Cryptocurrency may have begun as a maverick-dominated Wild West of investing, but it is now firmly entrenched in the financial mainstream. Despite recent volatility and regulatory crackdowns in China and elsewhere, institutional investors and large banks regard it as a serious asset.
Consider the following as evidence of how volatile the market is: Over the past year, bitcoin’s value has ranged from a low of $28,893.62 to an all-time high of $68,789.63 as of April 11.
Which Cryptocurrency will explode?
If you’re thinking about investing in cryptocurrency, you might be wondering which one will provide the best potential return. Although bitcoin may seem like the obvious choice, it isn’t always the best in 2022.
Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum, also known as ether, is the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin and has recently outperformed bitcoin in terms of price gains, according to CoinTelegraph. Last year, Ethereum implemented a major upgrade that included reducing the ether supply, which is now at 120.33 billion coins. The upgrade also enables the Ethereum network to handle more transactions per second, improve platform scalability, and reduce transaction fees.
In comparison to bitcoin, Ethereum lacks scarcity (the supply of bitcoin is limited to 21 million coins) and widespread acceptance by businesses and governments. Unlike bitcoin, however, ethereum is more than just a store of value. It also serves as an infrastructure upon which apps can be built. Ethereum is the platform on which other cryptocurrencies are issued, and it serves as the foundation for decentralized finance.
Binance Coin (BNB)
In terms of trading volume, Binance is the most successful cryptocurrency exchange. Binance coin, like bitcoin, maintains a hard limit on the number of tokens in circulation — in this case, 165,116,760 tokens. This aided the token price’s exponential rise in 2021. Furthermore, Binance invests roughly one-fifth of its profits each quarter in permanently removing, or “burning,” BNB tokens, which increases the value of the remaining tokens.
Tether (USDT)
Tether is a type of “stablecoin” that is linked to another asset and is intended to provide a less volatile alternative to bitcoin. In the case of tether, that asset is the US dollar. Tether has a one-to-one valuation with the dollar, making it less speculative than cryptos like bitcoin and ether. The main advantage of the tether is that it allows you to conduct transactions in traditional currencies rather than complex digital currencies. You can also lend it to cryptocurrency platforms in exchange for double-digit (annualized) interest rates without fear of your earnings being wiped out by volatility.
Decentraland (MANA)
Decentraland is an Ethereum blockchain-based virtual reality game that uses the MANA token as in-game currency. Users can buy goods and services, buy land, and visit other players’ properties, as well as create and monetize their own content. MANA’s current price of $2.12 represents a 385 percent increase from the company’s 52-week low of 43.68 cents.
MANA is the most valuable gaming cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization. Although it faces competition from The Sandbox and ApeCoin, and in-game assets are quite expensive — land parcels listed on Blockee range in price from a few thousand dollars to more than $22 million — it does have some advantages that could propel the token forward. Users, for example, retain ownership of digital assets created in Decentraland and can convert them to cryptocurrencies other than MANA.