7 Cryptos to Sell to Escape the Crypto Contagion

There’s a new virus people are talking about, and while your health isn’t at risk, your portfolio sure is. The crypto contagion has many investors nursing heavy losses. Others worry still that the contagion can afflict the stock market. While experts are unconvinced of the threat to Wall Street, there is still a distinct possibility that the crypto market remains on the decline. Investors want to know which cryptos to sell to avoid further damage.

The collapse of Terra Classic (LUNC-USD) started turning the gears for what would turn into a full-fledged bear market back in May.

The incredible thing about its plummet, though, is just how sudden it came along. It took only a matter of days for one of the largest cryptos in the world to drop from over $80 to essentially $0. Now, investors are left to wonder which cryptos could be next.

Consider these cryptos to sell as you look to lighten your portfolio in anticipation of further dips.

CEL-USD	Celsius	75 cents
SOL-USD	Solana	$39.10
XMR-USD	Monero	$129.48
ETC-USD	Ethereum Classic	$15.78
APE-USD	ApeCoin	$5.04
AXS-USD	Axie Infinity	$14.99
CHZ-USD	Chiliz	10 cents

Cryptos to Sell: Celsius (CEL-USD)

If you’ve been paying attention to the news cycle around Celsius, you’ll know that this is one of the most obvious cryptos to sell right now. Certainly evidence of the lurking crypto contagion, the network represents all that is wrong with the industry — from centralization to illicit activity.

The CEL token first started plummeting last month, when the company decided to halt withdrawals. The move cut off 500,000 users from their funds in the name of preserving the company’s liquidity. Some have likened the move to Robinhood’s (NASDAQ:HOOD) freezing of meme stocks early last year at the height of the GameStop (NYSE:GME) frenzy.

And adding fuel to the fire today is a lawsuit against the company by its newly outed business partner, KeyFi. An Arkham Intelligence report claimed the two negligently invested users’ funds and lost $390 million. Now, KeyFi is bringing Celsius to court for allegedly refusing to honor an agreement and operating a Ponzi scheme with investor money.

Solana (SOL-USD)

Solana is the largest project on this list. But, as Terra proved, even the giants are capable of falling. Indeed, the network’s unreliability is a roadblock, but so too is a legal battle that is only just getting started.

Developers assert that Solana is one of the fastest and highest-scaling networks on the market. However, that doesn’t mean much if users can’t operate on the network with confidence. Solana faces constant criticism for its outages. This year alone, it suffered a dozen outages. One outage last year took the network down for a whopping 17 hours at one time.

This week, the bearish sentiment against SOL is growing. Solana is now facing a class-action lawsuit from a group of users. The suit alleges that the company mislead investors and fraudulently profited through illegal securities offerings. While a loss for Solana would certainly be a fatal blow to the network, it could actually set a precedent dangerous to most every layer-1 network which dealt coins prior to their public ICOs.

Cryptos to Sell: Monero (XMR-USD)

Monero is one of the top cryptos to sell right now, not necessarily due to the threat of the crypto contagion, but rather due to the threat of the regulation contagion. As governments around the world finalize crypto regulations, privacy coins have a growing target on their backs.

Being a privacy coin, Monero operates for the sole purpose of allowing investors to transact funds anonymously. It’s an appealing offering, and one that is very popular among investors who don’t want government hands on their money. But the network is endangered by a growing demand for know-your-customer (KYC) guidelines.

The European Union is wrapping up its crypto-centric amendments to its existing anti-money laundering (AML) legislature, and it spells danger for XMR.

To prevent the laundering of illegally obtained funds, the E.U. has discussed requiring all companies operating within its borders to implement KYC, tagging all activity with identifying information. Of course, this goes against the very ethos of Monero, and the platform could become unusable within the E.U. While this isn’t the end of Monero, though, more regulations like this around the globe will slowly suffocate it.

Ethereum Classic (ETC-USD)

Save the debate over which is the real Ethereum: Ethereum Classic is not going to outlast Ethereum.

First of all, Ethereum is much larger, giving it a greater safety net in case this crypto contagion spreads further. Moreover, the usability of the new Ethereum continues to grow, while Ethereum Classic stagnates and only becomes more outdated.

The incoming Ethereum Merge will make the contrast between the two even more stark. Ethereum Classic will continue to use proof-of-work while Ethereum moves to proof-of-stake. As such, transactions on the Classic network will continue to crawl along with Ethereum’s becoming lightning-fast. Moreover, new technology like sharding will boost scaling, allowing ETH to accommodate even more users and developers on its platform.

Ethereum Classic might be a hit among some nostalgic users, but its appeal is extremely limited. As Ethereum continues to grow its decentralized application (dapp) web and become a Web 3.0 superpower, ETC will only become more of a relic.

Cryptos to Sell: ApeCoin (APE-USD)

Bored Ape Yacht Club fans are dedicated to their favorite project, but unfortunately, not many other investors are. The ApeCoin crypto has served well to capitalize on the hype of the non-fungible token (NFT) collection, but it’s just not going to last forever.

The thing with NFTs is that — like any other piece of art or new tech — they can’t remain in style forever. Trends come and go, and pictures of relatively similar-looking monkeys aren’t going to be exceptions. Skeptics having been getting easy digs in at the collection for a while now, most recently for the fiasco in which comedian Seth Green’s ape token was stolen.

ApeCoin, being the cryptocurrency built to support the Bored Ape network, is thus in danger of falling out of favor as well. Already, APE holders have floated measures to try and rebuild hype around the coin. However, these measure mostly involve things like artificially constricting supply to increase demand.

With interest weakening, there is simply a weakening demand that will eventually disappear.

Axie Infinity (AXS-USD)

Play-to-earn (P2E) games are a unique concept; the hype behind them has even spawned spinoff niches like the new move-to-earn (M2E) trend. Much of this popularity is thanks to Axie Infinity. However, Axis Infinity has gotten an unfair shake, and now that it’s down, it could very well be out altogether.

AXS prices reached their peak late last year, with tokens reaching a high above $160. This could be considered the height of P2E gaming on the blockchain, with the token breaching the top 25 largest cryptos in the world. However, this popularity came with growing pains, including a heightened barrier to entry on the network. The cost to buy Axies, the NFTs required to play, soared to thousands of dollars.

By the time developers launched a free-to-play title to remedy this issue, though, the network was already on a fast decline. The Ronin (RON-USD) chain, which Axie Infinity is built atop, was hacked, draining $650 million in assets from the ecosystem. AXS prices were already slumping, and are now down 91% from their all-time high. It seems highly unlikely that Axie will reclaim its former glory.

Cryptos to Sell: Chiliz (CHZ-USD)

Chiliz is one of the best cryptos to sell because it has a relatively weak use case.

Many crypto companies have tried to break into sports. FTX has its logo on MLB umpires’ uniforms, and Crypto.com owns the naming rights to the Los Angeles Laker’s home arena. But Chiliz is taking things to another level with its fan tokens. Holders can use the network’s fan tokens for discounts and voting power for fan-led votes, for example. The network even has partnerships with dozens of professional sports teams.

However, there’s lots of pushback against the sports-crypto relationship. Some have called the relationship a “disservice” to fans, misleading them about the volatility of the industry and grabbing for cash. As studies show that sports fans are more likely to invest in crypto than the average person, these partnerships seem more of a cash grab than anything.

And in fact, the crypto market doesn’t show much of a dedication to sports anyway, with many companies now backing out of sports deals in the wake of the market crash. Crypto and sports seems to be more of a fling than a marriage, and as fans start to realize that, even projects in it for the long haul like Chiliz won’t last.