2018 was a transitory year for the cryptocurrency, and it seems as cryptocurrency enthusiast shifting their focus from “HODL” to “BUIDL”. When prices were fluctuating, the blockchain is developing by leap and bounds, preparing for the next strong bull run so far for us.
The new year 2019 has started on a circumspect scale. Fred Wilson (Inventor of Venture capital) expects some “signs of life” for crypto market, but he does not expect it to act as a safe haven. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) hopes new investors to begin the asset class following the launch of Bakkt.
Bakkt was designed by the operator of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). It has completed a $182.5 million funding while the leading cryptocurrency is likely to be volatile during the launch of futures trading on Bakkt.
This guide is specially designed to share with you the overview of the most popular cryptocurrencies. Here, we’ll understand what the top 10 cryptocurrencies are doing with their capital.
Let’s get started!
1. Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin is one of the leading digital currency based on the blockchain technology, It eliminates the need for centralized third parties like banks and credit card companies etc. when making electronic payments.
Moreover, Bitcoin is anchoring itself up for an interesting 2019, and there are 2 major reasons why: Fast transactions and scalability. This makes the potential to launch the entire market into another bull run, although it will need time to earn traction.
Bitcoin Pros:
- Being the first cryptocurrency, it has the largest community of developers and investors backing it for further growth.
- It is easy to trade Bitcoin, even for the novices, as it is supported by all the top exchanges and wallets.
- Bitcoin is acquired at many places like Bloomberg, Microsoft, Overstock.com, Expedia.com, and many others have started accepting payments in BTC.
Bitcoin Cons:
- Due to large transactions, Bitcoin is facing huge challenges in scaling up. It takes about 10 minutes in a transaction, and its network can process barely 7 transactions per second.
- Bitcoin Mining, which is an important activity for any cryptocurrency, has become highly complex. Now, it is possible with only expensive, super powerful hardware that uses lots of electricity.
- Transaction fees are also notable (high), making it less feasible.
Bitcoin has been stabbed in a tight range between $3,912.91 and $3,598.99 since Dec. 26. A breakout of this range will result as $4,255. If successful, It can move up to $6,100.
2. Ethereum (ETH)
Created in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum is the second most valuable cryptocurrency. Actually, it’s more than cryptocurrency which has been labeled a “decentralized app” provider. It is a blockchain-based platform for developing decentralized apps and smart contracts.
Moreover, the apps developed on Ethereum are on a distributed public ledger where miners can acquire “ether” tokens to fuel the network. Almost 94 of top 100 cryptocoins are built on Ethereum.
However, the instant rise in activity on the blockchain has also increasing pains along with it, in the form of scalability concerns.
Ethereum Pros:
- Ethereum is the most popular platform for building apps and smart contracts, which is considered the next great idea in the cryptocurrency world.
- It provides an excellent platform for launching the ICOs and approx $15 million worth of ICOs in 2018 was launched on Ethereum.
- Ethereum mining is quite easy as compared to Bitcoin mining.
- It has a bit faster transactions against the 10 minutes or more of Bitcoin.
Ethereum Cons:
- It is also facing scalability issues like Bitcoin.
- Ethereum only supports one coding language which acts an entry barrier for them.
- It is facing strong competition in the market from coins like NEO and Cardano which are offering similar but improved technology.
Ethereum is trying to break out of $167.32. If successful, it can jump up to $225. The impressive averages have completed a bullish crossover and the RSI is in positive territory, which is a bullish sign.
3. Ripple (XRP)
Ripple cryptocurrency was founded in 2012 with the aim to make transactions more faster and cheaper. It is a very unique cryptocurrency which focused on solving problems related to just one industry — International Payment Transfers.
Moreover, the Ripple labs are owned the total number of 100 billion XRP that will ever exist. This is a very unique approach compared to most other cryptocurrencies where there is no central entity holding the majority of the coins.
