[ad_1]
Did you know that as of August 3, 2022, there are over 18,465 digital currencies in existence? However, of that list, there are roughly 10,363 active cryptocurrencies (almost 8000 are inactive or dead). And if you’re like me, you’re probably wondering which are the top 20 cryptocurrencies to invest in.
Ok so let’s, dive right in.
What are Cryptocurrencies?
Cryptocurrency is an alternative to fiat currency. Its digital money can be created through mining and used as tokens or coin money. Although cryptocurrencies are being accessed through credit or other projects, mainly cryptocurrencies remain entirely inaccessible. Moreover, cryptos are complicated algorithms that allow the creation of digital currencies and their transaction across decentralized finance platforms. Brokerage services or exchanges facilitate the storage, and exchange of the cryptocurrencies that they support.
Why Are Top Cryptocurrencies Important?
Blockchain technology allows people to participate in peer-to-peer banking transactions and contracts with each other. In neither instance is it necessary for any reputable third party to be involved. The evolution could disrupt current financial systems and restructure finances in general. In the last decade, cryptocurrency has seen exponential growth while new innovations continue to get developed.
Top 20 Cryptocurrencies
1). Bitcoin
Bitcoin’s price is one of the most followed in the mainstream media. And, it’s for good reason! Bitcoin is one of the most popular and the oldest digital currencies in the digital currencies – it’s the one I first learned about! Bitcoin was originally created in 2009, towards the end of the financial crisis, and as of today, its seen tremendous growth. Today, its market cap is nearly 450 Billion US Dollars. It’s also the de-facto digital currency for the majority of investors and as such, it’s now the number one coin globally, by market cap. In 2021, bitcoin was up 57%, and had a high of $67566 on Aug 11, before making a dramatic pullback.
Fun fact: Bitcoin is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies to gift during the December global holidays!
2). Ethereum (ETH)
The next top cryptocurrency on the list is Ethereum. Now, Ethereum may appear to be a relatively new coin in the market, however, crypto investors know that it’s done well thanks to its ability to create intelligent or smart contracts.
Ethereum represents one of several kinds of cryptocurrency: The company uses its network as a cryptocurrency and provides developers with an open-source crypto environment. Furthermore, similar to smartphone applications which allow downloading of applications from third-party sites, Ethereum lets developers create Ethereum applications that connect to a network. Also, investors can buy Ethereum as easily as they can buy Bitcoin if they hope that this is a more profitable asset. Ethereum’s programable network can be used with more customized options. For example, the NFT token created by people outside cryptocurrency this year attracted many outside the cryptocurrency community.
Ethereum was launched in July 2015, and today, ether’s market cap is around 149 Billion USD. Indeed, its ability to process transactions on its blockchain has been a game-changer.
3). XRP
Next on the list is XRP, a cryptocurrency built for payments. Indeed, it is the native digital asset on the XRP Ledger—an open-source, decentralized blockchain technology that can complete transactions in seconds. XRP can be sent directly without needing a central intermediary, making it a convenient instrument for bridging two different currencies quickly and efficiently. XRP launched in 2012, and today, its market cap is around 40 Billion USD. Ripple Labs is responsible for maintaining the digital currency.
4). Stellar (XLM)
Stellar is the next top cryptocurrency on the list and is popular as it offers investors low-cost transactions on cross-border transactions. According to stellar.org, Stellar makes it possible to create, send, and trade digital representations of all forms of money: dollars, pesos, bitcoin, and pretty much anything else. It’s designed so all the world’s financial systems can work together on a single network. Launched in 2014, Stellar’s market cap is now around 7 billion USD. And, last year, in 2021, XLM doubled in price, which made long-term investors quite happy.
5). Cardano (ADA)
The next worthy digital coin to invest in includes Cardano, a third-generation digital currency.
The co-founder of Ethereum, Charles Hoskinson launched Cardano in 2017, and fast forward to today, investors see lots of potential. Cardano’s market cap is now around 45 billion USD. And In 2021, Cardano shot up a whopping 700 percent.
According to Wikipedia, Cardano is a public blockchain platform. Moreover, it is open-source and decentralized, with consensus achieved using proof of stake and It can facilitate peer-to-peer transactions with its internal cryptocurrency, Ada.
6). Dogecoin (DOGE)
Next on the list of top 20 cryptocurrencies, we have dogecoin. Dogecoin was created in 2013 by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, who decided to create a payment system as a “joke”, making fun of the wild speculation in cryptocurrencies at the time. To be sure, it was a way to poke fun at other cryptocurrencies that had plans to seemingly take over the world.
Dogecoin also became popular as the first internet meme digital currency. Dogecoin’s market capitalization is now around 22 Billion US Dollars, and its all-time high was reached on May 7, 2021, with a price of $0.6848. Today, dogecoin trades for around 17 cents.
