Overview of The Most Popular Altcoins in 2022
All through the different phases of humanity, diverse innovations have always sprung up, redefining man’s safest home (Earth), altering some already existing processes, and furthermore, bringing on new orders. Just recently, #Blockchain technology struck man’s safest home as it is gradually redefining its space at an exponential pace bringing about the surge of digital currencies (Cryptocurrency). Currently, the #cryptocurrency sector has a market cap of over $1.7 trillion, over 500 exchanges, and over 19,000 cryptocurrencies (according to CoinMarketCap), even after the recent correction in early 2022.
With the statistics given above, the need to have an overview of the most popular Defi Altcoins currently poses as crucial. In lieu of this, there’s still room for growth and potentially, a good investment opportunity for those who buy the dip heading into the 2024 Bitcoin halving, which should raise the price of all altcoins.
What are Altcoins: The New Legal Tender.
The term altcoin is a more simplified way of discussing alternative coins to Bitcoin. In other words, it means with regards to the 19,000+ digital tokens listed on CoinMarketCap, each and every project can be classified as an altcoin — asides from #BTC. Going further, this means prospectives who wish to venture into the Cryptocurrency space do have a significant number of altcoins to consider for their cryptocurrency portfolio. It is important to note that altcoins will vary considerably in terms of the project and roadmap targets, market capitalization, historical performance, and legitimacy.
As a result, knowing which altcoins to buy can be challenging. For instance, while the likes of Shiba Inu and BNB have generated life-changing returns since their launch, many altcoins have nevertheless, lost over 95% in value. To this end, when deciding on which altcoins to buy for 2022, prospects or potential investors/traders will need to do lots of homework. With this in mind, the section below offers a range of altcoins that are doing well for the year. That being said, there’s still a need to DYOR (Do Your Own Research).
Think Tank: Are Altcoins a Good Investment?
As stated earlier, after the launch of BNB in late 2017, a single token was worth just $0.11, subsequently, the project peaked at 52-week highs of $690 and currently reflects a value of $389 at the time of writing. In Perspective, this equates to an end-to-end gain in excess of 690,000%. Succinctly, if any newbie or prospect had invested $1,000, at its peak, the gains would have accumulated/worth about $6.9 million after the bull-run.
The Virtual Relay: Altcoins Outperform Bitcoin
While we take a quick glance through this section, it’s essential to note that It is not only altcoins that have generated life-changing returns since launching. To buttress this further, it is important to recall that after the launch of Bitcoin which was first launched in 2009, it was worth over a small fraction of $0.01 per token. A few years afterward, it was able to hit its all-time high of over $68,000 which is reflective of an end-to-end gain in the millions of percentage points.
This being said, Bitcoin has since become a multi-trillion dollar asset class, and more so, the upside potential will be limited from here onwards. Taking a quick glance, the performance of Bitcoin against top-rated altcoins is reflective of the potential fact that BTC isn’t as attractive as it once was when compared. For example, over the year, the price of Bitcoin has decreased by over 20% while Ethereum has increased by nearly 50%. Over a 5-year period, Bitcoin has increased by 3,600%, while Ethereum has witnessed gains of more than 7,000%. As such, if your main priority is to target high-performing crypto assets, then altcoins might be more suitable for your risk appetite when compared with Bitcoin.
Defiling the Defi Hub
It’s no news that the prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum have considerably scared some potential investors off, being unattractive to them due to the huge amount of money they currently trade at. Among the various reasons why traders may add coins to their portfolio, a major benefit is that the option to diversify is also on the line. This will undoubtedly also aid in mitigating the risk of loss that may accrue to the built portfolio.
Nonetheless, Bitcoin and Ethereum have since breached highs of approximately $68,000 and $5,000 respectively.
The Greatest Trendline of All Times
While it can also be referred to as the Regulator which will be a subject of disparity or bias to a selected few, the cryptocurrencies market often moves in sync with one another, meaning that when Bitcoin does well, so do altcoins. However, it also goes without saying that some altcoins have performed considerably better than others which are reflected in statistics.
Raise The Bar, Unearthing The Upside Potentials
While the Cryptoverse keeps burgeoning, many experienced investors will keep seeking the best altcoins in the market because in many cases, the upside potential can be huge. Let’s take a ride here, for example, let’s say you log in to Coinbase or CoinMarketCap, once you skip through the first few hundred projects in terms of market capitalization, the likelihood of coming across thousands of altcoins that carry a valuation of less than $10 million can be said to be 1. And as such, this means that the upside potential on these altcoins is going to be much higher than those that already have a large-cap status.
