Ember App Review
Ember is an app for IOS and android that allow users to invest in a wide range of different cryptocurrency portfolios easily. You can also earn free bitcoin with a simple click in the app – no strings attached. Too good to be true? Its not. Lets dive in.
I stumbled upon this a while ago, but it was not until recently I decided to give it a go. I got the IOS version. While I have started small, it has been an exciting experience. This is an app I will keep and continue to use going forward – and my plan, for now, is to allocate more funds continuously in the future.
Getting started is super easy and literally takes no more than a minute or two. You can download the app here. There is no cost involved with getting the app or signing up. In fact, you will be paid for it – more on this later.
Once you sign in to the app, you will land on the home screen. There are three main sections; Home, Wallet and Earn. Lets start with the Home section.
Home
At the top of the app, you can access notifications and settings. Below this, you can see your current balance in USD, which is the total amount in mining rewards, airdrops, and yield from portfolios you've generated since using Ember. The more you invest, the faster your rewards grow. Rewards compound hourly. Next on the home screen is the Top Movers, which shows you various coins and tokens that moved the most in the previous 24 hours (I think). Clicking on any of these will show you more details about the token in question; here, you will be presented with a graph of the token, shown the market value of your position in the mentioned token, along with some general information and stats about the project. There is also a direct link to invest in the portfolio containing the token. Below the top movers, we have “Explore more”. This will take you to a section with various information about everything in the crypto space. Next, on the home screen, we see a list of available portfolios which you can invest in. At the moment, there is a total of eight different portfolios which you can invest in. Initially, they only offered a couple of portfolios, and now with a total of eight, I am sure we will continue to see this list grow with new portfolios going forward. Lets take a closer look at the portfolios they currently offer. I have taken the information directly from the app, which you can read below. I will also make sure to update this post, when new portfolios are added to the Ember app.
Portfolios
Bitcoin Defence
The bitcoin defense algorithmically trades between bitcoin and stablecoins by measuring long-term market trends. The portfolio is designed to protect investors from market bear cycles.
When the algorithm trades into USDC, the stablecoin will automatically be lent out on Compound to generate yield. This should be used as a complement to your overall bitcoin holdings.
Who it's for: Bitcoin holders who want to hedge against potential declines in Bitcoin price. During the bear market in 2018, bitcoin was down 73% while Bitcoin Defense was up 3%
DeFi
The Ember DeFi Index is a passively managed index of the largest tokens within the decentralized finance market. These coins are weighted by market cap and periodically rebalanced.
Who it's for: Maverick investors who believe that peer-to-peer trading, lending and borrowing platforms will disrupt traditional finance. The decentralized finance (DeFi) market grew by over 100x from 2019-2022
Yield Farming
The Yield portfolio generates 2%-20% APY with no exposure to crypto market volatility. Included in this portfolio are stablecoins pegged to the US Dollar.
Who it's for: Conservative savers wanting to protect their capital while earning 250x the average bank savings interest rate.
ETH 2.0 Staking
The ETH 2.0 Staking portfolio gives investors exposure to Ethereum generating staking rewards of between 2-7% APY. The portfolio leverages the stETH token to track the performance of ETH generating staking rewards. Once the merge to ETH 2.0 completes, block rewards from existing Ethereum miners will be passed to the stakers, meaning APY in this portfolio is expected to increase.
Who it's for: Long-term Ethereum bulls who'd like to invest & accumulate more ETH over time in the safest & simplest experience possible.
Meme Moonshot
The Meme moonshot portfolio is a passively managed portfolio of the most hyped and traded meme coins in the crypto space. Each quarter, the Ember team will review the meme coin market & include only the top coins with the highest risk/reward ratio.
Who it's for: Gamblers looking to fill YOLO to the moon with some of the riskiest assets in crypto. Meme coins are highly volatile. Please do not invest more than you can afford to lose.