7). Polkadot (DOT)
Created by Dr. Gavin Wood, another co-founder of Ethereum, Polkadot is among one of the more promising third-generation digital currencies to consider. It trades for around $30 us dollars and has a market cap of nearly 30 Billion – impressive considering its launch was in May of 2020.
According to the Polkadot website, Polkadot is built to improve interoperable functionality between other blockchain systems. The protocols are aimed at connecting unauthorized and authorized blockchains with oracle enabling system integration under one roof. Polkadot’s most important part has a relay chain that facilitates interoperable and varying networks. The software can also provide parallel blockchain and parallel chains for specific applications.
For example, Polkadot can transfer data across public, open, permissionless blockchains as well as private, permissioned blockchains. So, it becomes possible to build applications that get permissioned data from a private blockchain and use it on a public blockchain. For instance, a school’s private, permissioned academic records chain could send proof to a degree-verification smart contract on a public chain.
What makes Polkadot different from Ethereum is how it allows developers to create their own blockchain without having to worry about any dApp on Polkadot.
8). Neo
Originally known as Antshares, Neo was created in 2014 and is also often referred as the “Ethereum of China” as it is very similar in that it’s a blockchain-based platform that supports its own cryptocurrency and enables the development of digital assets and smart contracts.
At $27 a coin, Neo has a market capitalization of nearly $2 billion. Also, it was up 77% in 2021, however, it’s down quite considerably from its high of $122 as the Chinese government recently cracked down on cryptocurrencies – so, it’ll be interesting to see what happens with neo in the near future.
9). Celsius (CEL)
The next digital coin on the list is Celsius, which has a market cap of just under 4.4 Billion US Dollars. Founded in 2017, Celsius is a relative newcomer to the cryptocurrency market.
The Celsius Network is a regulated, SEC-compliant, lending platform. Indeed, the platform allows users to receive interest on cryptocurrency deposits or even take out crypto loans. Moreover, Celsius hopes to attract investors by offering high yields on deposits. And For existing crypto investors wishing to take out a loan, Celsius provides an opportunity to receive dollars without cashing out of their cryptocurrency holdings.
That said, on June 13, 2022, Celcius announced “Due to extreme market conditions, today we are announcing that Celsius is pausing all withdrawals, Swap, and transfers between accounts.“
10). Nano
The next worthy cryptocurrency investors are buying up is Nano. Nano currently trades at around $3.64 US dollars, and it has a market capitalization of over 484 million us dollars.
Today, Nano is famous for being the “digital money for the modern world.” Further, Nano is a cryptocurrency that is designed to enable secure, and practically instant payments, without fees, and improves upon legacy financial infrastructure and other modern cryptocurrencies.
Launched in 2015 under the name RaiBlocks (through a public faucet), it allowed users to claim small amounts of XRB after completing a captcha challenge. At that time, anyone with access to a computer or phone would solve captchas, and earn RaiBlocks. In 2018, the name changed to Nano, reflecting the speed at which transactions complete.
11). Tether (USDT)
The next cryptocurrency on the list is Tether, however, investors know it as its ticker, USDT. Tether’s current market cap is above 69 Billion US Dollars. Now, Tether is a Stablecoin, pegged to the value of the US Dollar (aka USD coin) – so its price is usually $1.00 give or take a few hundredths of a cent. In fact, looking back to 2016, the highest trading price I could find was $1.03 back in 2017. Also, investors can buy USDT and it works on the Ethereum, EOS, Tron, Algorand, and OMG blockchains.
12). Dash (DASH)
Ok, so next on the list of top cryptocurrencies this year is Dash. We first heard about Dash in 2014 when it was called Xcoin. And then, it became DarkCoin, and later in 2015, it got the current name Dash – which means digital cash.
Dash currently trades for a little over $141, after going up an impressive 51% in 2021, and currently boasts a market capitalization of over 1.4 billion us dollars.
There is currently more than 10 million Dash in circulation, out of a maximum of 18.9 million. Consumers can use Dash for purchases with retailers through its DashDirect app. Moreover, investors can trade it on cryptocurrency exchanges that include Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken.
13). TRON
Next on the list of top cryptocurrencies, we have TRON. Tron is best described as a decentralized platform focused on content sharing and entertainment — and one of its biggest acquisitions was the file-sharing service BitTorrent back in 2018.
The major benefit is that it can handle 2000 transactions per second allowing for daily use.
Today, TRON tokens trade around 7.7 cents and have a collective market capitalization of nearly 8 billion us dollars.
14). Zcash (ZEC)
Next on the list, we have Zcash. Zcash was released in 2016 and is a cryptocurrency originally based on bitcoin that focuses on anonymity. Zcash uses technology that allows transactions to get verified without revealing any sensitive information about those transactions.
