The crypto-currency market, as a whole, enjoyed a stellar 2017, and if 2018 continues with a similar pattern, 2018 will be the coin market’s biggest year. The overall market grew to an impressive $600 billion in value as the ball dropped, and considering that just a year earlier the overall crypto-cap was around $18.4 billion, value in the crypto-sector is growing at a yearly rate of over 3000%. That is impressive and though many will hint at that growth being heavily due to Bitcoin, yet Bitcoin in 2017 also fell below 40% of the overall market value and is shrinking as you read this. Bitcoin facts from BTC Casinos suggest that many of Bitcoin’s forks and alternatives are also growing, and in many cases outpacing Bitcoin itself in terms of growth rate.
A good statistic to take into consideration is that, the overall market cap of the sector, without Bitcoin, grew from $2.3 billion on January 1st 2017 to over $370 billion a year later. This equates to a growth rate in the alternative coin sector of 14230% (give or take a few points). This is more than 8 times the growth that Bitcoin itself enjoyed during the same time period.
With so many alternative coins only now reaching market, many investors are looking to cash in big and are desperate to find the next Bitcoin. For the majority of these investors, who find a marketplace that is littered by coins that vary from mere pennies apiece, to thousand-of-dollars per coin valuations. Though many people still prefer to invest in more expensive and established altcoins like BitcoinCash or Ethereum, a growing number of investors are taking risks on penny cryptocurrencies; a group of coins that cost only a few cents each at current market price.
Though this may seem to outsiders a huge gamble, the gamble is similar to Bitcoin that was once a penny coin itself, and has skyrocketed into the 5-figures range.
For those that are looking to take such a risk, here are a few of the top penny cryptocoins that are gaining substantial market traction and may prove to be 2018’s biggest winners.
VERGE (XVG)
Verge is a penny coin that has been gaining considerable market traction and attention lately. It is currently trading at around 20 cents and is in good shape to have a breakout year. Verge is known for its emphasis on being anonymous and was built to be as secure and private as possible. Verge has had a few breakout weeks already. The most notable breakout was during the second last week of 2017, where Verge gained around 800% in value. In essence, Verge allows users to choose between the public and private ledgers on the Verge blockchain, using something called Wraith protocol. To put it in as simple terms as possible, when Wraith protocol is turned, on the transaction data is hidden and not available on the public ledger. Another built-in privacy feature is that Verge provides total obfuscation of IP addresses, as it uses a TOR-integrated feature in their core wallet. With the combination of these two elements, Verge is completely untraceable. As the world’s governments look to curb the sector with taxes and legislation, Verge will allow for users to remain anonymous and for many in the sector, this is a huge selling point. Verge currently has a market cap of just over $2 billion USD and that is likely going to grow substantially in the 2018 calendar year.
DIGIBYTE (DGB)
Digibyte, as of January 1st 2018, was trading at around 5 cents and has an already well-established and strong core user base. Digishield, a cyber-security technology, is a digibyte-technology and is used by other major coins, including BitcoinGold and Dogecoin. The currency has been around since 2014 and though it is not nearly as popular as other major currencies, it does have strong trading volumes and market growth. At the tail end of 2017, Digibyte saw prices grow as much as 120% in a single day as it continued to attract new users due to a faster speed and better difficulty adjustments, in terms of mining the currency. Total 2017 growth of the coin is also very impressive, as it grew more than 30,000% and broke into the elusive top 50 cryptocurrencies by market cap club. Digibyte currently has a market cap of around $650 million USD and, considering its usership and features, will likely grow well beyond the $2 billion+ cap level in 2018.
CARDANO (ADA)
Cardano is a relatively new currency that has attracted a lot of hype and attention during the latter months of 2017. Currently trading between 6-7 cents, Cardano aims to address scalability and accessibility issues with many of the other major coins by having a much bigger supply. It also plans to implement smart contract features and other utilities currently associated with other altcoins in the coming months and years. Cardano surprised many in the crypto community by breaking into the top 10 and is currently the 9th most valuable currency in the sector, based on market cap. The growth has been attributed to a strong development team and a clear and well laid-out roadmap to implementing the above-mentioned features and smart contracts. Additionally, Cardano is also one of the few coins derived from a scientific background, and considering the market cap of around $3 billion and the speed by which Cardano has bloomed, continued growth through 2018 is extremely likely.
ELECTRONEUM (ETN)
Electroneum is the newest coin on this list and actually only completed its ICO in December of 2017. Electroneum’s goal is to create a global payment and currency system based on using existing smartphones as the primary way of interacting with the currency. Considering that over 5 billion smart phones currently exist and many of those users are in emerging or developing markets, the potential for Electroneum is extremely high. In theory, a potential user from a third world country could use the currency from a smartphone and would not require a bank. This idea has garnered a lot of attention from the crypto-community and the ICO of the coin was one of the most subscribed-to ICO’s of all time. Over 400,000 users signed up to use the coin pre-launch, and the price of a single coin has increased 8-fold in the 2 weeks it was active in December 2017. With the global smartphone userbase expected to continue to grow with billions of potential users, Electroneum has the potential to be a real game-changer within the marketplace. Additionally, as a team with extensive marketing backgrounds leads Electroneum, converting users from this vast pool is very plausible and will likely see Electroneum continue to gain market cap well into the foreseeable future.
These are just 4 of the hundreds, if not thousands, of penny coins that are available in the marketplace. The growing sector is highly volatile and the predictions discussed in this article are opinions that may actually be the opposite of what will actually happen. That being said, crypto, in general, is an emerging technology that has had and will likely continue to have considerable effect on many sectors in the global marketplace. Considering the growth potential of buying even a small sum of penny coins and the potential returns associated with a coin taking off, the strategy of buying these small face-value coins today will likely only be known over the long term. A good point to remember is that in 2010, a small $100 investment in Bitcoin would today be worth well over $10 million. If any of these penny coins follow a similar growth trend, it is possible that, for a relatively low entry point, investors could make huge windfalls. While buying these penny coins are risky, most of the sector agrees the reward potential far outweighs the risks.
Josh Wardini
Professional freelancer and webmaster.
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