The Ultimate Cryptocurrency Championship

You might, or might not, be wondering why I am going through the trouble of this tournament. Quite simply, I love this style of single-elimination tournament and I love how cryptocurrency is a tool to help make a freer world.

My fascination with these single-elimination tournaments began in 1998. I was raised to be a college basketball fan by my dad, and enjoyed playing basketball at recess. My mom’s office ran an NCAA tournament bracket pool. For the first time, I filled in my bracket.

I filled out the names of the winners at school, and sitting next to me during that time was one of my best friend, whose family hailed from Kentucky. He wasn’t a huge fan, but for that tournament, I choose the 2nd-seeded Wildcats to be the tournament champion. I proudly showed him my bracket and he laughed and said he didn’t care that much about it.

I didn’t really know what I was doing. I just picked names, and I wanted my friend to be happy.

It turned out, I was right. Kentucky marched through the first three rounds over South Carolina State, St. Louis, and UCLA before facing off against top-seeded Duke. I remember being at my Kentucky friend’s house, on a Sunday of all days, as the Wildcats clawed their way back from a 10-point halftime deficit to defeat the Blue Devils. My friend’s short mom, the Kentucky fan, was going crazy. I was pretty happy too. My pick was still alive.

In the final two rounds, UK took down Stanford in overtime and again came back from a ten-point deficit to defeat Utah (featuring Michael Doleac and Andre Miller, who already looked 40 years old) in the championship. That was awesome. Twice the Wildcats had come back from 10 down. Both times I watched the game with my Kentucky friend’s family, whooping it up.

What I later discovered was that Utah program under Rick Majerus was a monster. In fact, Kentucky defeated Utah in the 1997 NCAA tournament (Elite Eight round, 72-59) and in the 1996 tournament (Sweet Sixteen round, 101-70). Crazy.

I came in 2nd place for the office pool (remember I just picked names for the other games), and won either $25 or $40. I don’t remember. But either of those was a lot of money to a middle schooler, and the Federal Reserve/Government hadn’t eroded the dollar to the degree it has today. Twenty dollars back then was a lot more than it is today.

Other games from that tournament are seared into my memory. One is of 2 seed Cincinnati barely beating upstart 15 seed Northern Arizona. There was something about the Lumberjacks that was just so cool. Maybe it was their name, maybe their dorky colors, but they played the Bearcats tough, and lost on a last-second three.

I remember Mark “Mad Dog” Madsen, the Collins twins, and Stanford just getting past the Lamar Odom (and Cuttino Mobley)-led Rhode Island Rams with their super cool name and baby blue uniforms. Stanford had pretty neat ones as well.

Stanford was down by 6 with a minute to go and somehow came back to win the game. Mark Madsen received a stolen inbounds past and dunked it home to go up 75-74. He made the following and-one free throw after making this celebration dance.

Rhode Island then threw the ball away, and then missed three free throws which would have tied the game at 77. They than made a 30 footer as time expired.

Kentucky then beat this stacked team in the Final Four.

I also remember 11 seed Washington almost pulling off the upset of Connecticut and Rip Hamilton (in a battle of Huskies), but losing 75-74. That was a wild ending. Washington would lose again to the UCONN in the 2006 tournament, an upset that I had picked and almost had delivered.

That 2006 tournament was the other really good one that I’ve seen. I didn’t choose the winner, but after three rounds I was #2 at my enormous university and in the top 25 of all users on Facebook, back when it was fun and just for college students.

What Happened Next

That 1998 tournament was the first one that I filled out a bracket for, and the first and only time I had picked the champion correctly. That said, I usually chose unconventional choices, Gonzaga for instance, for years and years.

When the next one came around, I was ready to win again, and I chose Auburn to win it all. To my amazement, they lost in the Elite Eight. During that tournament, in 1999, I had forgotten that the tournament only ran from Thursdays to Sundays. On Monday, I was excited for Sweet 16 games, but realized I had to wait three more days.

So I played my own tournament. Printing out a new bracket, I went to my backyard where I had a double hoop set up. I played the games myself. One hoop set at 9 feet belonged to the home team, and the 10 foot hoop was set for the lower seed. I would have a 10 second shot clock and I had to first shoot a 3 from beyond 18 feet (I was pretty young). If I missed and caught the rebound, I had to shoot it for 2 points from wherever I caught the ball. For some reason, the first half had 3 minutes and the second half had only two.

