Best Altcoins To Invest In Now

With the crypto market experiencing a resurgence, many investors are wondering which cryptocurrencies are worth investing in. With a wide range of options and fluctuating prices, it can be challenging to navigate the best coins to invest in. Here is a list of the top cryptocurrencies to invest in, ordered by market capitalisation:

- Bitcoin (BTC)

- Ethereum (ETH)

- XRP (XRP)

- Binance Coin (BNB)

- Solana (SOL)

- Dogecoin (DOGE)

- Cardano (ADA)

Other cryptocurrencies with high potential include Quant (QNT), MakerDAO (MKR), Mina Protocol (Mina), Filecoin (FIL), IOTA (MIOTA), The Graph (GRT), Ethereum Name Service (ENS), Avalanche (AVAX), Aave, Uniswap, Terra LUNA Classic (LUNC), Polygon (MATIC), Optimism, Loopring (LRC), Starkware, Enjin, The Sandbox, ApeCoin (APE), Decentraland, Toncoin (TON), SingularityNET (AGIX), Shiba Inu (SHIB), PancakeSwap, Cronos (CRO), VeChain, Hedera (HBAR), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Theta Network (THETA), Fantom (FTM), and Chainlink.

Bitcoin: The original cryptocurrency, recognised by major governments and used as legal tender in some countries

Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency, created in 2009 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. It is a decentralised peer-to-peer digital currency, introducing the world to the concept of blockchain technology. Bitcoin is recognised by major governments and is used as legal tender in El Salvador and the Central African Republic.

Bitcoin's blockchain is a distributed ledger, logging transactions across a network of thousands of computers. This distributed ledger must be verified by solving a cryptographic puzzle, a process called proof of work, which keeps Bitcoin secure and safe from fraudsters.

Bitcoin's value has skyrocketed as it has become a household name. In May 2016, one bitcoin was worth about $500. As of August 2024, a single bitcoin is worth around $55,175, representing a growth of 10,935%.

The US Department of Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued guidance on Bitcoin since 2013, defining it as a convertible currency with an equivalent value in real currency. The Internal Revenue Service has also categorised Bitcoin as property for taxation purposes.

While Bitcoin is recognised and used in many developed countries, such as the US, Canada, the UK, Japan, and Australia, it is illegal in some countries, including China and Saudi Arabia.

As the most well-known and widely adopted cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is a less risky investment compared to smaller altcoins. Its dominant market share and relatively widespread adoption make it a safer choice for investors.

Ethereum: The first blockchain for smart contracts and dApp development

Ethereum is a blockchain that supports smart contracts, enabling more complex use cases such as decentralised lending protocols and non-fungible tokens. The Ethereum project was founded by Vitalik Buterin, who published the Ethereum whitepaper in late 2013. The Ethereum blockchain launched in July 2015.

Ethereum was one of the first blockchains to introduce smart contract functionality, which enables developers to create and automate several key features we take for granted today. Ethereum is also built to provide a platform for decentralised applications and finance, becoming the leading blockchain to service this need.

The largest player in the DeFi and dApp space, Ethereum's dominance means that competitors must offer much greater incentives to switch. Ethereum's Proof of Stake consensus mechanism has made the blockchain highly efficient, and future upgrades are focused on increasing transaction processing speeds and improving security protocols.

Ethereum has a vibrant ecosystem of decentralised applications, including decentralised financial services, NFT marketplaces, publishing platforms, and decentralised cryptocurrency exchanges. This makes it a good investment option for 2023.

ETH is the native asset of the Ethereum blockchain, providing an incentive for users to secure the network. The Ethereum network originally implemented a Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism but switched over to Proof-of-Stake in September 2022.

With Ethereum ETFs expected to start trading in the US market soon, ETH is certainly one of the most interesting crypto assets to keep an eye on in the short term.

After the SEC’s approval of 19b-4 filings from exchanges that are looking to list Ethereum ETFs, ETH saw a substantial rally that took the ETH price to roughly $3,900. Since then, the price has dipped into the $3,000 range. However, once ETFs actually start trading, we could see another dose of bullish activity take over the ETH markets.

Remember that the first Bitcoin spot ETFs started trading in the US just earlier this year. When they first launched, BTC was trading at about $45,000. However, in the days and weeks following the launch, BTC shot up to a new all-time high above $73,600.

While it’s impossible to say whether spot ETFs will have the same outsized impact on ETH as they did on BTC, it’s difficult not to be at least somewhat optimistic about the whole thing. According to the latest news coming from Bloomberg analysts, the SEC could approve Ethereum spot ETFs for trading on July 15th.

