For anyone who isn’t familiar with it, cryptocurrencies are profitable. They’re not just trendy, decentralized currencies. They hold real value because of their popularity, and you can exchange them for goods and services if the provider or business uses the same cryptocurrency to trade with you. Cryptocurrencies have their marketplace, which allows the free exchange of currencies between buyers and sellers.
So, if you’re planning to go on your cryptocurrency journey, it pays to invest in the currency that’s perfect for you. However, let’s answer the following question: are cryptocurrencies still great investments this 2022 and beyond?
Cryptocurrency Feasibility This 2025
According to Coindesk, institutional money, meaning a huge body of investors with pooled and managed funds, are entering different types of cryptocurrencies. In turn, this will strengthen a select number of cryptos’ stabilities.
Furthermore, this move cements blockchain, the technology behind the virtually-infallible currencies, and their end-to-end decentralized characteristics as a powerful and credible technology, making them great alternatives to traditional currencies.
Bitcoin, the flagship currency that started it all almost a decade ago, will receive the first advantages of the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies. The Guardian believes that the new market can rise to USD$5-10 trillion in the next five years.
However, some analysts believe Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies might lose confidence. The encrypted and hidden nature of transactions makes it a convenient channel and means to launder money, peddle drugs without traceable financial routes, and prolific weapons funding for illegal procurement and use.
Then again, the alternatives to Bitcoin — Litecoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies to name a few — have higher limits, offer traceable transaction nodes, and additional security for users than Bitcoin. The pioneering currency might have established the future for cryptocurrencies. However, new innovative cryptos will likely see better use in the future.
Covid-19 And the Future
Some financial analysts believe that there will be an urge to use cryptocurrency in the finance industry because of the recent coronavirus outbreak. Coindesk’s Aji Tripathi indicates that the latest economic crises each country has experienced worldwide will bring the term “scarce assets” back for the financial industries worldwide to remain stable. Although most investing institutions will choose solid gold, there’s a high chance that they will likely consider cryptocurrencies or digital gold rather than real-world gold or scarce assets.
Additionally, online payment methods are becoming mainstream. Cryptocurrency, which cuts out middlemen like PayPal and other payment platforms, will be more popular as no-contact payment methods. Ecommerce trading platforms that support a multitude of cryptocurrencies will see a massive boom in usage throughout the quarantine period.
It’s safe to say that investing in “quality” cryptocurrencies is always the wise option, especially 3,000 of them exist today. This is a fair way for Singaporeans looking to improve their finances throughout the quarantine or “circuit breaker” period in the country.
Singapore’s Laws on Crypto Trading
The country’s laws on cryptocurrencies are clear cut and supportive of cryptos despite some limitations. Singapore does not recognize them as legal tender that can replace Singaporean dollars but rather as goods. In this light, trading them requires buyers and sellers to administer proper Goods and Services Tax (GST) rates.
Furthermore, Singapore indirectly supports cryptocurrency exchanges. The country recognizes them as legal entities that require no registration. However, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) decline any support. They warn the public about the dangers, scams, and the untraceable nature of cryptocurrencies.
Additionally, the government continues to monitor any cryptocurrency activity in the country to help its evaluation of whether to make it operational or not.
10 Best Cryptos To Buy This Year
Cryptocurrencies are about to grow at a stable rate in the next few years. However, it’s easy to purchase cryptocurrencies that might not see growth potential due to low popularity and market appeal. If you’re looking for currencies to start your crypto adventure, here are the best ten we highly advise you place your investments.
1. Ripple
Co-founded by Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb in 2012, Ripple is a cryptocurrency and digital payment network. You use an in-service currency that allows you to transfer payments through a secure interface that the cryptocurrency’s servers (or miners) establish.
However, most users invest in its digital payment protocol rather than the currency itself. It conveniently allows you to transfer Ripple, US dollars, Yen, Litecoin, or Bitcoin, into any of the cryptos we mentioned earlier.
On the other hand, Ripple still uses mediators in every transaction, but this allows the network to process transactions as fast as or even quicker than other cryptocurrencies. These middlemen, which are other Ripple owners, create the “ripple” effect the crypto gets its name from.
While it has reached low buying and selling points since January 2018 (due to the peak performance of Bitcoin that December 2017), Ripple (XRP) remains stable with minimal fluctuations between 0.5 and 0.2 in both buying and selling points from December 2019 to May 2020 (as of writing this post).