After that tournament, I did the same thing every year in March, until I got tired of waiting for the NCAA tournament and started making up my own tournaments. I ran a worldwide tournament where each country had its own team. To ensure fairness, I ran continental tournaments to see which countries would gain seeding and entry. That was a lot of fun too.

So when, last year, the NCAA tournament was cancelled for no particular reason, I came up with this one. I love cryptocurrency and it seemed like a great fit. Also, I had seen the cryptos put into a soccer tournament. That was boring, I thought. So I made one for cryptocurrency. I spent a good chunk of time figuring out the seeding process and advertising it on Reddit and Twitter, all by word of mouth and posting in forums.

It was really exciting to see it come to life, especially in the second round. Then it felt like a real tournament. Take a look at some of those games:

Bitcoin was neck and neck with Dogecoin in the final day, one could say with 5 minutes to go in a 40-minute basketball game. Like an 8 seed in a dog fight with the top seed, but running out of gas, Dogecoin eventually couldn’t keep pace.

Nine seed VeChain took down top seed Tether, winning by 4. Three seed Binance Coin barely edged out the tough 6 seed Dash 66-61. Cosmos made it past Bitcoin Cash in the 7 vs. 2 matchup. There was an 11 vs. 14 seed matchup where the Japanese favorite Monacoin had its Cinderella run ended by Hedera HashGraph 52-47. Finally, Cardano lost a heartbreaker to USD Coin, 75-69.

These were basketball scores too! Extremely gratifying to see it come to life.

So, I am very excited for this year’s version. I hope you can feel that. And I hope you can share the excitement too. It’s like cheering for a basketball game, watching the Twitter poll.

The tournament is really exciting when there are hundreds or even thousands of people voting. So please, tell your friends about this and may the best coin win!

-Tourney Master

The final mock bracket is here, with the real deal delivered on Selection Sunday, March 14.

Some big changes occurred during this week. Some coins gained entry to the coveted field of 64, while others saw their fortunes reverse as they tumbled to the nether abyss.

This is just a PREVIEW of the crypto tournament. The REAL bracket will be announced on Selection Sunday, March 14, 2021. At 00:00:01 I will refresh Coinmarketcap, and then screenshot the top 64 coins. Those 64 will be seeded and the bracket will be released.

Everyone will get pumped up on the 14th and the 15th and the FIRST ROUND VOTING will begin on March 16.

Make sure to follow @UltimateCrypto7 for the voting, and tell your friends and fellow coin-thusiasts about this tournament.

March 6 Bracket Update

The Bitcoin bracket once again looks to be an easy walk for the OG. A potential Sweet 16 matchup between Bitcoin and Wrapped Bitcoin would be entertaining, although 13 seed Zcash might make short work of the ERC 20 token in the first roung. A 1 vs. 13 matchup would be fun to watch as well.

In the bottom half of the bracket, a lot of evenly matched coins. The 6 vs. 11 matchup between VeChain and Maker would be a good one, as well as a second round matchup against Stellar. Tough draw for the 3 seed in this mock bracket.

Below them, I’d pick Algorand for a slight upset and even could see the 15 seed yearn.finance giving some trouble to surging Uniswap. Time will tell.

Below them, Cardano jumps back into a 1 seed position with fellow upstart Binance Coin in the 2 seed position there. Wouldn’t that be an interesting matchup in Elite 8?

What a bracket this is. Cardano has a tougher than most first round matchup against 16 seed Nexo. Below them, Elrond waits, a dangerous 9 seed.

After that, the road doesn’t get any easier. A battle of the DeFis between 5 seed Aave and 12 seed PancakeSwap (that 5/12 matchup is always dangerous for the high seed).

And below them is always strong USD Coin, which must first get past Bancor, the first time it has been included in this mock bracket, rocketing up the rankings over the last week for its first inclusion in the mock bracket.

In the bottom half of the bracket, BNB would need to make it past Monero, which would need to first make it out unscathed in its own first round matchup against 11 seed Dash. Not the tallest of orders, but Dash is no pushover. Last year it was this close to pulling its own upset of 3 seed Binance Coin.

Below them, Litecoin awaits, ready to challenge the winner of that game.

