Introduction
Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency ever and its utility is way different from altcoins that allows smart contract development on its network. Any crypto other than Bitcoin is categorized in Altcoins. With the recent development of Web 3.0, NFTs, and DeFi, Altcoins has seen a massive surge in its usage.
Altcoins have contributed to crypto space in various categories: DeFi, Blockchain, Layer 2, Storage, NFTs, GameFi, and Metaverse.
The utility of Altcoins seems to be huge, and it solves numerous real-world problems. When altcoins season comes, it brings a lot of multi-millionaires, and you could be one if you happen to tap into the market at the right time.
We have researched in-depth, read their white papers, and understood their tokenomics, roadmap, and market capitalization to bring the best Altcoins that would stay relevant in long term.
Blockchain Altcoins
Blockchain is a public database that is shared with multiple nodes in a computer network. Once a transaction is validated, it’s almost impossible to reverse it. It acts as a public ledger of Cryptocurrencies.
Vitalik Buterin took a further step and developed the Ethereum blockchain that allows building smart contracts. It is a code that enables when certain conditions are met and here code is considered as the law.
Now everything you can imagine in the crypto world like NFTs, DeFi, dApps, and Stable coins are programmed as Smart contracts. The backbone of smart contracts is blockchain, and that’s how we have seen rise in so many newer blockchains.
These blockchain companies encourage developers to build dApps (decentralized applications) on their platform, as every blockchain wants to expand its DeFi ecosystem.
There are a few drawbacks like high gas fees, a slower transaction rate that limits the expansion of the DeFi ecosystem. And newer developed blockchain tries to bring innovation by solving the aforementioned problems. The competition is tight, but it helps bring a better user experience with a faster throughput rate, fewer fees, and EVM-compatible blockchain.
Avalanche (Ranks 9th in Altcoins List)
Avalanche is a proof of stake, layer 1 blockchain, developed by AVA labs in 2020. It’s one of Ethereum’s top rivals, which is developing its own DeFi and dApps ecosystem. It’s blazingly fast, cheap, and environment-friendly.
Avalanche has attracted numerous dApps developers with its unique structure that consists of three chains, X-Chain, C-Chain, and P-Chain. It gives the option to customize as a private and public blockchain. Its safety threshold is 80% compared to bitcoin, that’s only 51 percent.
And currently, AVAX trades at $90, with a market cap of 23 billion USD. It’s available on any major cryptocurrency exchange.
Solana (Ranks 8th in Altcoins List)
Solana is a super-fast blockchain that processes 50,000 transactions per second. And to achieve this high throughput rate, Solana uses proof of history consensus protocol with underlying Proof of stake mechanism.
It was developed by Anatoly Yakovenko and his colleague, who has worked at Qualcomm and Dropbox as a software engineer. Solana was launched in the earlier half of 2020 and was trading at less than one dollar back then. It reached a milestone of $250 last year.
Solana dApps ecosystem is the second largest after its biggest rival and the king of Altcoins— Ethereum. Currently, Solana trades at the same price as Avalanche $90 with a market cap of 28.5 billion USD.
Cardano (Ranks 6th in Altcoins List)
Cardano is a layer 1 blockchain which is developed by another former co-founder of Ethereum—Charles Hopkinson. It is one of the first blockchain projects to use the Proof of Stake consensus protocol. Its native token ADA is named after the genius mathematician and the first programmer Ada Lovelace.
Cardano Mainnet went live in 2017. And currently, one ADA trades close to a dollar and ranks 7th in market cap, with a whopping 36 billion market capitalization. The only layer 1 blockchain that is above Cardano is Ethereum for obvious reasons and Build n Build chain (previously known as Binance coin).
Polkadot (Ranks 10th in Altcoins List)
Polkadot is a blockchain that solves the age-long problem of interoperability with its customizable Para-chains. Released in 2020 by a former co-founder and CTO of Ethereum— Gavin Wood.
DOT is its native token, which is used for network fees, governance rights and to stake and validate transactions. With a market cap of 19.6 Billion, one DOT can be traded at $20 on Binance, OKX, Kraken, Gemini, and Coinbase.
Ethereum (King of Altcoins, Ranks 1st)
The king of altcoins, the pioneer of smart contracts, the Ethereum network is developed by a prodigy, Vitalik Buterin. It has the biggest and most used DeFi ecosystem, despite its high gas fee limitation.
The biggest NFTs marketplace like OpenSea, Rarible, or sophisticated places like Super Rare exists on only Vitalik’s platform.
Same as Bitcoin, Ethereum operates on the Proof of Work consensus protocol. However, soon, Vitalik plans to replace it with the Proof of stake consensus protocol, which is used by most of the newer layer 1 blockchains, termed as Ethereum Killers.
Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, with a market capitalization of 360 billion dollars. One Ethereum is traded for around $3000 and can be bought from any major or local crypto exchange.