The Originals
The Originals portfolio is for new and experienced crypto investors who are looking for a smarter way to invest in the 2 largest blue-chip cryptos in the space. The portfolio maintains an allocation of 50% Bitcoin and 50% Ethereum and seeks to generate additional yield by lending and staking Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Who it's for: Beginner investors and BTC/ETH maxis who believe these two blockchains will continue to dominate into the future , and who also want to generate as much yield as possible.
TOP NFTs
The Ember Top NFT Index is a passively managed portfolio of the top NFT collections. Investors in this portfolio own a small part of each NFT collection, including CyberPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, World of Women and Doodles.
For the first time in history yiou can own a part of a half-million dollar NFT. Join the NFT movement and invest like a celebrity alongside Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg, Mardonna, Jay-Z and Steph Curry.
Who it's for: Degen collectors wanting exposure to the most sought-after collections.
Metaverse
The Ember Metaverse Index is a passively managed index of the largest Metaverse assetc assets across virtual environments.
Who it's for: Metaverse bulls who believe that the advancement of virtual reality technology will drive mass adoption of play-to-earn gaming, real estate, e-commerce and entertainment. The Metaverse is estimated to grow 43% annually through 2030.
Wallet
The next main section in the app is the wallet. Here you can see your current balance, in USD, BTC, ETH and USDC. You can deposit funds via to your wallet via Apple pay, debit / credit card, transfer from Coinbase, or make a direct cryptocurrency transfer. They have made it very simple and userfriendly to deposit funds. It simply does not get more simple than it is in the Ember Fund app.
Earn
The final section is Earn – This is where you can earn free bitcoin by simply clicking a button. In the top left of the screen, you can see your total bitcoin rewards and how many satoshis you can collect per hour. In the top right of the screen is a rewards button, which will take you to a section where you can see a breakdown of your hourly satoshi earnings rate. In short, you will need to click the earn button once daily to earn free bitcoin rewards. The number of satoshis you can earn per hour will be increased if you invest in a portfolio. The number of satoshis will also increase if you invite friends to use the app and even more if they invest in portfolios. You can also get an airdrop for setting up your recovery password. While this is not something that will make you rich, it is an easy way to get some free satoshis and a powerful way for Ember to get loyal users of the app. I think there is nothing to lose here. Even if you have no intention of investing in any of the Ember fund portfolios, you can still download the app, click a button and start “earning” free satoshis. It is easy, free of charge, safe, and not a scam.
Cost
There is an annual fee of 3% on the bitcoin defense portfolio, Defi portfolio, Top NFT Index, and the Metaverse portfolio. The others have 0% fee. That's it. There is no other cost, fee, or commission to use the app. You can get started with as little as 5 USD.
Ember Fund – Safety, FTX event and price drops
With the recent events in the crypto space, specially with regards to FTX it is clear that a lot of trust in everything crypto went out the window. Because of this Alex Wang send out the email below clients of Ember.
Addressing The Recent Market Volatility
Hi Ember Crew, With the recent pullback in the market, we just wanted to drop a line and reassure you that everything is okay, along with diving into how Ember protects your assets! With any explosive parabolic market, you will always have healthy corrections. This time around, it has been made public that crypto exchange FTX is insolvent due to irresponsible leverage trading of customer funds, and has since frozen withdrawals. While this is a setback to the industry in the short term, we believe the market will rebound again to new heights, with a renewed focus on the importance of non-custodial platforms like Ember Fund. Your keys, your crypto. For the record, Ember had no exposure to FTX or the FTT token. Furthermore, the leverage trading that FTX was committing isn’t possible on Ember due to our non-custodial infrastructure. Ember has no access or ability to move invested assets without each user’s account signing each transaction. Investors can deposit/withdraw from Ember 24×7, 365. We’re firm believers in non-custodial apps being the future of the industry. On the graph page for each portfolio, you can also view your investment & the portfolio’s smart contact on-chain, by tapping the button, “View Position On-Chain”. This feature offers complete transparency of your funds, in a way centralized exchanges cannot. It's important to note, the fundamentals and technology that underpin all of these crypto assets have not changed, only the narrative. Let's continue to think about crypto's