In the last decade, we’ve gone from one cryptocurrency to choose from to almost 2,000. Inevitably, some of them rise to the top each year to be more successful than the rest. It can be hard to keep track of them all, so we’ve comprised our list of the best investments for 2018.
Most cryptocurrency sites start their list with bitcoin, and that’s currently kind of too obvious. If you’re reading this, you probably already know it’s a good investment. So let’s dive in our list of the other popular cryptocurrencies for 2018. As a bonus, we’ll take a look at a few up-and-coming tokens worth your attention as well.
Ethereum (ETH)
Considered the strong #2 to BTC, Ethereum goes a step further by integrating another layer of functionality into its protocol. Smart contracts allow automated milestones and events to trigger actions for the currency. ETH also underpins many other currencies on the market, and serves as a platform and architecture for much of the blockchain industry.
That’s a roundabout way of saying that Ethereum is here to stay. You simply can’t go wrong investing in it. As a savvy investor, you should be tracking these popular currencies and buying in a dip, which happens to be right now. As of this writing, ETH is trading at the lowest price since May of 2017.
Ripple (XRP)
For hardcore fans of open-source, decentralized cryptocurrency XRP is a bit of a conundrum. Often hailed as the ‘next bitcoin,’ the digital currency is underpinned by a large organization, cannot be mined, and serves major banks by facilitating their transactions. While many anti-establishment investors might be dismayed but those connections, they are also ripple’s biggest strength.
Having reached a price of over $3.50, the current price of $0.45 seems like a bargain. One thing is for sure, ripple is here to stay, so follow it closely and make it part of your portfolio.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Bitcoin Cash investment guide
The lesser known sibling of bitcoin, BCH is the result of a ‘hard fork’ in 2017, marking a code change from the original blockchain. Breaking off in August of that same year, BCH has been a volatile but reliable investment since, following a meteoric rise in December. The main difference between BCH and BTC is the block size limit, which was expanded to eight megabytes.
EOS (EOS)
Despite hitting the market less than 18 months ago, EOS has already staked its claim as one of the top cryptocurrency investments. Its ultrafast block processing time of only 500ms makes this one of the faster solutions in the blockchain ecosystem. With provisions for application hosting, smart contracts, decentralized storage, and eliminating fees, there is a lot to be optimistic about this token.
Stellar (XLM)
Despite being around since 2014, Stellar has really been living up to its name lately. While many other currencies are seeing big declines for 2018, XLM has been steadily growing. The recent announcement that Stellar would be joining the top cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, has no doubt contributed to the strong performance. This is one to watch for sure.
Litecoin (LTC)
One of the more mature currencies on the market is Litecoin, having gone live in October of 2011 and authored by former Google and Coinbase employee, Charlie Lee. At the time of its creation, LTC cut bitcoin’s transaction time in a quarter, offering 2.5 minutes versus 10 minutes. While that’s currently not even close to the fastest, there’s a certain security in the age of the token, and that stability is worth looking at. Especially when the price dips.
Cardano (ADA)
Founded by one of the co-founders of Ethereum, Cardano has the pedigree needed to be a top pick of cryptocurrencies to invest in. Released a little over a year ago, its market cap initially spiked to over $20 billion. Currently undergoing a full reconstruction, it might be a perfect time to pick some up to add to your portfolio.
Monero (XMR)
Privacy is the claim to fame for 2014’s Monero cryptocurrency. With an architecture that mixes the spender’s input with a group of other users, and ‘stealth addresses’ generated for each transaction, XMR experienced rapid growth upon introduction. It remains a worthwhile investment, especially if privacy is important to you.
TRON (TRON)
Another player that’s been on the scene for only about a year, TRON has quickly consolidated a position on many people’s list of top cryptocurrencies to watch. With provisions for smart contracts and other piggyback data, as well as robust privacy provisions built in, CEO and creator Justin Sun has rightly grabbed a place among companies to watch.
Binance Coin (BNB)
Founded in 2017, Binance quickly found a place in the market as a high-capacity (1.4 million orders per second) system with good stability. Quickly topping $1 billion in market cap, it remained above that benchmark since April of this year, with a steady increase until a market-wide correction. This one is here to stay, and definitely worth considering.
Basic Attention Token (BAT)
One of the newest platforms on our list, the Basic Attention Token is centered around the marketing industry. Focusing on user attention, the upshot is that you’re only paying when a user is actually engaged with your advertisement. So much of what is spent in advertising is wasted in inattentive consumers, and this platform aims to end that waste. For this reason, it definitely makes our list of the ones to watch.
Afterword
As you can see, there is certainly more than just bitcoin to choose from when deciding what cryptocurrency to invest in. Many factors go into the decision of which cryptocurrencies to invest in, not the least of which is what exchange you choose. Over half of our list is available on OpenLedger DEX, making it a great choice to get a stake in some of the best cryptocurrencies for 2018.
Post written by Darya Karatkevich
Darya is a blockchain market observer with 5+ years of experience as an author and editor for major tech blogging platforms. Her fortes are blockchain technologies and solutions, cryptocurrencies and crypto-related regulations.
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