It was quite a ride for Waves in 2017. It started the year at $0.25 and finished at $12.50, and at one point broke $17 in December.
I think 2018 will be another great year for Waves. Below I’ll detail why and where I’m targeting a buy.
If you’re unfamiliar with Waves then check out my previous articles here and here.
This first piece of good news is what I mentioned in my last article on Waves, the implementation of Waves-NG.
The protocol is based on Bitcoin-NG which was developed by Cornell Professor Emin Gun Sirer. The Waves-NG protocol will enable the Waves Platform to handle up to 100 transactions per second. And eventually 1,000 TPS. Not quite Visa-like levels, but per Waves, this will make it the fastest decentralized blockchain system in the world.
Since launching I’ve kept my eye on the Waves decentralized exchange. Prior to Wave-NG it was doing less than $1 million in daily trading volume. Now it’s doing over $5 million. So far so good.
While Waves-NG was a big event, there are a few others that have slipped under the radar.
One is Waves’ partnership with Tokenomica to provide a 100% compliant legal framework for token crowdsales. They recently received a green light from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Next up, the Waves Lab blockchain incubator got launched. This initiative will fund pre-ICO projects and teams up to $300,000. This will certainly bring more ICOs to the Waves platform.
Waves also launched a venture capital fund called the Basics Fund. It’s been done in conjunction with Placeholder Capital, the crypto hedge fund run by Joel Monegro and Chris Burniske, two big crypto names. The fund will start with $10 million and focus on blockchain infrastructure projects.
Finally, you should know that with Waves-NG out you can now lease your Waves and earn up to 5% on your balance. As use of the network grows, so will the fees collected, and hence the income too. That will help boost the WAVES price.
It should be an interesting year for Waves in 2018. I started leasing my stake and we’ll see how that goes.
I’m targeting the $7-8 range to buy more Waves. After the recent run-up I think it’ll be some time before it rallies to new highs again.
What do you think about WAVES?