With the crypto market now worth at least $1.3 trillion, several investors are at a crossroads on the best cryptocurrency to buy now, given their different use cases and adoption. In this article, we identified the top digital assets you should include in your portfolio. Let’s take a look.
1. Bitcoin (BTC)
We begin our roundup of the best cryptocurrency to buy now breakdown with Bitcoin.
Birthed from a 2008 whitepaper authored by a pseudonymous character only known by the sobriquet Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin has been the industry’s torchbearer.
Per data, Bitcoin has increased 9 million percent in value from its starting price of $0.008 in 2009.
Bitcoins return since 2009: over 9,000,000%
— Bart Broski (@BartBroski) January 16, 2020
This phenomenal success can be attributed to its innovative use of distributed computing (or blockchain technology) to enable peer-to-peer (P2P) transfer of value.
Using a technologically advanced proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm, Bitcoin is censorship-resistant, and transaction data uploaded into its blockchain are immutable.
Bitcoin’s ace lies in its source code which its
creator has hardwired to produce only 21 million coins. This hard-cap limit makes BTC deflationary, and several investors have termed it “digital gold.”
Price-wise, Bitcoin has led the ranks and has only been surpassed by yield farming protocol, Yearn Finance.
BTC started its remarkable journey to stardom, leading the fringe industry to global prominence in 2017 after it rose north of $20K. It dipped in 2018 but picked up steam again in 2020, plateauing at $65,000 in mid-April.
Even though it dropped to a mid-year low of $29,600 on July 22, the top crypto dog has rallied and trades currently at $37,020.64, down 3.25%.
Meanwhile, BTC is trading above the 20-day moving average (MA) support price of $32,989.35, indicating a bullish run while its relative strength index (RSI) is at 63.01, rising close to the overbought levels.
El Salvador’s bitcoin experiment seems to be going well. From JPMorgan’s analysts: pic.twitter.com/Bie6fVSJpU
— Robin Wigglesworth (@RobinWigg) July 8, 2021
BTC is also seeing growing adoption, with several countries considering accepting it as a legal tender. A pioneer in this space is the Latin American nation El Salvador.
2. Dogecoin (DOGE)
Dogecoin is one of the outlier digital currencies that makes our list of the best cryptocurrency to buy now.
Created in December 2013 by the duo of Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus as a joke on the rapidly evolving alternative currencies (altcoins), Dogecoin has set unprecedented precedence this year.
It has risen more than 15,000% in the last six months, striking gold at 74 cents and entering into the top five most valuable cryptocurrencies by market cap.
Even though it has since seen its value plummet with the broader crypto market, Dogecoin is still a force to reckon with in the fast-growing crypto ecosystem.
BEHOLD!
The magnificent power of an Elon Musk tweet on $DOGE!
For his next trick, he will become utterly irrelevant in crypto!
(I once again remind you, this is sarcasm, and the intention of the tweet is to show that Musk does not, in fact, move coins with tweets anymore!) pic.twitter.com/n3B6rKZeMR
— The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) July 9, 2021
Its eccentricity and use case as a faster value transmitter than Bitcoin has caught the attention of Tesla boss Elon Musk, who publicly declared support for the fringe currency. Other public figures have also associated themselves with the fun cryptocurrency, with billionaire investor Mark Cuban and rock star Gene Simmons lending support to DOGE.
Even though it saw its value briefly rally with the broader crypto market, DOGE is currently experiencing a bearish market. The joke cryptocurrency is down 9.16% at press time and is trading at $0.19919 on the daily chart.
However, it has risen 19.39% on the weekly chart, and a market recovery could see it reach its record highs again this August.
3. Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum is one of the best cryptocurrency to buy now, given its growing use case.
Built by Russian-Canadian developer Vitalik Buterin and several others in 2015, the Ethereum blockchain was meant to complement Bitcoin’s missing cog; smart contracts.
Buterin noted that these digital agreements were the next step towards enabling a blockchain-driven society.
Six years later, the Ethereum network is the number one destination for blockchain-based applications, popularly called decentralized apps (dapps).
Dapps have served as the foundation of fast-rising DeFi, and more blockchain companies are pivoting to Ethereum given its advanced security and developer-friendly environment for building dapps.
The DeFi boom has also benefited Ethereum in many ways. Its network token ETH has experienced a parabolic rise in the last six months, surging to an all-time high (ATH) of $4,350 in mid-April.
Ether’s value slumped along with the general crypto market in May. Ether traded at $1,800 for almost two months. It rose 15% overnight with the broader market but has seen the value suffer a slight setback in today’s trade.
At press time, ETH is trading at $2,209.56 and is trading above the 20-day MA. The Ethereum network is also transitioning to a less energy-intensive protocol by the end of the year, following approval by the development team. This is expected to boost the value of the ERC-20 token in 2022.
4. Ripple (XRP)
Our list of best cryptocurrency to buy now will not be complete without adding cross-border payment solution XRP. The by-product of US-based blockchain firm Ripple Labs, XRP was created as a direct competitor to the traditional cross-border giant SWIFT Network.
According to the founding team, XRP is a digital currency that will facilitate the transfer of fiat currencies, digital assets, and value trustlessly, quickly, and at a fraction of the cost of centralized payments company bills.
It is targeted at institutionalized businesses and has seen growing adoption by different countries and bank giants across Europe and Asia.
XRP operating on the RippleNet platform is also set to be used as a payment facilitator for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in the coming future.
$XRP – The ultimate stable coin right now. Can’t wait for this SEC case to be over with so it can rip. pic.twitter.com/MDoffnYeqb
— David Gokhshtein (@davidgokhshtein) March 2, 2021
Price-wise, XRP has been hit differently than other cryptocurrencies. Its woes began in December 2020 when the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged that Ripple and two of its executives had sold unregulated securities to investors.
This saw the digital asset price suffer a relapse when most virtual currencies were posting record highs.
However, it has shaken off the bad press and rose to $1.7 in mid-April.
It subsequently dipped and traded at $0.5 before rallying 4.5% on July 25 to $0.75.
Currently, it trades at $0.6284, down 3.2% on the daily chart. XRP’s evolving use case makes it one of the best cryptocurrency to buy now.
5. Litecoin (LTC)
Last but not least in our best cryptocurrency to buy list is Bitcoin fork Litecoin. Litecoin aims to provide a fast, secure, and low-cost payments platform by leveraging blockchain technology like several crypto protocols.
Dubbed the “silver to Bitcoin’s gold,” Litecoin was created based on the Bitcoin protocol but differed in its hashing algorithm, hard-cap, block transaction time, and a few factors.
It has a block time of just 2.5 minutes and boasts of low transaction fees. It is ideal for micro-transactions and point-of-sale payments.
Besides Bitcoin, Litecoin is the only pure cryptocurrency due to its simple and clear utility benefits.
Litecoin price might be getting ready to try sucking a little less.
Nothing to see unless that blue line is broken. pic.twitter.com/kitsNKKInD
— The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) June 28, 2021
Price-wise, Litecoin has been on a rollercoaster ride in 2021. It started the year at $124.31 and piqued to $359.33 on May 10 before slumping.
It has struggled against the market downturn but has largely traded at the $100 mark for the last two months.
Currently, 1 LTC goes for $129.28, having dipped 5.83% overnight.
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