Now, you might think, aren’t all other cryptocurrency transactions private? Well, not so much. Most cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), are in fact not anonymous, but rather pseudonymous. In other words, while they do not explicitly reveal the identities of their users, each user has their own public address. And through forensics, the authorities can eventually trace the public address back to the original owner.
Zcash transactions, on the other hand, do not reveal the sending and receiving addresses or the amount of the transaction. At least not by default. However, there is an option to reveal the data for the purposes of auditing or regulatory compliance. Today, Zcash trades for around $150 USD and has a market capitalization of just over 2 billion.
15). NEM
Next on the list of digital coins, we have NEM. NEM is an acronym for the new economy movement and is a collection of technologies that use blockchain and cryptography to provide solutions for end-users and businesses.
Investors can buy and sell NEM on popular platforms such as Zaif, Binance, and Cointiger.
With a current price of 12.8 cents and a market capitalization of a little over 1.1 billion us dollars, this coin went down about 45% in 2021. So, is now the right time to invest in NEM? Let me know in the comments below what you think.
16). Binance Coin (BNB)
The next worthy cryptocurrency on the list is Binance Coin, often known as BNC.
Binance is a utility cryptocurrency created in July 2017, and today, they are the biggest cryptocurrency exchange globally by daily trading volume. Binance is used for transferring fees from the Binance Exchange to trade. Its market capitalization surpassed the average with a market capitalization of 1.6 billion worth of BNB’s held in investment accounts.
The tokens may be traded at reduced rates by the exchange holders. Similarly, the Binance coins blockchain operates in decentralized exchanges using its decentralized system BinanceCoins.
Changpeng Zhao is the founder of the Binance exchange. Today, it’s the biggest exchange worldwide based on trading volume. Binance Coin is a token with an initial value of ETH20 and operates on Ethereum blockchains. Then the main website became available. The PoS consensus framework powers the system.
Since launching the Binance Coin, Binance, the exchange has benefited from increased investor interest in its coin.
And this was evident in 2021 when BNB started the year trading at $37 dollars and 90 cents, and ended the year at over $511 dollars. That’s a 13x return for those who were invested for the entire 2021.
Today, BNC’s market cap is a little over 87 billion us dollars, and I think it’s one to watch.
17). Bitcoin SV
Next, we have Bitcoin SV, or BSV for short.
BSV was created after a hard fork of Bitcoin Cash, back in 2018, which had, in turn, forked from the BTC blockchain a year earlier.
BSV’s current market cap is a little over 2 billion us dollars and trades for about $122. However, that’s down significantly from its 52-week high of $491.
One of the biggest selling points of BSV is its ability to process over 100,000 transactions per second. However, it remains to be seen how folks like you and me will adopt it in the future.
18). EOS Coin
EOS is a platform that’s designed to allow developers to build decentralized apps – or DApps for short.
The project’s goal is to make it as easy as possible for programmers to develop blockchain technology. As a result, its tools and educational resources support developers who want to quickly build blockchain-related apps, quickly and efficiently.
EOS’s current market cap is around 3 billion us dollars and is trading up slightly in 2021.
19). VeChain
VeChain or VET is the next cryptocurrency on the list. Indeed, VeChain is an enterprise-grade smart contract platform that was launched in 2015,
VeChain is best known for its work in the supply chain industry – one that hasn’t changed much over the last few decades. Today, VeChain provides a decentralized trust layer for multi-party ecosystems and has already seen some major successes with high-profile clients including governments.
Interestingly, VeChain currently trades around 8 and a half cents and has a market cap of over $5,500,000,000. Also, in 2021, it shot up a whopping 400%.
20). Dai
Last but not least on the list is Dai. Like Tether or USDT, Dai is also a stablecoin (aka USD coin) as it’s soft pegged to the US dollar.
In 2020, DAI faced some extreme volatility due to the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 and as a result, DAI reached a peak of $1.09 USD (in real world currencies) before returning back to a dollar.
Wrapping up
Of late, the crypto space has become a popular choice for investors all across the globe to earn good returns. Thanks to the number of features attached to it that traditional money does not offer. The above are some of the famous top 20 cryptocurrencies to invest in the current market. If you are looking for options in digital coins, the above list can serve you a decent amount of options. Get the right one with intelligent and unique strategies, and you never know you can gain huge out of your investment. Good Luck!
*Disclaimer: Data accurate as of April 25, 2022. As everyones’ personal circumstances will differ, always seek qualified investment advice (unbiased information from a qualified professional) before buying anything. Finally, opinions expressed in this article are for informational purposes only, and past performance is no indicator of future performance.
Related
[ad_2]
Source link