In a span of just 15 years, cryptocurrencies emerged from obscurity to become an important part of financial markets. But there’s one thing the industry’s evolution hasn’t eradicated: extreme volatility.
At its peak in November 2021, the crypto market was worth upwards of $2.9 trillion. By mid-2022, hit by rising inflation and an aggressive rate-hiking cycle by the Federal Reserve, the entire market was worth less than $900 billion. Fast forward to Nov. 7 of this year, and cryptocurrencies collectively were worth $2.5 trillion.
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That’s quite a roller coaster. If you’re not willing to endure such violent swings, you simply shouldn’t own cryptocurrencies. And if you do get into crypto, there are thousands of coins to choose from, each one with different dynamics. It’s daunting. Here are six of the best cryptocurrencies to buy now:
— Bitcoin (BTC)
— Ether (ETH)
— Solana (SOL)
— Avalanche (AVAX)
— Pepe (PEPE)
— Cardano (ADA)
Bitcoin (BTC)
Cryptocurrency is an incredibly nascent asset class, with origins only dating back to 2009. Extreme volatility is par for the course, so investors looking to insulate themselves from the potential total collapse of their holdings will want to go with more established names. None is more established than Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency and largest by market capitalization with a valuation of about $1.5 trillion, or more than 59% of the overall market.
BTC boasts the most mainstream acceptance of any of the top cryptocurrencies, as evidenced by the January debut of 11 new Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, or ETFs. The fight with the Securities and Exchange Commission to approve spot Bitcoin ETFs was years in the making, but the approval finally materialized. Bitcoin ETFs have ushered in a new chapter for the leading crypto, as mainstream investors can now track its performance without having to directly own the “digital gold” itself.
After languishing below $17,000 at the beginning of 2023, less than two years later Bitcoin has hit fresh all-time highs in late 2024, and now trades for more than $75,000. Through Nov. 7, Bitcoin prices are up 79.6% year to date, driven by a handful of catalysts that aligned perfectly for a rip-roaring rally. The first was the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the first quarter of 2024, which quickly attracted billions of dollars in assets under management flowing into the digital asset.
The second catalyst for BTC was the Bitcoin halving event that occurred on April 19, when rewards for mining Bitcoin were cut in half. It’s a process that happens roughly every four years and goes hand in hand with Bitcoin’s scarcity; within 18 months of previous Bitcoin halvings, the price of the token has rallied fiercely.
And the most recent event vaulting Bitcoin to all-time highs was the election of former President Donald Trump, who has signaled his friendliness towards the crypto industry. Some of the more optimistic investors are speculating that his election could even bring about a “strategic Bitcoin reserve,” an idea that has support from Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and various other members of Congress.
Ether (ETH)
Second by market capitalization is Ether, which is the native token on the widely used Ethereum blockchain. Often colloquially referred to as Ethereum, ETH’s market cap is about $354 billion and accounts for nearly 14% of the total cryptocurrency market. Unlike Bitcoin, Ether’s underlying network is far more than just a tool for peer-to-peer payments; the Ethereum blockchain is custom-made for smart contracts and decentralized finance tools, as well as for so-called Web3 applications and the trading of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.
While Bitcoin only functions as a speculative asset and a store of value, Ether has inherent utility as the native token of a wildly popular network. Plus, Ethereum’s switch in recent years from the energy-inefficient proof-of-work protocol to the much more efficient proof-of-stake system gives it a leg up on BTC in an increasingly environmentally conscious world.
Briefly sitting on 70% year-to-date gains in the first quarter of the year, ETH is now up 26.9% through Nov. 7, illustrating once again why cryptocurrency investments aren’t for the faint of heart. These two cryptos are undoubtedly the best in their asset class. To the surprise of many, the SEC greenlit spot Ether ETFs this year, and a handful of them began trading in late July.
[Read: The History of Bitcoin]
Solana (SOL)
Like Ethereum, Solana is a blockchain that was built with utility in mind. In Solana’s case, it’s become known for facilitating the easy creation of decentralized applications, or dApps, but the network is actually even faster than Ethereum, has far lower fees and is intended to be more easily scalable than rivals. The native token of this blockchain is the eponymous Solana, also known as SOL.
