exemptions)."The regulatory environment is in a weird place with most teams having more questions than answers," said Anthony Pompliano, a general partner at Morgan Creek Capital Blockchain.

"If teams can raise their capital goals in private sales, they'll continue to do so until there is less ambiguity in regulations."This appears to be what Telegram is doing, although it's been tough to tell exactly what the founders are thinking since they've said nothing about the ICO or TON, both of which the white paper details will help facilitate a network of faster payments, file-sharing, decentralized privacy, domain registration and more.Telegram did not respond to a request for comment.Pompliano told CoinDesk:

"The goal of fundraising is to gain access to capital to allow a team to build a product and company. It appears Telegram has already achieved their goal so there would be no reason to conduct a public sale."

Tech first

This is especially cogent as it relates to the amount of work a legal public sale would entail.For one, Telegram would have to go through a know-your-customer and anti-money laundering verification process to be able to sell to everyday investors.

For private, known investors that have been identified plenty of times for investment purposes, the verification work is less cumbersome, but for a store cashier who is investing for the first time, it's more challenging to prove they are who they say they are.

And it just has to do it so many more times. This would be no small lift and may not be attractive to a company that already has plenty of money.

Plus, there's already a secondary market for grams whereby small investors are buying the crypto tokens from whales that got into the private sales, according to Alexander Borodich, an alum of the Mail.ru Group, one of Russia's largest tech companies, and an angel investor passed on the opportunity to invest in Telegram's ICO.As such, he said it's unclear whether a legit public sale will happen.

The TON technical white paper describes an ongoing token sale that will continue intermittently well into the future. That phase may be a sort of public sale, but one that won't begin until the protocol launches.And according to Sid Kalla of the Turing Advisory Group, building the product before selling to the public would be that smart thing for Telegram to do.He told CoinDesk:

"The private sales were raised at around the top of the market euphoria. For a public valuation to reach back to those levels, the crypto community would need to see something concrete."

Public opinion

Which is another reason Telegram may discard it's public sale for some time - so it doesn't have to deal with thousands of people's unsolicited opinions.

When a company decides to do a public sale, it introduces complexity into its public relations.That's why large, publicly traded companies devote whole departments to investor relations, said Stephen Palley of the law firm Anderson Kill.

And that's something young startups may not have bandwidth to manage, he said."In this twilight world of ICO crowdfunding, you have a company that's brand new, it's a startup ... You suddenly have thousands -- tens of thousands -- of people who feel like they are stakeholders," Palley continued, adding:

"Do you really want to manage all those people?"

While Telegram is five years old, it's still a relatively small company that's so far bootstrapped development of its messaging platform from the founders' own pockets, which suggests it doesn't have experience in investor relations.

Kalla agreed, telling CoinDesk, "Since Telegram is trying to solve several hard technological problems (like sharding, say) there may be inevitable delays and setbacks. The private investors are likely more used to such things than the public at large."

As much as possible

That said, not everyone agrees that Telegram will scrap its public sale so soon."I see no motivation for Telegram to call off their public sale," Joe DiPasquale, CEO of the crypto fund-of-funds BitBull Capital, wrote CoinDesk via a spokesperson. "They seem dead set on raising as much capital as possible ... Considering they're targeting the mass adoption of their user base, I can't imagine them estranging the masses by canceling the public sale.

"Although, it would help if Telegram offered some insight into when and where this sale would be launched, since crypto enthusiasts keep getting bilked out of money by Telegram-focused phishing attacks.DiPasquale's sentiment isn't the prevailing one, though.

Even if Telegram needs more money to build, it doesn't seem like it's having trouble soliciting from experienced investors through private sales.Borodich for one predicts that Telegram will raise more money - to boost the total to $2.5 billion - through another private sale before the end of the year.

Another source concurred.Having said that, because there's been a pullback in the cryptocurrency hype, Kalla said, investors would likely want a lower price point for allocations of grams.And as such, he said:

"The only reason I see a public token sale making sense if there is investor demand or pressure or any contractual obligation for liquidity."

Telegram image via Shutterstock

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

The IRS has its eye on cryptocurrency investments. If you traded or sold any kind of cryptocurrency last year, here’s what you need to know before tax day.In 2014, the IRS issued one notice — IRS Notice 2014-21, 2014-16 IRB 938 — about cryptocurrency (let’s call it “the 2014 Notice”).

