7 Alternative Cryptos to Buy as Bitcoin Rebounds

Not too long ago, the cryptocurrency sector was drowning in so much red ink that many considered cutting their losses and throwing in the towel. Then, an unexpected and ironic catalyst came to the rescue.

As you’ve no doubt heard, e-commerce giant Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) sent the digital asset market soaring when it posted a job advertisement seeking a “digital currency and blockchain product lead.” Rumors quickly circulated that Amazon was mulling the idea of integrating Bitcoin (CCC:BTC-USD) payments, much like Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) did for its electric vehicles. Naturally, you couldn’t ask for a better endorsement of cryptos.

Usually, Amazon moving into a market signals doom and gloom for incumbent players. But in the case of cryptos, the veritable vacuum cleaner for mom-and-pop businesses is exactly what proponents of cryptos were looking for.

It isn’t really about Amazon or Tesla or any other blue-chip supporter. Rather, the virtual currency sector has long sought mainstream credibility and engagement. Joining forces with Amazon achieves that goal, even if that partner has a reputation for killing small businesses.

But is this the rally to believe in? Before you go all-in on cryptos, you should note that many risk factors still exist. First, Amazon denied rumors that it’s planning to integrate Bitcoin into its e-commerce ecosystem. Management could be playing coy, of course, but it’s not wise to bet it all on just this news item.

Plus there’s this idea that Bitcoin and cryptos have entered a contango market — a situation where an asset’s futures price is higher than its spot price — which isn’t exactly a bullish signal. For instance, Bitcoin was trading in contango in early April of this year, inspiring many optimistic calls. Prices moved higher for only two weeks before BTC-USD crumbled. Therefore, be supremely careful with these alternative cryptos.

Here are 7 alternative cryptos to buy as Bitcoin rebounds:

No one knows for certain where cryptocurrencies will end up. Therefore, I’m going to focus on important price thresholds to watch via Fibonacci retracement analysis. But I will say this: be careful about reading too much into narrative-based methodologies. If identifying contango or backwardation markets was all it took to make a profit, everyone would do it!

Alternative Cryptos to Buy: Binance Coin (BNB)

An alternative cryptos that seemingly came out of nowhere, Binance Coin is tied to the Binance exchange, one of the biggest crypto platforms in the world. Not only is it a sizable arena, proponents really enjoy the access Binance provides as compared to some of the other popular exchange and digital wallet services.

At time of writing, Binance Coin ranks fourth among cryptos in terms of market capitalization, with a value of $52.4 billion. Over the trailing week (from July 27), BNB-USD is up nearly 16%.

But can it keep up the momentum? Based on its peak price of $690.93, here are BNB-USD’s Fibonacci retracement levels:

• 8% retracement: $426.99
• 50% retracement: $345.47
• 2% retracement: $263.94
• 6% retracement: $163.06

As I write this, Binance Coin trades around $311. That’s encouraging because near the end of June, BNB-USD was struggling on top of the 38.2% retracement. Still, it’s not in a great place so we need to see the bulls push Binance Coin toward $400 to justify further speculation.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH-USD)

Although Bitcoin naturally gets the most attention as a pioneer and benchmark among cryptos, being first isn’t necessarily the best, especially when you’re dealing with a technological platform. True, BTC-USD proved the concept that a decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) network could be functional and profitable. At the same time, its underlying architecture proved cumbersome.

Efforts to remedy this situation failed to find consensus among Bitcoin’s network contributors. Therefore, a hardfork occurred, whereby crypto advocates who wanted Bitcoin to stay true to its original P2P ethos started a new chain off the original architecture. The end result is Bitcoin Cash.

While BCH-USD has improved significantly from its recent lows, investors will want to keep tabs on these price thresholds based off its 2021 peak price of $1,549.23:

• 8% retracement: $957.42
• 50% retracement: $774.62
• 2% retracement: $591.81
• 6% retracement: $365.62

As I write this, Bitcoin Cash is trading around $500. That puts BCH-USD conspicuously underneath its 38.2% retracement level, which is a support baseline that you don’t want to see breached.

Considering that it has been consistently undervalued relative to other cryptos, I’d be careful with this one.

Solana (SOL-USD)

One of the newer cryptos available, Solana has rocketed up the ranks, currently placing 16 in terms of market cap (nearly $7.6 billion at time of writing). Better yet, SOL-USD is not one of those digital assets driven purely by mass speculation.

According to Coinmarketcap.com, “Solana is a highly functional open source project that banks on blockchain technology’s permissionless nature to provide decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions.” As well, the “Solana protocol is designed to facilitate decentralized app (DApp) creation. It aims to improve scalability by introducing a proof-of-history (PoH) consensus combined with the underlying proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus of the blockchain.”

But is SOL-USD worth gambling on at this juncture? Here are the retracement levels to watch based off its $58.30 peak:

• 8% retracement: $36.03
• 50% retracement: $29.15
• 2% retracement: $22.27
• 6% retracement: $13.76

Currently, I’m looking at SOL-USD changing hands around $28. That gives it a moderate strength profile relative to other alternative cryptos. While it’s above the 38.2% retracement level, it’s also below the 50% threshold. I’d like to see SOL-USD trade consistently above $30 for me to feel comfortable taking a sizable risk.