GameFi Altcoins
GameFi is a new concept of virtual reality games which is based on blockchain technology. Users earn incentives /rewards upon completing certain tasks. These rewards are usually in the game’s native token or form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It’s also known as Play to Earn games (P2E) and the name suggests, the rewards are easily convertible to a real-world currency.
With the announcement of Metaverse by Meta (previously known as Facebook), GameFi and other Metaverse altcoins have seen a massive surge in their price. With that, numerous play-to-earn (P2E) games have been developed on various blockchains, where users can immerse in the virtual world and derive ultimate stimulating pleasure.
Here’s our top pick for play to earn Altcoins that are tradable on a major crypto exchange like Binance, OKX, Crypto.com, Coinbase, Gemini, Kraken, FTX, or even on smaller crypto exchanges.
Decentraland (Ranks 31st in Altcoins List)
Decentraland is a virtual world where users can buy digital Real Estate using MANA. The users can monetize their land by setting up clothing shops, bars, or private museums. For example-in Metaverse, users can buy wearable items for their Avatar and these items would be sold as NFT.
In November 2021, someone bought a virtual land in Decentraland’s Fashion Street for a whopping $2.4 million. The plan is to set up fashion shows and brand stores in that Decentraland’s fashion district.
With a current market cap of $4.6 billion, one $MANA token can be bought for roughly $2.5 on an exchange like Binance, Kraken, Coinbase, and Gemini.
Star Atlas (Ranks 501 in Altcoins List)
Star Atlas is a futuristic science-fiction game that operates on the Solana blockchain. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, Star Atlas is set up in 2620 where Humankind, the Alien race, and sentient androids are combating for control and resources.
It is a real-time multiplayer game with high-quality 3D, Immersive graphics. Players can win rewards that can be exchanged with real currency.
Star Atlas is a relatively new play-to-earn (P2E) game with a very small market cap of $60 million. Currently, One $ATLAS token is traded for less than a penny, only on these exchanges: FTX, Bitget, Gate.io, and Raydium.
The Sandbox (Ranks 37th in Altcoins List)
Sandbox is another Ethereum Blockchain gaming virtual world where users can trade NFT assets using SAND tokens. With a total of, 166464 lands parcel, real estate is a huge tradable asset on sandbox.
Users can monetize their land, similarly done on Decentraland. Famous Rapper, Snoop Dogg, has set up his mansion on sandbox. Another user spends around half a million dollars just to become Snoop Dogg’s neighbor on Sandbox.
Sandbox has seen, 1450 percent growth in 2021. This is still an early stage of Sandbox and there is even more room for further growth.
With a market cap of $4.6 billion, One SAND token can be purchased for roughly $3.5 on Binance, Gemini or any other major crypto exchange.
DeFi Altcoins
Decentralized Finance is an alternative to traditional financial systems, which is faster, 24/7 accessible, and not controlled by any third party like government. Similar to banks, it allows lending, borrowing, saving, buying insurance, and trading derivatives with full control over your assets.
Or in other words, DeFi is an umbrella term for everything related to financial dApps (decentralized application) happening on a blockchain. And the idea is to disrupt banks by giving more power and money to its users. To use, all you need is a device with an internet connection.
DeFi consists of various dApps that run on a blockchain. Its job is to bring more financial products, stable coins, and trading insurance/derivative options.
Chainlink (Ranks 22nd in Altcoins List)
Chainlink is an oracle that imports real-world data into a blockchain database. It expands the utility of smart contracts. Before Chainlink, decentralized apps for betting, insurance, and other contracts that use real-time data were limited.
For example- It can bring reliable data to a dApp, which allows users to place bets via smart contracts, like who won NFL in 2022?
To minimize misleading data sources, Chainlink has set up multiple independent off-chain nodes that tally data with other reliable sources.
To sign smart contracts using real-time data, and for other dApps to expand their services, demands a trustworthy oracle, and Chain Link is one of the few, which has tapped right in the spot.
Currently, LINK trades at 15 dollars with a market cap of 7 billion USD and has a total supply of 1 billion LINKs.
Uniswap (Ranks 23rd in Altcoins List)
Uniswap is a decentralized exchange that runs on the Ethereum blockchain. It allows swapping any ERC-20 token except crypto to fiat trade. It was launched in 2018, and its usage surged lately thanks to DeFi expansion.
To avail Automation Market Maker to wider the audience, Uni Swap was brought by a former Ethereum developer— Hayden Adams.
This crucial, DeFi dApp ensures enough liquidity to its users for heavy trading. Since it’s a decentralized exchange, you wouldn’t require any paper works or identity details. All you need is an open-source Ethereum wallet and some ERC 20 tokens to start swapping.
With a market cap of $7 billion, One UNI token trades at $10. And it’s available on any major crypto exchange like Binance, Coinbase, and OKX.