Binance Coin might have to break a sweat against either IOTA or Compound, both coming into the tournament red hot.

This mock bracket is stacked! Cardano, Elrond, Aave, Monero, Dash, Litecoin, IOTA, Compound, and Binance Coin round out this tough bracket. We’ll see what the real one looks like next week.

On the right side of the bracket, Ethereum, amidst controversy and high gas fees retains its perch as the 1 seed. It might face a stiff test from 9 seed Dai, but looks to have an easy road into the Sweet 16.

Here the road gets more interesting. Three of the coins in this pod are no easy out. Again the 5 vs. 12 matchup between Cosmos and Decred is up in the air. Below them, tournament darling Dogecoin would love nothing more than to get a shot at the 1 seed in the Sweet 16.

In this mock bracket, I could see every high seed in the bottom portion being ousted in the first round. 11 seed SushiSwap is a tough first round matchup for fading EOS. Bitcoin Cash could have its hands full against fan-favorite Ravencoin.

Below them, Bitcoin SV has fallen all the way to a 7 seed and could face a tough test against lurking Filecoin. Finally, XRP was blown out in the first round as a 1 seed against THETA and the same thing may happen were they to face tough UMA.

If all those upsets were to happen, it would be anyone’s guess as to who would emerge to challenge the likely winner of Ethereum and Dogecoin.

Finally, the final 1 seed goes back to nobody’s favorite Tether. If the not-so-popular stablecoin can make it out of the first round, it likely would be shot down by the winner of Tezos and Synthetix. I give the nod to the 8 seed here.

After that, the likely Sweet 16 matchup would be against 5 seed THETA, which gained glory in the first installment of this tournament by trouncing 1 seed XRP, notching the first 16 over 1 upset in the tournament history. A Tezos / THETA matchup would be very fun to watch.

In the bottom portion, Chainlink and Polkadot meeting in the Sweet 16 seems the most likely outcome, with the winner of that game having the edge to the Final Four.

Movers and Shakers

Last Four In:

Nexo, Fantom, SwissBorg, Celsius

First Four Out:

Hedera Hashgraph, ICON, Polygon, Ren

On The Bubble:

yearn.finance, UMA, Bitcoin BEP2, BitTorrent, Nexo, Fantom SwissBorg, Celsius, Hedera Hashgraph, ICON, Polygon, Ren, 0x, Revain, Waves, OKB

The tournament will begin on March 16. Sixty-four coins will be in there, just like last year. It’s going to be exciting. Tell your friends and follow @UltimateCrypto7 on Twitter for the voting.

Stay Free. See you next week.

-Tourney Master

Cutthroat competition in the crypto sphere. Bring your A game or get left behind.

There was a huge shakeup in the mock bracket (the real one drops on March 14, Selection Sunday).

Previous 1 seeds such as Binance Coin and Polkadot tumbled back down to 2 seeds and a NEW 1 seed Cardano took one of their places. Oft-maligned Tether grabbed the final 1 spot.

This is just a PREVIEW of the crypto tournament. The REAL bracket will be announced on Selection Sunday, March 14, 2021. At 00:00:01 I will refresh Coinmarketcap, and then screenshot the top 64 coins. Those 64 will be seeded and the bracket will be released.

Everyone will get pumped up on the 14th and the 15th and the FIRST ROUND VOTING will begin on March 16.

Make sure to follow @UltimateCrypto7 for the voting, and tell your friends and fellow coin-thusiasts about this tournament.

February 27 Bracket Update

In the Bitcoin bracket, there isn’t much stopping the granddaddy of them all until an Elite 8 matchup against Litecoin or possibly Tezos, if the 7 seed can pull the upset in the second round.

Otherwise, there are a collection of other weak top seeds such as USD Coin, NEM, Crypto.com Coin, and TRON.

Lower seeds SushiSwap and PancakeSwap might be able to spring the upset in this case and Litecoin might have trouble in the first round against dangerous yearn.finance.

In the bottom of that bracket, I could see Litecoin falling to surging Uniswap, which might climb even higher before the Ultimate Crypto Tournament begins in March.

Across the bracket, Ethereum retains its preeminent position. Five seed Monero would be a tough matchup in the Sweet 16, as it would likely move past Compound (though not necessarily) and weak 4 seed Wrapped Bitcoin.

