Although the crypto bull run usually starts with a Bitcoin rally, altcoins always offer better returns. And that happens even though they are still a long way from overtaking BTC.
And now, as the crypto market is on a volatile downtrend, the whales seem to be focused on altcoins.
In such a context, although it’s impossible to know who will bring the best results, it’s important to keep an eye on which altcoins have the pest potential.
Top 5 Altcoins for 2022
First, for lack of a better designation, the key definition of an altcoin is any crypto asset other than Bitcoin.
And although there are over 21 thousand altcoins, most of them are worthless. But here are the top 5 altcoins that are still holding their position quite well despite everything going on in the crypto market:
Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum (ETH) is the most lucrative altcoin in the crypto market for the sake of its upside potency.
It’s a decentralized blockchain network launched in 2015 and powered by the Eth cryptocurrency. This technology empowers users to build dApps and organizations on a do-it-yourself platform, gain interest in their holdings through staking, use and store NFTs, and of course, make transactions and communicate without central authority control. And these are only part of what Ethereum offers.
A key takeaway about Ethereum Blockchain you should consider is the recently switched consensus protocol from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS).
This action was called “The Merge” and happened on September 15, 2022, when the original execution layer of Ethereum, Mainnet, fused with its new proof-of-stake consensus layer, aka the Beacon Chain.
Among the advantages that Ethereum offers are:
- Lower transaction fees;
- More secure than most cryptos. Arguably, only Bitcoin is more secure than Ethereum;
- It became environmental-friendly after “The Merge.” This blockchain upgrade lowered the network’s energy consumption by 99,99%.
Some of the disadvantages of Ethereum are:
- Scaling Issues;
- The programming language used is knotty. The native language of Ethereum is Solidity, which can be challenging to learn;
- The competitors. Ethereum has strong competitors in all the areas it wants to address. It competes with Solana and Polkadot on scalability issues, interoperability with Cardano, and security with Solana.
At the time of writing, the price of 1 ETH was over $1,200.
Binance Coin (BNB)
Binance Coin, also known as BNB, was launched in 2017 and is the native coin of the renowned cryptocurrency exchange Binance and serves as a utility token, a way for Binance Exchange users to pay less trading fees on the platform.
BNB fuels its transactions on two parallel-running blockchains in the BNB Chain: The BNB Beacon Chain, which is the first blockchain of Binance, focused on staking and governance for BNB holders, and the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), an Ethereum Virtual Machine which is an alternative to the Ethereum network, an enabler of smart contracts.
The main advantages of BNB are:
- It’s a remarkable utility token. This is due to the massive progress that Binance has had in recent years and the possibility of using them in everyday purchases;
- Low fees and fast transactions. The transactions of BNB on Binance are instant, where the fee is only 0.1% for everyone;
- Has a unique burndown policy. BNB uses an Auto-Burn system to reduce its total supply to 100,000,000 BNB.
The main disadvantages of BNB are:
- It’s dependent on Binance Exchange;
- It’s a centralized token. The Binance Exchange controls it.
At the time of writing, the price of 1 BNB was around $300.
Polygon (MATIC)
The MATIC token, the native cryptocurrency of the Polygon network, is an Ethereum-based altcoin that governs and secures the Polygon network and offers a sustainable scaling solution to issues such as high transaction fees and slow speed.
Polygon’s main chain is a Proof of Stake (PoS) sidechain in which network participants can stake MATIC tokens to validate transactions and vote on network upgrades.
One of Polygon’s goals is to be Ethereum’s Internet of Blockchains, like Cosmos (ATOM) or Polkadot (DOT).
The advantages that MATIC token comes with are:
- Low transaction fees and fast transactions per second. The Polygon blockchain can handle up to 7,200 transactions per second (TPS). MATIC has a typical transaction fee of around $0.01;
- It offers a high level of protection as Polygon operators are also associated with the PoS system.
The disadvantages that MATIC token comes with are:
- It isn’t an autonomous blockchain;
- Other scaling solutions like Polkadot, Solana, and Cosmos are gaining momentum.
At the time of writing, the price of 1 MATIC was $0.90.
Cardano (ADA)
Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain platform designed to be a next-gen evolution of the Ethereum idea initiated by Charles Hoskinson and Jeremy Wood under The Cardano Foundation, IOHK, and Emurgo. And, of course, on top of the heap of this platform operates the ADA cryptocurrency.
Basically, the project intends to become a smart contracts platform for decentralized applications for the necessity of a high-demand global market.
Cardano seeks to bring innovation, especially into three areas cryptocurrencies are usually lacking: scalability, interoperability, and sustainability.
Some advantages are:
- Fast and cheap transactions;
- Is environmental-friendly. With its PoS mechanism, Cardano consumes 99% less electricity than other blockchains;
- Evidence-based research and peer review. Each update goes through a series of tests before introducing it, and each stage of development fundamentally undergoes peer-reviewed.
On the other side, the disadvantages are:
- Still under development;
- It has a slow
At the time of writing, the price of 1 ADA was $0.31.
Polkadot (DOT)
Polkadot was founded in 2020 by Dr. Gavin Wood, Robert Habermeier, and Peter Czaban within the Web3 Foundation and is a shared blockchain project aimed at enhancing blockchain interoperability and scaling, intending to be comparable to, if not better than, Ethereum.
Polkadot is designed to serve two types of blockchains:
- A relay chain. It is the primary network where transactions are permanent;
- User-created networks, also called parachains. It runs parallel to the Polkadot relay chain. Parachains are custom blockchains that use the relay chain’s computing resources to confirm whether a transaction is accurate.
Polkadot’s governance is based on the proof of stake protocol to ensure that the majority of the stake can always control the network.
Related to Polkadot’s advantages, we can score:
- Fast transactions. Once it is fully operational, Polkadot should have a throughput of over 1,000,000 TPS.
- It is an open-source blockchain network. Polkadot is an open-source blockchain network. This enables isolated blockchains to become interconnected sub-chains called parachains. Each chain built within Polkadot uses Parity Technologies Substrate modular framework, allowing developers to choose components that best suit their application-specific chain.
Speaking about disadvantages, some of them are:
- The high degree of competition.
- The team is not open to dialog.
At the time of writing, the price of 1 DOT was $5.39.
*Maybe keep an eye on Solana (SOL)
The FTX and Alameda meltdown has affected Solana as well. Yet, it’s quite early to take SOL out of the equation.
At the end of the day, Solana is the fastest-growing smart contract platform on the market.
It was created in 2017 by Anatoly Yakovenko, a former executive at Qualcomm. Solana intends to scale throughput beyond what is usually achieved by popular blockchains while keeping costs low.
Solana also has many collaborations with big names in business, one of the most exciting announcements was Solana’s partnership with Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
Crypto experts are optimistic about the positive evolution of the Solana project and its future directions.
At the time of writing, the price of 1 SOL was $13.93.
Make sure to filter every altcoin
As the market is on a downtrend, crypto investors will tend to start accumulating altcoins in particular. And although the biggest gains can be obtained by “betting” on the low-cap altcoins, the risk is incommensurably high.
In any case, don’t decide to buy into a particular cryptocurrency or another without doing your own research and making sure you understand the project.
Altcoins can be fascinating, but remember, it is impossible to be involved in all the crypto assets, and the risk of scams is always high.