Theta (THETA-USD)

Mired in “penny stock” territory prior to the pandemic, Theta was certainly a massive beneficiary of the rally in cryptos that began in earnest toward the tail end of 2020.

According to Coinmarketcap, Theta is a “blockchain powered network purpose-built for video streaming. Launched in March 2019, the Theta mainnet operates as a decentralized network in which users share bandwidth and computing resources on a peer-to-peer (P2P) basis. The project is advised by Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube and Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch.”

THETA-USD seems to have a higher correlation with Bitcoin than some other cryptos, with its peak price of $15.90 arriving near mid-April. Based on this rate, here are the Fibonacci retracement levels:

• 8% retracement: $9.83
• 50% retracement: $7.95
• 2% retracement: $6.07
• 6% retracement: $3.75

Presently, THETA-USD trades hands around $6, which is a difficult situation for traders. On one hand, THETA-USD is basically sitting on the 38.2% retracement, which represents a huge discount if you think it’s going to move higher.

But will it? More conservative traders will probably want to see THETA-USD breach $8 before taking a shot.

Filecoin (FIL-USD)

While cryptos are invariably associated with gambling behaviors, Filecoin represents a burgeoning movement of blockchain projects that add fundamental value to the decentralized innovation. In this case, Filecoin is a decentralized storage system that aims to disrupt the traditional cloud-based storage infrastructure.

According to Coinmarketcap, “Decentralized storage systems like Filecoin allow people to be their own custodians of their data, as well as makes the web more accessible to people worldwide.” It also makes file-sharing enterprises participatory in nature by rewarding those willing to contribute storage capacity with cryptos.

Now, Filecoin is distinct — perhaps unique — in that it peaked much earlier relative to other cryptos. On April 1 of this year, FIL-USD hit $237.24. Here are the Fibonacci retracement levels based on this peak:

• 8% retracement: $146.61
• 50% retracement: $118.62
• 2% retracement: $90.63
• 6% retracement: $55.99

Among the cryptos on this list, it’s difficult to have much confidence with FIL-USD. At current prices around $50, the digital coin is trading around 10% below the 23.6% retracement level. Unless you’re a battle-hardened speculator, I’d stay on the sidelines.

Monero (XMR-USD)

Although blockchain innovations and cryptos offer tremendous potential to spark a paradigm shift in our financial system, they tend to have a bad boy reputation. Because of their cryptic nature, bad actors prefer virtual currency payments for their nefarious activities.

Naturally, many blockchain advocates resent this association. Apparently, though, that’s not the case for the developers of Monero, most of them deciding to remain anonymous. Launched in 2014, Monero has one main goal according to Coinmarketcap: “to allow transactions to take place privately and with anonymity.”

The XMR-USD blockchain is so effective that the Internal Revenue Service will pay up to $625,000 for anyone who can crack its network. Good luck with that. Monero hit a high this year of $517.62. Based on this, here are the levels to watch:

• 8% retracement: $319.89
• 50% retracement: $258.81
• 2% retracement: $197.73
• 6% retracement: $122.16

As I’m writing this, XMR-USD is trading hands just shy of $230, which places it 14.5% above the 38.2% retracement level. At the same time, it’s also 12.5% below the 50% level. How’s that for symmetry?

Overall, conservative traders may want to wait for XMR-USD to crack $300 before taking a shot.

PancakeSwap (CAKE-USD)

One of the previously lesser known cryptos that’s rapidly rising up the ranks, PancakeSwap sits just outside the top 30 digital assets by market cap. While it might have a funny name, PancakeSwap means serious business.

Per Coinmarketcap, “PancakeSwap is an automated market maker (AMM) — a decentralized finance (DeFi) application that allows users to exchange tokens, providing liquidity via farming and earning fees in return.”

As you know, in traditional exchanges, market makers provide the liquidity that allows negotiations between bulls and bears to flourish. But this is a rarefied, restricted field. In contrast, platforms like PancakeSwap allow anybody with internet access to provide said liquidity, ushering in an entirely new concept to the capital markets.

On the final day of April this year, CAKE-USD peaked at $44.18. From there, we have the following Fibonacci retracements:

• 8% retracement: $27.30
• 50% retracement: $22.09
• 2% retracement: $16.88
• 6% retracement: $10.43

Currently, CAKE-USD trades hands at $14.92, which may either be an unbelievable discount for extreme speculators or a worrying sign for conservative investors. Personally, I’d like to see PancakeSwap at least cross above the 38.2% retracement to have confidence that it’s not going to quickly drop back into single-digit territory.

On the date of publication, Josh Enomoto held a LONG position in BTC-USD and BCH-USD. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

A former senior business analyst for Sony Electronics, Josh Enomoto has helped broker major contracts with Fortune Global 500 companies. Over the past several years, he has delivered unique, critical insights for the investment markets, as well as various other industries including legal, construction management, and healthcare.