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What’s the Best Cryptocurrency to Buy Now? 7 Contenders – WTOP

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In a fast-changing industry, these are seven of the best cryptos to invest in. October was a blockbuster month in…

In a fast-changing industry, these are seven of the best cryptos to invest in.

October was a blockbuster month in the world of cryptocurrencies, with the asset class’s leading player, Bitcoin (BTC), surging by about 40%, according to data from CoinMarketCap. It wasn’t just Bitcoin that went parabolic in the month, with several other prominent coins on this list hitting all-time highs. The Shiba Inu (SHIB) coin, which debuted as a spin-off of the meme-based Dogecoin, went absolutely bonkers, gaining more than 800% in the month and leapfrogging Dogecoin (DOGE) in the process. Such unabashedly speculative, meme-based tokens, however, don’t stand up to scrutiny. Here’s a look at seven of the best cryptocurrencies to buy in late 2021, and the bull case for each.

Bitcoin (BTC)

Bitcoin’s recent surge was the result of a few catalysts, not least of which was the launch of the first Bitcoin-focused exchange-traded fund in the U.S. The Proshares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (ticker: BITO) began trading Oct. 19, with excitement over the continued mainstreaming of the digital asset driving BTC to an all-time high of $66,930 just a day later. Bitcoin’s invention in 2009 changed money forever and opened the door to blockchain-based, decentralized currencies not issued by any nation. Bitcoin’s first-mover status, its hard limit on a maximum circulation of 21 million BTC and its potential to become a store of value on the balance sheets of corporate America — a future which Tesla Inc. (TSLA) first hinted at with a $1.5 billion Bitcoin purchase announced in February — make it a must-own cryptocurrency.

Ethereum (ETH)

Next among the best cryptocurrencies to buy is Ethereum, perhaps the only digital asset outside of Bitcoin worthy of being dubbed a blue-chip cryptocurrency. Bitcoin accounts for more than 43% of the entire asset class’s market cap, while Ethereum accounts for more than 19%. No other coin has even 4% of the market. ETH has eaten into BTC’s market share in 2021, beginning the year with just a 10.8% share. A big reason for Ethereum’s growing popularity — and a key way it’s differentiated from BTC — is its functionality as a platform for decentralized finance, or DeFi. Developers love building decentralized applications, or DApps, on Ethereum, which is actually the most-used blockchain in the world and the go-to network for up-and-coming technology like nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. Ethereum hit all-time highs Oct. 29.

Solana (SOL)

Although 2021 has had its fair share of crypto tokens taking off, Solana might be the year’s most impressive underdog story. Beginning the year with just 0.01% of the market, SOL went meteoric and by September had cracked into the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap. Excluding stablecoins, SOL has since cracked the top five list. Its Cinderella story has been driven not by silly meme-induced speculative fervor, but its technological ingenuity. Like Ethereum, the Solana protocol was built to facilitate the easy creation of DApps, but the network is actually even faster than Ethereum, has far lower fees and is intended to be more easily scalable than rivals. Solana …….

Source: https://wtop.com/news/2021/11/whats-the-best-cryptocurrency-to-buy-now-7-contenders-2/