This is considered tax authority, although it does not have the same weight or effect as a law or regulation. But it’s all we have so far, and given no other official IRS guidance, it’s pretty informative of how the IRS thinks about cryptocurrency.

The 2014 Notice gives some very high-level background on how existing tax code applies to cryptocurrency and how the IRS views it as property. This classification as “property” requires a lot of effort on your part.

Most importantly, you need to know the adjusted cost basis of your property (cryptocurrency) so you can determine your gain or loss when you go to trade in or sell that property. Typically, basis is first determined by cost – in other words, the amount in U.S. dollars you paid for the property –  and adjusted by certain events (this might include stock splits if you held stock).

Each Bitcoin you have will have its own cost basis, and it is possible this cost basis needs to be adjusted as you hold the Bitcoin – although adjustments to basis are as yet unclear in the cryptocurrency context.There doesn’t yet exist a global reporting mechanism to confirm adjusted basis for people who bought or sold cryptocurrency in the past year and are now in the process of figuring out gains or losses.

 So if you aren’t getting any kinds of reports from your investments (which isn’t unusual), you’ll have to determine the adjusted basis and any associated gain or loss on your own. Moreover, you will need to track the character of your gain or loss from your cryptocurrency sales or trades. The character depends on whether the virtual currency is a capital asset in the hands of the taxpayer.

To make these determinations, you will likely have to go back through your bank or wallet receipts and emails to find out what you paid for a cryptocurrency in U.S. dollars (or the U.S. dollar equivalent of another cryptocurrency) to determine the cost basis of the property in question.


Then you will need to consider whether you engaged in any events since the date of acquisition that require an adjustment to the basis. Ultimately, that should get you to the adjusted basis at the time you sold or exchanged the property. And if you only sold or traded a portion of your cryptocurrency, you will need to determine which portion of your adjusted basis was sold or exchanged.

Most often, FIFO, or a “first in, first out” method, is applied for this determination. It’s a challenging endeavor for those who just got started investing in this area and could be nearly impossible for early adopters, who may not have kept detailed records.


Nevertheless, the IRS has said it expects taxpayers to comply with general tax law for all virtual currency transactions, even those enacted before the 2014 Notice. If you don’t, there is potential for penalties or audits.

Adding another layer of complication is when cryptocurrencies are mined instead of purchased with cash. You’ll need to determine if you were an employee or independent contractor mining for someone else, if you were getting wages for mining cryptocurrency, if those wages were in U.S. dollars or virtual currency, and how much each of those transactions was worth in U.S. dollars on the day they were recognized as transactions.

If you were mining for someone else, your earnings are considered wages, subject to regular wage withholding by your employer. If you were doing it as an independent contractor, those earnings have to be considered self-employment earnings. In other words, those earnings will not be reported as capital.

So you have both the initial difficulty of determining fair market value of the virtual currency and the added complication of properly categorizing your mining activity. Note, this is assuming employees or contractors are getting paid in cryptocurrency; regular salary paid in cash and similar payments are treated under standard income tax principles.

If it sounds complicated, it is. Here are a few ways to prepare yourself for a tax filing.

1. Don’t neglect to report any amount of cryptocurrency gains or losses from your investments. Be mindful of the limitations on losses that could apply. For example, generally capital losses of individual taxpayers (as opposed to ordinary losses, which are subject to special rules) are limited to $3,000 per year.

If you sold a portion of even one Bitcoin for any amount of money (even a small amount), the IRS has made it pretty clear they expect you to make best efforts to report any gain or loss triggered by the sale. The IRS, in fact, reinforced this position on March 23, 2018, by releasing a reminder to taxpayers to report virtual currency transactions, and stated in the reminder that taxpayers who do not properly report the income tax consequences of virtual currency transactions can be audited for those transactions and, when appropriate, can be liable for penalties and interest.


2. Start an ongoing spreadsheet that captures when you bought a cryptocurrency and how much it was worth in U.S. dollars on that day, when you sell or trade it and how much it is worth in equivalent U.S. dollars on that day, what you sell or trade for it and the value of what you get in return for that sale or trade. Make efforts also to track any possible adjustments to the cost basis in your cryptocurrency such as splits or forks, even if it is unclear yet whether those adjustments should be taken into account. In the long run, it will serve you better to get everything in order now, as more regulations are expected, and they may increase your reporting requirements.


