- Given the uncertainty in the crypto market, investors should consider diversifying their investments across well-established names when seeking cryptos to buy.
- Avalanche (AVAX-USD): The fourth-largest crypto in the DeFi space boasts $8.95 billion in total assets locked in apps.
- Ethereum (ETH-USD): The Merge will help reduce gas gees and improve transaction times.
- Monero (XMR-USD): Speculations about its use in bypassing sanctions against Russia have boosted Monero’s appeal among some crypto fans.
- Ripple (XRP-USD): Ripple’s lawsuit with the SEC is expected to conclude this year.
- Solana (SOL-USD): The smart contract network has become the second-largest blockchain by NFT sales volume.
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Finding robust cryptos to buy has become a daunting in 2022.
At the start of April, it looked like the crypto market was making up ground to offset earlier 2022 losses. However, broader markets, along with digital assets, tanked after the Federal Reserve hiked rates by 50 basis points on May 4. As a result, the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (OTCMKTS:BITW) is currently trading at record lows, down more than 50% year-to-date (YTD).
Despite the bearish mood among retail investors, Skybridge Capital’s Anthony Scaramucci announced that Bitcoin (BTC-USD) has reached “escape velocity.” As a result, the number of holders of the crypto could reach a billion within the next three to four years.
Additionally, Nissan (OTCMKTS:NSANY) and Toyota (NYSE:TM) recently announced their entry into the metaverse to offer new virtual experiences to users. Such corporate moves are likely to provide tailwinds for stocks and cryptos at the forefront of the metaverse.
Meanwhile, the academic world is also looking at models to predict the price of cryptocurrencies. Recent research suggests that the first order grey model, a non- statistical method of forecasting non-linear time series, could potentially be used to predict short-term moves in Bitcoin.
Some crypto enthusiasts could welcome the news, as quantitative approaches could play a role in short-term trading. But that’s a strategy we do not recommend for most retail investors. Given the current uncertainty and volatility in the crypto space, it may be wise for investors to stick to established cryptos to buy for the foreseeable future.
With that information, here are the five best cryptos to buy in May:
Avalanche (AVAX-USD)
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52-Week Range: $9.38– $146
Our first crypto to buy is Avalanche (AVX-USD), which boasts a thriving decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem boosted by customizable blockchains. The platform has developed unique and independent blockchain solutions, each supported by its particular staking system. These secondary networks on the Avalanche platform allow developers to create projects with their own set of validators and even their own tokens.
The native AVAX-USD token is used to stake the main network. Avalanche offers low fees and ultra-fast transaction speeds.
According to DeFi Llama, AVAX-USD is one of the largest cryptos in the Defi space, with around $5.2 billion in total value locked (TVL), which is “the sum of all staked crypto assets that are earning rewards.” TVL is widely regarded as a good predictor of future network growth. Understandably, there is a compounding effect of locking in value, which leads to longer-term projects.
Despite the growth prospects, AVAX-USD has plummeted over 70% YTD. Nonetheless, the fully diluted market capitalization (cap) of $11.2 billion positions Avalanche among the top 15 altcoins.
Ethereum (ETH-USD)
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52-Week Range: $1,707.60 – $4,891.70
Ethereum is the most well-known altcoin in the crypto space. Launched in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin, its first-mover advantage has made it the largest network for decentralized applications (dApps), including everything from DeFi projects to non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces.
The network is working on an upgrade called The Merge. Once fully launched, it will help Ethereum scale, reducing gas fees and improving transaction time.
Ethereum is currently the leader in virtually all dApp categories, hosting almost 3,000 of the roughly 4,000 total projects. According to DeFi Llama, Ethereum dominates the DeFi category with around $73 billion in TVL, representing over half of the total value locked in DeFi apps.
However, ETH-USD has declined around 60% since its November high and almost 48% YTD. Behind Bitcoin, it is the second-largest cryptocurrency, and enjoys a market cap of $235 billion.
Monero (XMR-USD)
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52-Week Range: $119.30 – $440.82
Monero (XMR-USD) is a privacy-focused blockchain protocol that masks the wallet addresses of users. As a result, others find it hard to trace and track transactions. Put another way, the platform allows for hidden transaction origins, amounts and destinations.
Speculations about entities that use Monero to bypass sanctions against Russia have recently boosted its appeal among some crypto fans. In March, the research group Brookings warned that Monero could be “used as part of a sanctions-evasion scheme.”
XMR-USD is the native cryptocurrency powering the Monero network. The altcoin is expected to go through a hard fork in July, further improving network security. Changes in fees are also likely.
So far in the year, Monero has lost about 46%. Its market cap of $2.4 billion positions Monero among the top 35 altcoins in the crypto space.
Ripple (XRP-USD)
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52-Week Range: $0.514 – $1.70
Ripple (XRP-USD) is a pre-mined token that uses blockchain technology to process international money transfers. It is currently regarded as a highly efficient settlement option for financial institutions. Ripple has big ambitions to take over the global SWIFT payment system.
XRP-USD is the native digital token of the network that facilitates money transfers between various currencies. Cross-border payments are performed at super-low fees and transaction speeds of less than 5 seconds.
Yet, over the past year, Ripple’s lawsuit with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has meant grey clouds for the crypto. On a brighter note, many analysts expect the lawsuit to conclude this year.
But the ongoing uncertainty has not helped the returns in 2022, and XRP-USD has dropped over 50% YTD. Its market cap of $37 billion makes Ripple the sixth largest cryptocurrency in the market.
Solana (SOL-USD)
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52-Week Range: $19.14 – $260.06
The last of our cryptos to buy today is Solana (SOL-USD), a promising digital asset with a flourishing DeFi ecosystem. The smart contract blockchain has achieved industry-leading scalability.
Solana boasts a high-throughput platform with a transaction capacity of up to 65,000 transactions per second. The blockchain uses proof of history, adding timestamps to data blocks to streamline the verification of transactions.
In 2021, projects on the network grew from 70 to more than 5,100. According to CryptoSlam, Solana ranks behind Ethereum as the second-largest blockchain by NFT sales volume.
In February, the platform announced Solana Pay, a protocol that serves as a decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) payment platform for merchants and their customers. Solana Pay supports real-world currencies and incorporates NFTs.
Yet, the native token SOL-USD has tumbled more than 70% YTD. With a market cap of $22.1 billion, SOL-USD is currently the ninth largest coin in the crypto space.
On the date of publication, Tezcan Gecgil did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.