XRP: A network for fast, low-cost, cross-border transactions

XRP is a highly efficient digital currency designed to facilitate faster and cheaper payments. It is the native cryptocurrency of the XRP Ledger, an open-source, public blockchain. The XRP Ledger is a decentralised, public blockchain led by a global community of businesses and developers looking to solve problems and create value.

The XRP Ledger has been operating reliably since 2012, processing 70 million ledgers with no errors. It offers streamlined development, low transaction costs, high performance, and sustainability. Transactions on the XRP Ledger are settled in 3-5 seconds and cost a fraction of a penny each, making them fast, inexpensive, and enabling a wide variety of blockchain use cases.

XRP can be used on the Ripple network to facilitate exchanges of different currency types, including fiat currencies and other major cryptocurrencies. The Ripple network is a global payments system designed for institutional use, offering an alternative to the SWIFT system traditionally used by banks and financial institutions for international money transfers.

XRP provides very fast and low-cost transfers, making it suitable for use cases like remittances. It uses the XRP Ledger Consensus Protocol, in which every participant in the XRP network can choose a set of validators that they trust to behave honestly. This makes XRP ideal for cross-border transactions, which typically take one to four business days and can be expensive when using the legacy financial system.

Ripple has implemented the XRP cryptocurrency into its products, notably On-Demand Liquidity (ODL), which uses XRP to provide efficient cross-border money transfers. Fintech company Ripple has also announced a $10 million investment into tokenized treasury bills on the XRP Ledger, demonstrating its commitment to the network.

XRP has had a strong performance since its launch, with its price experiencing two significant jumps in the three and a half years following its launch in 2012. The first occurred in December 2013, when XRP's price surged almost 11-fold in 15 days. The second jump took place a year later, when the price soared 454% in 33 days.

XRP is currently the 7th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, with a live market cap of $32,290,244,636 USD as of August 2024. It is listed on many CeFi exchanges globally, including Binance, Bybit, TruBit Pro Exchange, BYDFi, and OKX.

Solana: A high-speed, low-fee Ethereum competitor

Solana is a decentralised blockchain platform that was created with scalability in mind. It is one of the fastest blockchains on the market, with a transaction speed of almost 65,000 per second. It achieves this speed through its unique Proof of History consensus mechanism, which allows nodes to synchronise time across the network.

Solana has been one of the fastest-growing projects in the DeFi space and is widely referred to as an "Ethereum-killer". Its high speed and low transaction fees, which average $0.00025, have made it highly popular among investors.

The Solana ecosystem hosts a wide range of applications, from DeFi to NFT marketplaces, making it a hub for innovation and growth. Its ability to process transactions rapidly and at a lower cost has also made it an attractive platform for developers and users.

Solana's growing ecosystem, strong community support, and continuous development suggest its potential for long-term success. Its native token, SOL, was also one of the most profitable cryptocurrencies in 2023, gaining more than 500% over the year.

However, Solana has experienced several network outages that have undermined its reliability. It has also been criticised for its lack of interoperability with Ethereum, which restricts its smart contracts to those built for the Solana network.

Binance Coin: The official cryptocurrency of the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance

Binance Coin (BNB) is the native cryptocurrency of Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange in terms of daily trading volume. BNB was launched in 2017 and has since expanded past being a mere facilitator of trades on the Binance exchange platform. Today, it can be used for trading, payment processing, and even booking travel arrangements. It can also be traded or exchanged for other forms of cryptocurrency, such as Ethereum or Bitcoin.

Binance was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao, a developer who had previously created high-frequency trading software. It was initially based in China but has since moved its headquarters several times due to regulatory challenges and restrictions on cryptocurrency companies. As of 2024, Binance has no official company headquarters.

Binance has faced regulatory scrutiny and legal challenges throughout its history, including lawsuits and bans in several countries. In 2023, the company pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court to money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting, and sanctions violations. Despite these issues, Binance remains the largest crypto exchange by trade volume, registering more than USD 36 billion in trades by early 2021.

Binance Coin has seen impressive growth since its launch. In 2017, BNB's price was just $0.10. By late August 2024, its price had risen to around $476, representing a staggering gain of 475,746%. This makes BNB one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies in recent years.

In addition to its utility on the Binance exchange, BNB has also gone through an extensive rebranding. It is now known as Build'N'Build (BNB), and the Binance Smart Chain has been renamed the BNB Chain. The BNB Chain is a variant of Ethereum that offers significantly lower transaction fees, and it allows developers to easily deploy EVM-compatible decentralized applications.

If you're considering investing in cryptocurrencies, it's important to remember that the market is highly volatile and subject to significant risk. Always conduct your own research, assess your risk tolerance, and invest only what you can afford to lose.

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