Investing in cryptocurrencies has been considered as an act of speculations for over the years due to its uncertain trends. However, 2018 has been a transitory year for cryptocurrency as consumers focus inclined from “HODL” to “BUIDL” and blockchain development being done in full force. Also, with prices taking its own sweet time correcting, more and more beginners are planning towards investing in cryptocurrency. But considering the market fluctuations and uncertainties, it’s difficult for a newbie to figure out the next cryptocurrencies to invest in. And, that’s why we are here to help. In this write-up, we have explained what the top 10 cryptocurrencies are doing with their capital. There has been a lot of discrepancies regarding the best cryptocurrencies as different reports claim a different figure. Thus, we have referred to Yahoo! Cryptocurrency Screener, which is quite reliable. Read on further to know what’s in store for the cryptocurrency market in 2019:
- Bitcoin (BTC)
With an increase in transaction speed, scalability, and institutional investors closing in on approval, Bitcoin is setting itself up for an interesting 2019. This combination can launch the entire market into another bull run.
Lighting Network
The lighting network is a payment protocol that operates on top of a blockchain-based cryptocurrency which enables the fast transaction. Bitcoin developers are rolling out the Lightning Network, which allows transactions to occur separately from Bitcoin’s main blockchain.
Institutional Involvement
Most financial institutions are warming up to cryptocurrencies and launching products to meet their demands. During the Q4 of 2018, Fidelity launched its Digital Assets platform. The company is also scheduled to launch the Fidelity Digital Asset Services (FDAS) platform in Q1 2019 to meet rising demand.
- Ripple (XRP)
Like many of the altcoins, Ripple didn’t come up with any detailed roadmap to convince its prospective investors. But there are certain trends that the Ripple team has been up to and what they are aiming for.
Fast and Scalable
While Bitcoin hopes to tackle scalability issues next years, Ripple software is already capable of consistently handling 1500 transactions which are identical to Visa’s average of 1700 transactions per second.
Global Bank Partnerships
Ripple is capable of handling transactions many times faster than any other major payment gateway. Recently, the company has been focusing on acquiring partnership with RippleNet which is a global payment network aimed at increasing liquidity and cutting the transaction fees.
There are currently well over 100 RippleNet partners, American Express, SWIFT and Money Gram to name a few. Although alignment with these companies doesn’t automatically equate to rise XRP’s price, it seems as if the plan has been to create a digital asset that can handle the global volume, establish significant partnerships, and then incentivize said partners with savings and value.
- Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum came into existence in 2014 as the first cryptocurrency to enable smart contracts and decentralized applications to be built on it. This led to 94 of the top 100 coins being built on Ethereum.
Scalability Solutions
Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has a few major plans to blockchain’s current lack of scalability. He came up with the first update, Constantinople in January 2019 and second update is set to happen in the latter half of 2019. The company’s next scheduled update, Serenity is a multi-update plan to move Ethereum from a Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm to Proof-of-Stake.
- Stellar (XLM)
Stellar is quite similar to Ripple in many ways, their success in building a partnership with massive corporations being the most prominent one. Apart from this, both these companies have a similar plan for 2019.
IBM and Blockchain World Wire
IBM has been a leader in the computer field, so it’s not surprising that it is in the process of launching Blockchain World Wire (BWW), a financial rail that is set to clear and settle cross-border payments in real time. Well, IBM has chosen Stellar to be the platform behind it all and as the BWW sees significant traction, it will boost Stellar on the crypto radar considerably.
- Litecoin (LTC)
Unlike Bitcoin, Litecoin aims to come in a smaller denomination, thus being more practical for use in everyday transactions. Thus, it is commonly referred to as the silver to Bitcoin’s gold. In 2019, Litecoin will come up with a few technological updates:
Mainnet Update
With the release of Litecoin Core 0.17 in October 2017, Litecoin transaction fees are set to take a significant dive, bringing the average transaction cost from $0.05 to $0.005. Apart from this, the founder of Litecoin, Charlie Lee, also hinted at the development of private transactions in a recent interview.
The sentiment around cryptocurrency investing is horrendous, but getting a fundamental picture of the crypto and blockchain market will set the stage, according to us, for the next wave in this sector.
