The blockchain and cryptocurrency markets have blown up and fractured into a billion different pieces, and that’s a good thing. Now instead of just gearing your potential investment opportunities towards miners, there’s options in the fields of fintech, hospital equipment, and plenty more.

Let’s not forget about NFT or metaverse options either.

Here are three sample companies from three very different sectors within blockchain and crypto that should be on your radar.

Coinanalyst wants to be the bloomberg of crypto

Coinanalyst is building a platform that will serve as an aggregate for everything you want out of crypto. If you’re looking to see what coins are hot—the platform’s got that. If you’re looking for what influencer to follow and you can’t make a decision because there’s far too many out there to choose from? The platform has you covered.

Pascal Lauria, CEO of Coinanalyst, wants to build:

“A people’s bloomberg. Helping normal people with transparency. Helping protect their money so they don’t lose money. Help them make better decisions so they make more money.”

They’re angling in for the person who’s never traded a stock (or a coin) in their life. The person who doesn’t have the time to do the research, but would like to find a way to get their feet wet. They put the necessary and pertinent research together in an easy-to-access package and make it available to anyone willing to look. They also provide the education required to adequately recognize what is and is not a scam, looking to help people filter the information they need from the intentional disinformation campaigns common in scams when they want to branch out into NFT, altcoins, etc.

But there’s more to Coinanalyst than just the promise of a terminal in the future. They have jumped into the non-fungible token markets feet first, leveraging their know-how through the acquisition of an artist and fan platform. The idea here is to empower artists through the app allowing them to directly monetize their music, create their own performances, and effectively cut out the middleman in terms of distribution. This makes money through NFT generation, obviously.

They call this the Passion Economy and it gels well with the overall disruptive narrative that under girds most of crypto—that of the technology that breaks down knowledge monopolies and centralized power structures through the use of an immutable, trustless technological source. Now instead of going through predatory music industries, artists can go directly to the fans.

It doesn’t exactly solve the marketing problem, which is really what the big labels have on solo and independent types, but there’s a wealth of knowledge and strategies on how to accomplish that on your own on the internet.

But what is that makes COYX different?

“What makes us different is we bring in over 10 years of big data AI knowhow. Instead of analyzing customer experiences we’re analyzing crypto investors. Providing ideas of where to invest,” Lauria said.

They’re also completely regulatory compliant.

Coinanalyst is completely regulated with both anti-money laundering and know-your-customer procedures in place. They went public last year out of another commitment to compliance, and they want to draw in institutional investors eventually. While other companies are scrambling with regulators to make the grade, COYX will be two steps ahead of the competition.

Bigg Digital Assets and the future of blockchain law enforcement

Crypto has gathered a bad reputation as being a workaround for illegal opportunities. You put your transactions on the immutable ledger, transfer them across borders and buy all manner of illegal goods. It was originally bid as digital cash—but the problem is it’s not and criminals don’t seem to have figured that out yet. Which is good for a company like Bigg Digital Assets (BIGG.C), which is steadily working towards a completely regulated and safe crypto-space.

“Our customers are law enforcement. Removing the criminal element is a goal of ours. It would produce an environment with widespread confidence about adoption,” said Mark Binns, CEO of Bigg Digital Assets.

You see, everything that happens on the ledger is recorded and visible using a technology called a block explorer. Most cryptocurrencies have them. They don’t make sense to most when opened, but a rarefied few can read them, decipher them, and use the information to help law enforcement agencies capture criminals involved in illegal activities on the blockchain.

More on that later. For right now, let’s talk about their Netcoins exchange.

What’s the value proposition here?

It’s fully regulated and compliant.

If you live in Ontario or know someone who does (and trades crypto) ask them what they think of Binance. The Province of Ontario has effectively shut Binance down for trading in that province, and that’s what happens and what will happen to non-compliant companies who don’t get with the program in the future.