The bottom of the bracket could have a juicy 2nd round matchup between the two forks Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin Cash. Let them duke it out in the only forum that matters, the Ultimate Crypto Tournament!

The winner of that would likely face Dash as a cinderella (though quite experienced) 10 seed in the Sweet 16.

Below them, in the Cardano bracket, we welcome the new surging potential 1 seed. It would face a challenge from 8 seed VeChain, always a tough out, and which made it to the Sweet 16 last year before being bounced by runner-up Monero.

Below them, in the Cardano bracket, we welcome a new potential 1 seed. It would face a challenge from 8 seed VeChain, always a tough out, and which made it to the Sweet 16 last year before being bounced by runner-up Monero.

Below them, the deck is stacked with 4 coins that could all challenge the top seed in the Sweet 16: Cosmos, Decred, Dogecoin, or Ethereum Classic. I could see all of those coins getting hot and stringing together a couple of victories, though my money would be on Dogecoin.

Below them, Polkadot would likely challenge the winner of the top half in the Elite 8. That bracket would really be wide open for the taking. I don’t see a clear favorite.

Finally, the final 1 seed goes back to nobody’s favorite Tether. If history is any guide, the winner of the Neo/Algorand matchup would make it past the top seed and into the Sweet 16.

The pod below that is also loaded with dangerous coins: Aave, Zcash, Uniswap, and Zilliqa.

Below them, I could see a likely 2/3 matchup between Chainlink and Binance Coin. That would be a great matchup. With cryptocurrency generating so much publicity this year, the later round matchups are going to be great. Both of these coins have been getting a lot of love, and many more people are familiar with a broader array of coins.

Movers and Shakers

Last Four In:

OKB, THORChain, Ren, Revain

First Four Out:

Waves, 0x, Polygon, ICON

On The Bubble:

yearn.finance, UMA, Nexo, Celsius, OKB, THORChain, Ren, Revain, Waves, 0x, Polygon, ICON, Hedera Hashgraph, SwissBorg, renBTC, Basic Attention Token

The tournament will begin on March 16. Sixty-four coins will be in there, just like last year. It’s going to be exciting. Tell your friends and follow @UltimateCrypto7 on Twitter for the voting.

Stay Free. See you next week.

-Tourney Master

I’m getting excited for this year’s tournament. It’s going to be a lot different than last year’s, played just after a huge crash in March 2020. This time, I think people will be excited about their coins. And there ain’t no cat fight like a crypto cat fight when supporters (or shills) get together to back their favorite coin!

This is just a PREVIEW of the crypto tournament. The REAL bracket will be announced on Selection Sunday, March 14, 2021. At 00:00:01 I will refresh Coinmarketcap, and then screenshot the top 64 coins. Those 64 will be seeded and the bracket will be released.

Everyone will get pumped up on the 14th and the 15th and the FIRST ROUND VOTING will begin on March 16.

Make sure to follow @UltimateCrypto7 for the voting, and tell your friends and fellow coin-thusiasts about this tournament.

Big changes in this week’s bracket watch. You’ll notice the banner at the top has changed colors. That is because there are two, yes TWO new 1 seeds as long-time incumbents (and much-derided) 1 seeds XRP and Tether tumbled down to a 2 seed. Let’s get into it.

February 20 Bracket Update

In the Bitcoin bracket, things look interesting. I see the top seed blowing past the first two rounds and then facing a TOUGH Sweet 16 matchup against privacy coin and crypto darling Monero. Last year, XMR blew out the OG in the Final Four round.

Could the same thing happen again? Difficult to say. There’s a lot of new people in the crypto sphere this year, who might not be familiar with the coin. Heck, Monero might not even make it past surging Binance USD or defi Aave.

In the bottom of that bracket, I could see Litecoin falling to surging Uniswap, which might climb even higher before the Ultimate Crypto Tournament begins in March.

Below them, in the Polkadot bracket, we first have to welcome the new 1 seed, which last year wasn’t even in the tournament! Talk about a mighty rise. Even in the first round though, they would face a tough challenge in ICON, who made it to the Sweet 16 last year as a 12 seed, taking out Ethereum Classic in the dreaded 5/12 matchup and Kyber Network before succumbing to Ethereum.

After that, Polkadot would face a tough test in either Neo or Maker, both of which are surging and would make a classic 8/9 matchup. I could see that one going either way. That’s why I love the tournament! I’m so excited!

