Since its invention, bitcoin has been one of the best performing cryptocurrencies to date. And just like most crypto enthusiasts, I took a liking for it and I have been a bitcoin trader for quite a while. But most, unfortunately, the better part of my trading experience at the beginning did not have a breakthrough.
Bitcoin Price Boom in 2017 and the Unpredicted Fall!
Bitcoin market can be quite volatile especially for bitcoin spot trading, which is how I initially used to trade bitcoin. For instance, everyone remembers the end of the year 2017 when bitcoin prices soar past $19,000 per single bitcoin. And most investors – I included – thought that we had found a new investment opportunity thinking that our new found gold was going to rise further in the year 2018 and we bought some significant amount of Bitcoins waiting to sell them once the prices climb a bit higher.
But I don’t need to explain what happened in the following months! From $19,000 to almost $5,000 in less than six months was quite a frustration for bitcoin investors. I mean how did I not see that coming? How did I ignore the fact that the bubble was just about to burst?
In a way, I did not blame myself too much since almost every other cryptocurrency registered a similar drop. But that was a turning point in how I was to trade Bitcoin into the future!
Crypto Futures Contracts
It did not take me long before I learned about bitcoin futures contracts. However, I had to be careful this time around. Once bitten, twice shy!
I took my time for the better of 2019 to learn about crypto futures, how they work, and where I can trade them.
The first thing that struck my attention is the fact that Bitcoin futures trading did not require me to own the actual bitcoin. That was a great relief because if you hold bitcoin in a wallet, you don’t want their market value to drop below what you bought them at, which makes you be constantly in a trading mood even though you may not be doing it on an exchange platform. In a way, I felt that was a way of eliminating the stress involved.
Secondly, I realized that crypto futures involved market price speculations just like most of the financial trading markets like Forex and Binary Options. And that to be sounded quite interesting and easy to do.
But there is one thing that complicated things a bit and that was the issue of leverage trading. Most crypto futures exchanges offer leverage trading which means you can open contracts/trades that are larger than collateral (what you invest in the trade). This way you can open and hold very large contracts though it depends on the maximum amount of leverage that your futures exchange provides and that translates to larger profits.
And although I learned that leverage trading was a double-edged sword since if your market speculations are wrong you end up making larger losses, I was convinced and determined to do an adequate market analysis to ensure I get most if not all the speculations right to close most of my futures contracts in profits.
Now the hard part was locating a Bitcoin futures exchange that offers the largest leverage possible. Most of the ones that I found had the leverage of up to 100x, which I felt was still too low. I needed a platform that would allow me more.
BTCC Exchange
A few months ago I found BTCC exchange, which is the world’s longest-running crypto exchange offering leveraged weekly/perpetual futures on nine major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, EOS, Bitcoin Cash, XRP, ADA, XLM, and DASH. And from the first impression, it seemed to tick all my requirements of a crypto futures exchange.
To start with, it met my requirement for an exchange that offered more than 100x leverage. To my amusement, it offers 150x, which was what I would ask for.
I decided to open an account with them. To start with, the account opening process and registration process was very easy and I could access their trading platform. So I took a month or two learning how its platform works, which was not a tough thing since they have a very simple to use platform.
Eventually, last month I decided to deposit $200 worth of USDT with them to officially start my live trading experience. I had very great hopes in them and they did not disappoint!
To my advantage, I also found out that BTCC also has a mobile trading app for Android and IOS users and I find it very helpful especially when I want to follow my contracts while I am outdoors.
Making $1000 in a Month Trading Bitcoin Futures
This was a dream come true.
My first Bitcoin futures contract was on BTC Daily futures contract where I placed a BUY Market Order with a lot size of 1 and leverage of 150x, which cost me 75USDT as collateral for the contract. The contract value was 11,257.66USDT at the time I was placing the order and at the expiry, the value had climbed to 11,636.74 USDT. I ended up making 379.08USDT, which is an equivalent of $379.08. Honestly, I had not made such an amount from a single Bitcoin trade before.
I decided to rest for the rest of that week hoping to make another trade once I had good market speculations. Mid the following week, I opened another BUY Market Order with a lot size of 1 and leverage of 150x, which cost me 75USDT as collateral. The contract value was 11,716.08USDT at the time I was placing the order and at the expiry, the value had climbed to 11,839.51USDT. I ended up making 123.43USDT, which is an equivalent of $123.43.