It’s actually the first exchange in Canada to be delivered restricted dealer status, which gives them early-mover advantage as the industry matures and the regulatory framework is developed. While Binance and other larger name under-regulated exchanges are struggling to get through the door and past the regulators, Netcoins (and other companies who have since picked up restricted dealer status) are already in and doing business.

The Netcoins exchange has been adding new coins in bunches over the past few months and unlike your typical under-regulated exchange they have extensive criteria for what is and is not an acceptable coin. First, they have to have available cold storage and insurance on what coins they have in warm storage. The coins need to behave like commodities rather than securities, and need to be in demand, with a sufficient trading volume.

They use the Howey Test as the basis for their due diligence to differentiate between rug pulls, securities and other inadequate coins, and in the end, it comes down to a judgment call. Beyond an educated guess, there’s a lot of data that goes into this judgment call.

Now what does Netcoins have that makes them stand out?

They have a credit card, an easy to use interface that includes more than enough information for someone new to crypto to adequately educate themselves on what they need to do, know, and where they need to go.

But other sites have that. What Netcoins has that others don’t is summed up in one word:

Forensics.

Bigg Digital’s other subsidiary is called Blockchain Intelligence Group (BIG). Their core two products are called Qualitative Law Enforcement Unified Edge (QLUE) and BitRank Verified.

“We provide a way to visualize the blockchain per user. Police officers can log in and see cryptocurrency flows along the blockchain. They have and gather information on specific wallets, exchanges, etc. It’s a course of mapping the blockchain,” said Binns.

QLUE is a software package used to track the movement of crypto through any blockchain they service, and there are quite a few. BitRank Verified gathers information on wallets, exchanges, and the like, including whether or not the address associated with the wallet or exchange has been involved in any variety of illegal activity.

Big shuffles these products out to law enforcement agencies all over the world to track and trace down the movements of cryptocurrency on the various blockchains.

Undervalued Cryptostar represents large opportunities

Over the past few years cryptocurrency mining has made astronomical jumps in value. The sentence seems like a given considering some of the valuations in the space (Marathon Digital Holdings with its ludicrous $1.6 billion valuation, Hut 8 Mining with its more reasonable $797 million) and even some of my other favourites, the Hive Blockchain or the DMG Blockchain, which easily could fit somewhere on a list like this. And have.

Mining at a discount

But today the focus is on Cryptostar (CSTR.C) and the reason they’re on this short list is because their services are things you can get from other companies, but for much cheaper. That by definition is undervalued. The market cap for Cryptostar is presently sitting at $34,321,000 and trading at under a dime.

They’re a diversified cryptocurrency miner involved in Bitcoin and Ethereum mining located in cold Quebec, Alberta, Utah and Kansas and taking advantage of sustainable energy sources to pull the lever on the Bitcoin slot machine every ten minutes. They also mine Ethereum and a lot more of it.

Earlier this month they recorded they held 538.38 ethereum, 86.72 bitcoin and $2.7 in cash. Now you may look at that Bitcoin number and note that Marathon or Hut 8 mines close too or better than those numbers every month. But again I refer you to the comparative market caps and attendant prices: Marathon is presently $1,560 and Hut 8 Mining is $4.58.

Cryptostar’s coming in at under a dime and the prospects of doubling your money are substantially better with a company showing a steady growth trajectory at this level than with the HUTs or MARAs.

ESG and Bitcoin

The company joined the Crypto Climate Accord in July of last year as a signatory and supporter. The CCA is an initiative for the entire crypto and blockchain community working on decarbonizing the cryptocurrency industry. The accord provides an opportunity for any organization that wants to educate, develop, test and implement new solutions that can push forward crypto’s transition to renewable energy.

Colocation and data centre operation are a great stepping stone towards meeting environmental and sustainability goals. They partner with other large cryptocurrency miners looking for ways to cut their Real Estate or electricity costs, and in so doing, take advantage of Cryptostar’s access to sustainable energy sources.

—Joseph Morton