I could see 12 seed Decred knocking off Cosmos, though they went to the Sweet 16 last year, knocking off two bitcoin forks: Gold and Cash before falling to Binance Coin.

Man, this bracket would be loaded. Look at who else is in there. USD Coin against yearn.finance. That one could go either way. Bitcoin SV would be a 6 seed against Ravencoin who has rocketed into this mock bracket after being completely absent the first two weeks. Chainlink (last year reached the Elite 8) is always tough, as is Tezos (Final Four last year).

Last year, Cardano fell in a tough 4/5 matchup to USD Coin, but I suspect they’ll be a tougher out this year.

Ok, let’s move to the right side of the bracket, starting with Ethereum. It’s funny how the brackets shake out. I see an EASY walk to the Final Four. I don’t see ANY challengers from the other high seeds of: XRP, Stellar, and Wrapped Bitcoin. Maybe, Stellar could put up a fight, but I don’t see it having the firepower to stay with the top seed.

Boom, down to our final bracket. Binance Coin, somewhat like Gonzaga, would have its first 1 seed after hanging around over the years and slowly grinding its way to the top. I see it making quick work of Dash and THORChain in the first two rounds, and then facing a tough challenge in Dogecoin in the Sweet 16. The meme coin could be a sleeper Final Four candidate. Last year, in the second round it was neck and neck with Bitcoin in the second half, before BTC pulled away.

On the bottom side of the bracket, there aren’t too many strong challengers. I could see Vechain knocking off Tether (has that audit happened yet lol?) in the second round and then giving Bitcoin Cash a run for its money. Whichever coin made it to the Elite Eight, I don’t see it moving past surging Binance Coin.

Movers and Shakers

Last Four In:

ZRX, NEAR Protocol, THORChain, ICON

First Four Out:

DigiByte, Ontology, Hedera Hashgraph, Revain

On The Bubble:

Voyager Token, Celsius, Waves, Nexo, ZRX, NEAR Protocol, THORChain, ICON, DigiByte, Ontology, Hedera Hashgraph, Revain, renBTC, Celo, Nano , OMG Network.

The tournament will begin on March 16. Sixty-four coins will be in there, just like last year. It’s going to be exciting. Tell your friends and follow @UltimateCrypto7 on Twitter for the voting.

Stay Free. See you next week.

-Tourney Master

High school sports were just cancelled here for the winter. Sorry kids, the Boomers need you to politely crush your dreams so Satan’s New World Order can come to fruition.

But here at the ULTIMATE CRYPTO TOURNAMENT we’re FULL SPEED AHEAD!

What a week it was. It seems like every alt coin is up hundreds of percent since the last bracket update. Let’s take a look at the mock bracket below. Please note, the REAL 2021 tournament bracket will be released on March 14, 2021. This is just for fun.

February 13 Bracket Update

Bitcoin is still the king, and overall 1 seed. Nothing changed in the top 4 seeds of this bracket. A Bitcoin vs. Wrapped Bitcoin would be an interesting matchup for posterity, but would likely end up in a huge blowout win for the 1 seed. Below that, Dogecoin and Litecoin would make an entertaining Sweet 16 matchup, barring any upsets. The only one I could see in this mock bracket would be Compound over Litecoin in the second round. But that’s why they play the games!

XRP somehow sneaked its way into another 1 seed. Upstart Cardano might have a few things to say about that, should the two coins meet in the Elite Eight. That said, XRP is one of those coins that is likely to fall in the early rounds. It’s a coin that crypto enthusiasts love to hate. Perhaps a coin like Loopring would gain immortality by taking it down in the first round.

Cardano would face tough challenges in the early rounds as well. VeChain is no pushover, and neither is ChainLink.

Facing off again on opposite ends of the bracket, Bitcoin and Ethereum have the potential to meet in the championship game. That would be something. Vitalik might get his revenge against Bitcoin Magazine. Monero stands in its way, though that privacy coin would need to get past Aave first.

The bottom of the bracket is intriguing with a potential Bitcoin Cash / Binance Coin matchup. Neither of those coins has been too inspiring. The potential Sweet 16 matchup of ETH and XMR could be the de facto Final Four matchup.