I was doing fine so far. But in the next trade, I made a loss of 70.45USDT. I had anticipated that Bitcoin prices were on the rise and the following week I placed another BUY Market Order with a lot size of 1 and leverage of 150x, which cost me 75USDT as collateral. The contract value was 11,619.03USDT at the time I was placing the order and at the expiry, the value had dropped to 11,548.58USDT.
I became more proactive in doing my market analysis and last week it paid off. I placed a SELL Market Order with a lot size of 1.50 and leverage of 150x, which cost me 112.5USDT as collateral. The contract value was 17,653.425USDT at the time I was placing the order and at the expiry, the value had dropped to 16899.71USDT. I ended up making 753.71USDT which is equivalent to $753.71.
Doing the math, last month I made a cool $1185.77 trading on BTCC.com! I can recommend anyone to use this futures trading exchange. I believe it is the best.
Go for a free account on BTCC in seconds and make your first crypto leverage trading. The deposit amount is as low as 0.5 USDT. And if your first deposit is 500 USDT or above BTCC will give you a bonus of up to 2000 USDT.
Note: The futures contracts on BTCC are USDT-margined, and that means you need to have USDT to do the trading.
Tip: If you like to trade on the go, you can download BTCC Mobile APP which will give you a better trading experience than the web.
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to any company, product, or service mentioned in this article. BitcoinAfrica.io is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any loss or damage caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, product, or service mentioned in this post.
Nigeria is ranked as Africa’s largest country with the most crypto traders and ranks third globally. The country accounts for the largest volume of cryptocurrency transactions outside the United States. In the last six months, it has been recorded that about 35% of the Nigerian population has traded cryptocurrency.
As encouraging as these numbers may be, Nigeria, as an environment, has been very unfriendly to cryptocurrency and its related aspects. Last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria ordered all commercial banks and lenders to stop transactions or operations in cryptocurrencies, citing a significant threat to the country’s financial system.
The ban on cryptocurrency in Nigeria was big negativity to the Nigerian youth, especially knowing that over 50 million of the population are involved in cryptocurrency. During this time, a lot of crypto trading platforms were shut down in the country. Also, many bank accounts suspected of dealing with cryptocurrency were locked, including their funds.
Even today (as of May 27, 2022), any bank transaction with a description or notes of “crypto,” “bitcoin,” “P2P,” or any crypto-related words will be locked away alongside the account(s).
The unfriendly treatment of cryptocurrency in the country is alarming. In the plight of making a positive solution, the community led to adopting systems where crypto traders could trade cryptocurrency without involving the bank.
Top 4 Problems Nigerians Face When Dealing with Cryptocurrency
Where to Buy or Sell Cryptocurrencies
Today, finding the right crypto trading platform that works for you significantly can be frustrating. Many cryptocurrency exchanges came into existence to aid in safer cryptocurrency transactions in the country. In this plight, some fraudulent platforms were made in disguise to exploit money from crypto investors. How would Nigerian crypto traders know which platform is genuine or not? With some checklists for selecting the best crypto exchange in Nigeria, you will be given key guidelines on how to choose the best place to sell bitcoin in Nigeria.
Speed of Transactions
A fast crypto transaction is important as the speed of cryptocurrency may block. Most times, transactions take hours to complete. Ideally, crypto transactions on regular crypto trading platforms take between 10 minutes to one hour. Surprisingly, some take over 5 hours. However, a few crypto transactions can take less than five minutes, depending on the app. In cases where we need transactions done quickly, or we accept crypto payments for your business, how do we intend to confirm payment before allowing customers to take their products? Should the customer wait for hours?
The speed of transactions has been a damaging factor for most Nigerian crypto traders. This has been a reason why many Nigerian companies find it difficult to accept cryptocurrency as payment options for their businesses.
High and Inconsistent Fees
Crypto transaction fees are another issue many Nigerians face. To really compare the best options for you, you have to look at the fees before and after conversion. What are the withdrawal fees, processing fees, and receiving fees,… These fees cause a huge discouragement in crypto trading in the country.
