Maxim Kurbangaleev spoke about “crypto freezes” and the situation on the market in 2022. NFT marketplace OpenSea cuts staff by 20%, Celsius files for bankruptcy, and bitcoin drops below $18,000. The loud “crypto winter” is increasingly heard from experts and the major cryptocurrency is predicted to fall to $12,000.
Maxim Kurbangaleev: The cryptocurrency market repeats the scenario of 2017
“In 2017, investors invested in ICOs without getting too deep into details: what it is, what team is behind it, whether the project has business potential, etc.,” says expert Maxim Kurbangaleev. At the same time, five years ago, crypto projects burst one after another, since money in them only appeared through the collection of investments.
In 2019, the situation is approximately the same, but it goes through several waves: the first one is Defi; the second wave of investments is infrastructure solutions that do not always have a working business model. “L2 solutions look interesting in terms of technology, but you need to take market requirements into account. The bottom line is that instead of developing something new, many teams tried to copy someone else’s successful experience. As a result, those projects which only mirrored their sensational counterparts simply failed due to the lack of obvious unique functions and a working business model,” Maxim Kurbangaleev believes.
Is NFT only a wrapper for pumping money on the market or art? – Maxim Kurbangaleev answers
After a series of speculative decisions, the attention of the mass consumer has shifted to NFTs. “NFT is a great marketing manipulation,” the expert notes. Indeed, “bored apes” are bought by many celebrities (Eminem, Britney Spears, Jimmy Fallon, Paris Hilton, and others).
NFTs are willingly stolen by hackers, and the amounts for the sale of tokens exceed millions of dollars. Conspiracy theories are being built around NFT apes, but the fact remains that thousands of other popular tokens have appeared right after BAYC ones. “Investors were swayed with the help of marketing, playing on the FOMO syndrome and persuading them to buy,” says Maksim Kurbangaleev.
“At the same time, NFT is compared to real art. However, the artistic paintings embrace much more history and many years of personal experience of the authors whereas NFTs are more of a bleeding white flash built on people’s greed. In my opinion, there is no real art capable of touching the soul of a person in NFT,” adds Maksim Kurbangaleev.
Can investors who have poured large amounts into NFTs hope for the development of projects? “If uniqueness appears in the NFT,” the expert replies.
According to Maxim Kurbangaleev, digital art has many amazing artists, and digital aesthetics allows you to create real works of art. “Andrew Jones, a contemporary artist from the USA, comes to mind as an example. His outstanding works are famous all over the world, and the artist’s experiences are reflected in the smallest details in his paintings. Of course, such a digital heritage inspires people around the world and has a future. NFTs, for the most part, are just thousands of randomly generated and promoted pictures, no one has put their hearts and history into them,” Maksim Kurbangaleev sums up.
How does creating projects without meaning slow down the development of the market and technology?
More than 10 thousand tokens are already present on the cryptocurrency market, and a couple dozen more appear weekly. Projects without any idea are growing exponentially, and memes and fan tokens are flooding an already oversaturated market. According to DropsTab, the number of meme tokens exceeds 7,000. Yet, anyone can issue their own token and coin. Do they show multiple growths? If they rise in price, it is only due to the marketing and advertising of artists. The benefits and potential are out of the question. They are short-lived and only exist to enrich certain investors.
“Repeated copying leads to a slowdown in the development of truly worthwhile technologies. Simply put, there are guys who can make their own quality product, but they ask themselves – why do we need it? Why choose a difficult path when you can create an NFT or another meme and sell it profitably?” Maxim Kurbangaleev explains.
Project creators stop thinking, tokens depreciate, and investors lose tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars. The blockchain technology market, according to Maxim Kurbangaleev, is not developing as efficiently as it could, and investors are losing trust. Thus, everyone loses the authors, the market, and investors.
STEPN and scammers – the opinion of Maxim Kurbangaleev
Is the well-known STEPN truly worthwhile and noteworthy? A question that perhaps every other crypto investor asked themselves.
Due to its scale (more than 2.3 million active users worldwide), the project is really worthy of close examination. The Move-to-Earn concept was the next breakthrough in the crypto industry after the Play-to-Earn of Axie Infinity. The “world fever”, where players from all over the world caught Pokémon, has now become a healthy lifestyle. Run, walk and earn is the main idea of STEPN.
“STEPN is worthy of attention, but I can see its limits. Users make money from the fact that other participants invest in the purchase, repair, and improvement of “sneakers” and this scheme can only exist up to a certain point. The project has interesting game mechanics, but it will develop only if it manages to keep its users interested,” Maxim Kurbangaleev responds.
Time will tell when and how STEPN ends. Here and now, one thing is clear – it is worth watching.
However, among all this, there are plenty of scammers on the market. Previously creating traditional financial pyramids, they happily moved to the cryptocurrency market, where they feel free and safe in an unregulated space.
“Today, attackers easily deceive users and rip them off. In fact, they do everything for which, outside of digital assets, they could get a real prison term,” Maxim Kurbangaleev says. Phishing sites, fake emails, and even fake mobile apps – scammers are ready for anything. And this is another important cause why investors lose money.
Current market situation
“Marketers are actively using the FOMO effect, and investors are still mindlessly investing money, afraid of missing out on profits,” says Maksim Kurbangaleev. The fear of not getting their “piece of the pie” pushes hundreds of thousands of investors to rash actions.
Since the beginning of the crisis, many cryptocurrencies have suffered a hard landing. It took mere two weeks for Bitcoin to collapse by 43% and update the 2020 minimum at $17.6 thousand. The capitalization of bitcoin is declining, and the index of fear and greed has been fluctuating between 5 and 15 for several months.
Investors are losing recklessly invested funds and getting rid of risky assets with the hope of saving “crumbs” from the initial deposit. Will all popular projects survive the coming “crypto cold”? Hardly.
“When the market is growing, it is difficult to make a mistake. It is enough to take the top 10 and invest 10% of your capital in each. Even if one of them does not work out, you will still make a profit and increase your assets,” Maxim Kurbangaleev explains.
According to the expert, making money on the fall of the cryptocurrency rate, although more difficult, is also possible.
“In a bear market, investors can bet against the top 10 falling projects, in other words, bet against the market and make a profit. The nuance is that only professionals with great resources and background can quickly switch. Unfortunately, most people who try to speculate in the market put on rose-colored glasses and harbor illusions about their experience,” the expert believes.
How can you really increase your assets, regardless of the market cycle? “In order to make money, you need to make products that are useful for people and try resources such as https://immediate-connect.org/ for better understanding of the market as well. Create services and businesses with a working economy and, even with the strongest storms on the market, you will make a profit,” Maxim Kurbangaleev summed up.