There are several paths one can take when deciding in which cryptocurrencies to invest, but a handful of these have risen to the top as the very popular options for crypto investment:
Bitcoin: There's a reason you've heard the name Bitcoin all over the financial news space. The price of the cryptocurrency has increased nearly 8x in the last year as of the time of this writing. Moreover, the original design of Bitcoin ensured that there would never be more than 21 million in existence (and math indicates we'll never actually reach that number). This means Bitcoin is not subject to inflation.
Ethereum: Arguably the second-most well-known cryptocurrency, the price of Ethereum has exploded more than 3000% in the last year. Even with that growth, the price remains at less than 1/10th of Bitcoin, so it could be a better value play for investors who don't have the resources to
Litecoin: Litecoin has risen more than 2000% in the last year. The peer-to-peer digital currency acts in a complementary way to Bitcoin, and its comparatively low price makes it a solid entry point for new crypto investors.
Monero: Think of Monero as a second level of privacy and anonymity beyond what something like Bitcoin offers. The price exploded in 2016, and the market cap swelled from $5 million to $185 million thanks in large part to the cryptocurrency's adoption by the major darknet market AlphaBay. Law enforcement shut down AlphaBay in July 2017.
Bitcoin Cash: In August 2017, the Bitcoin blockchain spun off a more nimble iteration called Bitcoin Cash. It's essentially identical to Bitcoin, but with the important distinction that it has more block size capacity. The price of the cryptocurrency has already doubled from $300 to more than $600 as of this writing. And if you owned Bitcoin before the split, then you received an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash. There are approximately 16.5 million units of each in existence, which makes Bitcoin Cash the third-most valuable cryptocurrency in the world with a market cap of more than $10 billion.
Ripple: Ripple is a protocol that permits near instantaneous transaction settlements and reduces transaction fees to mere cents. Some VCs and even several major banks (such as Bank of America, UBS, and BBVA) have implemented Ripple into their systems. The key difference from Bitcoin, though, is that it is centralized and pre-mined.
ZCash: ZCash operates in a manner similar to Monero. The price of the cryptocurrency surged in June 2017 to nearly $400, but has since leveled off to the sub-$300 range.
Take it as article, we don't ask you to invest in any,
