#3. Picking Out Microcaps 101 (Revised)
N.B: This is a revised edition of the post I published in July 2017, which featured a framework for filtering for microcap coins. Since that post was published almost twelve months ago, much has changed in the space, not least of which being the price of Bitcoin. Thus, many of the more minute details and figures in the original post are now invalid or ineffective, and a revision of said post feels necessary. I have refrained from changing the style or structure of the post, and have instead simply opted to update whatever information feels out-dated. I hope that you will find it useful.
Microcap: A coin that has a market cap between 0-25BTC ($0-170,000, at the time of writing this).
Microcaps have long-proved to be the most profitable coins for me, and the process by which I pick them out is rather simple:
1. Direct your browser to www.coinmarketcap.com: Click view all. Filter the list using the 'Market Cap' option for $0-100k. Open a new tab and repeat this for $100k-1mn. Click on the button that says 'USD' and change to BTC, so that the market cap figures are displayed in Bitcoin. Note down all of the coins below 25BTC that show a circulating supply below 1 billion coins. For all of these, also note down their 24H volume in BTC. Cross out the coins with a lower than 2% market cap to volume ratio: if X has a market cap of 25BTC, its 24H volume should be 0.5BTC or more. This is simply to filter for the microcaps that are getting a decent amount of attention. Now open up a separate tab for each remaining coin. From these remaining coins, cross out all the coins that have a total supply that is more than twice the size of their circulating supply (this is usually indicative of a large premine, and that is unnecessary added liability). Make sure that the figure you are looking at is the 'total supply', not the 'maximum supply'. Total supply means the total amount of coins currently in existence. Maximum supply means the maximum possible amount of coins that can come into existence. The ones you’re left with (there’s usually quite a few) are the ones you need to do further research on.
2. Head over to Bitcointalk and read through the announcement threads of every single coin that you have left on your list. Make a note of the level of activity in the thread, the number of pages it contains, the last time there actually was communication on there (some coins will be dead), and get a general feel for the community of each coin. Read through the announcement itself to find out where the coin has come from and where it is heading — look for roadmaps, Slack and Telegram channels, and active, communicative developers. Have a look at their websites and block explorers. Remove coins from the list of remaining ones that do not have at least a decent standard for all of the above (room for improvement can be profitable).
3. You should now have a small-ish number of coins on your list. These are the ones you’re looking to pick up, but whittle the number down even further by doing more meticulous research on how they are currently trading. Remove anything that trades only on Yobit - remove it immediately. Of the other exchanges, CoinExchange, CryptoBridge, TradeOgre and Cryptopia can be great for microcaps. Look at the charts for each of these coins, and spot accumulation patterns: constricted ranges; spikes of high buying volume etc.
Another research tool is the block explorer for these coins. Some may have rich-lists or largest address tabs. Monitor movements within these addresses. Are the largest addresses getting larger over time or are they being depleted? Screenshot the top 25 richest addresses and then screenshot the top 25 again a few days later. Compare your lists. Are these coins being accumulated?
4. Take the plunge and buy the ones you’re most confident in. It may even take you weeks to accumulate a decent amount of any single microcap project. And it most likely will take months before you start seeing serious returns on them, but it’s worth it if you have the patience.
I hope this article helps with your research.
