Best Crypto Investments of 2023 for Investors

Best Crypto Investments of 2023 for Investors

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crypto investment celebration

Executive Summary

We’re over the hump for 2023, and some of our readers are asking, “What are the best coins going into the second half of the year?”

Well, ask no more.

In this guide, we explore how to evaluate the best crypto investments. Understanding a project’s fundamentals, the team behind it, its competitive advantage, and its tokenomics is crucial. Reading the project’s white paper, understanding the real-world adaptation of the token, and studying its user growth, market capitalization, trading volume, and liquidity are all critical steps in this process.

We also highlight the top crypto picks for 2023, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, and Stellar. These cryptocurrencies offer unique advantages, from Bitcoin’s scarcity and high liquidity to Ethereum’s smart contract capabilities, Solana’s high-speed transactions, Bitcoin Cash’s affordability, Ripple’s fast transaction settlement times, and Stellar’s currency conversion capabilities.

We further compare the returns of crypto investments with traditional investments like stocks, bonds, and gold. The comparison shows that investing in Bitcoin would yield higher returns than these conventional investments. However, it’s important to remember the value of diversification in an investment portfolio to reduce risk and potentially lead to higher returns. While cryptocurrencies offer high returns, they should not replace the entire portfolio but rather serve as a part of a diversified investment strategy.

Cryptocurrency Market Cap Price YTD % Change
Bitcoin $579B $29.7K ▲ 79.43%
Ethereum $226.8B $1,885.83 ▲ 57.39%
Solana $10B $25.70 ▲ 160.62%
Bitcoin Cash $4.7B $243.29 ▲ 151.39%
Ripple $43.8B $0.1622 ▲ 124.55%
Stellar $4.4B $0.79 ▲ 118.99%

How to Evaluate the Best Crypto Investments

While investing in cryptocurrency can be a great way to diversify your investment portfolio, choosing which cryptos to direct your investment dollars to can be challenging.

To make an informed decision, you first need to look into the fundamentals of the project. This will often involve reading the project’s whitepaper, which details a cryptocurrency’s technical aspects and objectives.

The whitepaper can help you learn about the project’s goals and what technology the team is implementing to achieve these goals. While whitepapers can contain a lot of technical jargon, a good whitepaper will have a clearly defined problem and solution to the problem presented. If the whitepaper includes a bunch of generic phrasing with little detail, this is a sign you should probably avoid investing.

It would help if you also looked into the team behind the project. We recommend reviewing Linkedin profiles to learn about team members’ professional experiences and previous projects they’ve launched. If a team consists primarily of anonymous developers who don’t reveal their identity, that’s a sign you should stay away.

You also want to ensure you understand the competitive advantage of cryptocurrency over other cryptocurrencies on the market. Often, the best way to determine a token’s competitive advantage is to study its use cases.

In other words, you need to figure out the real-world use cases that could lead to broader token adoption. For example, one use case of Bitcoin is that it can help those in areas with limited access to banking facilities participate in the financial world.

You can also learn about a token’s competitive advantage by researching its user growth, market capitalization, and trading volume. We also recommend looking at the token’s liquidity, which will tell you how easily you can sell your tokens. The higher the liquidity, the easier to exit your position.

Finally, you must ensure you understand the tokenomics, i.e., the supply and demand of a particular token. To delve into this further, look at the circulating supply (how many total tokens are in circulation), the total supply (the total supply of a cryptocurrency after all of the tokens have been circulated), and the maximum supply (the maximum amount of tokens that will ever be minted).

Top Crypto Picks YTD in 2023

While doing independent research is always a good idea, a handful of cryptocurrencies have proven to be a worthy investment over time. Here are our top crypto picks of 2023 so far.


bitcoin-logoBitcoin

Bitcoin currently has the largest market cap of any cryptocurrency on the market, and its returns are hitting close to 80% for the year, putting it on track for its best annual performance since 2020. Not to mention, the token has many use cases, as many businesses already accept Bitcoin as payment.

Bitcoin also has a high liquidity and trading volume and a competitive advantage due to its scarcity, as its maximum issuance of 21 million units will never change.


ethereum classicEthereum

Ethereum offers a competitive advantage over other cryptocurrencies because it’s a blockchain platform that allows developers to build decentralized apps and execute smart contracts.

Ethereum currently ranks second in market cap, and it stands to gain even more ground after its upgrade, which involved shifting the blockchain to a proof-of-stake model, allowing for greater scalability, as transactions and blocks can be approved more quickly.


SolanaSolana

Solana was designed for high-volume and high-speed transactions, and it is already home to many projects that are taking advantage of these features, such as NFT apps and marketplaces.

It has millions of users on board and can process an impressive 50,000 transactions per second, all while doing so for a meager fee ($0.01).


Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash offers faster and less expensive transactions based on the identical blockchain as bitcoin. On average, a Bitcoin transaction costs $59, while a Bitcoin Cash transaction costs less than a penny.

Additionally, unlike some lesser-known competitors, Bitcoin Cash can be purchased through most major exchanges, and each coin is only $246, making it much more affordable than buying a single bitcoin.


Ripple

Ripple offers incredibly fast transaction settlement times, with most transactions settled in 4-5 seconds. Its fees are also very low, with the cost to complete a transaction being just a fraction of a penny.

Large financial institutions such as Santander and Bank of America also use Ripple as a transaction platform.


stellarStellar

One major advantage of Stellar is that users can send one currency and have the recipient receive another. It also offers fast settlement times, with most transactions completed in 2.5-5 seconds.


What about Traditional Investments?

So, how does crypto stack up against traditional investments like stocks, bonds, and gold? Below, we’ll examine how traditional investments stack up against Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency.

Crypto vs. Stocks

YTD return on S&P 500 chart SPY

As you can see from the chart above, investing $10,000 in stocks would give you a YTD return of $11,993, whereas a YTD return on Bitcoin would give you $18,054.72.

While this doesn’t mean you should forgo investing in stocks altogether, re-investing some of your money in crypto can be a wise way to diversify your portfolio. While stocks are backed by centuries of market exposure and research, crypto offers a lower barrier to entry and more autonomy over your investments.

Crypto vs. Bonds

YTD Return 7-10 year treasury chart - IEF

As you can see from the chart above, investing $10,000 in bonds would give you a YTD return of $10,256, whereas a YTD return on Bitcoin would give you $18,054.72.

Bonds are generally less risky than stocks and offer a fixed income, historically making them a vital component of a diversified portfolio. However, the bond case has severely weakened over the past several years, as their yields have fallen far below-prevailing inflation rates.

Almost every major index of corporate bonds has fallen over the past several years, whereas bitcoin has offered a positive return every year since its existence.

Crypto vs. Gold

Gold YTD Return Chart

As you can see from the chart above, investing $10,000 in gold would give you a YTD return of $10,400, whereas a YTD return on Bitcoin would give you $18,054.72.

Bitcoin is much easier to transfer, as it can be sent anywhere in the world in minutes. It also has more divisibility, making it a better medium exchange for small transactions. However, bitcoin is more volatile than gold, making it a riskier investment. Therefore, keeping gold in your portfolio can be a great way to balance out your riskier crypto investments.

Investor Takeaway

While we can see from the above charts that Bitcoin offers a far higher rate of return than other investment options, this doesn’t mean you should transfer your entire portfolio to cryptocurrencies.

A diversified portfolio often reduces risk and leads to higher returns. The aforementioned assets are not highly correlated with one another, so as some assets appreciate, others will likely remain steady or fall.

To learn more about diversifying your portfolio and investing in crypto, Subscribe to Bitcoin Market Journal

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