There’s a growing hype about crypto currencies and more and more people are bullish on trading Bitcoin and other digital currencies. However, in the world of crypto trading, there are winners and losers. Crypto has made smart and educated investors millions, whilst most ignorant, fearful and risky traders have lost their hard earned money. This article discusses the 8 best Altcoins to jump into according to a Nasdaq report.
What is Crypto Currency?
“A cryptocurrency (or “crypto”) is a digital currency that can be used to buy goods and services, but uses an online ledger with strong cryptography to secure online transactions.“
Check out the infographic representation of the history of crpto currencies.
What are Altcoins?
“The term “altcoins” refers to all cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin. As of March 2021, altcoins accounted for 40% of the total cryptocurrency market, with more than 9,000 cryptocurrencies and counting. Some of the main types of altcoins include mining-based cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, security tokens, and utility tokens.” Investopedia
About Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is a digital currency. Therefore, there’s no need to print paper bills or mint coins. It is decentralized and is free from the control of governments, institution (such as banks or central banks), or any other regulatory body. People who own Bitcoin do not use their personal details such as their names, social security numbers, tax IDs, or any form of ID to buy and sell Bitcoin. Bitcoin connects buyers and sellers through encryption keys.
Moreover, Bitcoin is the world’s most valuable crypto currency which hit its recent all-time high(ATH) of nearly $67000 on October 20th 2021.
When Bitcoin was first launched in 2010, it was trading at only $0.08. This means anyone who bought 10 Bitcoins @ $0.08 would have made $670,000 in 2021… Woooooo!!!
Whilst investors continue to buy smaller and larger amounts of Bitcoin, other adventurous investors are looking for the next big crypto leader amongst the hundreds of tokens and coins that exist.
In over 30 days, Bitcoin prices have seen an increase of over 40%, owing to the fact that US regulators have decided not to crack down on cryptocurrencies.
The crypto market is worth around $1.2 trillion, and Bitcoin accounts for over 60% of the cryptocurrency market.
However, it is worth noting that the market share of altcoins and other digital coins, besides Bitcoin are also expanding. The crypto ecosystem is currently flourishing with over 100 altcoins, with a market cap above $1 billion.
The second most important crypto after Bitcoin is Ethereum which has a market cap of $506 billion, and priced just under $4,000 today.
Furthermore, with Bitcoin being the leader of the crypto ecosystem, it inadvertently stands as the leader of crypto prices. The upward or downward trend in the price of Bitcoin is often reflected on the price of other altcoins.
“In this context, the launch of the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) tied to BTC futures should further boost prices. But the prices of these assets are still typically highly volatile. As such, altcoins are not suitable for all investors.” Nasdaq
Despite the glam of the crypto market, and the increasing awareness amongst small investors, analysts are not so sure if all these Altcoins will be around for much longer.
Eight Altcoins with Long term Potential
As at the time of writing this article, many analysts are also debating whether many of these altcoins can last. Hence, investors need to do their homework before jumping in. The rest of this article highlights eight Altcoins that are likely to last long enough to become the next big thing, according to Nasdaq research analysts.
1.Next Big Crypto: Celsius (CEL-USD)
Celsius is a blockchain-integrated financial services platform for cryptocurrency users who receive interest payment based on their holdings. After creating a crypto savings account, investors can earn yields.
Year Launched : 2017
52-week range: $1.21 – $8.02
Market Cap: $1.2 billion
YTD price: $5
Rank: 88th
Return as at date:
2. Chiliz (CHZ-USD)
It focuses on monetization and fan engagement in the sports world. Chiliz.net is the first tokenized sports exchange worldwide where fans can trade sports-branded tokens.
Year Launched: 2018
52-week range: $0.0088 – $0.8915
Market Cap: $1.9 billion
YTD price: 32 cents
Rank: 68th
Return as at date: 3000%
3. Next Big Crypto: Elrond (EGLD-USD)
Elrond is a sharding blockchain with a focus on scalability — the ability to support large amounts of transactions.
Year Launched: 2020
52-week range: $7.01 – $302.14
Market Cap: $5.3 billion
YTD price: $270
Rank: 37th
Return as at date: over 950% YTD and 3,400% for the past 12 months
4. Filecoin (FIL-USD)
Filecoin is a decentralized storage system that aims to “store humanity’s most important information.” Filecoin leverages its decentralized nature to safeguard the integrity of data’s location, which makes it easily retrievable and difficult to censor.
Year Launched: 2021
52-week range: $22 – $66
Market Cap: $7.5 billion
YTD price: $66
Rank: 27th
Return as at date: 87% YTD and declined 12% over past 1 month
5. Next Big Crypto: Flow (FLOW-USD)
Flow is the next big crypto possibility on this list, describing itself as a developer-friendly blockchain to support games, apps and digital assets. InvestorPlace readers might know of Canada-based Dapper Labs as the developer of CryptoKitties, a blockchain game on Ethereum.
Year Launched :
52-week range: $1.50 – $46.16
Market Cap: $4.0 billion
YTD price: $13
Rank: 45th
6. Solana (SOL-USD)
Solana aims to compete with the Ethereum network in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.:
Year Launched: 2020
52-week range: $1.09 – $214.96
Market Cap: $62 billion
YTD price: $200
Rank: 6th
Return as at date: 12000%
7. Next Big Crypto: Terra (LUNA-USD)
Year Launched : 2018
52-week range: $0.275 – $48.63
Terra is a base-layer blockchain protocol that uses fiat-pegged stablecoins, such as TerraUSD (CCC:UST-USD), for processing payments.
Year of creation: 2018
52-week range: $1.09 – $214.96
Market Cap: $17.5 billion
YTD price: $43
Rank: 11th
Return as at date: 6,500% YTD and 13,600% in the past 12 months.
8. Waves (WAVES-USD)
Waves is a blockchain platform for building dapps and smart contracts as well as launching custom crypto tokens. The platform uses a variation of the PoS consensus mechanism called leased proof-of-stake (LPoS)
52-week range: $2.96 – $41.33
Year of creation: 2018
52-week range: $1.09 – $214.96
Market Cap: $3 billion
YTD price: $28
Rank: 54th
Return as at date: up around 360% YTD and some 760% for the past 12 months
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