In the past year, cryptocurrency Bitcoin has more than quadrupled in value, with 300% gains since October 2019. It also lost 50% of its value in March 2020 over two days. The volatile currency peaked at about $40,000 per coin in December, but has since stabilized around the $30,000s.
Experts this week are warning about a crash unless the cryptocurrency jumps back up above the $40,000 mark soon. JP Morgan analysts wrote in a note shared by Bloomberg that investors “could propagate the week’s correction.”
If the price doesn’t break through the $40,000 wall anytime soon, analysts say, “Momentum signals will naturally decay from here up till the end of March.” If you feel like you missed the Bitcoin boat and the price is too high of an investment for you right now, several other cryptocurrencies remain on a slow rise.
Litecoin
As with other cryptocurrency, Litecoin saw significant gains in 2020, but it remains an affordable $125 per coin right now, and hovering in the mid-$100s. Litecoin has lower transaction fees and faster processing times than Bitcoin, in part due to a simplified blockchain – the technology that records, tracks, and encrypts cryptocurrency transactions. As a long-term, buy and hold investment, Litecoin could yield significant gains over time. It’s the fifth largest cryptocurrency based on market capitalization, according to stock market news site Benzinga.
Ethereum
With a market capitalization of around $68,000 billion, Ethereum stands as the second largest crypto after Bitcoin. Trading at nearly $1,300 per coin right now, getting in requires a modest investment, but it’s hovering near its all-time high of $1,448.
The attraction of Ethereum, in part, is that developers can build “decentralized apps” on the Ethereum network. Additionally, the coin’s new network is faster and more secure than the original network, giving the cryptocurrency staying power as a long-term investment.
See: How to Get Bitcoins
Dogecoin
Initially started as a joke in 2013 by software developers Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus, and often touted on Twitter by billionaire CEO Elon Musk, Dogecoin is an open-source cryptocurrency similar to Litecoin. Those who mine Litecoin often mine Dogecoin at the same time, which helps keep the currency alive. Dogecoin is considered an “inflationary” coin because, unlike Bitcoin, which has a set limit of coins that will be created, Dogecoin can be released in unlimited supplies. It holds a market capitalization of around $600 million.
The lowest priced coin on this list, Dogecoin is valued at about 0.009 USD, which means you can buy a lot of Dogecoin without making much of a dent in your wallet. Analysts say the coin could hit $1 by the end of 2021.
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Tron
It’s hard not to be drawn to an investment that shares a name with a classic 1980s sci-fi movie. Tron is a unique crypto designed for the entertainment industry, allowing content creators to collect payment in the form of “Tronix.”
Tron is in the class of penny stocks, worth about just 0.03 USD, which is close to its one-year high. If you’d like to get into the crypto world without a lot of risk, buying and holding Tron, or even watching the market to make a few bucks, can help you get a feel for trading crypto.
Crypto service CoinSwitch predicts that TRX could exceed .50 per coin by 2023 and potentially hit $1 by 2030. It’s not fast money, but it’s an easy foray into the crypto world for beginners.
Binance Coin
Binance is hailed as the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. Its currency is called Binance coin (BNB). Many experts hail BNB as one of the most stable cryptos available, in part because the exchange uses 20% of its profits each quarter to buy back and “burn” the currency to maintain its value. The currency has a market capitalization of approximately $5.5 billion and it’s the ninth largest crypto in the world right now, sources say.
