Satoshi Nakamoto's Whitepaper (Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System).

Why: The main document about crypto, the manifesto of its creator, intended to explain the advantages and features of Bitcoin to non-specialists. After reading this document, thoughts that Bitcoin might be a 'hollow asset' should disappear. Translated into many languages.

What it will give: Understanding how Bitcoin and blockchain work. Understanding Bitcoin encryption, mining, and halving. Understanding the tasks and problems that Bitcoin is designed to solve. Knowledge of the deflationary nature of Bitcoin. Understanding the advantages and prospects of the technology. The problem of trust in finance.

Advice: keep reading, even if you didn't understand some point. In fact, the document is short and written for non-specialists to understand. If for some reason you haven't read it yet, it will be useful.

Additionally: the main and oldest forum in crypto: bitcointalk.org.

What is Ethereum, smart contracts, 'gas', emission and features of the network, proof-of-work, d-apps (decentralized applications).

I will specifically not recommend a specific material; the network has been upgraded many times and new features have appeared in it. Good materials on Ethereum can be found with a minute of searching on Google in huge quantities.

Why: One of the two main projects in crypto that revolutionized and expanded the understanding of the prospects of blockchain technologies. It fundamentally differs from Bitcoin and solves different problems (read – provides different opportunities), and its economy is structured differently.

What it will give: It will expand understanding of the growth horizons of the cryptocurrency market and provide new ideas for earning in this field. Understanding the economy of Ethereum will provide a basis for comparing the price movements of BTC and ETH. Familiarity with new interpretations of mining is necessary for understanding price movements. Understanding the scalability of the network and the concepts of decentralized applications and smart contracts is key to seeing the long-term prospects of the project and tracking its development course.

Main point: many popular projects are built on the basis of Ethereum. Understanding Ethereum is the key to analyzing other projects.

Advice: You can find a lot of useful materials not only on BTC at bitcointalk.org.

Top sites:

Coinmarketcap.com – main information on tokens, the oldest and largest project for tracking prices, trading pairs, indicators, news, token unlocks, DEXes, exchanges, etc.

An essential site. It has many not immediately obvious useful features. For example, you can search not only for a specific token but also for a portfolio of funds, or by the request Ton ecosystem, you can find a list of tokens on the Ton blockchain.

Blockchain.com / explorer – numerous metrics and indicators, a huge number of functions, in my opinion, some of them are harmful and can be misleading; use cautiously.

Cryptorank.io – largely repeats the previous site but provides more information, for example about funds (rounds and amounts of investments, you can open presales and see which funds participated).

Coinlist – for early participation in token sales.

Crunchbase – searching for information on developer teams and startup funding.

ICO drops – tracking the popularity of token sales.

De-fi Llama – analysis of DeFi and early projects in the field.

A brief explanation of the most basic financial terms.

Capitalization – an abstract representation of the value of a network (for the crypto market) or a company (for the stock market). It does not reflect the 'real' value, in the crypto market it is derived from the price times the number of tokens (cap = price * number of tokens). A very simplified explanation – it includes both 'real' utility and speculative inflation. An unstable indicator that is mostly used because something needs to be referenced, and there is nothing else. A short example of why I consider this indicator unreliable: capitalization does not account for the obligations of the company or network owners, does not show profitability, ignores intrinsic value, is subject to manipulation, and does not consider the prospects of the company.

Trading volume – the total daily trading volume of tokens on exchanges, based on available data. It is also subject to manipulation. There are numerous cases where project creators or exchanges directly stimulate users to create false trading volume, creating an impression of network demand and liquidity. Fake trades and trading bots are also used for these purposes.

Why it’s important: in shitcoins without trading volume and capitalization, you can make a purchase and find that there’s no one to sell to.

Liquidity is the ability of an asset to be exchanged for another asset (another currency, crypto, gold, anything that can be an equivalent of exchange) quickly and without significant changes in price. The assessment of liquidity comes from:

trading volume (hello, manipulation)

Market depth, namely the number of orders in the order book (the more orders there are, the easier it is to execute trades without changing the price). The number of orders is also a manipulative issue.

The spread: the difference between the buying and selling price. The smaller the spread, the higher the liquidity, as it is faster to find someone who wants to buy from you (or sell to you).

Eth and Btc are highly liquid; shitcoins below the top 200 on CoinMarketCap are low liquidity (my conditional division).

Liquidity problems directly affect the price. Liquidity can be influenced by the popularity of the asset, regulation of the asset, trust in the asset and its owners, market conditions, the number of trading platforms on which the asset is represented, and much more. Study this.

To be continued if the article gains popularity.