Tether faces a tough draw in the first two rounds, and would be lucky to make it past the first week. Ren has been skyrocketing as have The Graph and Algorand. That would be a good 8/9 matchup. Uniswap might push its way to the Elite 8 in this weaker area of the bracket.

Below them, that area of the bracket is wide open, with veteran coins such as Stellar and Zcash and newcomers like Filecoin and Polkadot. This hypothetical bracket is actually loaded with talent. Six seed Tezos made the Final Four last year. Zcash was in the Sweet 16. Seven seed Ontology reached the Elite 8 and 15 seed Ontology was defeated by Tezos in that Elite 8 matchup in the same bracket. THETA achieved fame by taking down 1 seed XRP in the first round last year. Interesting how things work out.

Movers and Shakers

Last Four In:

ICON, Hedera Hashgraph, Ren, and Loopring.

First Four Out:

Nexo, Basic Attention Token, DigiByte, Voyager Token.

On The Bubble:

BitTorrent, Waves, OMG Network, Ontology, ICON, Hedera Hashgraph, Ren, Loopring, Nexo, Basic Attention Token, DigiByte, Voyager Token, Nano, Celo, renBTC, 1inch

The tournament will begin on March 16. Sixty-four coins will be in there, just like last year. It’s going to be exciting. Tell your friends and follow @UltimateCrypto7 on Twitter for the voting.

Stay Free. See you next week.

-Tourney Master

While the NCAA is forcing its players to pretend they are all diseased, and while the coaches and teams obediently follow their commands, and even thank their masters for “keeping them safe,” the real winners this year are CRYPTOCURRENCIES, setting all time highs ($1 trillion and counting!) and living life ABOVE THE RIM! SLAM DUNK!

The 2021 ULTIMATE CRYPTO Tournament will begin on March 16. Selection Sunday will be on March 14. It’s going to be great!

This is the first of five bracket updates, published each Friday until Selection Sunday on March 14. Here’s what the bracket would look like, if the tournament started today.

February 6 Bracket Update

Bitcoin is again the king, and overall 1 seed. There are a lot of newcomers into this tournament. Dogecoin is a shooting star, rocketing up from an 8 seed last year, to a 3 seed in the Bitcoin bracket. Its potential Sweet 16 game against Litecoin would be exciting, as would an exciting Elite 8 matchup against Bitcoin.

Would XRP be knocked out in the first round again? Would the SEC turn up to vote to bolster its case? Who would the favorite here be, Cardano? This bracket setup would be perfect for a dark horse run to the Final Four.

The matchup of Ethereum against Bitcoin might happen, it would only be renBTC. The coin that nobody wants to see in its bracket, Monero, is lurking in the 5 spot. I think it would make quick work against yearn.finance though face a stiff challenge from Aave. Binance Coin against Bitcoin Cash (if it made it that far) would be an interesting matchup.

Will Tether be knocked out in the first round again too? Would Polkadot advance to its first Final Four in its first appearance in the tournament? Would Stellar be able to knock it out? Probably not. What about Uniswap. There are a lot of new coins in this one. That Cosmos/Celsius first-round matchup looks juicy too.

Movers and Shakers

Last Four In:

Ren, Hedera Hashgraph, renBTC, and OMG Network.

First Four Out:

Curve DAO Token, Celo, 1inch, THORChain.

On The Bubble:

Nexo, NEAR Protocol, SwissBorg, Ren, Hedera Hashgraph, renBTC, OMG Network, Curve DAO Token, Celo, 1inch, THORChain, Basic Attention Token, Voyager Token, Ontology, ICON.

The tournament will begin on March 16. Sixty-four coins in there, just like last year. It’s going to be exciting. Tell your friends and follow @UltimateCrypto7 on Twitter for the voting.

Stay Free. See you next week.

-Tourney Master

The ultimate crypto tournament came to me when I was perusing Reddit and saw someone jokingly put some of the cryptocurrencies into a mock bracket. At the time (March 2020), the U.S. was gearing up to watch the annual NCAA basketball tournament. It’s a very exciting single-elimination tournament where unexpected and lower ranked teams can catch fire and upset higher ranked teams, making a deep tournament run.

The tournament was soon cancelled, due to the Certification of Vaccination ID – 19 “pandemic.” After being very angry for a time, I figured I would make my own similarly-styled tournament and put it on instead of the NCAA basketball one.

