The crypto winter is upon us and it has happened far faster than anyone expected. A huge ton of money has been lost already this year amid a stunning crypto market crash that has seen most assets plunge by 80% or more from their all-time highs.
It’s hard to know what to do next because no one can say for sure where the crypto market bottom will be. What we do know is crypto has been on a downward trend for months, with the industry’s total value falling from almost $3 trillion in November 2021 to below $900 billion today.
Such violent drops in value can be scary, though seasoned investors will know that this is nothing new. For most crypto believers, what’s happening now is just another seasonal dip amid the industry’s constant cycle of ups and downs, and they’ll be “hodling” patiently until such time as the bull market returns.
When that happens remains to be seen, but in the meantime we’ve identified five top crypto apps investors can rely on to ease the pressure of the bear market blues.
Bitcoin Wallet
First things first. The crypto winter is a time of panic and so one of the most sensible things for “hodlers” to do is to ensure that they own their coins. That means getting them off the exchange and into a non-custodial wallet, where you own the keys.
While there are dozens of good non-custodial wallets around, one of the most capable and user-friendly is Bitcoin.com’s Bitcoin Wallet. With a domain name like that, you can be sure it’s one of the most trusted and reputable crypto wallets around, and most crucially with Bitcoin Wallet, you own your private keys, meaning that no one but you can access your funds. This is important because crypto exchanges cannot be trusted – as the saying goes, if it’s not your keys it’s not your coins. Just be sure to write down your passcode and keep it in a very safe place!
The Bitcoin Wallet is a universal app that’s available to download on iOS, Android, Windows, Linux and Mac devices and supports hundreds of cryptocurrency tokens. Moreover, it’s possible to buy and sell crypto directly within the app too, so there’s no need to move tokens back and forth between the wallet and an exchange. Simply link your credit card, debit card, payment app or bank account and you’re good to go.
It’s also possible to swap one cryptocurrency for another with minimal fees. Thanks to its exchange mechanism, Bitcoin Wallet can be used to exchange Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash for many of the most popular ERC-20 tokens, including Ethereum itself. It also provides instant connectivity to decentralized apps and the world of DeFi and NFTs. And you’ll soon be able to use it to purchase VERSE, which is Bitcoin.com’s new utility token.
Bitcoin Wallet uses biometrics for both login access and transaction confirmations to ensure security. Users can also backup their wallet and restore access through a single custom password, if they choose. Another useful feature meanwhile is the ability to create different “saving” and “spending” wallets so you can keep your crypto funds organized. Users can even add notes to each transaction to create a full picture of their spending, buying, selling and trading habits.
Of course, the app also provides access to extensive charts that make it possible to track the ups and downs of hundreds of different tokens. Finally, users will be able to keep up to date with all of the latest goings on in the world of crypto via Bitcoin.com News.
Open DeFi Notification Protocol
DeFi can be hugely rewarding for crypto investors but it’s also a risky place to leave your assets in times of market volatility. Users therefore need a way to stay up to date, and there’s no better app for that than Orbs’ Open DeFi Notification Protocol.
The app, available on Android and iOS, provides users with free mobile notifications regarding any consequential on-chain event they need to be aware of.
Notifications are vital for DeFi users. Imagine taking a loan out of Aave or Compound when prices are volatile – if you don’t stay aware of what’s happening, the collateral value can easily fall below the acceptable minimum, resulting in immediate liquidation of those assets. There are other risks too, such as in yield farming. If the price moves too much or the total value locked increases and your reward share drops, you could suddenly find yourself losing more than what you’re earning.
With DeFi, users need to stay on the ball and that’s what the Open DeFi Notification Protocol is all about, as your device will provide an immediate alert when something you need to know about happens – such as the price of your collateralized asset moving past a certain threshold.
The app works by leveraging contributions from other app users, who’re incentivized to record DeFi events such as rewards, near liquidations, price swings, upgrades, new governance votes and anything else that may be of interest. Through these alerts, DeFi users can better manage their activities during times of market volatility.
The Open DeFi Notification Protocol offers wide support for multiple popular DeFi protocols, including Quickswap, Trader Joe, PancakeSwap and Alpaca Finance, to name just a few.
