Cryptocurrency is an exciting and volatile field, but if you want to feel comfortable with your investment choices, you’ll need to look at the big picture. Although the market is still seeing a great deal of volatility, these tokens are good options for investors who want to diversify their portfolio and take advantage of opportunities on both the upside and downside of the market.
- Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity is a blockchain-based game that allows players to assemble and upgrade teams of somewhat amorphous 2D creatures (Axies) and battle with others. As they rack up achievements within the game, players earn in-game tokens called Smooth Love Potion, which can later exchange for other tokens or fiat currency.
It’s important to note that the Axies aren’t unique because they exist as standalone creatures in the game world. Instead, they’re made up of a series of components called genomes, which players can freely mix and match to create their team of Axies.
- Binance
Binance is one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges and the BNB token that underpins it is a stable and reliable instrument for diversifying portfolios. Launched in 2017, Binance has grown exponentially since its founding by Changpeng Zhao, who previously served as CTO at OKCoin.com and founded BijieTech, an early blockchain application development service. The exchange operates on BNB Chain and boasts an impressive $1.3 billion per day in trading volume.
BNB has been widely used throughout the dApps built on BNB Chain, which have attracted over 500,000 wallets. It also serves as a means of payment for hotels, airfare, and other goods and services. Investors can use it to pay transaction fees on the network, and it is widely accepted as payment by merchants through established partnerships with third-party providers like TravelbyBit.
- XRP
XRP is one of the more divisive cryptocurrencies that made it to the top. People who believe in its mission and potential tend to be staunch supporters, while those who don’t have at least a little hatred for it. It’s not hard to see why: The project’s head, Chris Larsen, was revealed to have been the secret buyer behind an enormous amount of XRP purchases (rumored to be up to 20 percent of the total token supply) made in late 2017.
Ripple is a company that focuses on payments between financial institutions. Still, many cryptocurrency purists argue that XRP is a vehicle for speculation. Banks use Ripple as a central processing hub while still using their cryptocurrency.
One thing that sets XRP apart from many other cryptocurrencies is that it’s not mined. It created 100 billion tokens before its launch in 2012, and that’s how many there will ever be (for comparison, only 21 million Bitcoin will ever exist). XRP price has been on a roll for some time now with more than 1,000% in the last year.
- Bitcoin
Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency and the most widely used digital token, has a polarizing effect on investors and end-users. With over 16 million BTC in circulation, it’s easy to assume that Bitcoin is here to stay. But with an average daily trading volume of just $3 billion and a market capitalization that struggles to break $100 billion, some investors see Bitcoin as an opportunity with room for growth.
The original cryptocurrency, by way of its market cap, Bitcoin has led the way for hundreds of new tokens. It’s also one of the most active cryptocurrencies in circulation, with an average daily trading volume of $3 billion—beating out competitors like Ethereum ($1.7B), Ripple ($1B), and Litecoin ($250M). It’s also the most widely held cryptocurrency by market capitalization (investors have nearly 50% of all BTC), but its dominance over the crypto space is waning.
BTC price hit a six-month high this week, as the tokens market capitalization climbed to $375.5 billion on Wednesday. It marks the highest level since March, when the market cap was $398.7 billion, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index (BPI).
- Dogecoin
Dogecoin is a popular cryptocurrency that takes its name from the dog-based internet meme and features a Shiba Inu on its logo. It was one of the first meme coins to be created and has remained one of the most successful. The currency’s history stretches almost nine years and has been marked by consistent growth and stability.
Dogecoin price hit an all-time high in early 2018, but it continues to hold relevance among seasoned crypto investors and newcomers looking to diversify their portfolios.
Its low value made it an ideal candidate for people new to crypto. But its fast transaction times (the average block time is 1 minute), cheap transaction fees, and stable inflation rate make it attractive enough to have warranted consistent interest from investors since its inception.