3. Think more broadly about what you do with your cryptocurrency beyond strictly selling it. As I said above, tax law considers convertible virtual currencies like Bitcoin to be property. So you potentially have gains or losses if you trade Bitcoin for tangible things like a cup of coffee or goods on a third-party website. Technically, that’s a reportable transaction for tax purposes, and Uncle Sam wants a cut of any gain you earned on the transaction. It’s not intuitive that you would have to report this, so pay special attention to tracking the value of the good you bought and if that value resulted in a gain or loss compared to the adjusted basis of the cryptocurrency on that specific day. If you track those things and report accordingly for tax purposes, you’ll be in a much better position to defend your actions in an audit.


4. This trading concept applies to inter-cryptocurrency trades too. If you trade one type of cryptocurrency for another, it could also trigger these same issues. Under prior law, a trade of one cryptocurrency for another could in some cases be considered a tax-free like-kind exchange. Some cryptocurrency investors relied on that principle to treat cryptocurrency swaps as tax-free like-kind exchanges. The most recent tax reform has made that an impossibility, as all like-kind exchanges are now required to be exchanges of real property, such as exchanges of rental houses or commercial buildings.


So for those who are exchanging cryptocurrency, you’d still need to determine the adjusted basis of the virtual currency on the day you traded it and see if that was worth more or less than the currency you were exchanging it for on the day you swapped it and report gain or loss accordingly.

To recap: Cryptocurrency has to be looked at as property, not cash, when doing a tax return. So if you bought Bitcoin or a similar convertible virtual currency as a sole investor during the year and have held onto it (with no dividend or fork, either of which could lead to other tax complications), you probably don’t have any reporting obligation.

But if you sold or traded it last year, you may have to report your gain or loss to the IRS. So grab a spreadsheet. As cryptocurrency becomes more legitimate, the rules become more significant.

This article is provided as general informational and should not be construed as legal advice. Sarah-Jane Morin is an attorney with Morgan Lewis. She represents public and private companies, private equity funds, venture capital funds, real estate funds, portfolio companies, and real estate investment trusts in the tax aspects of complex business transactions and fund formations. You can reach her at [email protected].

See more from Venturebeat here: https://venturebeat.com/2018/04/07/cryptocurrency-and-taxes-its-complicated/

In fact, in 2017, startups raised a massive $5.6 billion from ICO’s. With so much money being raised through ICO’s, more and more companies are turning to them to get funding.

Obtaining funding through ICO’s is also attractive because ICO’s do not have anywhere near as many regulatory hoops to jump through, compared to IPO’s.

There were 435 successful ICO’s in 2017, and there could be even more in 2018. However, with so many companies launching ICO’s, there is a real question of which platform is the best for launching an ICO.

Two blockchains that have emerged as being ideal for ICO’s are Stellar Lumens (XLM) and Ethereum (ETH).

The Stellar vs. Ethereum Debate

Right now, Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency in the world by overall market cap. This is largely because Ethereum has built a name for itself as being excellent for launching ICO’s. Ethereum’s smart contract capabilities are very appealing to many companies launching ICO’s.

However, despite the fact that Ethereum has become well-known for ICO’s, Stellar is steadily becoming known as an excellent alternative to Ethereum.

Stellar Lumens is currently priced at about 27 cents. There are several key reasons why Stellar is gaining ground on Ethereum in terms of being a go-to platform for ICO launches. The first is speed. Stellar is much, much faster than Ethereum.

Given the fact that cryptocurrency prices are very volatile, being able to make transactions quickly is crucial for traders of cryptocurrencies. The average settlement time for Stellar transactions is five seconds. For Ethereum, it is 3.5 minutes.

This gives Stellar a tremendous advantage over Ethereum.Stellar is also cheaper. In fact, to make 100,000 transactions with Stellar, it only costs one cent. This is largely because Stellar as a built-in exchange, and therefore no fees are required to be paid to third party exchanges for transactions. Ethereum transactions are significantly more expensive.

The fact that Stellar has its own built-in exchange which is extremely fast and incredibly cheap means that ICO companies can start having their coins exchanged on day – 1, as soon as they launch.

Does Ethereum have any advantages?

Yes, Ethereum does have several key advantages over Stellar. One of the primary advantages of Ethereum over Stellar for ICO’s is that Ethereum is already well-established as the go-to platform for ICO’s and has been successfully launching ICO’s for a good amount of time now.

Ethereum is also the second largest cryptocurrency by overall market cap, which gives it distinct clout and a higher level of brand awareness than Stellar.

Stellar only broke into the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap in January 2018.