While Bitcoin wishes to tackle scalability issues, Ripple software is already capable of consistently handling 1,500 transactions per second (Tx/s), which is basically similar to Visa’s average of 1,700 Tx/s.
Ripple Pros:
- It makes international money transfers faster and cheaper.
- Ripple has the best solutions targeted at one particular industry.
- It is one of the few cryptocurrency platforms which has strategic ties with many major financial institutions and is currently being used by American Express and Santander.
Ripple Cons:
- It is often analyzed for being centralized whereas decentralization is the core idea behind cryptocurrencies since the company itself owns half of the coins.
- Some of Ripple’s users have started developing their own cryptocurrencies for international payments.
It is noticed, Ripple can move up to $0.40 and a breakout of this level will complete a reverse head and shoulders pattern that has a pattern target of $0.52205 with a minor interference at the resistance line of the descending channel.
4. Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
As the name implies, Bitcoin Cash has been forked from Bitcoin itself in 2016. When a cryptocurrency is broken into two, parent cryptocurrencies retain their features while the child cryptocurrency undergoes technological improvements.
Moreover, the basic purpose of creating BCH was to solve some of the existing issues of Bitcoin, especially regarding scalability and transaction fees. In 2018, Bitcoin Cash remains ranked at #4, and their newly updated website comes complete with a roadmap for 2019.
Bitcoin Cash Pros:
- By increasing the block size to 8MB, Bitcoin Cash transactions are faster than Bitcoin transactions.
- Average Bitcoin Cash transaction fees are currently around $0.067 compare to $1.8 of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Cash Cons:
- BCH is supposed to be fully decentralized like Bitcoin. But it has a CEO instead, something which has been highly criticized in the crypto world.
- Bitcoin Cash mining is as expensive as Bitcoin mining but lesser returns, so it is not a preference among the miners.
- Bitcoin Cash is not as simply available on cryptocurrency exchanges as the other top cryptocurrencies.
5. EOS (EOS)
In June 2017, EOS token was launched through an ICO. It is one such cryptocurrency which is among the top 10 cryptocurrencies even before the launch of its platform. EOS’s platform was expected to launch in June 2018 which was created by Dan Larimer.
Moreover, the current EOS roadmap isn’t quite detailed in terms of dates, but we can expect a major focus in 2019 will be the funding and development of apps within the EOS ecosystem. We can also hope, they’ll be implementing updates on the main chain to make it an impressive choice for blockchain developers.
EOS Pros:
- By using an advanced mechanism, EOS is supposed to be more scalable than Ethereum to verify transactions.
- It supports multiple languages, including C++, unlike Ethereum.
- EOS has a team of great developers with a proven track record.
EOS Cons:
The major issue is that the platform has still not been launched properly so no one knows for sure how good or bad it actually will be.
6. Stellar (XLM)
In 2014, Stellar was founded by Jed McCaleb (founder of Ripple) as a hard forked. It is also focused on making cross-border payments more efficient. Stellar Foundation of Development is a non-profit organization.
Moreover, The cryptocurrencies that are able to make developmental gains, as well as partnerships, during bear markets are the ones that stand the best opportunity of survival. Stellar is almost similar to Ripple in a few ways, but 1 of the most noticeable similarities leading into 2019 is their success in building partnerships with large corporations, and what their plans for next year entail.
Stellar Pros:
- It is more decentralized as compared to its closest opponent, Ripple. Also, being a non-profit, it stimulates more trust than others.
- Stellar has obtained strategic partnerships with over 30 banks and with organizations like Deloitte and IBM.
Stellar Cons:
- There are a number of coins which are aiming this space of international payments, including the number 3 on our list of Top 10 cryptocurrencies — Ripple.
7. Litecoin (LTC)
Litecoin was created by Charlie Lee in 2011, an ex-Google employee which is based on blockchain of Bitcoin. So, it doesn’t provide a platform for smart contracts like Bitcoin. Litecoin is generally known as the silver to Bitcoin’s gold, given users’ proclivity to stock their Bitcoin rather than use it for everyday transactions.