long-term potential in the next 5-10 years. Emotion is the enemy of reason, so please do not make trading decisions on “moment-in-time” events. Fundamentals & on-chain metrics are still pointing to Bitcoin & Ethereum rising again over time. As always, we believe that time in the market beats timing the market, and encourage everyone to remember that each Ember Fund portfolio was crafted to be held for years to come. Ember continues to be extremely bullish on the crypto space and its rapid innovation that continues to expand into new areas of the economy. As always, continue to diversify with both defensive & offensive products. The crypto industry is currently being challenged, but we appreciate you being here with us. We’ll get through this together! Onward and upward,
A day after, I got another email from the people behind Ember Fund about the importance of Non-Custodial Investing. Read the details below
The Importance of Non-Custodial Investing
Hi Ember Crew, With all the news around FTX, we felt it would be helpful to run through what non-custodial wallets are and why they’re important. “Non-custodial” simply means that you own and have full control of your assets. When you invest with a non-custodial app, you're interacting directly with the blockchain, and there is no bank or third-party intermediary. Bitcoin was the first asset to introduce non-custodial ownership digitally, and it has grown to be a pillar & key value of the crypto space. Ember Fund is the first non-custodial portfolio management platform that allows investors to take advantage of this powerful new aspect of personal finance. Non-custodial apps like Ember do not store private keys on invested funds as your private keys are essentially the “passwords” to move your assets. True non-custodial wallets cannot block your transactions and the funds within them cannot be compromised due to this architecture. You are free to move your assets to any wallet at any time by transacting directly on the blockchain. We’re firm believers in non-custodial apps being the future of the industry and we're glad you're on this journey with us. Cheers
Performance
So how did the Ember portfolios perform? Each month Ember Fund shares a monthly fact card, with some details about the performance. You can see a snip of the report below, or click here to view the full report.
If we look at the Ember Monthly One-Sheet, for October, we can see the performance of the Bitcoin Defense portfolio since inception is at a stunning 6,356.38% which is nothing short of amazing. In the same period, Bitcoin itself increased by 1,964.13%.
The Top NFT Index portfolio has resulted in a return of -60.9% return since inception, The Originals at 29.5%, and the Meme Moonshot portfolio with 15.3% since inception.
For the Defi and Metaverse portfolios, we cannot see the performance since inception, but we can see YTD performance.
DeFi: -67.6%
Metaverse: -87.9%
While the performance is not as spectacular as for the bitcoin defense portfolio, note that these portfolios were created later, so the performance since inception is not comparable. The Bitcoin Defense portfolio is also actively managed, whereas the other portfolios mentioned above are passively managed. It is no secret that BTC sets the direction for most of the crypto space, most of the time. With BTC trending lower throughout most of 2022, we should expect any passively managed portfolios to be down in the same period.
Conclusion
I would love to see some more detailed reporting from the Ember fund. The Fact card could be more comprehensive, and the graphs on the app for the individual portfolios can be challenging to read. There is no data on the axes (and if there was, a grid would be an excellent addition). The small green icon in the top left corner above the graph seemingly indicates the percentage return for the chosen period, but this does not align with the data in the fact card. For example, if I chose the entire period (all) for the Bitcoin Defense portfolio, it shows a return of 170.92%. This number is not listed anywhere on the fact card. I may be reading it wrong or there may be an error in the app or on the fact card – either way, it's not obvious to me.
With that said, I really do enjoy the Ember app. Besides the reporting, it is very user-friendly and a perfect way to lay people to get exposure to the crypto market. The mining (earn) function is an excellent incentive for people to get on board and engage with the app.
Lay people find it challenging to start investing in the crypto market. Everyone wants to get involved when the bull market is on, but most people immediately hit a brick wall. Where, why, what, wallets, exchanges, etc. Getting started can be overwhelming and often lead to no action.
Ember fund changes this. They make all the steps of crypto investing easy, from the very beginning to the end. They allow novice and savvy crypto-interested individuals access to the most popular areas in this market in an easy and intuitive manner. Well done Ember! Get the Ember Fund app here and get started with easy investing in the crypto market.