This is my post for Steemit Crypto Academy Trading Competition Season 6 Week 2. And I am joining the team INVESTORS with Professor @pelon53 and Professor @imagen. For the first trade I chose SAND/IDR on UPbit Indonesia Exchange.

^{The Sandbox (SAND) logo used in this editorial picture was taken from https://medium.com/sandbox-game/what-is-the-sandbox-850de68d893e.}

1.1. About SAND

1.1.1. A Brief Introduction of the Token

SAND (or $SAND) is the ticker for the token named The Sandbox, it is the name of the native token or digital asset of a gaming platform of the same name, The Sandbox. The Sandbox platform is a virtual land built on top of Ethereum blockchain. Users can -on this virtual land (metaverse)- build and own gaming experience, but that’s not all, by doing that they can also monetize those gaming experiences.

Okay, there’s a virtual land called The Sandbox, and there’s SAND as the digital utility token that works on this virtual land. SAND is built on ERC-20 standard.

SAND -as the main utility token of the platform- is useful to:

• Let users buy virtual land on the platform where users can build, own, and monetize their gaming experiences.
• Let users also utilize the VoxEdit (a software on the platform) to create voxel ASSETS. Voxel Assets can then be converts to NFTs and be traded in the Marketplace.

Beside the mentioned two functions of SAND mentioned above, it can also act like any other digital asset: it can be traded as it is in the markets. Users can also stake $SAND and get involved in the governance.

1.1.2. The Token Statistics

At time of writing, according to CoinGecko, $SAND was traded at USD 2.95 per token.

^{$SAND in USD price at time of writing. Source: CoinGecko.}

CoinGecko also informed that this token, based on the market capitalization, was ranked at #40.

^{It was ranked #40 based on market capitalization. Source: CoinGecko.}

Below is the statistical data of SAND per time of writing as seen on https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/the-sandbox.

Aspect	Value
Token Name and Ticker	The Sandbox (SAND)
Market Capitalization	USD 3,543,346,814
Market Cap Dominance	0.18%
Market Cap Rank	#40
Circulating Supply	1,124,944,772 SAND
All Time High	USD 8.40 on Nov 25, 2021
All TimeLow	USD 0.02897764 on Nov 04, 2020
Website	https://www.sandbox.game/en/
	https://medium.com/sandbox-game;
	https://twitter.com/pixowl?lang=en
Explorers	Etherscan; Ethexplorer;
	Polygonscan; Polygonscan 2;

Below screenshot show the maximum price chart of SAND token.

^{The SAND price chart, set to maximum mode, as seen on https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/the-sandbox.}

1.2. Where to Trade SAND

According to SAND market list on CoinGecko SAND token is now widely available for spot trading, including in major exchanges like Binance,UPbit, HitBTC, KuCoin and so on. The below screenshot shows the top 15 SAND spot markets based on trading volume at time of writing.

^{The top 15 SAND spot markets as seen on https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/the-sandbox#markets.}

The Top 10 SAND spot markets based on trading volume at time of writings as seen on CoinGecko were:

No.	Exchange	Pair	Volume
1	UPBIT	SAND/KRW	28.14%
2	Binance	SAND/USDT	20.98%
3	HitBTC	SAND/USDT	5.86%
4	Digifinex	SAND/USDT	5.52%
5	Huobi Global	SAND/USDT	4.33%
6	OKX	SAND/USDT	3.98%
7	Binance	SAND/BUSD	3.64%
8	BitMart	SAND/USDT	3.36%
9	WhiteBIT	SAND/USDT	3.35%
10	XT.COM	SAND/USDT	2.57%

While there’s only 15 markets available for perpetuals trading of SAND token as seen on the below screenshot taken from SAND market list on CoinGecko.

^{The Perpetuals market for SAND token as seen on CoinGecko.}

And, guess what, according to CoinGecko, this token is not available in futures market.

^{No futures market for SAND token, as seen on CoinGecko.}

1.3. The Token Background (A Brief History)

The story about SAND may have started in 2012 when that year on May 15th game studio and developer Pixowl launched a game with the name The Sandbox. The Sandbox was originally released as a game for mobile phones. The PC (Microsoft Windows) version was released in 2015.

In this 2012 videogame, players act like a ruler of the universe who builds a world through exploration. Players are faced with various tasks, mainly utilizing various found resources such as water, mud, stone, metal, to build civilizations and move from one civilization level to the next.

In 2018, Animoca Brands acquired Pixowl and brought its game, The Sandbox, into the blockchain world. Blockchain technology allows players to monetize their gaming experience and get financial benefits, as previously mentioned. Animoca spent USD 4,875 million in this acquisition. ^Source

Animoca, through their fundraising, managed to raise USD 2.5 million in May 2019 for this project. ^Source

An additional USD 2.01 million later came from investments made by B Cryptos, True Global Ventures, and Square Enix. These investments were in the form of fiat and cryptocurrency. This investment was made in March 2020. ^Source

SoftBank Group Corp, a Japanese multinational company focuses on investment management, in November 2021 invested USD 93 million in The Sandbox. ^Source To date, this is the record for the most investment in The Sandbox.

