The most popular cryptocurrencies…. And how many are actually there?
In total, the number of cryptocurrencies listed for trade stood at 5606 sometime in 2021, with many of them without any market cap. As per listings on CoinMarketCap, only 2532 of the cryptocurrencies had some market cap, with the lowest one being only $2. So, let’s first start with what actually the market cap in terms of cryptocurrencies means.
With a look at the chart of all cryptocurrencies that exist, you might feel as if you are time traveling and are currently in 2050 – mainly because of their 2050-esque names. With these names, you might feel Elon Musk has already colonized Mars, and we live among those tech creatures that we frequently see in films.
There’s everything – a dog, whale, turtle, rabbit, tiger, pig, gorilla… and then there are fables type – Moon, Olympus, Noah, Solana… and then the very techno 2080 like – Vega, Metaverse, Jig stack, Uno Re, VA Na Su, Axioms. And some like the local bar or club – Boogie Nights, Bonfire, etc. (Yes, we are serious, these are names of some of the cryptocurrencies in circulation).
It just shows how enthusiastic (over-enthusiastic, maybe) the techies are about the future of cryptocurrencies. Everyone seems to be joining the bandwagon and trying to be the next Satoshi Nakamoto in the crypto world, which is quite obvious after how Bitcoin changed the entire landscape of the crypto market and helped people make fortunes.
Most famous cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin, Ethereum… and more
Although there are thousands of cryptocurrencies you can invest in, it’s only the top few that crypto traders trust. Most of them have been in existence for some years now and have a large to mid-size market cap. The global crypto market is around $1.39T, and it’s mostly dominated by the top 20 to 30 coins.
Bitcoin (BTC) is the king, but many predict Ethereum (ETH) to take over the king’s throne and reign supreme in the next two to three years. Then there’s the star that rose from nowhere (it was nowhere until Elon Musk decided to take the matter into his hands) – Dogecoin (DOGE). There are other cryptocurrencies trusted by millions of crypto traders across the world and are their first choice for long-term crypto investments. And the top ones are Cardano (ADA), Ripple (XRP), Binance Coin (BNB), Polkadot (DOT) and Litecoin (LTC).
They are closely followed by some popular cryptocurrencies slowly rising up and trying to make it to the top. The leading ones are Solana (SOL), Chainlink (LINK), Polygon (MATIC), Stellar (XLM) and Internet Computers (ICP). The other two prominent ones just behind these famous coins are Monero (XMR) and EOS (EOS).
Which type of cryptocurrency should you invest in?
The answer to which cryptocurrency to invest in to make money is long but quite simple. If you have money to spare and don’t mind some or, in some cases, even most of it getting wiped off, invest in a decent ratio of mid-size and small-size cryptocurrencies. As the risk here is really heavy, research as much as you can before investing and if you make smart decisions and invest in the right coins, you are sure to be called the crypto millionaire or billionaire.
If you want to play safe and make good money in cryptocurrencies regularly and some of it in the long-term, mix up the large-cap and mid-cap. Keep buying the dip and steadily build up a large portfolio. The returns will be steady and might not make you big money in the small term or even in the next couple of years, but it will give you a sense of security.
And if you want a complete sense of security while investing in cryptocurrencies, target the large-cap ones, especially Bitcoin. Bitcoin is in limited supply, and that, combined with the factor that there are top names around the world who have invested in it, makes it a pretty safe game.
Is there something called ‘safe cryptocurrency investment’? NO.
That said, the crypto market volatility, the evolving nature of it and the recent trends that saw many coins seeing an unprecedented surge and then quickly falling to half of the prices they reached during that surge show that there’s nothing called ‘safe investment’ or ‘expert prediction’ in crypto trading sphere. When cryptos have different ideas, all other ideas fail.
Whether it’s Mark Cuban, Elon Musk, Warren Buffet or any fintech guru, trust no one and do your own research before investing in crypto trading. A $2 trillion wipeout within a few months in the cryptocurrency market value is big enough proof of how volatile the crypto trading market can be.
