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Are you wondering if Bitcoin is still a good investment? While many countries are beginning to eye the prospect of making Bitcoin a type of legal tender, Bitcoin has been experiencing a pretty steep loss in value in the past few months. This doesn’t mean that all cryptocurrency is not worth looking into, though. While Bitcoin has become the focus of investors, there are still other types of cryptocurrency out there that are quite sensible and worth investing in if you want to diversify your portfolio and invest in something with different benefits.
In this quick guide, we’ll break down five popular alternatives to Bitcoin that are experiencing their own rise as excellent assets in the cryptocurrency world.
Altcoins are types of cryptocurrencies that are not as well-known as Bitcoin but have their own unique perks. There are currently more than 4,000 cryptocurrencies out there, so there are certainly many options to choose from. However, not all altcoins are created equal. We chose five altcoins that have excellent trading volume and have the potential to make a real impact in the coming years.
Litecoin (LTC) is nothing new in the cryptocurrency world. This altcoin is one of the oldest types of crypto out there and isn’t something to take lightly. Litecoin is utility-based and very resilient. It’s also not designed to be an alternative to Bitcoin, but rather Litecoin is designed to be very easy to mine without the need for pricey equipment. This makes Litecoin a very popular and long-standing altcoin for those who are just getting into mining, and want to use the basic computer hardware that they already have. Just as well, Litecoin has a very fast transaction speed with very low fees.
Stellar Lumens (XLM) had humble beginnings with a starting price of than fifteen cents. Since the beginning of the year, however, Stellar Lumens has climbed a lot closer to a dollar. This increase can likely be attributed to the growing interest in cryptocurrency as a different option from traditional banks. Just as well, the remittance world is quickly changing to adopt cryptocurrency to fight the issue of being unbanked, which affects over half of the world’s population. This altcoin has a lot of promise, as it is based on the Stellar blockchain that is designed to be used as a payment system. There’s a good chance that Stellar will be one of the key crypto players as bankless people increase the demand for fast and cheap currency exchange without the need for a traditional bank.
Binance Coin (BNB) is an altcoin that has been steadily increasing in value throughout 2021. Even though this cryptocurrency had a pretty predictable decline back in May, it’s not likely that it will lay low for long. It’s also a very high-utility Bitcoin alternative in the sense that you can use it to trade newer, lesser-known altcoins on decentralized exchange platforms that don’t currently use actual dollars to buy crypto.
Ethereum (ETH) is probably one of the most promising types of cryptocurrency on the market today. In fact, Ethereum is just under Bitcoin in terms of value. Ethereum has the second biggest market cap of the thousands of cryptocurrencies out there, which means there is potential for ongoing market power. Ethereum takes up a big chunk of the NFT marketplace, which is expecting to grow in the coming year as well. In 2021 thus far, this cryptocurrency has gone up 250% despite a sharp price decline earlier in the year. If you’re on the fence about investing in something other than Bitcoin, this is the crypto to look into.
Tether (USDT) is a unique cryptocurrency that falls into the category of stablecoin. Stablecoins are designed to avoid the wild fluctuations of other cryptocurrencies as they are backed by a reserve asset, such as gold or USD. You likely won’t make big bucks off of this altcoin, however, you will enjoy the stability and opportunity to diversify your portfolio. Tether is backed by actual reserves and the team that designed it has been very transparent and clear about what is going on behind the scenes. You won’t find that kind of transparency with other altcoins. Tether makes up a significant majority of the stablecoin market and is expected to increase even further by the end of 2021.
