Crypto Research

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThe digital assets space has witnessed a Cambrian explosion of alternative crypto networks over the past few years, with many projects experimenting on concepts pioneered by Bitcoin. Despite the new options for crypto investors, we believe Bitcoin remains differentiated as the only sound monetary cryptoasset due to its unique technical characteristics around decentralization, consensus, and supply. Bitcoin is also fundamentally superior to other existing monetary assets such as the...

Hedera (HBAR) is a public Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) network designed for the creation of secure decentralized applications (dApps) with near real-time consensus. Due to its enterprise focus, the network was constructed with an emphasis on regulatory compliance across jurisdictions and includes tools that allow dApps to run KYC/AML checks and identity verification.Scalable transaction fee design. Hedera leverages its native cryptocurrency, HBAR, to fuel and secure the network while incentivizing...

Horizen is a blockchain platform structured as a cross-chain network that provides infrastructure and tools to support the creation of third-party decentralized applications ("dApps") with elective privacy features. At the beginning of Q4 2020, we released our primer report Horizen: Web 3.0 Platform Targeting Big Tech Super App Disruption, followed by an update note at the end of Q4 2020 Horizen Update: ZEN Moving Higher As Halving Approaches. Since our last note's...

Founded in 2013, Modernity Financial Holdings Ltd. (“MaiCoin,” or the “Company”) is a leading cryptocurrency exchange in Taiwan. The Company offers brokerage services through MaiCoin, wallet and exchange services via MaiCoin Max, and merchant services to retail and institutional clients through AMIS Technologies. MaiCoin also owns a minority stake in MaiCapital, a regulated cryptocurrency investment vehicle.ADOPTION TAILWINDS. The global digital assets market has transformed from a monetary thought experiment to...

Wave Financial (“Wave” or the “Company”) is an SEC registered digital asset wealth manager and fund provider for individual investors and crypto protocols with over $1 billion in assets under management (AUM). Since its launch in 2018, Wave’s capabilities have expanded to include a full-service wealth management platform and a suite of in-house crypto investment funds. The Company is leveraging traditional investing and risk management strategies in innovative ways to...

Off The Chain Capital, LLC (“OTC,“ or the "Company") is a value-oriented investment manager that invests in digital assets and blockchain companies. OTC leverages industry relationships to acquire shares in late-stage private blockchain companies at early-stage valuations and uses innovative methods to source Bitcoin at discounted prices. Off the Chain, LP’s (“the Fund”) strategy has resulted in outperformance relative to common investment benchmarks and comparable private funds since its inception...

CompoSecure Holdings, LLC ("CompoSecure," or the "Company") designs and manufactures metal payment cards for many of the world's leading financial institutions. The Company was the first to produce a metal card in 2003 in partnership with American Express and has since forged deep relationships with additional issuers/resellers such as JP Morgan Chase, Capital One, and Fiserv ( Slide 12 ). The Company produces cards for a variety of proprietary and...

AVALANCHE (AVAX) is a next-generation smart contracts platform that’s structured as a publicly-owned crypto network protocol. Ava Labs supports the Avalanche protocol in its mission to build a high-performing, secure, and energy-efficient cryptonetwork for decentralized applications ("dApps"), novel financial primitives, and new interoperable blockchains. Using its innovative technology approach, the Avalanche protocol is creating a new crypto-native economy for frictionless real-world and digital asset exchange, composable financial application primitives and derivatives,...

Ava Labs is building the Avalanche protocol which expects to deliver the highest performance, most secure, and most energy efficient general-purpose cryptonetwork for highly decentralized applications, novel financial primitives, and new interoperable blockchains. Using its innovative Avalanche consensus mechanism, the protocol hopes to create a new digital crypto-native economy for frictionless real-world and digital asset exchange, composable financial application primitives and derivatives, Web 3.0 privacy-focused data and social applications, and...

IOTA (MIOTA) is an alternative Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform, which uses the “Tangle”, a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), to enable applications primarily for the Internet of Things (IoT). IOTA is scheduled to undergo a two-part protocol upgrade, IOTA 1.5 (Chrysalis) and IOTA 2.0 (Coordicide) (Slide 2), aimed at implementing a series of major DLT technology advancements to improve network functionality and achieve greater decentralization. If successful, the upgrade could...

At the beginning of Q4, we released our report Horizen: Web 3.0 Platform Targeting Big Tech Super App Disruption. Horizen (ZEN) is a next-generation internet platform structured as a cryptonetwork that gives users control over their online data with its blockchain cloud computing platform for money, messages, media, and third-party decentralized applications. During the quarter, the ZEN token appreciated 145%, benefited by a 70% gain in Bitcoin, new partnership deals...