Top 50 Cryptocurrencies to Invest In

Given the number of cryptocurrencies that are in the market, it’s quite easy to get confused about which coin to invest in. There are always new coins being released even as older ones disappear into oblivion very fast.

If you’re just getting involved with cryptocurrencies for the first time, then this article will give you a good orientation on the top 50 coins in the market. Even if you are an experienced investor in this sector, you will still get to learn about the best 50 cryptos, in case you ever need a point of reference or in case you need to know about the newest coins that have joined the top 50 list.

This article aims to get you started, excite you to do extensive research and prevent you from getting sucked into scams — even though there might be some potential scams in this top 50 list.

You should be aware that this top 50 list is not constant. It’s dynamic and keeps changing every day; therefore, I will strive to keep this list updated on a regular basis.

1. Bitcoin

This is one of the most widely known cryptocurrencies. Its main objective is to be a peer-to-peer version of money that allows you to carry out online transactions without the use of third parties such as using your credit or debit cards.

The price of Bitcoin has greatly increased, leading to the growth of Bitcoin investors. Due to the widely known nature of this crypto, a lot of merchants have started to accept it. This has helped Bitcoin a lot to achieve its goal which is to become one of the most widely accepted forms of payment globally.

Any changes that are made to Bitcoin are democratically agreed to by the Bitcoin community. The development of Bitcoin is led by Wladimir J. van der Laan, who is the Core Developer.

2. Ethereum

Ethereum revolutionized the Blockchain industry by introducing the concept of smart contracts. Since it was first released in July 2015 by Vitalik Buterin when he was 21 years old, this coin has quickly risen in popularity to become one of the best-known cryptos.

Buterin is still working with a development team in a bid to further develop this platform.

The thing about Ethereum is that it processes transactions faster and cheaply as compared to Bitcoin. It also has the benefit of being able to run smart contracts.

3. Ripple

The main goal of Ripple is to speed up financial transactions, especially when it comes to carrying out international banking transactions.

It usually takes about 3–5 days for international transactions to get cleared. Moreover, you will have to pay high fees, sometimes up to 6% of the transaction amount, based on the particular institution that you are dealing with. The main goal of Ripple is to ensure that such transactions take place within a shorter period, of about 4 seconds, with lower charges.

Ripple is currently being run by a team of 150 people. The CEO of Ripple is Brad Garlinghouse. He has led other major companies, such as Yahoo.

4. Bitcoin Cash

Due to the good reputation of Bitcoin, a lot of people started using it. This gave rise to various problems when it came to using this platform. Consequently, a debate arose as to whether the blockchain size should be increased in a bid to alleviate some of these problems. The result of this was Bitcoin Cash, which was a ‘hard fork’ of the Bitcoin blockchain. It was released on August 1st, 2017.

Since there was no consensus on the issue, the original blockchain was forked without touching the Bitcoin blockchain. This resulted in a new blockchain being created, which made it possible for programmers to make changes to the original features that are in the original Bitcoin blockchain.

The argument was that by increasing the size of Bitcoin’s blockchain, it would make it easier and faster to process a lot more transactions within the same period. Those who were against this idea argued that a larger block size would take up more storage space and bandwidth thereby, becoming more expensive for average users. This would result in the coin becoming more centralized, which is something that Bitcoin didn’t want right from the start.

5. Cardano

Some of the team members who earlier on worked on Ethereum are the ones who released Cardano, originally known as InputOutput Hong Kong before it was rebranded.

The main goal of Cardano was to help fix problems that originally plagued different cryptocurrencies such as democracy when it comes to voting and ability to scale up the platform.

Ethereum can challenge Ethereum when it comes to Smart Contracts since this feature is built-in. However, their main focus currently is to come up with their programming language that is same to that of Ethereum and use it to increase the interoperability between cryptocurrencies.

6. Litecoin

This currency has been designed to handle smaller transactions that are carried out on a day to day basis. This platform can handle a large number of transactions. While Bitcoin is known as ‘digital gold’ Litecoin is referred to as ‘digital silver.’ This is about the fact that while gold was used to store wealth and was rarely used in day to day transactions; silver was used to carry out smaller transactions on a regular basis.

Litecoin was released in 2011 by Charlie Lee when he was still an employee of Google. Lee and his development team have been able to make a remarkable achievement by carrying out the first successful atomic swap.

7. NEM

NEM is the first ever proof-of-importance (POI) enterprise founded on the blockchain technology. This application was built to be mainly used by businesses; therefore, it was made to be adaptable. The main aim of NEM is for firms to utilize their “smart asset system” to apply customizable blockchains. A smart asset can be anything, from a cryptocurrency coin to the stock of a company to the invoicing and records of a firm.

Some of the ways smart assets can be used include voting, crowdfunding, owning shares, securing records, escrow service, mobile payments and reward-based programs.

8. Stellar

The main objective of Stellar Lumes is to make it possible to carry out international transactions much faster and cheaply. It is possible for thousands of transactions to be carried out on this platform with only 3–5 seconds being required to confirm transactions.

When it comes to Bitcoin, it can take up to 15 minutes for transactions to be confirmed. Also, the platform can handle only a few transactions at a time and the transaction fees charge are expensive.

The reason why Stellar seems a lot like Ripple is because it was based on the Ripple Blockchain. Some of the objectives of Stellar are to make it possible to make micropayments, transacting cash internationally and making mobile payments.