Thus, the Ultimate Cryptocurrency tournament was born. Before, during, and after I learned a few things about cryptocurrency which I wanted to share with you:

Don’t Underestimate the Power of the Shills

To publicize the tournament, I posted on each coin’s Reddit page. Sometimes the posts were met with disdain, other times with enthusiasm.

The most enthusiastic responses came from Nano and ICON. One reply was along the lines of “Yes! Let’s shill our beloved Nano to victory!!” And they did.

They celebrated heartily afterward too.

ICON was excited because a 12 seed always beats a 5 seed. ICON made the Sweet 16 before losing in a fight to Ethereum.

Dogecoin, which has a rabid following, also was neck and neck with Bitcoin in the second round before BTC pulled away late.

I was contemplating this and wonder how these coins will fare during the next bull run. An enthusiastic and engaged community is one of the prime metrics many investors use when considering the probity of an investment.

I can’t help but think they’ll enjoy a hearty spike in the years ahead.

Tournament Success a Harbinger of Future Success

I was caught off guard by the success of coins such as Chainlink and Tezos as they made their way to the Elite Eight. After the tournament, Chainlink enjoyed meteoric success in the market, almost quintupling in price after the tournament ended. It would currently be the top 2 seed, taking the place of Bitcoin Cash.

Other Elite Eight coins such as Binance Coin, Tezos, and Ontology haven’t made much noise in the market since the tournament ended. However, it is something I will keep my eye on in future iterations of the tournament.

Bitcoin Forks Failed Miserably

Bitcoin forks – two #2 seeds, a #10, and a #14 seed – went a combined 1-4 in the first two rounds of the tournament. Ouch!

The only victory was Bitcoin Cash’s defeat of 15 seed Nexo, not exactly something to go wild about, and even that was closer than most first-round matchups. Cosmos took down two of the forks (Gold and Cash), but their luck ran out against Binance Coin.

Fourteen seed Bitcoin Diamond did absolutely nothing against 3 seed Tezos in its first round matchup. It’s not even worth a picture recap.

Voters gave the bitcoin forks very little love. It seems that outside of their fanbases, these forks have very little widespread appeal, even though their block sizes may be larger or their transaction fees smaller.

Bitcoin is still the king.

Monero is the Crypto’s Crypto

I like to refer to Monero as the crypto’s crypto. It’s hard to find people in the cryptocurrency space who disparage it, most refer to it affectionately.

However, outside of the arena, many newbs are unfamiliar with the coin. It took me almost 6 months to became aware of its existence after diving into the busy cryptocurrency space in 2017.

It did very well for a 4 seed, lurking in wait to take down coins such as Stellar, VeChain, Binance Coin, and eventually to unseat Bitcoin, the top overall seed.

The Bitcoin-Monero matchup was one that many wanted to see and it did not disappoint. Bitcoin hung close, but Monero pulled away late. I believe this shows the preference for the privacy coin rather than the OG.

It will be interesting to see what happens if they meet again in the next year’s Ultimate Cryptocurrency tournament.

Unfortunately for Monero, they ran into the buzzsaw known as Nano in the championship game, netting the silver medal.

Crypto Changes Fast

The top sixty four coins by market cap in early March were granted entry into the tournament. Now, less than six months after that, the field would look dramatically different.

The champion Nano wouldn’t even make the field if it began today.

Eighteen new coins would be in today’s tournament by my count. That’s more than an entire bracket replaced. There would be a new 2 seed Polkadot.

Here is what the tournament would look like if it began today:

There are some interesting matchups in this potential bracket. Bitcoin against Litecoin in the Elite Eight is one. Would XRP lose again the first round, or would it survive to face a tough test in Dash and then Monero?

Ethereum and Ethereum Classic might face off in a tough 1 v. 8 second-round matchup. Twelve seed Dogecoin would be a tough draw for 5 seed Neo and would be waiting for the winner of the Battle of the Ethereums.

At the bottom of that bracket, a Sweet Sixteen matchup between Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin Cash would be possible. That would be fun to watch.

That Tether bracket is wide open. I don’t see a clear favorite there.

Here is the tournament as it began in March 2020. It will be interesting to see how much it changes when it is finalized in March 2021.

