If you don’t want to pay hundreds of dollars to hold a tiny percentage of one Bitcoin, some of this year’s major altcoins could be good investments for 2019.
Take a look at these front runners and think about whether any of them might be good additions to your portfolio.
Basic Attention Token
This crypto offering that is complementary to the Brave web browser is only a bit more than a year old, but it’s already getting a lot of attention from investors.
BAT is popular for its security and privacy value, and is getting listed to various exchanges, building its momentum for the future. Traders were watching as it recently spiked to around 40 cents, wondering if BAT has further to go.
Litecoin
As a coin offering with a few more years of development behind it, this peer-to-peer coin option pioneered by Google’s Charlie Lee has a faster block time than Bitcoin and uses built-in proof of work systems that many experts consider efficient.
Part of its appeal is based on its momentous spike in September where Litecoin value climbed up to nearly $240 before falling back down to around $50. In light of that spike, many traders believe it is now a buy for the long term.
Tron
There’s a lot to say about this unique cryptocurrency backed by Justin Sun and the Tron foundation. Tron is getting some juice from its recent acquisition of Bittorrent, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg; Tron has also developed decentralized applications for online wagering.
There’s a lot going on with Tron to boost its popularity as an altcoin investment. Keep looking at this leadership team’s plans for a decentralized Internet and other innovations.
Lisk is another branch off of Ethereum with its own utility in the coin world. Lisks’s app SDK is known for allowing the creation of blockchain applications and the Lisk crypto chart is attracting some traders to a potential breakout.
Ravencoin
We’ve been enthusiastic about Ravencoin and its proprietary algorithm – after its debut early this year, Ravencoin eventually shot up to increase its overall value by more than 300% – a post on Medium talks more about the digital peer-to-peer network and what Ravencoin people want to achieve in terms of efficient transfers of assets.
“The Ravencoin project is launched based on the hard work and continuous effort of over 400 Bitcoin developers who made over 14,000 commits over the life to date of the Bitcoin project,” wrote an anonymous poster last year as Ravencoin moved toward its Halloween debut, while oddly referencing George R.R. Martin’s mythic world of Westeros. “One goal of the Ravencoin project is to see if a use case specific blockchain and development effort can create code which can either improve existing structures like Bitcoin or provide advantages for specific use cases.”
Monero
As a darknet cryptocurrency, Monero is popular for its proof of work verification methods and its community support. However, it may be hard to maintain Monero positions on some exchanges because of its anonymity principle.
Trading at just over $100 USD, Monero is slightly above its levels a year ago, and well above what it traded for when it was a new name on the exchange.
zCash
zCash is another darknet coin choice with a history of value spikes – in February of this year, it was trading above $4000 US, but now is back down to just over $100 – that’s up from its initial value, but quite small compared to chart histories.
Ripple/XRP
The XRP coin offering from Ripple is one that many traders have trouble understanding because of its complexity. XRP is not just a token or coin – it’s backed by Ripple’s unique payment exchange setup and philosophy of trading that have led XRP to become, in some people’s minds, the third choice after Bitcoin and Ethereum.
If you’re getting into this particular coin, there’s a lot more to research, including how Ripple utilizes XRP in the context of its other operations. However, because of its momentum and compliance with SEC regulations XRP might be one of the last options standing if regulators go after the altcoin market.
Any of these can be interesting altcoin plays – and that’s not all! There are a wide variety of coins on the market, and exchanges keep adding options. Also look for the SEC to approve new Bitcoin ETFs so that individual investors can use smaller capital pools to wade into the crypto market.
Happy hunting!