9. IOTA

The main aim of IOTA is to address the POW (proof-of-work) and POI (proof-of-importance) problems that Ethereum and Bitcoin have. They are doing this through the use of ‘Tangle,’ which is a validation transaction network.

In most cases, you have to outsource the task of validation to miners. This can take up a lot of computing power and lots of coins. But when using IOTA, this will no longer be necessary, since when you confirm a transaction, you end up validating two previous transactions. This helps in decentralizing the currency as was originally intended.

That means the more you use your account, the more validations you will have. Therefore, when many people use it, the faster it becomes. Since you don’t have to pay miners, you won’t end up paying any fees for transactions.

10. DASH

Dash is digital cash in short. Its main objective is to become the easiest cryptocurrency to use and the most scalable one. You can send money instantly and anonymously. You can also get rid of the transaction history and make use of the ‘double send proof’ security.

You will enjoy the ability to send money faster and at a cheaper cost. If you pay a transaction fee that is a bit higher, you get the advantage of instant send, which gives you the ability to confirm transactions instantly. This is one of the major highlights of this currency since most people believe that this feature can make it possible for brick and mortar stores to accept this currency as a form of payment.

11. NEO

This is the biggest cryptocurrency in China. It uses Smart Contracts system that is the same to the one used by Ethereum.

12. TRON

Its main objective is to be a decentralized system that focuses on entertainment content sharing. It is an ERC20 coin.

13. Monero

Best currency if you want to carry out anonymous transactions.

14. EOS

Uses a Smart Contracts system that is scalable and has good performance.

15. ICON

Its main objective is to come up with the world’s largest decentralized system.

16. Bitcoin Gold

It is a Bitcoin Fork. Uses a POW algorithm. Its block difficulty adjustment is fast, making GPU mining possible.

17. Qtum

This is a mixture of Bitcoin and Ethereum. It is based in Singapore.

18. RaiBlocks

Its main objective is not to have any transaction fees and to scale up.

19. Ethereum Classic

It is an Ethereum fork. It failed to reverse DAO funds that were hacked.

20. Lisk

It has a Smarts Contracts system. It runs on JavaScript.

21. Verge

It is similar to Bitcoin but much faster. Has tor integration.

22. OmiseGO

It is part of the OMISE organization. It’s an ERC20 token. Used to process payments in Asia.

23. Siacoin

Spread out cloud storage system.

24. BitConnect

You can use this platform for Bitcoin lending.

25. ZCash

Its main focus is privacy. It is similar to Monero, but it uses a different protocol.

26. Bytecoin

It is similar to Bitcoin but processes transactions much faster. Uses a POW algorithm.

27. Populous

Its main aim is for use in trade financing and invoicing. Its built on the Ethereum platform.

28. Stratis

Blockchain as a service makes it possible for blockchains to come up with their blockchains and software that can be run on those ledgers.

29. Binance Coin

When using this coin, you can pay way less when it comes to transaction fees. This ERC20 token is issued by the Binance Exchange.

30. Bitshares

This is a platform that is used by SmartCoins. It is a decentralized exchange.

31. Ardor

Makes it possible for users to use Nxt technology through the use of child chains.

32. KuCoin shares

It is similar to Binance Coins. It is issued by the KuCoin exchange.

33. Tether

Each tether is pegged to $1. This coin represents fiat currency.

34. Dogecoin

It is a peer to digital peer currency; it’s open source.

35. Status

This open-sourced messaging network has a mobile app and interacts with apps that are based on the Ethereum platform.

36. Dentacoin

Its major objective is to be used in dentistry all over the world to keep dental costs low and to ensure better dental care. It is an ERC20 token.

37. Steem

This blockchain pays people to post on social media. Runs on the Steemit platform.

38. VeChain

Use this blockchain to authenticate any products before purchasing them.

39. Waves

Users can release their customized cryptocurrency on this platform. It’s also possible to exchange tokens on this platform through their inbuilt P2P exchange.

40. Dragonchain

It is a mixture of a private and public blockchain. It’s an ERC20 token with a currency called Dragons. It was developed in Seattle in Disney’s office.

41. WAX

You can use Worldwide Asset Exchange (WAX) token in the OPSkins marketplace. You can list anything that you are selling in this marketplace.

42. DigiByte

Similar to Bitcoin but uses a different POW algorithm and it’s much faster.

43. Veritaseum

You can use it to carry out peer-to-peer over the counter transactions.

44. 0x

Zero x makes it possible for ERC20 tokens to be transacted on the Ethereum platform. It’s a P2P exchange.

45. Augur

This decentralized platform based on the Ethereum platform rewards you for every correct future prediction that you make.

46. Ark

You can create your private blockchains from Ark. Possesses a SmartBridges feature that allows the blockchain to be bridged.

47. Dent

You can buy, sell or donate data on this Ethereum platform. This blockchain is backed by DENT Wireless Limited.

48. Komodo

Uses a delayed proof of work protocol. It’s a mixture of Bitcoin Dark and ZCash.

49. Hshare

Its main goal is to transmit value between blockchains. You can carry out personal transactions DAO governance and quantum resistance.

50. Golem

This supercomputer can be accessed by anyone from anywhere in the world. It’s open source and decentralized.