^{Craft Your World, The motto of The Sandbox game as seen on The Sandbox front page website.}

In November 2021, the Sandbox Alpha was released to public. Sandbox Alpha is the first opportunity for players to explore the Sandbox Metaverse, and players can get rewards in the form of $SAND while playing and completing missions. Players have the opportunity to get up to 1,000 $SAND and 3 exclusive prizes in the form of NFT. This event started on November 29 last year. ^Source

^{The Alpha Pass, as seen on Sandbox article on Medium.}

To be able to completely explore all 18 Sandbox experiences, and earn up to 1,000 SAND and 3 exclusive NFTs, players need an Alpha Pass. Without it, players only has access to 3 full experiences, and will still be rewarded, but not a change to get up to 1,000 SAND and the exclusive NFTs.^Source

The Sandbox Whitepaper is available here.

2.1. Why I Feel Optimistic on This Token Today

I think, in the current state of the cryptocurrency market, having a bit of optimism is important. In the current situation we know as “crypto bloodbath”, I don't think we can get our hopes up too high. The situation is in uncertainty. The price chart of the tokens shows high price fluctuations: the price can move up and down in a short span.

I chose to trade SAND after I found that SAND was in a group of tokens that had a positive performance over the last 24 hours.

2.2. How Long It Can Rise

In the current market situation, I don't think a good signal will last for quite a long time. I thought that continuing to show price increases for one day will be good enough, I would not hope for it to be a long raise of price.

The first signal for me to choose SAND on this trade was that the token price has raised in the last 24 hours. When I checked the price chart of this token on the UPbit exchange, within 15m timeframe, using 2 EMAs (15 for shorter-period and 50 for longer-period) and 14-look-back-period Aroon Indicator, I found a positive signal indicated by the formation of Golden Cross as indicated by marker (1) in the following screenshot, and confirmed by an upward cut by Aroon Up as indicated by marker (2).

^{The SAND price chart as seen on https://id.upbit.com/exchange?code=CRIX.UPBIT.IDR-SAND, screenshotted on Monday February 28 at 07:17 AM UTC.}

I basically found that the 2 EMAs combination is easy to understand and I have been testing it on several trades. On the other hand, I think, combining it with Aroon Indicator will reveal a “stronger” signal, since it can be used to mutually confirm the signal or to deny the signal given by the other one.

I placed a limit order on Monday February 28 at 07:19 AM UTC.

^{Placing Limit order on https://id.upbit.com/exchange?code=CRIX.UPBIT.IDR-SAND.}

Then I confirmed it.

^{Confirming Limit Order. Screenshot source.}

The order was successfully filled 2 minutes later on 07:21 UTC.

^{Successfully bought some $SAND. Screenshot source.}

As I mentioned above, I would not be too confident with this trade. I mean, we all aware of the current market condition. And the Aroon Indicator -as seen on the screenshot above- shows the Aroon Up downward movement. So, I guess like I was hearing that the chart said, “It’s going to be good for a short period. You can enter market, but don’t stay too long.” I guess, that what the message.

Seeing how enthusiastic investors are putting their money into this project, I think it's a signal that can't be ignored that this is a "serious" project. Indeed, The Sandbox Game is not as popular as other pixelate games such as Minecraft, but signs show that this game has a good future. These signs, apart from the enthusiasm of investors (which of course will not be so enthusiastic if they don't see good enough signals and opportunities), of course because this game runs on blockchain technology which offers players the opportunity to get paid while playing (Play-to-Earn).

The world of gaming continues to evolve, and has proven to be one of the most-profitable industries. I'm sure, with further innovation and if things go well, The Sandbox Game will become even more glorious in the future. With these simple considerations, I think, for the long term, I dare to recommend SAND, as the token of The Sandbox platform, both for “traditional” investments including trading, as well as for staking.

Thanks

Thanks Professor @imagen and Professor @pelon53.

Pictures Source

• The editorial picture was created by me.
• Unless otherwise stated, all another pictures were screenshoots and were edited with Photoshop CS 3.
• The screenshot sources are mentioned in the picture caption right below it.

Reading Sources and Suggestion

• https://www.sandbox.game/en/;
• https://medium.com/sandbox-game/introducing-the-sandbox-alpha-2052db44a9f9;
• https://medium.com/sandbox-game/what-is-the-sandbox-850de68d893e;
• https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/the-sandbox;
• https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/the-sandbox#markets;
• https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/the-sandbox/;
• https://coinmarketcap.com/earn/project/sandbox;
• https://www.gemini.com/prices/sandbox;
• https://www.coindesk.com/price/the-sandbox/;
• https://crypto.com/price/the-sandbox;
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandbox_(video_game);
• https://venturebeat.com/2020/03/19/the-sandbox-raises-2-million-more-to-build-out-blockchain-based-game-world/;
• https://www.reuters.com/technology/softbank-leads-93-mln-investment-nft-gaming-firm-sandbox-2021-11-02/;

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My Introductory Post | Artikel Perkenalan Saya.

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^{Picture created by @aneukpineung78}

Thanks for stopping by.