The Lever Pulley System is Worn Out: Replace The Wheels.
At this point, a lot must have been unraveled. Either way, let’s plunge further, we’re almost on the runway. Another thing to be aware of when buying low-cap altcoins is that those with a considerably small market valuation will be a lot more volatile. This is because of the deep fundamentals of market depth, which means that smaller-cap assets are much easier to move in the market. While the lever pulley system is being replaced, one of the seamless possibilities which altcoins have brought is its interoperable structure even as it applies to facilitate the process of global payments where Bitcoin may not be able to stand in.
A key point to note here is that by investing in an altcoin that offers something different from the status quo, there is every chance that the respective token will perform well and do a whole lot better like 10x, 100x, etc.
Risk Involved With Altcoins
The first point here to make is the nature of its extreme volatility. As noted earlier, all digital currencies carry a high level of volatility, especially when compared to the traditional stock markets. However, when investment is done with altcoins having a small or medium market capitalization, the probable volatility that one may experience can be extremely wild. Moving on, another huge risk to consider before buying altcoins for one's portfolio is that of scams and rug pulls. The latter term refers to projects that are created with one sole intention, to scam early investors.
Here is a sneak peek of what it looks like. What happens with rug pulls more often than none is that the project collects funds during a presale launch, before pumping the respective altcoin artificially. In turn, this results in new investors jumping on board which further pumps the price northwards.
Where to Buy Altcoins
There are certain indices to be thoroughly looked at before buying an altcoin into your portfolio. When deciding on where to buy altcoins for your portfolio, here’s a kind suggestion to follow before opening an account with a chosen exchange or broker:
¶ Is the platform regulated by a reputable licensing body such as the SEC?
¶ What altcoins does the platform give you access to?
¶ What fees and commissions will you need to pay to buy your chosen altcoins?
¶ Where does the platform stand in terms of customer service and supported payment methods?
¶ What is the minimum amount of money you will need to risk to buy altcoins at the platform?
While investors will still have to do more research due to the fact that this is not a piece of financial advice, below is a list of a few Altcoins to consider while thinking of new coins to add to the portfolio in no particular order:
1. Fantom — Cheapest Cryptocurrency
Fantom is a highly scalable network protocol and provides a convenient experience for users during transactions. Fantom is a cheap cryptocurrency to buy as the asset trades at $2.8 and is up 0.67%.
One reason why Fantom makes the list of the best cryptocurrency to buy in 2022 is the recent onboarding of Hundred Finance’s B.Protocol. The service allows the efficient and democratic liquidation of multiple assets without the need for complex flashing of on-chain gas wars. The FTM community will be able to contribute funds in return for the rewards of liquidation.
2. Polkadot — Most Interoperable Crypto
Polkadot is a protocol that allows for the interaction and sharing of security with other blockchains. The protocol is interoperable and receives support from various nodes to facilitate its smooth operation.
Klever has successfully integrated with Polkadot to provide support using Klever’s 4.10.0 Android upgrade for Polkadot. The integration increases Polkadot’s send and receive flow, bond and nominate flow, swap, and integration to browsers.
3. Shiba Inu — Cheap Altcoin To Buy Before the Next Bull Run Begins
In a similar nature to Dogecoin, Shiba Inu was created as a joke cryptocurrency with the project also linked to the dog breed of the same name. With that said, the price performance of this top meme coin is anything but a joke when you consider just how quickly this altcoin has grown since its launch in mid-2020. But as with most meme coins, many traders are asking if Dogecoin is a good investment in terms of the long run.
4. Uniswap — Leading DEX With a Popular Altcoin Backing its Ecosystem
Another top-rated project that makes up this list of the good altcoins to buy in 2022 is Uniswap.
Founded in 2018, Uniswap was one of the first exchanges to introduce the concept of decentralized trading, Uniswap uses an AMM — or automated market maker model. In a nutshell, this means that people can now buy and sell altcoins without needing to go through a centralized exchange.
5. Solana — Fastest Crypto Transaction (Ethereum’s Fire Beast)
Solana is a growing ecosystem and already promises good value. The protocol is the fastest blockchain available and resolves up to 65,000 transactions per second (TPS) as against Ethereum which does approximately 16 transactions per second, providing a highly scalable and decentralized system. The ongoing issue with Ethereum on high fees also gives credence to Solana taking over the powerhouse.
Solana is serving as the foundation for developing the first decentralized stablecoin, UXD Protocol. The protocol is geared towards developing a capital-efficient stablecoin to set a new standard for trust and usability in the Solana ecosystem.
