Despite the massive hype, I’ve only been recently researching the crypto-currency space. Ankr (CCC:ANKR-USD) stands out among the pack when examining the various alternative currencies. This is largely due to the compelling use case of the token that investors are slowly starting to grasp.
The price of Ankr was as low as $0.009 at the start of the year and reached as high as $0.17, a gain of 18x. The price has gone down a lot and as of this writing, it is the 105th largest cryptocurrency.
Ankr has a fully diluted market capitalization of roughly $700 million based on the information from the website CoinMarketCap.
I’ve seen arguments by other financial analysts to avoid Ankr due to its relatively small market cap. However, that notion is inherently foolish. Would you avoid a stock just because it has a small market cap? Of course not!
It all boils down to understanding the investment along with the associated risk and reward. Using this mindset, investors could do well to consider Ankr.
Ankr Has a Compelling Use Case
Ankr is an Ethereum-based (CCC:ETH-USD) token that can be used as payment within the Ankr ecosystem. It also acts as a governance mechanism for the platform. Network participants can receive the cryptocurrency for different activities such as staking – i.e., lending crypto to facilitate transactions in the blockchain.
There is another more compelling way to earn Ankr that I will discuss in a bit. Suffice to say, unlike other cryptocurrencies, Ankr can actually be used as payment for actual services, making it have properties closer to money than many of its rivals.
In order to fully grasp the opportunity of Ankr, we need to examine the network. The Ankr network is a decentralized cloud-computing platform. Founder Chandler Song envisioned the platform to go against tech giants like Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), which own centralized cloud platforms. He viewed cloud computing as the future. However, this technology was inaccessible to the vast majority of people due to the high prices charged by these tech giants.
Ankr utilizes idle resources from underutilized data centers to run the network. It’s an eco-friendly and decentralized way to provide cloud services. The platform is eco-friendly as it uses idle resources that otherwise would have gone to waste. Data centers earn tokens for providing computing power, thus monetizing this resource.
Today, the Ankr network supports the Web3 infrastructure through its various business lines. In particular, the network offers a “one-click solution” for staking nodes, developer APIs for Web3 products, and other enterprise solutions. The network makes it easy and affordable to participate in blockchain ecosystems via its cross-chain decentralized finance platform.
Your Takeaway
Now the concept of Web 3.0 and decentralized finance can be mocked as gobbledygook by the most cynical among us. However, this is always the case every time new and innovative technology comes around. These types of things only become obvious after the fact.
I still remember the intense skepticism with cloud computing only a few years ago. But this technology has now been widely accepted as a fairly innocuous thing. Imagine trying to explain the world we live in now to someone from the 1980s!
The bottom line is what the Ankr team is trying to build has real long-term potential. Sure, an investment in Ankr is volatile and risky. However, for risk-seeking investors, this could be a compelling opportunity.
On the date of publication, Joseph Nograles did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
