Crypto takes investors on a rollercoaster ride. Image: Shutterstock
Create an account to save your articles.
In brief
Filecoin has launched.
It raised $200 million in an ICO three years ago and was beset by delays.
Investors are likely eager to see where the price of Filecoin's token lands, but the price remains highly volatile.
Filecoin, the decentralized filing sharing protocol, kicked into action today when the blockchain’s miners finished chipping away at block 148,888. It raised $200 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) three years ago.
Now, the FIL token has gone live and its early investors get to find out if it was all worth it.
So, how’s it going so far?
At the moment, the coin’s price is highly volatile. The price of a single Filecoin is $68, per metrics site CoinMarketCap. But CoinGecko, another metrics site, pegs its price at $29. Uniswap puts it at $25.56 and Gemini pegs it at $29.
Futures contracts yesterday predicted the price of Filecoin would be around $32.
When Huobi, one of the major exchanges, opened trading for Filecoin, it priced the coin at $50—traders then launched into action and it slipped a little to $46 a few minutes later. Then people really started trading it and the price spiked to $200, then $205… then back to $180? Now $220!
Filecoin's first moments on Huobi. Image: Huobi Global
Those ICO investors would have made a fortune… had it lasted. Now, the price of a Filecoin is back to down $130.
Whoo boy.
The promise of Filecoin, aside from speculation, is a decentralized file sharing service. Think Dropbox but instead of renting out space in a data center, you’re encrypting your file and hosting tiny pieces of it on computers all over the world—kind of like a reverse BitTorrent.
Although the coin only launched about an hour ago, investors are watching with excitement lodged in their throats while terror seeps down into their abdomens.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.
Copy article link
Want to be a crypto expert? Get the best of Decrypt straight to your inbox.
Get the biggest crypto news stories + weekly roundups and more!