So, Ethereum is way ahead in terms of consumer awareness and popularity. Also, Ethereum offers the so-called “Turing-complete smart contracts.” These contracts allow businesses to set up a wide variety of smart contracts which can be very complicated.

However, despite the fact that Ethereum allows for Turing complete smart contracts, most ICO’s do not require Turing complete smart contracts, and thus can be run on the Stellar network.

Also, there are some security risks associated with Turing complete smart contracts which simply do not apply to contracts which are not Turing complete. So, the argument can be made that ICO’s on the Stellar network are less vulnerable to security breaches as well.

Conclusion

Essentially, Ethereum is better for ICO’s that require complicated smart contracts which are Turing complete. However, for ICO’s that do not require these types of contracts, Stellar could be a much better option.

Stellar is not only faster and cheaper, but it is not reliant on third party exchanges. This is because it has its own built-in exchange which is extremely effective and efficient.

Stellar may currently lack the brand recognition of Ethereum, but if it continues to rack up ICO’s, as it has been doing recently, then this could soon change.

Ethereum could soon start to face real competition from Stellar. If Ethereum is going to continue to stay way out ahead of Stellar for ICO’s, then lower transaction fees and faster settlement times may be required. These are two of the key advantages that Stellar has over it at the moment.

• In an "airdrop," makers of a new digital token give it out for free to some owners of existing coins. 
• "In certain ways people are getting free lottery tickets," says Matthew Roszak, co-founder of Bloq.
• William Mougayar, blockchain investor, says airdrops are being misused. "Sadly, airdrops are the new spam mail or coupons junk mail."

Kate Rooney | Evelyn Cheng




Want free cryptocurrency? Look out for 'airdrops' in 2018  2:49 PM ET Tue, 6 March 2018 | 01:09


Digital currency developers are trying a new tack for marketing and encouraging mass adoption: "airdropping" free cryptocurrencies into people's accounts.The meaning of airdrop in the cryptocurrency world has little to do with an iPhone.

 In this case, a group of people starting a new digital currency decide to give these newly minted tokens to holders of an existing coins like bitcoin or ethereum, for free. "In certain ways people are getting free lottery tickets," said Matthew Roszak, co-founder of enterprise blockchain-technology company Bloq. "There will be a tsunami of airdrops this year." 


Earlier this month, holders of the cryptocurrency neo were selected to receive another digital coin called ontology, for free. The token is supposed to give holders voting rights for a platform that focuses on identity verification and data services. Ontology began trading on Hong Kong-based exchange Binanceon Wednesday, according to a release.

Three other teams — including developers behind a Wikipedia-like site called Everipedia, similar to the ethereum's Callisto Network, and a smart-contract system called United Bitcoin — are also planning airdrops, according to Fundstrat Global Advisors. But given the price surges and mania around cryptocurrencies, it isn't clear why anyone seeking a profit would give away these out these new coins.Here are a few reasons more digital coin developers are pursuing airdrops: 

1. Promotion

Digital coin developers are using the airdrop method to promote new projects instead of "spending money on billboards and T-shirts," said Roszak, who is also chairman of the Chamber of Digital Commerce. The ontology airdrop said it would distribute 20 million coins, or about 10 percent of its tokens, to neo holders.

Both coins were created by the Chinese company OnChain. For every one neo, investors could get 0.2 ontology tokens, according to the Neo Council, an advisory group.In order to implement an airdrop, the maker of a new coin can look up and offer all of the holders of one cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin, a chance to receive the up-and-coming token for free. 

The coin isn't necessarily automatically distributed, but users can opt in to participate in the airdrop."We're seeing it through [digital token sales] and smaller start-ups that are trying to get traction right away," said Shone Anstey, executive chairman, president and co-founder of Blockchain Intelligence Group.The overall trend of being able to get some new digital coins for free through public blockchains "shows the great utility of the public networks," Anstey said.

2. Mass adoption

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts often tout the technology's transformational power that will come once there is widespread use. But despite growing interest in digital coins, adoption remains a fraction of the population. Airdrops try to address this issue. "I think we'll see airdrops as an increasingly sophisticated approach to customer acquisition," said Spencer Bogart, partner at San Francisco-based Blockchain Capital."Slipping money into someone's pocket is a powerful way to get their attention," Bogart said, adding that the airdrop process could spur mass adoption of a new cryptocurrency better than an initial coin offering. 

ICOs are sales of new digital tokens to raise funds for projects based on blockchain technology.