Aqru
If DeFi sounds too complex but you’re still looking for a way to earn a passive income to ease the depression of the current bear market, look no further than Aqru.
Aqru is a crypto savings platform that’s designed to make earning rewards as simple as possible. Users don’t need to stake their crypto to earn interest. Instead, with Aqru, users transfer their assets to the company and can start earnings APY of between 7% to 12% immediately, without any lockup period required.
What Aqru does is it takes those funds and manages them for its customers. It does so by lending the assets to various decentralized protocols and institutional and retail borrowers. The highest APY of 12% can be earned by lending stablecoins USDT, USDC and DAI, whereas those who want to lend Bitcoin and Ethereum can earn up to 7% APY. Users can buy these tokens from within the Aqru app, using a credit card, or transfer them to Aqru from their own wallet.
Aqru has said it may add other crypto assets in the near future, though any token it considers must comply with its strict standards on proven utility and consistency.
The question of course is can such an app be trusted? Well, Aqru is registered in Bulgaria and Lithuania and so it has to comply with those countries’ laws. So there is some sort of recourse for users in the event that something bad happens and they can’t withdraw their funds. Another encouraging sign is that Aqru’s platform is secured by FireBlocks, a leading crypto asset security platform. FireBlocks uses both institutional-grade cold wallets to lock up funds, and also has a $30 million insurance policy to reassure customers.
Taki
During the bear market the best thing hodlers can do is stop following the charts and go focus their attention elsewhere. In that case, you could do a whole lot worse than check out Taki, a new Twitter-style, Web3 social media app that has developed a unique “engage-to-earn” concept.
The idea is that Taki users can earn crypto rewards for engaging with others on its platform. That means viewing, liking, sharing, commenting and creating unique content. It’s an idea that has huge appeal, with Taki boasting of more than 665,000 users who’ve signed up to its waitlist.
Taki’s pioneering engage-to-earn model is aimed at rewarding both content creators and casual users. Simply login to the app each day, spend some time interacting and engaging with other users and you’ll earn crypto rewards. There will be daily challenges, with users required to comment on a certain number of posts, share a specified amount of videos and add a number of new friends each day to earn reward bonuses. For these engagements, users will earn TAKI coins that they can use to tip other users or purchase “CreatorCoins”.
CreatorCoins are the big incentive. They’re aimed at the most popular creators, or influencers, who can create their own branded coin. These coins can then be sold to followers, earning revenue for the creator while giving their fans a chance to profit from their future success. The idea is that the more popular the influencer becomes, the greater the value of their token becomes.
Taki has many other appealing characteristics besides just earning rewards. No doubt, a good many users will be attracted to its decentralized nature. Taki is governed by a DAO, which means the community makes decisions around what new features the platform should add, as well as aspects such as censorship. As a result, Taki users won’t see their content automatically blocked or removed by those annoying algorithms that are so prevalent on Twitter and Facebook.
Brave Browser
If you’re wondering why on Earth we’d recommend a mobile browser as a must-have app during a crypto bear market, you’ve clearly never tried Brave before. Yes indeed it is a web browser for exploring the internet, but it’s also very different to the likes of Chrome and Firefox thanks to its unique integration with crypto and its zero-tolerance policy when it comes to traditional types of ads.
Brave blocks these ads point blank, but it also gives users the option of seeing approved, personalized ads in return for a share of those advertising revenues. Simply agree to see the ads, and for each website you visit you’ll be rewarded in Basic Attention Tokens. These can then be exchanged for gift cards and premium content, or donated to your favorite publishers. Alternative, you can sell your BAT on a cryptocurrency exchange if you desire.
Brave has plenty of advanced features that make it a worthwhile browser even without the crypto elements. It’s secure, with built-in malware protection, and it has an integrated Tor mode for private browsing and viewing the dark web. Add to that, it also supports Chrome extensions so users don’t have to sacrifice their familiar browsing experience.
Brave is available on desktop, Android and iOS. For those who frequently spend hours of their time browsing the web, it may well pay to get paid for doing so, especially during crypto winter.
