The poll is in, and now is the time to think about investing in digital currencies. Across the board, people are pooling their money into digital investments fuelled by the collapse of many centralized banks. Over five days in March, three mid-US banks collapsed, and Credit Suisse in Switzerland almost followed suit before being saved by an enormous investment. That led to panic. There was a sharp decline in global bank stock prices. European banks dropped 7%, Europe’s Stoxx 600 dropped by 3% whilst many other companies felt the blow, especially the big banks. Shares in JPMorgan Chase dropped 5% in one day.
As a result, however, there was an increase in investors pooling their money into digital currencies like Bitcoin. In one day following the news of just two bank closures, Bitcoins value increased by 26% and has now surpassed $30,000. Sure, cryptocurrency isn’t an ironclad investment and people worried about losing their investments in the bank should also consider it’s just as easy to lose a digital currency investment – but it still seems like the safer option to many.
What might seem like a more viable investment are altcoins. Below, we’ll look at some of the top-rated altcoins to inspire you to research and see if they’re the investment for you.
What you'll learn 👉
What Are Altcoins?
Altcoins, or alternative cryptocurrencies, refer to any digital currency which isn’t Bitcoin. The term altcoin was coined in 2011 when several cryptocurrencies were launched as alternatives to Bitcoin. Today, there are thousands of altcoins available, each with unique features, technology, and value proposition.
Altcoins are more often than not created to solve specific problems or address shortcomings in Bitcoins design. For example, Ethereum introduced smart contract functionality, while Litecoin aimed to provide faster transaction processing times.
It’s essential to thoroughly research and understand the risks before investing in any cryptocurrency, including altcoins. Still, with every investment, there is an element of risk – let’s explore the five top-rated coins that should carry the least risk.
Binance Coin
Binance coin (BNB) is a native utility coin of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. It powers the BNB Chain ecosystem and is the fourth-largest cryptocurrency when looking at market capitalization.
Binance Coin was created in 2017 and was officially on the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC-20 token. However, in 2019, Binance Coin migrated to its own blockchain called Binance Chain.
But what do you get for purchasing the coin? Owners can enjoy discounts on trading fees for users of the Binance exchange. If you were to use your BNB to pay for trading fees, you’d receive a discount on those fees. The discount starts at 25% in the first year and decreases until it reaches zero in the fifth year. Additionally, owners of the Binance Coin can use it to pay for other services on the Binance platform, such as withdrawal fees and listing fees.
As of April 2023, Binance Coin has a market capitalization of over $100 billion, and the current value is $340.76.
DogeCoin
DogeCoin is a cryptocurrency created in 2013 by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. The currency features the popular internet meme of the Shiba Inu dog – as does the SHIB coin – which features a picture of a dog with captions written in broken English.
Initially, DogeCoin was supposed to be nothing more than a meme coin, which some people still dub it to be. But it gained popularity quickly, and its value began to rise. The currency operates on a decentralized peer-to-peer network, and its transactions record on a public blockchain.
One of the primary features of DogeCoin is its low transaction fees and fast transaction times. That has made it a popular cryptocurrency for small transactions and micropayments.
In recent years, DogeCoin has gained renewed attention and popularity thanks to celebrity endorsements, social media hype, and its use in online tipping and charitable donations. However, like other cryptocurrencies, DogeCoin is subject to volatility, and its value can fluctuate rapidly.
The current value of the coin is $0.09.
Solana
Solana is not an altcoin but rather a separate blockchain platform with its own native cryptocurrency, called SOL. SOL is the native utility token of the Solana network and is used to pay transaction fees and for staking and governance. Still, many industry experts consider it an altcoin, and a promising one at that, so it has made our list.
Since its launch in 2020, SOL has gained significant attention and has seen a remarkable surge in its value. It has become one of the top 10 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization and has a strong following among developers and investors.
Solana’s blockchain platform is known for its speed and low transaction fees, which makes it attractive for decentralized applications that require high transaction throughput. The platform has also gained a reputation for its scalability, thanks to its unique approach to consensus and its use of parallel processing, which allows it to handle more transactions per second than many other blockchains. These features have helped to drive interest in SOL and Solana as a blockchain platform.
The current value of the coin is $23.06.
Altcoins can be an excellent and lucrative investment, an alternative to investments like Bitcoin that might feel out of reach for the average Joe. They’re one of the many investments to explore, with people turning to altcoins and NFTs, for example, to try and diversify their trading portfolio. What coin interests you the most?
Featured image: https://unsplash.com/photos/5kApSEYgMqw