SOL didn’t start trading until 2020, but it has had a meteoric rise to stardom in the years since. At the beginning of 2021, SOL accounted for just 0.01% of the crypto market’s total value. Come Nov. 7 of this year, SOL makes up 3.7% of the multitrillion-dollar space, representing a 370-fold increase in its market share.
Excluding stablecoins, Solana is the third-largest cryptocurrency in the world, with a market capitalization around $95 billion. SOL’s enjoyed a fantastic run thus far in 2024, returning 93.4% through Nov. 7. Aside from its low fees, ease of use and thriving ecosystem, Solana has recently attracted a lot of attention to its platform through the popularity of Solana meme coins, which are easy and cheap to create and trade. Dogwifhat (WIF) and Bonk (BONK), another dog-themed meme coin, are two of Solana’s most popular meme coins in 2024.
Avalanche (AVAX)
When investing in cryptocurrency, investors should understand that it’s Bitcoin and Ether in their own tier. Solana has arguably earned its spot as a second-tier coin due to the strong meme coin ecosystem, ease of use and low fees. AVAX and the other altcoins on this list, however, all have more risk, and investors should factor that into their decisions. Consider them purely speculative wagers.
Caveats aside, the Avalanche network’s AVAX token earns its place on this list by virtue of the ambitious goals of the Avalanche blockchain.
Avalanche’s subnets feature allows users to deploy their own mini-blockchains on top of its network. Developer Ava Labs envisions a future in which most mainstream commercial entities and even many individuals will want their own blockchains, with Avalanche subnets offering a convenient solution to that problem. If that reality materializes, then AVAX, which plunged 90% in 2022’s bear market, could emerge as a longer-term winner.
AVAX has surged over the past year, with prices up 115% in that span, though AVAX is off 29% in 2024 as of Nov. 7. Avalanche currently has a market capitalization of $11.5 billion, making it the tenth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, excluding stablecoins.
Pepe (PEPE)
If you’re new to the world of cryptocurrency, there’s something you need to know: Sometimes the coins that take off are just plain stupid. Pepe, a meme coin with no inherent value other than its name — a reference to an old internet meme of a frog — is just such an example.
So, why include PEPE on the list of the best cryptocurrencies to buy? Well, as long as you’re resigned to speculating (you are, if you’re playing the crypto market), meme coins can provide enormous upside, and tend to have strong communities of loyal holders and intermittent periods of huge surges as they catch fire on social media. Pepe has the benefit of being a well-known, long-living internet meme, and has already cleared some difficult market cap thresholds: With a market cap of $4.6 billion, it’s one of the top 25 most valuable cryptocurrencies in the world today.
Up more than 840% over the last year, the Ethereum-based meme coin has a proven ability to soar. If it can reach the current heights of the largest meme coin today, Dogecoin (DOGE), PEPE still has 6x upside from these levels. If you do decide to gamble on PEPE, be sure you’re buying the correct one, the Ethereum-based coin with a high market cap, as there are several different PEPE coins across the cryptoverse.
Cardano (ADA)
Founded in 2017 by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson, Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain and one of the largest blockchains to successfully run that more energy-efficient protocol. Cardano aims to foster a developer-friendly ecosystem for dApps. Unlike Ethereum, Cardano has a hard cap on the number of coins that can ever exist, topping out at 45 billion. Thankfully for investors, around 35 billion, or roughly 78%, of that supply has already been issued, meaning the amount of overall dilution remaining is both known and relatively limited.
Cardano has managed to advance nearly 80% since the beginning of 2023, when it was trading for 25 cents. It’s now trading for roughly 45 cents and boasts a market cap of more than $15 billion. Cardano is down 32% so far in 2024 through Nov. 7, so it’s likely more of a long-term turnaround candidate than a short-term trader’s dream.
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6 of the Best Cryptocurrencies to Buy Now originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 11/08/24: This story was previously published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