However, It’s a loose similarity, but Litecoin’s goal as “silver” is to come in a smaller classification than BTC, and thus be more reasonable to use for everyday transactions. It is believed that Litecoin has a few technological updates due for release throughout 2019.
Litecoin Pros:
- Transactions take around 2.5 mins as compared to 10 minutes to complete a Bitcoin transaction. This is the main reason that it is known as “Lite” coin.
- Litecoin transaction fees are around $0.179 as compared to $1.8 for Bitcoin.
Litecoin Cons:
- Besides for transaction speed, there is no other advanced technology from Litecoin which can significantly differentiate it from others such as privacy, smart contracts, and international payments etc.
- Litecoin mining is also costly and limited to those with specific powerful hardware, Like Bitcoin mining.
8. TRON (TRX)
In June 2018, TRON was launched and has progressed immensely. It is reaching an impressive ranking of #8 in terms of Marketcap. They’ve also maintained to better Ethereum dapp usage in this short time, making it a serious platform coin contender.
On top of that, TRON has a list of difficult goals set for 2019.
The CEO of TRON, Justin Sun, recently described that TRON will execute zk-SNARKS technology, giving users the possibility to obfuscate their transaction details. The update is listed to take place as soon as Q1 2019.
TRON Pros:
- The biggest advantage that TRON offers over all other cryptocurrencies is min. transaction fees.
- When all other cryptocurrencies are struggling with scalability issues, TRON’s technology promises infinite scalability.
TRON Cons:
- TRON has a hіgh numbеr оf coins in supply amounting to 100.000.000.000 is also a disadvantage.
- If the big TRON players themselves develop their own cryptocurrency then TRON could face stiff competition.
9. Cardano (ADA)
In Sept 2017, Cardano was created by Charles Hoskinson (Ethereum’s co-founder). It has also been developed as a platform for decentralized apps and smart contracts, like Ethereum.
Moreover, Cardano is known as the 3rd and most advanced generation of blockchain technology yet (just as EOS and NEO are). It has the most detailed roadmap publicly available, and a countdown available for their next roadmap update.
Cardano Pros:
- Its blockchain development is supported by an academic community of global researchers and scientists.
- ADA is more scalable than Ethereum with a current capability of 257 transactions per second.
Cardano Cons:
- A number of concepts that have been proposed by Cardano are yet to be developed into the final product. So, it waits to be seen whether it will succeed or not.
- There is already tremendous competition in this space, from Ethereum to EOS and NEO to Fusion.
10. NEO (NEO)
NEO is a Chinese cryptocurrency, was created in 2014 by Da Hongfei and originally called AntShares? Actually, it is rebranded to NEO in June 2017!
NEO is also known as the “Chinese Ethereum” because of the similarities in its offering to that of Ethereum. It also provides a blockchain-based platform for the development of Smart contracts and launching ICOs.
NEO Pros:
- It can complete around 10,000 transactions per second as compared to 15 transactions of Ethereum.
- NEO supports multiple languages like C++, C#, Go, Java, making it a preference among programmers.
- It appears to enjoy the support of the Chinese government, which gives it a clear advantage in the huge Chinese and Asian market.
NEO Cons:
- Since its dependent on government support, it will be critical hit if the Chinese government comes out with unfavorable policies.
- It is targeting the multiple segments in which there is severe competition from other cryptocurrencies in top 10 — Ethereum, Cardano, EOS.
The Bottom Line:
**Note: Information contained in this guide is not an offer or solicitation to buy, hold, or sell any security. We’re not financial advisors and are simply providing information for educational purposes. Investing in ICO involves a high degree of risk and should be considered only by persons who can afford to sustain a loss of their entire investment.
Investors should consult their financial advisor before investing in ICOs. Furthermore, the SEC has warned investors residing in the United States and other jurisdictions that ICOs may constitute securities.
If you have any query, feel free to tell us in the comment section. We are happy to help you.