Best crypto to buy now

Bitcoin (BTC), released in 2009, is the world's first cryptocurrency. It was created by a person or persons known only by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. It pioneered blockchain technology and gave birth to a multi-billion-dollar industry.

Bitcoin is a widely accepted form of currency that is not controlled by any government or corporation and can be sent to anyone, anywhere in the world.

Since its release, Bitcoin has witnessed exponential growth and outperformed every asset class over the past decade.

Why do people think BTC has value?
Although it was designed as a peer-to-peer trustless digital payment system, many now consider it more of a store of value than a means of payment. It has even been called 'digital gold' due to its limited supply of 21 million coins and the difficulty involved in creating new ones.

Ethereum (ETH) was crowdfunded in 2014 by a team of software engineers and is the most used blockchain for decentralised applications (dApps).

It introduced smart contracts via a custom programming language called Solidity. Smart contracts allow for the development of automated software and applications that use the Ethereum blockchain for security. You can think of Ethereum as a highly secure financial layer for the internet, with thousands of automated services, websites and applications that don't need staff to operate.

Ethereum currently struggles with slow transaction speeds compared to many of its competitors, although it has a robust development cycle that is set to tackle these issues.

Why do people think ETH has value?
Ether (ETH) is the native currency of the Ethereum blockchain and is used to pay for network transaction fees, known as gas. Each transaction burns (destroys) a portion of ETH permanently, reducing the supply over time.

ETH can be staked (locked up) in return for earning yield.

Binance Coin (BNB) is the native cryptocurrency of the BNB Chain and was created by the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.

BNB utilises smart contracts and has an ecosystem of decentralised applications (dApps) built on its network. It operates in much the same way as competitor blockchain, Ethereum, and was designed to improve ETH's network throughput and reduce transaction fees. Despite faster transaction times, BNB Chain has been critiqued for sacrificing decentralisation to achieve this.

Why do people think BNB has value?
BNB is used to pay for transaction fees on the network, participate in Binance exclusive token releases and receive discounted trading fees on the exchange.

It is used to pay transaction fees on the BNB Chain, participate in Binance exclusive token releases and receive discounted trading fees on the exchange.

Users can stake BNB to earn regular yield, which also helps reduce the supply and theoretically increase demand.

XRP is one of the oldest cryptocurrencies, founded in 2012 by Ripple. Ripple originally designed XRP for use in cross-border payments.

Unlike blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, where new coins are generated at set intervals via mining or staking, XRP was pre-mined, with all 100 billion tokens being created at launch.

These pre-mined tokens were distributed to individuals and companies in large quantities. Questions and concerns have been raised regarding the true decentralisation of XRP, as a large majority of its tokens are held by just a few entities.

Why do people think XRP has value?
XRP is issued by Ripple which has designed several products that are intended to use XRP, which mainly involve cross-border payments. Some investors perceive the success of XRP as being linked to the success of Ripple.

Solana (SOL) is a layer-1 blockchain released in 2020 by the Solana Foundation. Much like Ethereum, Solana supports smart contract functionality and the development of decentralised applications (dApps).

These projects include NFT marketplaces such as Magic Eden to DeFi trading platforms, including Raydium and Orca.

A large part of Solana's success as a layer-1 blockchain and direct competitor to Ethereum is its unique proof-of-history (PoH) consensus developed by Solana founder and lead developer Anatoly Yakovenko. PoH allows for blockchain scalability as well as fast and cost-efficient transactions.

In late 2022 Solana came under scrutiny following the declared bankruptcy of crypto exchange FTX, which was directly invested in and held a significant portion of the SOL circulating supply.

Why do people think SOL has value?
SOL is the native coin of the network which means it is used to pay for transaction fees (gas) and can be staked in return for yield. It is a common trading pair for many of the DeFi protocols or NFT marketplaces on the network.

Cardano (ADA) is a layer-1 blockchain that, like Ethereum, supports smart contracts and operates under a proof-of-stake consensus.

This means developers can build and deploy decentralised applications (dApps) on top of Cardano's infrastructure.

Cardano was released in 2017 and rose to popularity almost instantly. Its instant trust and recognition by the crypto community can be partially attributed to its founder, Charles Hoskinson. Hoskinson is a notable figure in the crypto space and one of the core developers behind Ethereum.

While Cardano has a strong roadmap and team, it has fallen victim to development delays and is not considered as user-friendly as competitor networks such as Ethereum or Polkadot.

Why do people think ADA has value?
ADA is the native coin of the network which means it can be traded for other assets, used to pay for transaction fees and can be staked (locked up) in return for yield.

Dogecoin (DOGE) was developed in 2013 by software developer Billy Markus to put some humour in the crypto space. Although it was originally released as a joke, Doge has become one of the world's most well-recognised and popular cryptocurrencies, ranking in the top 10 projects by total market cap in recent years.

Dogecoin operates similarly to Bitcoin and Litecoin as it was created as a clone of these open-source codebases, otherwise known as a fork. Key differences include its uncapped total supply and fast block production time; it is most commonly used as a payment network.

Why do people think DOGE has value?
DOGE experienced rapid growth throughout the 2021 bull cycle and was heavily promoted by crypto enthusiasts and eccentric billionaire Elon Musk. Musk's company, Tesla motor vehicles, began accepting DOGE as a form of payment in 2022, further increasing its recognition as a legitimate payment coin.

Tron is a layer-1 blockchain based on a modified version of Ethereum. It is notable for its low transaction fees which first brought it to prominence in 2018.

It was founded by Justin Sun, who is a notable and sometimes controversial figure in the crypto space and was the former Chinese chief representative of XRP's parent company, Ripple.

In 2018 Justin Sun purchased BitTorrent and incorporated elements of the Tron blockchain into the popular uTorrent application, helping bolster the blockchain's success. Tron also hosts several hundred decentralised applications with a strong focus on gaming and entertainment.

Why do people think TRX has value?
TRX is used to pay for transactions on Tron and is used with many of the applications on the network. Large amounts must be held by nodes in order to keep the network secure and can be staked to earn yield.

Toncoin (TON) was launched in 2018, with development led by Telegram founder Pavel Durov.

Toncoin is intended to offer a blockchain with a fast and scalable enviornment for decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts. It is a Layer-1 blockchain that supports a network of 'shards' which is the cornerstone of its scalability. Each shard is capable of processing millions of transactions per second while maintaining compatibility and interoperability with the main chain.

This is different to Ethereum which is relatively slow on the Layer-1 and relies on Layer-2 chains to provide high speed and scale.

Why do people think TON has value?
Toncoin's native coin, TON, is used for paying for transactions and services on the network.

A large amount of TON is required to run a validator node or a service provider node. Users may stake TON in return for rewards.

Chainlink is an oracle network built to support Ethereum-based blockchains (EVMs). It allows smart contracts to communicate with outside data sources in a decentralised and tamper-proof manner.

A significant factor contributing to Chainlink's success is that it is blockchain agnostic, meaning that hundreds of projects from all different networks can utilise its functionality.

Some of the most notable crypto projects that have implemented Chainlink include Ethereum, Polygon, BNB Smart Chain and Solana.

Why do people think LINK has value?
Chainlink has firmly established itself at the centre of the DeFi ecosystem and the LINK token is required to pay for data queries on the network. So any services that wish to use Chainlink must pay for it using LINK tokens. LINK must also be staked by nodes on the network, which reduces supply.