#1 Bitcoin - If somehow, you’ve only heard of one cryptocurrency chances are it’s probably Bitcoin. It is the biggest cryptocurrency, it currently has a 40% share in the total cryptocurrency market cap! It's the oldest cryptocurrency and still dominates in the market. So, if Bitcoin continues to increase like it did in 2017, then investing in Bitcoin may be a good idea for 2018. The price of Bitcoin changes every day and has seen many highs and lows over the last few years. Take a look at the following chart and you will see just how much the price changes.
The price of 1 Bitcoin has gone from around $76 (07.09.13) to as high as $20,000 in December 2017. After Bitcoin reached its highest point in December, the price of Bitcoin dropped to around $6000 in February 2018. With the price changing so much in such a short space of time, how do you decide what the best time for investing in Bitcoin is? Well, we can try to find the answers by looking at some important past events when the price went up or down by a large amount.
- One major event was when Bitcoin split into two cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. This happened August 1st Investors who knew about this invested their money before the split and made huge profits, almost doubling their investment!
- The price of Bitcoin dropped to around $10,000 in January 2018, almost half of the $20,000 it was worth in December 2017. Many investors became worried at this point and started selling their Bitcoin. This caused the price to fall to around $6,000 in February 2018.
If you made an investment in Bitcoin when the prices fell in February 2018, you would have already made about 100% profit on your investment.
#2 Eutherium - Towards the end of last year, the price of Ethereum was a little bit higher than $720, with a total market cap of about $70 billion. At the beginning of 2018, Ethereum reached its highest price of $1423 on January 4. At this time, the total market cap for Ethereum was at $138 Billion! Ethereum grew by about 3000% in the year 2017, and became the second largest cryptocurrency, right behind Bitcoin. The following information should help you decide whether investing in Ethereum is a good option for you.The chart below shows how much Ethereum has grown in the past.
Below are the key events that have affected the price of Ethereum in the past:
- Ethereum received an investment of around $150 million in May 2016. As a result, its price went up from $1 in January 2016 to around $14.80 in May 2016.
- However, On June 18th, 2016, members of the Ethereum community found out that Ethereum had been hacked. Around $60 million worth of Ether (Ethereum’s currency) was stolen due to a flaw in a wallet. This caused the Ethereum price to drop from the high of $21.52 on 17th June 2016, to $9.96 on the 18th June 2016.
Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum isn't just a digital currency. It is also a more advanced blockchain project. This is because Ethereum offers something special, by using Ethereum’s platform, developers can build their own cryptocurrencies. Imagine that you would like to build a blockchain-based solution for managing the supply chain of your business. Well, thanks to Ethereum, you don’t need start from the beginning. Instead, you can build an application on Ethereum’s blockchain. Ethereum makes it much easier for new blockchain projects to launch. Julian Hosp, a blockchain expert, said that the market cap of Ethereum could rise to $200 billion by the end of 2018. If Hosp’s prediction is correct, the price of Ethereum will nearly double to $2000. Hosp’s reason behind the prediction is based mostly on the ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) that decide to use the Ethereum blockchain in 2018.
#3 Ripple - Ripple, also commonly known as XRP, was one of the best performing cryptocurrencies in 2017 with a growth of around 36,000%! It grew from almost $0 at the beginning of 2017 and reached $2.4 in December 2017 as you can see in the following chart. Like other cryptocurrencies, the price of Ripple has also decreased in 2018 it is currently set at $0.908.
Even though the price of one XRP is lower than the price of one Bitcoin, XRP is still the third largest cryptocurrency by market cap. It had a total market cap of around $35 billion. The main reason for Ripple’s popularity is that it is not just a digital currency, but its also a payment system. Ripple uses blockchain technology to make international payments securer and faster. If you tried to make an international bank payment today, it would take about 2-10 days for the transaction to process. The same payment, when done using Ripple, only takes a few seconds. But there’s more good news, many large financial institutions like American Express, JP Morgan and Santander are already using Ripple’s technology. Ripple has been working with the Saudi Arabia Central Bank, China’s LianLian International and other banks from around the world. If you’re wondering how to invest in blockchain, then Ripple might be the best answer. Ripple’s future in financial industry could be a good one. Look out for new partnerships too, if Ripple signs a contract with another large bank, then it could increase the price of XRP. The investors, who understood the services that are offered by Ripple, have made a lot of money. After a fantastic 2017, Ripple could just be the best cryptocurrency to invest 2018.