Once again, here is the completed tournament bracket:

And once again…

Nano’s run through the ultimate cryptocurrency took the world by surprise. They were hyped before the tournament, already claiming victory on their Reddit page, but many coins were making such claims. One reply was along the lines of “Yes! Let’s shill our beloved Nano to victory!!” And they did.

When Nano massacred Bitcoin SV in the first round, it remained to be seen whether that victory was due to Nano’s strength or Bitcoin SV’s unpopularity.

The second round began to put those doubts to rest after it took down 7 seed Maker. Yet, it remained to be seen whether that victory was due to Nano’s strength, or another weak opponent. The third round 92-8 victory against 11 seed Hedera HashGraph showed that Nano had some firepower, but again, the competition was not the stiffest.

The second round began to put those doubts to rest after it took down 7 seed Maker. Yet, it remained to be seen whether that victory was due to Nano’s strength, or another weak opponent. The third round 92-8 victory against 11 seed Hedera HashGraph showed that Nano had some firepower, but again, the competition was not the stiffest.

The Elite Eight matchup against 1 seed Ethereum was when the world took Nano seriously. An unexpected annihilation of a coin which many had in their Final Four predictions shocked the planet. Maker fared better than one of the original cryptocurrencies and second overall seed. Could Nano be for real?

The coin ride its momentum into the Final Four matchup against unexpected but strong 3 seed Tezos. It seemed the 3 seed poured everything they had into the game. Perhaps it was the combined might of the rest of the crypto space putting its support behind Tezos, as the coin put up the most valiant fight against the eventual champs. Hundreds poured in their support for Tezos, but hundreds more rallied behind Nano to push it into the Championship Game.

That game was an unceremonious dumping of fan-favorite Monero, who went down by a score similar to other highly touted coins.

Overall, it was a magical and unexpected Cinderella run during the inaugural edition of the Ultimate Cryptocurrency tournament. Nano took down some big game in Bitcoin SV, Ethereum, and Monero.

Nano is the champ.

They celebrated heartily after their unbelievably dominant run.

Congratulations to them!

A champion has been crowned.

A runner up has emerged.

The tournament is complete.

What an amazing journey, when 64 of the top cryptocurrency vied for supremacy, at least in this iteration. After

After an exciting month, a victor has emerged.

Who might that be, introducing the 2020 Ultimate Cryptocurrency Champion…

Championship Game: Monero vs. Nano

Nano is our 2020 Ultimate Cryptocurrency.

Congratulations to them! And congratulations to runner up Monero.

Many pegged Monero as a sleeper coin to win it all, but they fell one game short of their ultimate goal.

Instead it was the unsung but enthusiastic Nano team that took home the trophy. At the beginning of this tournament, they were a rowdy bunch, extolling other Nano supporters to “shill their way to victory.”

Well, they talked the talk and now have walked the walk.

Congratulations to Nano! The first champion of the Ultimate Cryptocurrency tournament!

It will be remembered as a completely dominating run through the bracket.

Consolation Third Place Game: Bitcoin vs. Tezos

Bitcoin maintained some dignity, taking home third place after effortlessly dispatching fellow Final Four member Tezos with a final score of 79-33.

In a landslide, the OG goes home to lick its wounds after what some would call a surprise defeat at the hands of Monero. However, they did make their way to the medal stand.

Their opponent, Tezos, made a surprise Final Four run, helped by a shocking upset of two seed Litecoin in the Sweet Sixteen.

Tezos also had an explosive outpouring against ultimate champion Nano, but it looks as though they expended their energy too much there, scoring just 33 points in the losing effort, which was by far their lowest output of the tournament.

For Tezos, the drought couldn’t have come at a worse time.

That concludes the 2020 edition of the Ultimate Cryptocurrency Championship. What an exciting month it was!

Thank you to everyone who voted, wrote kind comments, and shared this event with their friends and fellow crypto enthusiasts. It really felt like a real exciting tournament once the second round rolled around. There were so many exciting games, just like in the real NCAA tournament.

The Final Four matchups were also extremely exciting. Over 1200 people voted in the Nano vs. Tezos matchup!

I hope next year, that is just an ordinary game. Please tell your friends and share this with your fellow crypto lovers as we run it back in March 2021!

P.S. Stay tuned for a special Autumn tournament, one that I have recently thought of which should capture the excitement of this mock NCAA tournament as well.