Which Cryptocurrency Coins Have Had The Best Start To 2019? A Look At The Top Tokens This Year
Top Crypto's 2019
The cryptocurrency market appears to be heating up again with the bitcoin (BTC) price surging from about $3,500 earlier this month to currently around $3,900 according to CoinMarketCap data. Other major altcoins have also surged with Ethereum’s native token, ether (ETH), EOS, and litecoin (LTC) recording considerable gains.
Although it’s unclear what’s behind the short-term rally, there are definitely some cryptocurrency projects that are arguably worth investing in more so than others. In this article, we will briefly discuss why certain digital assets may yield a higher return on investment (ROI) when compared to others.
Litecoin (LTC)
Many analysts argue that litecoin (LTC) offers nothing new in terms of technology, as it’s basically another proof-of-work (PoW) fork of the Bitcoin (BTC) protocol. While the Litecoin network does use a different mining algorithm than the flagship cryptocurrency (Bitcoin uses SHA-256, Litecoin uses Scrypt), most investors won't know what makes Litecoin different – as in what is its unique value proposition?
Launched in 2011, Litecoin can be thought of as a brand that most in the crypto community has learned to trust. The Litecoin blockchain has a relatively long and established transaction history – which has helped it gain a powerful network effect. There aren’t too many cryptocurrencies which have the same level of security and network effect that Litecoin has managed to develop.
Litecoin also serves as a testnet for Bitcoin, as developers can try to experiment with new ways to improve Bitcoin’s protocol by first trying the new code on the Litecoin network. Last year, leading social trading platform eToro had published a report in which it noted that Litecoin was “massively undervalued.” eToro’s report mentioned that Litecoin had integrated the Lightning Network (LN) to its platform, which allowed the layer-two payment solution to be tested on a large digital asset network. For these reasons, we expect Litecoin to remain a good long-term investment choice for crypto enthusiasts.
Binance Coin (BNB)
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance has launched a utility token called Binance Coin (BNB). Binance Coin’s market capitalization continues to increase – despite the prolonged bear market. It appears that the long-term success of this token is inextricably linked to the success of Binance.
As crypto enthusiasts know, last year Binance recorded first quarter profits which were greater than that of Deutsche bank, one of Europe’s largest financial institutions. Moreover, what made the achievement even more impressive is that Binance has fewer than 200 employees while Deutsche bank has approximately 100,000 employees on its payroll.
Recently, Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao has admitted that business has slowed down for the exchange as trading volumes have dropped considerably. Despite this, Binance revealed it has still managed to remain profitable. While some analysts such as TheBlock founder, Mike Dudas have criticized the use of Binance Coin, it’s clear that there’s a legitimate use case for BNB coins – as it incentivizes traders to use it to benefit from discount while trading on Binance.
As Binance continues to expand its line of services and products, including the launch of a decentralized exchange (DEX), we expect the value of Binance Coin (BNB) to increase in the mid to long-term.
Maker (MKR)
Maker, an Ethereum-based collateralized loan ecosystem based on “decentralized governance” and stablecoin, Dai, is arguably one of the most useful applications developed on the Ethereum network. MKR coins should be a sensible investment choice as they contribute to an ecosystem that has now locked up approximately 2% of Ether’s total circulating supply.
Experienced traders and investors looking for a viable, long-term investment should consider allocating a small portion of their digital asset portfolio to Maker’s MKR tokens.
Zilliqa (ZIL)
Zilliqa is a third-