6. Binance Coin — Most Promising Crypto
Binance Coin is the utility token of the Binance crypto exchange platform and is one of the most promising cryptocurrencies to buy. Binance Coin makes one of the best tokens to buy as it has great potential to scale in price due to the continuous burning.
Binance Coin has continued to integrate with several protocols that project the BNB token into new audiences. Terra (LUNA) has been successfully integrated into the Binance network, ensuring that the BNB token will experience even high exchange volumes with the Terra ecosystem.
7. Cosmos — Best Tradable Altcoin
Cosmos is an open-source blockchain focused on building interaction and scalability between other blockchains without compromising on decentralization. The protocol is focused on interoperability and seeks to duly compensate the validators and delegators responsible for managing the ecosystem.
8. Decentraland — Top-Performing Altcoin Backing a Real Estate Metaverse
This super-popular project was founded in 2017 and is now used by thousands of people each and every day. These numbers continue to grow and perhaps, most importantly, so does the number of transactions being conducted in the Decentraland ecosystem. More specifically, Decentraland has facilitated some huge digital real estate trades in recent months.
9. Ethereum — The Defi Sage
It is no surprise that Ethereum makes the list of one of the best cryptocurrencies to invest in this year. The protocol is one of the most sought-after decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, with thousands of crypto projects onboarding and integrating into the Ethereum ecosystem.
The Ethereum network is trying to speed up its migration to Ethereum 2.0 where it processes transactions using the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. The blockchain has begun rollouts of deposit contract addresses for the upgraded system, an essential piece of the blockchain’s Serenity Upgrade. These upgrades will ensure that the asset remains one of the most popular cryptocurrencies to buy.
10. The Sandbox — Top Altcoin to Invest in the Metaverse
Another cool digital currency to consider is Sandbox. In a nutshell, this project specializes in the Metaverse, whereby players from all over the world can explore the Sandbox ecosystem while communicating and networking.
Within the Sandbox Metaverse, users can create and personalize their own character, which can then be used to compete in play-2-earn games. This means that when certain tasks are accomplished, users can earn the platform’s in-game currency — SAND. Another interesting fact is that it serves as a home to a great host of NFTs.
11. Yearn.finance — Great Altcoin to Invest in Decentralized Financial Services
The platform connects borrowers and investors. This inadvertently means that there is no longer a requirement for a third-party intermediary. Instead, crypto loans at Yearn.finance are facilitated loans via automated smart contracts.
In its basic form, borrowers are required to put up a certain amount of collateral in the form of digital tokens. In return, the smart contract will then allow the user to borrow an amount of capital against the said collateral. And, in addition to returning the funds back within an agreed timeframe, the borrower will also be required to pay interest.
12. Cardano — The Promise Host
Cardano is an open-source blockchain focused on delivering high scalability by studying the mishaps of pioneering blockchains. The Cardano network is focused on improving the effectiveness and capacity of its blockchain.
With the Basho optimization phase ongoing, Cardano is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies to buy as the protocol continues to make core advancements to its nodes. The node v1.33.0 is geared at making major improvements to the network to increase transactional speed.
13. Polygon — Best New Altcoin
Polygon is a layer-two scaling solution for Ethereum. The platform highlights the best parts of the Ethereum blockchain and aims to fix the problems associated with Ethereum-compatible blockchains. Polygon is one of the best cryptocurrencies to buy/invest in due to the potential to scale in price because of its various use cases.
Polygon Studios aims to bring the entertainment and media industry into the world of web3 and NFTs through collaboration with eDAO. eDAO is a community of fans of artists, sports stars, and celebrities.
PS: The images below each Altcoin shows the trading view between the months of April and May 2022 as of the time the article was written. While the images above are reflective of the price chart flow across a 5-year range or more, from about 2016 through 2022. The charts were extracted from CoinMarketCap.
Conclusion
While bitcoin stands as the big boy of the crypto world, many alternative coins or ‘altcoins’ have cropped up in recent years and statistics reflect that the space has kept a steady exponential growth, as it keeps track of the daily projects which keep launching with diverse use cases and ecosystems. Nonetheless, there is a brewing responsibility to not join the bandwagon of events happening across the metaverse and various Blockchains, coupled with the burgeoning Everest climes of NFTs.
Altcoins offer the potential to make attractive returns on your cryptocurrency investments, especially when considered in terms of the first ship that sailed (Bitcoin) which many missed regardless. As said by a great host of early investors, it’s still early to jump on this space as the move to global adoption keeps moving with lightning streaks.
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This article is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. It is however imperative to do your research and analysis before making any material decisions related to any of the products or services described. This article is not intended as, and shall not be construed as, financial advice.
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