To invest or not to invest in cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs). That is the challenge of many millennials. The spend-it-now generation is having a hard time saving for retirement. Mobile apps and automated robo-investment advisors have made it easier than ever to set up and manage an investment portfolio, but beating inflation is hard to do in today’s low interest rate environment. Millennials concerned with ideally growing and preserving their portfolio value are challenged.
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Over the past decade, the average US inflation rate was 3.2 percent while the average interest rate on savings accounts is currently less than one percent. An inflation-proofed cryptocurrency portfolio could help lower volatility and reap higher returns. After removing the effects of inflation from 10-year S&P 500 returns, the value of every dollar invested would have grown to $3.20 versus $1.99 when adjusted for inflation.
With banks paying zero or negative interest on savings, the rush into cryptocurrencies for higher returns is not surprising. Cryptocurrencies and ICOs, however, are allocated to the high risk alternative asset class of an investment portfolio since they introduce higher than average volatility and illiquidity. Bitcoin volatility has fallen in 2017 and some predict it will be on par with that of fiat currencies by 2019, but events such as the pre-Christmas flash crash still send jitters through the market.
A Fail-Safe and Inflation-busting Currency
Safer cryptocurrencies are key to the growth of the crypto economy. To address volatility and illiquidity risks, several cryptocurrency exchanges have started to back their currencies with fiat currencies. Zug, Switzerland-based X8 Currency (X8C) has gone even further by backing its currency 100 percent with a reserve basket of fiat currencies and gold. The Crypto Valley company has implemented additional risk measures engineered to Swiss financial standards that would even make the global bank regulators down the road in Basel blush.
The broadly diversified reserve basket is comprised of the top eight global currencies (EUR, USD, JPY, GBP, CAD, AUD, CHF, NZD) deposited in Swiss banks and insured by SwissRE AG. The currency basket is further backed by physical gold reserves. The funds are audited daily by JP Fund Services. Driven by a scientifically based algorithm, an automated portfolio manager called ARM AI (Automatic Reserve Management Artificial Intelligence) finds the most attractive exchange rates across the currency basket to preserve the value of the portfolio.
Scaleable cryptocurrencies make the X8 currency risk management platform, initially designed for professional portfolio managers, available to all investors. Since the failure of Lehman Brothers and other banks during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, investors are understandably wary of putting all their funds in one bank, yet for individual investors diversifying across many banks can be expensive and impractical. The X8 currency also takes care of bank concentration risk for investors by spreading its portfolio across up to eight major banks and brokers. The X8 currency is issued in Switzerland, the world’s safest banking system. Accordingly, all investors are required to comply with know your customer rules.
In a young crypto world, the X8 risk management platform can boast proven performance. The X8 performance index has outpaced inflation-adjusted returns by between 2-4 percent in 2017. The ARM Al currency manager seeks to maintain an annual inflation rate of 1-3 percent. During Brexit in 2015, a particularly volatile market event, the underlying basket on the platform temporarily depreciated less than 2 percent versus up to 20 percent for the British pound (GBP). X8Currency is backed by ioNectar, which has spent 10 years on the development of its professional portfolio risk management platform used by professional investors and fund managers.
Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)
Cryptocurrencies have also opened the door to investing in business startups to individual investors. The X8 currency can lower the risk and cost of investing in token generating events, especially in early stage companies that are still developing product prototypes. X8C provides a more stable cryptocurrency and a no fee bridge between the crypto and fiat worlds during and after a Token Generation Event (TGE). The initial fundraising may need to support a company’s development and operations for two to four years before it generates sufficient revenues to support operations.
The ability of the X8C currency to maintain its value over the long term provides operational stability to projects. Alternatively, at any time, investors can exchange crypto currency, or fiat, for an X8Currency token. This innovation means that they can buy the X8Currency, a more stable currency than any individual fiat currency owing to its unique risk diversification strategy. X8Currency can be exchanged for fiat currency for no fee with a commensurate number of X8X tokens.
The X8X Crowdsale
X8X tokens are the key to accessing X8 Capital, the platform that sells X8 currency, and can be obtained through the upcoming crowdsale. Participants can now register with the Whitelist in accordance with KYC/AML requirements. Early birds will have the opportunity to contribute first in the Whitelist Pre-Sale starting January 4, 2018. The crowdsale starts on January 12, 2018 and runs until January 22nd.
