Monacoin (MONA) Is Flying: What's Next?

One of the biggest movers in the cryptocurrency space over the last twenty-four hours was Monacoin (MONA).Here's a bit of background on the coin with a look at what's behind the action we are seeing right now and where we expect things to go next.So, this is one of those coins that has been around for a substantial period of time and it's one that, unlike many of the tokens and various cryptocurrencies we are seeing hit the exchanges this year, was designed as a pure cryptocurrency.What do we mean by this? Well, when a company runs an ICO it's got a choice between issuing tokens or issuing cryptocurrency. There are various tax implications associated with choosing crypto over token – tax implications that we won't go into here as they're not particularly relevant to this discussion – and this is why most companies (of late) have decided to go with tokens.The difference is relatively simple – a token has some degree of utility within the service it's designed to fund, a cryptocurrency does not. MONA Daily ChartSource: coinmarketcap.comSo, take Storj (the cloud storage startup) as an example. Storj pays anyone with a computer that's willing to loan out a bit of their storage space to the company's customers using the STORJ token. Customers also but STORJ and then use it as the basis of a swap transaction, in return for space.Sure, STORJ can then be exchanged for BTC or ETH or another currency on an exchange and – in turn – can be exchanged for fiat and what we might call real-world money, but it's not a cryptocurrency.MONA, on the other hand, is.It's designed to function in a similar way to bitcoin in that it's mined, requires proof of stake verification to process transactions, it halves, it's got a predefined block time, all that good stuff. However, some of these features (i.e. the metrics that underpin them) are designed to be different from those associated with bitcoin, which allows the coin to be used for certain things that bitcoin might not be great for.Bitcoin isn’t great when it comes to microtransactions, for example. MONA very much is. The company has integrated its wallet with game streaming site Steam and it's proven an incredibly effective transaction system.So what's moving the token now?Well, MONA has picked up quite a bit of collateral strength on the back of its association with Japan. The Japanese government has been one of the more crypto-friendly nations (legalizing cryptocurrencies as tender earlier this year) and with MONA being Japan's first cryptocurrency, this alignment has helped it appreciate.Looking more recently, some Twitter-fuelled speculation that MONA could be the official cryptocurrency of the Tokyo Olympics (speculation that's now proven inaccurate) got the coin trending late last night and this translated to a wave of speculative volume on the exchanges early morning.Over the last twenty-four hours, MONA is up 14% at $6.79. This is up from $0.02 at the start of this year – a pretty substantial run in anyone's books.And we think there's a strong chance that this one is going to continue to appreciate. Sure, we may see some degree of near-term correction given that we're seeing all-time highs in bitcoin right now and that – at the same time – these tokens are very much tied to sentiment in the bitcoin space, but longer term there's a real chance that the gains we've seen over the last few months are just the start of a solid upside revaluation for MONA – if only because of its standing in Japan, when coupled with the latter's enthusiasm for this sector.We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on MONA, sign up below!Image courtesy of Monacoin