By owning a token, investors potentially get access to a platform such as a cloud storage system, and may benefit from the token's price gains. ICOs have raised about $7 billion to date, according to Autonomous Next.But it can be a challenge for an ICO to reach enough potential investors. In the five months through November, less than a third of ICOs reached their fundraising targets, according to TokenData."When you give something to someone for free they will pay a little more attention than if you ask them to sign up," said Erik Voorhees, CEO of ShapeShift, a platform for trading digital tokens.

"Imagine if Walmart could put some kind of asset into everyone's bank account in the U.S."Another potential benefit of airdrops is less regulatory uncertainty than an initial coin offering. China has officially banned the token sales, while the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has stepped up its efforts to stamp out fraudulent ICOs. Many cryptocurrency companies have received subpoenas or information requests from the SEC, CNBC reported last week.

3. Price

Developers may also have an incentive to use airdrops as a way to drive up the price for an existing coin. The demand for that original cryptocurrency could go up as investors buy it just to be a part of an upcoming airdrop.

That's similar to how many investors piled into bitcoin ahead of its split into bitcoin and bitcoin cash last summer, in order to benefit from a similar method of giving investors new coins called a "fork."In a Feb. 22 report, Fundstrat Global Advisors highlighted upcoming forks or airdrops in cryptocurrencies such as neo, ethereum classic, zclassic and litecoin. 

"We think these upcoming forks and airdrops may be a short-term reason to focus on these tokens," the report said. The firm's analysis also found that between the beginning of January and the end of February, five coins posted double digit returns relative to bitcoin.However, their data did show that four other coins with upcoming airdrops or forks underperformed bitcoin. 

The airdrop phenomenon is also still "fairly fringe" and "won't affect the price," said Blockchain Intelligence Group's Anstey.Other analysts are also skeptical that the trend helps boost public awareness. "Airdrops are being misused and abused, to the point where they are starting to lose their intended effect," William Mougayar, blockchain investor and author of "The Business Blockchain," said in an email.

"The more scammy and over-promoted ICOs will tend to send airdrops liberally without a proper user opt-in authorization," Mougayar said. "Sadly, airdrops are the new spam mail or coupons junk mail. They are hit and miss on benefits."

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/12/want-free-cryptocurrency-airdrops-is-coming.html

Building a token sale is at once quite simple — you build a token and sell it — and quite complex. A number of issues crop up immediately, including, but not limited to, the need for an expensive team of lawyers, marketers, social media experts and, until now, an expensive crew to build your smart contract.

CoinLaunch, a project by repeat entrepreneur Reuven Cohen, aims to reduce the complexity of at least one part of the process. His service, CoinCreator, allows non-programmers to build simple smart contracts in a few minutes.

“Early this year we began looking for an end-to-end platform that facilitated everything we needed to build, deploy and monetize compliant Initial Coin Offerings in one place,” said Cohen. “As we searched we quickly realized that nothing like this exists.”

“Today if you want to create an ICO the only real option is to hire a team of blockchain developers, lawyers and accountants, and marketing gurus or build all the smart contract components yourself.

This process is time-consuming, complicated and expensive and also assumes you can even find the right people to help you, which is in itself difficult.

”The creator asks for a few basic bits if data, including the name of your coin and the total issued. Then you create a simple contract that controls the flow and usage of these tokens.

Cohen claims the product is compliant with current regulations as long as you connect the token to some sort of utility and avoid selling equity.

The project is self-funded and Cohen and his partner Randy Clemens are planning their own token sale in 2018.“CoinLaunch provides a free and easy to use Coin Creator that enables anyone with little to no experience in cryptocurrencies the ability to create their own Ethereum-based ICO (ERC20 tokens),” said Cohen.

“Combined with an ICO campaign creator that allows users to create an entire ICO campaign as well as accept Ethereum-based funding from backers.”

“The platform includes an integrated compliance system that allows for any vetted ICOs to comply with various local regulations, including KYC and AML.

We are also working on integrating SEC-based crowdfunding compliance, specifically Job Act Title III and Regulation A.”Ultimately tools that reduce the complexity of token sales will take over from the jerry-built systems currently in place.

Token-sales-in-a-box services exist, but they are aimed at raising massive consulting fees and basic, programmatic and regulated services just don’t exist yet. This is an interesting first step, and, according to Cohen, it’s quite popular.

The project launched yesterday and so far users have generated the equivalent of about $1 billion using the service.

Read more like this on Techcrunch here: https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/13/build-your-own-token-sale-with-coinlaunchs-coincreator/