There is a bloodbath on cryptocurrency exchanges today. Bitcoin has lost over 8%. Ethereum is down by almost 12%. Ripple, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, and other large cryptos are also deep in the red territory. However, among all crypto losers, there are a few coins that are gaining ground. Most of the gainers today are small altcoins, such as EZCoin, Digipulse, Dogecoin or Webcoin. Don’t feel too bad that you haven’t heard about them. The majority of the top gainers are tiny cryptos with a small trading volume that allows for large price swings. However, going back to the 100 largest cryptocurrencies, the only gainer today is MCO, which is currently up by over 9%.
What Is MCO and Why Is It Up?
MCO is a Swiss-based cryptocurrency that allows people to spend cryptocurrencies at retail locations. Crypto.com plans to issue an MCO Card, which is a Visa debit card that works with cryptocurrency. There are several types of cards available, each with each own rewards and features. The project was started in 2016 and earlier this year it rebranded itself from Monaco to Crypto.com. Currently, the MCO wallet app is available on iTunes and Play Store and is in beta. Aside from being a wallet that links the card to a crypto exchange, the app also acts as an online cryptocurrency investing app.
Crypto.com conducted an Initial Coin Offering in May 2017. It managed to raise $26.7 million, becoming one of the top 10 ICOs of the year. Later that same year MCO announced its Visa Program Manager approval and managed to list its token on several major exchanges. Its next steps include the live launch of its crypto invest MCO app. It will also start issuing cards in Asia, Europe, and the US. Finally, the company plans to launch a credit line for people that hold Bitcoin or MCO tokens, but don’t want to spend them. Instead, Crypto.com will allow people to use the crypto as collateral for a loan.
Today’s performance comes on the back of news regarding a major milestone. According to South China Morning Post, Crypto.com will issue 100,000 Visa cards in Singapore in the next two months and has applied for licenses. If the company succeeds, it will move forward with other countries as well.
MCO Token Performance and Risks
Since its ICO last year, the token saw periods of explosive growth and declines. However, because it’s a new token and the underlying project is still in the development stage, it’s much more volatile in relation to the more established Bitcoin or Ethereum. There is still a big risk that the project will not be completed, despite the achieved milestones and the fact that it already has a partially functioning product. Moreover, MCO is a pre-mined token, which means that a big chunk of tokens is owned by MCO themselves. This puts a damper on the decentralization idea of the cryptocurrency.
However, today’s news is a great development for Crypto.com. It reflects Crypto.com’s commitment to the project and plans to see it through. Cryptocurrency adoption among retailers and service providers is slow. Therefore, Crypto.com’s project seems to cover an important need of the entire community, which also speaks for the viability of their cryptocurrency.