2. Bitcoin
The pioneer and true root of all cryptocurrency beginnings, Bitcoin began as a pet project by “Satoshi Nakamoto,” who many believe to be a pseudonym of an anonymous person. He published a paper on cryptocurrencies using blockchain technologies and private keys to transmit currency information from peer-to-peer. From 2009, his project has sparked a movement that revolutionizes payment methods and currencies forever.
Bitcoin continues to hold its own against newer and faster cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, it now has additional safeguards that prevent any form of hacking that has weakened its value in the last five years. However, its 10-minute payment confirmation waiting period has yet to improve despite warehouses’ mining rigs helping the cryptocurrencies with their superior processing power.
Bitcoin (BTC) ‘s buying and selling points reached 12,500 in June 2019. It has stabilized in the last six months, reaching between 8,900 and 10,000 buying and selling points, with the lowest dip reaching 5,000 in April 2020 (the start of COVID-19 quarantines worldwide).
3. Litecoin
Both Bitcoin and Ripple are proprietary software whose programming and inner workings are understandable but intangible for programmers to alter. Litecoin is a similar concept to Bitcoin, but uses an open-source cryptographic protocol. Another significant difference of Litecoin from Bitcoin is its ability to process blocks every 2 minutes and 30 seconds, a faster transaction than Bitcoin’s drudgingly-long 10 minute processing time.
Nowadays, its value and processing speed differentiates Litecoin from Bitcoin widely. However, during its early years, the two seemed correlated, primarily when first cryptocurrency users used Litecoin to produce smaller sums (before Satoshis, the smallest Bitcoin crypto unit, came about).
Litecoin (LTC) has seen considerable fluctuations in the last six months. It started low at 40 buying and selling points in December 2019. During these six months, it reached a peak of 80 buying and selling by the end of February 2020. Then, it dipped immensely by the middle of March as quarantine procedures started worldwide. Today, it is steadily but slowly climbing, achieving stability at 41-45 buying and selling points.
4. Ethereum
Another top-performing cryptocurrency that is open-sourced and uses blockchain technology is Ethereum. Vitalik Buterin, a long-time cryptocurrency researcher, developed his crypto that can execute scripts with an international network of nodes. Similar to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies you should invest today, blockchains confirm the validity of every Ether.
However, Ethereum uses accounts and balances differently. It calls “state transitions,” which is information transactions do not store on the blockchain but another database. In doing so, Ethereum adds a layer of impenetrable security for its currencies. Furthermore, it beats other cryptocurrencies by blockchain confirmations that take only 14-15 seconds.
Like other cryptos, Ethereum saw the most significant jump in prices from December 2020’s low to a substantial-high by the middle of February and March. However, when quarantine protocols hit different countries, the currency suffered losses in March at an extremely low 100 buying and selling points. However, the money is slowly recovering in a staggered but stabilized manner.
5. NEO
Da Hong Fei and Erik Zhang launched Antshares in 2014 in China, where the government met with resistance once it gained tremendous traction. Rebranded as Neo in June 2017, the blockchain-based cryptocurrency is gaining significant popularity, primarily because of its added security features and smart contracts. These features allow Neo users to leverage physical possessions of substantial equity, whose information and ownership is hidden inside a blockchain-encrypted smart contract.
Smart contracts helped pave the way for digital identities to become a massive part of its crypto exchange. Furthermore, programmers find it the most accessible because it can utilize different programming languages, including Java, Python, Kotlin, and others.
In the last six months, Neo (NEO) took the biggest plunge in December 2020 since having the highest peak value in 2017. This has dramatically affected many cryptocurrencies due to the legendary rally of Bitcoin influencing events. However, it saw a vast plunge by March as COVID-19 made economics and trade stop for an extended amount of time up until the time we write and publish this post.
6. ZCash
As with all cryptocurrencies, ZCash is an open-source digital that has additional privacy features but provides something interesting — the selective transparency of transactions. It also offers zero-knowledge proof, a unique confirmation system that allows transaction confirmation without disclosing added information. In doing so, they create selective transaction transparency, which is an additional privacy feature.
Zero-knowledge features the peculiar, but popular cryptocurrency cryptographic principle. Instead of checking transactions with encrypted data and end-to-end unlocking of the sender’s address, it uses zk-SNARKs, which comprise of additional spending and viewing key, and billing address of the buyer and seller. You can find immense Zcash support from Bitfinex, Binance, Huobi, HitBTC, and other online markets.
