Tech Solutions for the Crypto Market

Portfolio trackers, wealth management service, and trading platforms

Introduction

Cryptocurrencies are gaining more and more interest. Thanks to the ease of access that exchange platforms offer today, we have seen increasing numbers of “investors” hopping on the train. The trend has pushed cryptocurrencies like bitcoin to unprecedented levels, e.g., USD 60.000 for bitcoin. Amid this growing interest in crypto, many companies have flourished by offering much-needed technical services for investors. This article introduces three types of tech companies in the Crypto markets: portfolio trackers, wealth management platforms, and trading platforms. We discuss the companies behind these services and the reasons why they might be helpful to you. We conclude the article with a flowchart that guides you through selecting the most suitable company.

Figure 1: Cryptocurrencies are gaining more and more interest

Category 1: Portfolio Trackers

Figure 2: Example of a portfolio tracker front page

Portfolio management apps are web or mobile applications that offer real-time information on all your investments in one place, allowing you to keep track of all the assets in your portfolio. These apps can be beneficial because they can sync with your existing accounts on other platforms, and many of them are free of charge.

Category 2: Wealth Management Services

Figure 3: Diagram representing the different components of wealth management

Investopedia defines wealth management as an investment advisory service that combines other financial services to address the needs of affluent clients. Companies that specialize in wealth management offer various services such as investment advice, estate planning, accounting, retirement, and tax services. [1] While these services are usually appropriate for wealthy individuals with a broad array of diverse needs, many companies now offer these services to individual investors without necessarily having significant assets.

Category 3: Trading Platforms

Figure 4: Example of a trading platform front page

A trading platform is a software that enables investors to place trades and monitor accounts through intermediaries. These trading platforms will usually also include other features, such as real-time quotes, charting tools, and news feeds to enhance the investors’ trading experience and inform their trades. Platforms may specialize in specific markets, such as stocks, (crypto)currencies, options, or futures markets.

We list below some portfolio trackers and wealth management services that support cryptocurrencies.

Table 1: A selection of different tech solutions for crypto

There is a long list of crypto-related tech companies of different kinds, which propose various services including portfolio trackers: Sharesight, DeFi Saver, Coinbundle, Ember Fund; wealth management: Crypto-ML, Asset Exchange Manger, Wealthsimple, Wealthfront, SoFi Automated Investing, Bitwise, Personal Capital; data providers: Omenics, Atom Finance.

Flowchart Guide

To choose a suitable tech solution, you shall reflect on the following questions:

How much you plan on investing?
Are you interested in traditional assets or cryptocurrencies or DeFi tokens?
Where is your country of residence and which solution support your country of residence?

We provide flowchart to guide your decision below:

Figure 5: Chart to guide users on what tech solution to pick ©SciEcon 2021

Conclusion

We shall utilize the introduced tech solutions to make more informed decisions. The current solutions include a wide range of services such as portfolio management, best exchange rate search, automatic capital distribution, and active asset management. Moreover, you shall be aware that the space is fast evolving: new features are constantly updating and are available in more and more countries.

References

[1]https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/031115/5-top-portfolio-management-apps.asp

[2] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/wealthmanagement.asp

[3] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/trading-platform.asp

Author: Saad Lahrichi, Summer Research Scholar at Duke Kunshan University 2021, on the Fintech project team lead by Prof. Luyao Zhang

This article is a deliverable out of the Summer Research Scholar Program

Acknowledgments:

Design: Austen Li

Associate Editor: Zichao Chen, Lunji Zhu

Executive Editors: Xinyu Tian

Project Lead and Chief Editor: Prof. Luyao Zhang