The Altcoin Evolution – Part I: Introduction

Mainstream adoption for emerging altcoin projects is a constant topic within the crypto community that might be a conversation that exists in perpetuity. Most notably because the idea of “adoption” in crypto isn’t tangible or measurable. What does mainstream success look like, and how does it fit with crypto’s inherently decentralized nature? It’s a long road to travel for altcoins to find success in the current landscape. This new series will take a look at some of the primary hurdles that altcoins face today.

Emerging Projects: Overcoming Challenges

Throughout this series we’ll be thinking about small-cap, yet to emerge coins. BTC and ETH have gone full-fledged mainstream, and now there have been a fairly abundant amount of emerging cryptocurrencies that have clawed their way to the most ‘accessible’ exchanges, such as Coinbase, Binance, etc. Accordingly, the so-called “Coinbase effect” in crypto is very much a real thing, and there are some obvious reasons for that: most notably, wide stream visibility and accessibility. This is exemplified by crypto rumors of an altcoin being listed to Coinbase leading to immediate jumps in price as aggressive traders look to “beat the Coinbase hype”.

However, there are also a wide array of crypto projects headed down different roads, all vying for that next step opportunity as well. As with most things in finance, there are no shortage of hurdles for all of these prospective risers. That being said, there are a few options that have potential to make large runs toward ‘mainstream’ acceptance. ECOMI, for instance, is establishing mainstream IP NFT partnerships with major entertainment properties like Marvel, Activision, Capcom, and more. However, while the NFT space has seen exponential growth this year, it is still relatively unknown to the average layman.

Despite more and more integration into traditional finance atmospheres, there is still a long road to travel for the development of altcoins into the mainstream financial consumer. Accordingly, ECOMI’s native token, OMI, is substantially more difficult to acquire than your run-of-the-mill projects that dominate the headlines. This series will take a dive into how legitimate crypto projects can work their way into more mainstream acceptance. We’ll also look at some of the inherent challenges and hurdles that projects have to overcome.

As the market continues to grow, NFT digital collectibles are becoming a source of revenue for musicians, artists, and even sports teams and leagues (most notably projects like NBA Topshot). This increase in distribution shows promise to continue the push of this NFT phenomenon front and center in the eyes of the general public, and more importantly, potential investors. Throughout this series, we’ll often look at NFT projects, such as ECOMI’s, as prime examples in addressing the unique roadblocks that crypto projects often face.

The 'Altcoin Evolution' series will look at altcoins such as OMI as examples for projects that are looking to grab mainstream market share.   | Source: OMI-USDT on TradingView.com

It’s Not Always Easy

Despite having the aforementioned partnerships with strong IP properties, the OMI token has a market cap that barely cracks into the top 100 of crypto tokens on the market, despite being a unique project in the marketplace when it comes to established partnerships relative to the competition. Although the token is difficult to acquire currently relative to many comparable projects, this may actually be a benefit to potential investors seeking to find the next hot thing at the ground floor. If the platform continues to proliferate content creators with established brands, there may be an opportunity to become an early adopter of digital collectibles.

Volatile, lower-cap assets are of course, immeasurably difficult when it comes to trajectory projections. These coins not only are subject to the upcoming (and ongoing) regulation changes and economic uncertainty (to an increased extent relative to the major tokens on the market, at that), but also have yet to prove true long-term stability, or growth capability. Another cliche most certainly applies here, as this is certainly positioned in the broader crypto market as a high risk, high reward play for potential investors.

Additionally, if the casual consumer is interested in ECOMI’s project, and wants to acquire OMI tokens, like many emerging projects – there are substantial market barriers in doing so. While market barriers have been slowly streamlined to the everyday consumer since the early days of crypto, there is likely still miles of roadway left to go when it comes to a truly streamlined process for established, yet emerging projects. The OMI coin does already have actual utility on the VEVE marketplace, where it is the currency of choice. VEVE is an NFT digital collector’s space/auction site, where users exchange digital collectibles. This is where those corporate connections make OMI uniquely placed to have tangible function going forward. Users of the VEVE marketplace are exchanging fiat currency to OMI in order to purchase collectibles, often without even knowing that the OMI coin is involved, which provides another glimpse into the potential utility of the coin going forward. This can be likened to the experience on NBA Top Shot as well, where users are buying, selling, and even gifting NFTs on the FLOW blockchain, all without any sort of interaction with the FLOW token itself.

This will be the framework for the ‘Altcoin Evolution’ series. Next week, we will break down our first initial challenge for altcoins – accessibility for more casual consumers. For the next several weeks, we will break down a number of different challenges before finally wrapping the series up with a closing summary that outlines these challenges in full, and how emerging altcoin projects can address them.

Stay tuned, and we’ll see you next week!