Crypto had a difficult 2022, a fairly predictable post-high bear market was worsened by market-shaking events such as the collapse of the FTX exchange. The fallout of such happenings can have a damaging effect on the financial sector, but crypto as a niche appears able to weather any storm. Such is the confidence and excitement that reverberates through this relatively new sector.
The ongoing solidification of Bitcoin as a top performing asset, a commodity that seems to hold its value despite general financial market rumblings, is noteworthy. Top investment banks are diversifying into ‘digital gold’ and getting behind an asset they were previously dismissive of. Even if such investments are done somewhat under the radar by some.
While Bitcoin and crypto currencies more generally have long held an outsider status among traditional financial institutions, perhaps explaining their association with a kind of libertarian utopianism, the winds of change appear to be blowing.
Today we’re going to be exploring five long-term coin investments that people can consider if they’re branching out into crypto coins for the first time in a diversification attempt.
Solana (SOL)
Solana is a relatively new cryptocurrency that was launched in 2020. It’s a layer-1 blockchain platform designed to facilitate fast, secure, and scalable transactions.
One of the key features of Solana is its low transaction fees, which make it attractive to users who want to transfer small amounts of money quickly and inexpensively. Solana also offers smart contract functionality, which enables developers to build decentralized applications (dApps) on the platform.
SOL is the native cryptocurrency of the Solana platform, and it is used to pay for transactions and fees on the network. It hit its all time high of $258.93 in November 2021. Given its current price of $22.50 as of April 21 2023, investors would expect a very significant return should it return to such figures.
Given the speed of the network, and its popularity among developers, Solana is also the second largest coin for NFT transactions after Ethereum’s ETH. Twitter, for example, is awash with positive buzz about Solana NFT drops and this factors into the future price estimates for the coin.
The fundamentals of SOL are explained in detail in this Solana coin review, and there is a multitude of information to be found on the company’s social media platforms that includes their foundation, which seeks to educate and inform the public on the potential possibilities of the network.
Solana got caught up in the aforementioned debacle surrounding FTX and its founder Sam Banman-Fried. SOL’s value plummeted as a result, however, it’s recovered strongly and maintains its position as one of the top 15 coins in the world. The company launched a Web3 phone earlier in April, with new orders being taken from May 8.
Ethereum (ETH)
Every coin that isn’t Bitcoin is labeled an ‘altcoin’, and Ethereum’s Ether is the biggest one. Used interchangeably with the blockchain’s name Ethereum (launched in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin), Ether or ETH to use its ticker, has a market cap of $232bn as of April 21 2023.
One of the key differences between Ethereum and the Bitcoin blockchain is that Ethereum is undergoing continual upgrades to improve speed, efficiency, and cost to the user. While ostensibly used to pay for transactions and fees on the network, Ether can also be used as a store of value and a means of exchange, similar to Bitcoin.
There is an ongoing debate about whether Ethereum (ETH) is a security, with some arguing it’s decentralized and mature enough to be classified as a commodity. The regulatory landscape is still evolving, and it remains to be seen how said regulators will ultimately classify Ethereum in the coming years.
However, among the crypto faithful it remains one of the absolute favorites, with many predicting a switch between Bitcoin and Ethereum, with the latter becoming the most dominant cryptocurrency. In industry circles, this hypothetical event is known as ‘the flippening.’
Binance Coin (BNB)
Alongside Coinbase, Binance is among the most prominent brands in the ‘cryptoverse’. Founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao, it is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and is well established as a very prominent player in the sector.
Unlike Coinbase, it has its own coin, BNB. It was created as a utility token to be used on the platform, allowing holders to access discounted trading fees and other benefits. BNB operates on the Binance Smart Chain, a high-performance blockchain designed for smart contracts and decentralized applications.
The company has found ways to incentivize its customer base to hold and use the cryptocurrency, with additional benefits such as cashback on purchases made with BNB via the Binance debit card, and exclusive access to new products and services.
Binance also conducts periodic ‘burns’ of BNB tokens. This mechanism reduces the total supply of the cryptocurrency and increases its scarcity. At present, it’s the fourth largest in terms of market capitalization and is currently trading at a price of $330.
The success of the coin going forward is inherently linked to the success of Binance as an institution, and despite occasional negative rumblings, the future looks bright. Especially when placed alongside the ongoing mainstreaming of the sector.
Dogecoin (DOGE)
The coin made famous by its association with Twitter and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, not to mention its amusing dog-themed design, has performed far more strongly than any investor could have initially anticipated.
Perhaps the original ‘meme coin’ – a crypto currency created as parody or joke based on a popular meme or cultural reference as opposed to any inherent usefulness – Dogecoin is currently trading at around $0.08425 as of April 21.
Created in 2013, it operates on a decentralized peer-to-peer network and uses a proof-of-work consensus algorithm to verify transactions. Dogecoin has a fixed supply limit of 129 billion coins, and its low value per coin makes it attractive to investors who want to get in on the cryptocurrency market with a smaller investment.
Musk has tweeted about Dogecoin multiple times, often using memes and humorous comments to generate buzz around the cryptocurrency. He has referred to himself as the ‘Dogefather’, and made statements that imply he is working with its developers to improve the technology and utility.
Such is his association with the currency, his pronouncements have positively affected the price on multiple occasions, with the coin’s value seeing sharp increases following his endorsements.
Given his ownership of Twitter and his stated ambitions for the platform, and his public advocacy of cryptocurrency, the future may be very promising. He has implied more than once that he would like to integrate a crypto payments feature into the social media site, and many presume Dogecoin would play a role in such a development.
Bitcoin (BTC)
It would be remiss to have a list such as this and fail to showcase the most famous coin of all. Bitcoin (BTC) is a decentralized digital currency that operates without a central bank or single administrator.
It was created in 2009 by an anonymous individual or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, and it has since become the most popular and well-known cryptocurrency in the world.
Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public ledger called the blockchain. This means that every transaction made using Bitcoin is transparent and can be traced back to its origin.
One of the key features of Bitcoin is its limited supply. Only 21 million bitcoins will ever be created, with approximately 18 million currently in circulation. This has led many in the ‘cryptosphere’ to describe Bitcoin as a form of digital gold, or a cyber store of value.
Bitcoin has been the subject of much controversy since its inception. As discussed, while some see it as a revolutionary technology that could disrupt the traditional financial system, others have raised concerns about its potential use in black market activity.
Despite these controversies, Bitcoin continues to gain mainstream acceptance, with major companies such as Tesla and PayPal accepting it as a form of payment. Its value has also skyrocketed over the years, with its price reaching an all-time high of $68,789, reached on November 10, 2021.