Limitations
It is saddening that many Nigerian crypto traders cannot make transactions because many of these crypto trading apps have put some limits on how much they can withdraw, receive, buy or sell. This breaches the purpose of cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency has made it easy for people to send money from one place to another without a barrier. Why should I not be able to receive my funds because it is below your limit for withdrawal?
Limitations have made many Nigerians lose interest in cryptocurrency or lose their cryptos.
These factors, alongside many others, have caused the trading of cryptocurrency in Nigeria very difficult.
How Breet Solves Some of the Issues Nigerians Face in Cryptocurrency
Breet is an OTC crypto exchange platform that allows users and businesses who simply want to receive crypto and get a flat equivalent of their coin to convert their crypto to cash money immediately.
With Breet’s over-the-counter system, you are saved from the hassle of boring explanations of what and how crypto works and tedious illustrations of cryptocurrency market charts. Breet enables users to securely convert and withdraw their crypto coin to cash money in less than five(5) minutes without the use of peer-to-peer trading or any third-party agent.
Breet is a revolutionary new way to convert and withdraw your crypto coin without the need for peer-to-peer trading or any third-party agent. With just one click, you can have cash money in hand within five minutes.
With Breet, you can sell your cryptocurrency in less than 5 minutes. This is an incredible feature on its own, meaning businesses can now accept cryptocurrencies as payment options without having their customers wait for hours to confirm payment.
Breet is also completely free. There are no hidden charges, no withdrawal fees, no processing fees and no receiving fees. There are zero charges with Breet. Breet’s free usage solves the issue of high and inconsistent charges for many Nigerian crypto traders.
There is no limitation to how much you can receive or withdraw on Breet. You don’t have to have about 10,000 Naira worth of cryptocurrency before you can withdraw. You can even withdraw as low as 100 Naira with Breet Exchange.
Breet is simple, free and certified. There is not much sugar coating to tell before believing that Breet is, arguably, the best crypto trading platform in Nigeria currently. The incredible reviews on the Breet app give perfect evidence.
What more do you need? If not, a crypto exchange that makes crypto transactions easy and makes people happy. You should become a Breet user by downloading Breet mobile app available on all Android and iPhone devices.
The much-anticipated transition of the Ethereum network from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus is finally taking place. The adaptation of PoS has always been the plan and a vital part of scaling Ethereum by future upgrades. However, abruptly shifting to PoS can pose significant technical and community challenges that are not as simple as using PoW to achieve network consensus. Having said that, what exactly are PoS and PoW?
Proof of Work
Proof-of-work (PoW) is a consensus algorithm that allows for the secure, decentralised verification of transactions on a blockchain. In a PoW system, miners are responsible for verifying and committing transactions to the blockchain. During the verification process, miners compete against each other to solve complex cryptographic puzzles. The first miner to solve the puzzle is rewarded with cryptocurrency, and the transaction is added to the blockchain.
Reasons To Shift From Proof of Work
The Ethereum ecosystem has evolved at an astounding rate in the last year. This growth was primarily due to a significant emergence and explosion of NFTs and Decentralised Finance (DeFi) initiatives. While the change-over was imminent, some factors to be considered for the same are:
The PoW consensus protocol requires users to utilise significant computational power to validate transactions and add new blocks to the network.
Users who devote their computational resources to the shared ledger are miners.
These miners are rewarded with Ether tokens in exchange for the computing power they have supplied to the network.
With PoW consensus, Ethereum takes up to 113 terawatt-hours of electricity in a year. According to Digiconomist, it is more than the total electricity consumption of the Netherlands per year.
The current Ethereum transaction with PoW consensus takes up energy equivalent to the consumption of one week of energy of an average US household.
With so many downsides to its cap, PoW has many advantages, which is one of the main reasons it has been a reliable consensus for so long. The PoW consensus has been robust and secure all these years. But the consensus can be utilised by a cryptocurrency with a massive valuation and relatively simple use case, such as the bitcoin. With the amount of energy and power involved, it becomes difficult for individuals to meddle with a high valuation asset.
Proof of Stake
The consensus protocol Proof-of-stake (PoS) has been introduced to address the issue of over-mining. Proof of stake (PoS) is critical to understand because it could eventually replace the proof of work (PoW) consensus mechanism that is currently used by most cryptocurrencies.