Z-Cash (ZEC) had an excellent run for a pretty young cryptocurrency. Similar to other currencies in this list, it saw a consistent temporary low in 2020. Then, it reached top performance from 30 to 70 buying and selling points by the end of March. Currently, it is recovering from the spending slowdown COVID-19 quarantine impositions have created.
7. Cardano
Touted as the world’s first blockchain “developed from a scientific philosophy,” Cardano uses the Ada cryptocurrency and a global team of leading academics and engineers. These top-level credentials are enough to urge anyone to use Cardano because of its long-term, progressive approach to cryptocurrency development.
The cryptocurrency first saw the light in 2015. Its primary focus is to introduce “a particular set of innovations to provide a more balanced and sustainable ecosystem. However, some investors believe Cardano to be a high-risk cryptocurrency because it’s still a fledgling crypto and payment platform that requires a few more years before it realizes its full vision of its functionality. Looking closer at its principles, Cardano aims to succeed in areas where Ethereum lacked lately: speed, security, and decentralization.
Cardano (ADA) had a similar trend of a massive drop by December 2020, with huge interest gradually decreasing in terms of points from December 2017 to the drop. However, it saw a slight increase in the middle of February. After quarantine rules have become widely implemented across different countries, ADA’s value has waned through the end of March. Lastly, its trend continues to slowly improve its buy and selling points upward by May.
8. Stellar
Similar to Cardano, Stellar is both a cryptocurrency and a payment network. Its goal: to introduce fast and affordable cross-border transactions for users. Stellar uses the Lumen cryptocurrency, making it easier and quicker to conduct transactions between different currencies. It also allows other fledgling cryptocurrencies to host their initial coin offering (ICOs) using the platform.
Jared McCaleb, who built Ripple (XRP), also constructed and founded Stellar and Lumens (XLM). It shares the same purpose of almost every cryptocurrency — to facilitate global payments without expensive middlemen. Stellar’s goal is to serve as a faster medium of payment for purchases across the country too. Additionally, users love stellar because it prevents “forks” by putting all assets on a single global ledger and is a non-profit crypto platform
Stellar (XLM) has gained popularity and considerable increases in Nov 2019 but dropped in buying and selling points by December 2020 from 0.0800 to 0.0450. However, interest picked- up once again in February, gaining over the same rise it had in November. Stellar suffered immensely by the end of March due to COVID-19, but it has slowly picked up once again by the start of May.
9. Tron
Blockchain-based technologies continue to improve, and Tron is at the forefront, along with other popular cryptocurrencies in today’s digital market. Additionally, a Singapore-based non-profit organization established Tron in 2017. It uses Exodus, a peer-to-peer content distribution and storage network and Odyssey, the next phase of Exodus that focuses on promoting creation and content hosting on Tron.
Tron aims to create an ecosystem of digital media and cryptocurrency while using the same principles of Bitcoin and Ethereum in cutting out the middleman when it comes to hosting, selling, and buying content.
Tron (TRX) increased in value last February 2020 from a lousy bout last December 2020. However, it reached the deepest lows from 0.0250 to 0.0147 after Singapore announced its quarantine measures. On the other hand, the currency is slowly rising in value once again.
10. Ontology
Instead of a single blockchain, Ontology uses multiple chains with a powerful trust collaboration system. In doing so, it has advanced tools such as identity verification and data exchange. ONT ID makes it easy to manage digital identity through mobile usage. Similar to other cryptocurrencies, it uses a private key to grant only intended users with access.
Furthermore, the cryptocurrency has Ontology Trust Anchors, which provide credential verification services for ONT ID users. While the infrastructure isn’t open-source, Ontology continuously improves the system with advanced cryptographic security protocols and faster transactions.
Ontology (ONT) ran stable at 0.60 last December 2019. It reached a substantial-high at 12.5 midway in February. However, with new lockdown protocols across countries spread due to COVID-19, the currency dropped to an all-time low at 0.25. The currency is slowly picking up once again by the time of writing this post.
Make The Best Investments Through The Most Convenient Modern Means
Cryptocurrencies are excellent investments. As their infrastructure, track record, stability, and popularity have shown, they’re a commodity that will most likely reach new heights during and after the quarantine or circuit breaker period worldwide.
Investing in cryptocurrency doesn’t require much capital. If you have extra cash, you can use crypto exchanges to create your wallet and begin your cryptocurrency journey. However, if you’re short on cash, you won’t need to worry. You can take out a personal loan Singapore from a licensed moneylender, such as us at A1 Credit Solutions, to quickly get enough start-up cash to fund your new cryptocurrency investments.