“PoS is a way to achieve decentralised consensus without using energy-intensive mining. It is an alternative to the more common proof of work algorithm. With PoS, a cryptocurrency’s blockchain is secured by its token holders who are required to lock up their tokens as stake and not by miners equipped with powerful hardware. It’s an energy-efficient, cost-effective and therefore, a popular choice for crypto giants like Ethereum,” states Dev Sharma, CEO of Blockwiz, a crypto marketing agency.
In contrast to PoW, in which the individual who completes the mathematical proof first is rewarded with new coins, with PoS, no new coins are created.
Benefits of Proof of Stake Consensus
Proof-of-stake introduces several enhancements over the PoS mechanism:
Improved resource proficiency – you don’t need as many energy mining blocks.
Minimal entry barriers, lower hardware requirements – Even if you don’t possess top-tier hardware, you still get ample opportunities to participate in the creation of blocks.
More excellent resistance to centralization – PoS would imminently facilitate the generation of more nodes.
Staking facilitates the operation of a node. It does not necessitate significant expenditure on equipment purchases or resources, and if you lack the ETH token to stake, you cannot participate in staking pools.
Staking consensus enables reliable sharding. Shards enable Ethereum to generate new blocks simultaneously, leading to enhanced throughput of transactions.
In a PoW mechanism, sharding the chain would reduce the amount of energy required to modify a particular network section.
In a Nutshell
Proof of stake (PoS) is a type of algorithm used by cryptocurrencies to determine who gets to create new blocks on the blockchain. PoS works by requiring users to lock up some of their currency in a smart contract called a stake. In return, they are given the right to validate blocks on the network and earn rewards.
The advantage of PoS is that it doesn’t require the massive energy consumption that PoW does. This non-dependency on massive energy utilisation makes it more environmentally friendly. It reduces the risk of centralisation since few users would be able to control the majority of the currency. Therefore, it’s no wonder that Ethereum is making the much-anticipated switch.
CEO Michael Wu joined Forkast News to discuss crypto’s consumer adoption and what’s next for crypto.
CEO Michael Wu joined CNBC Street Signs Asia to share how Amber Group seeks a balance between regulation and crypto development.
CEO Michael Wu gave an interview with Economist Impact at Technology for Change Week on how to stay ahead of the curve in the fintech space.
Managing Partner Annabelle Huang joined Economist Impact’s Asia Trade Week to discuss the future of crypto as payment in Asia.
Managing Partner Annabelle Huang joined Avalanche Summit to discuss the opportunities and challenges in DeFi.
Managing Partner Annabelle Huang joined Goldman Sach’s panel discussion on “Digital assets – Investing in the future” to celebrate International Women’s Day.
Managing Partner Annabelle Huang gave a guest lecture on DeFi and Web3 for the International Finance class at Singapore Management University.
Managing Partner Annabelle Huang joined the DIG FIN VOX podcast to talk about Amber Group’s move to Singapore and into retail.
CSO Dimitrios Kavvathas joined Blockchain Africa Conference 2022 to discuss institutional investment in crypto.
CSO Dimitrios Kavvathas joined FinTech Festival India at a panel discussion on “De-Fi – A better solution for peer-to-peer lending”.
CSO Dimitrios Kavvathas joined the World Blockchain Summit in Dubai at a panel discussion on “Fostering the global crypto ecosystem”.
Europe Managing Director Sophia Shluger delivered a keynote speech on digital wealth at Blockchain Africa Conference 2022.
Europe Managing Director Sophia Shluger joined the CryptoCompare Summit in London to discuss the building blocks of the new digital economy.
Europe Managing Director Sophia Shluger joined the FundFocus Europe 2022 conference to discuss the foundation for the widespread institutional adoption of cryptocurrency.
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Latin America Managing Director Nicole Pabello joined the Ethereum Rio conference to discuss the LATAM Ecosystem in the world.
Institutional Sales Director Justin d’Anethan joined EmergentX’s Annual Digital Asset Summit to discuss the institutionalizing of the digital asset industry.
Managing Director Ben Radclyffe joined Credit Suisse’s Asian Investment Conference to discuss the spillovers between crypto and equity markets.