The best cryptocurrency to invest in 2019

Nowadays, people ask themselves a common question: what is the best cryptocurrency to invest? We are experiencing a massive boom in this market. Even some years ago cryptocurrencies were mainly for people with knowledge of technology.

Back then, the only people who invested were people who loved cryptocurrencies. There were also a few hundred cryptocurrencies, unlike today.

But now the market has changed a lot. Instead of amateurs, serious investors are flooding the market with big ones. In addition, the number of cryptocurrencies has also increased. Instead of a few hundred, the number has increased to around 1,650.

Having a large amount of cryptocurrencies can help you diversify your portfolio and give you options, but sometimes it can be very confusing.

Invest in Cryptocurrencies

Like stocks, real estate and gold, the decision to invest or not in cryptocurrencies is a well-calculated decision that can not be coerced, induced or rushed. It is important that you come to a conclusion yourself. You are solely responsible for the losses incurred.

Does this mean that you do not need help to identify the best cryptocurrency to invest? Absolutely not! In fact, this is where you should trust more in others. Before investing, you must understand your investment objectives, delineate them and then start working to achieve it.

You will have to answer questions like, "How quick do I want my profit?", "How much money should I invest?", etc. The answers to these questions are what will give you courage and will push you forward when things get tough.

The Current State of the Cryptocurrency Markets

It all started with Bitcoin in 2009. Litecoin and Ethereum quickly joined and compete fiercely with Bitcoin for a part of the market population. In about nine years, several cryptocurrencies have appeared, but none have enjoyed the wave that Bitcoin enjoyed in 2017. The price increased by almost 4,000 percent, bringing its market capitalization to around 450 billion dollars.

There were also around 3,000 new cryptocurrencies on the market, and each of them claims that they are the best after Bitcoin. Unfortunately, many of these coins disappear before they are even released. In fact, 92 percent of the blockchain projects that were launched since 2015 have failed. This makes it important to carefully consider what cryptocurrency to invest in before putting your money into it.

Bitcoin (BTC)

Introduced for the first time in 2009, Bitcoin is the first implementation of a cryptocurrency network. Satoshi Nakamoto, an anonymous individual or group of people, sent Bitcoin's technical document to prominent cryptographers and programmers in 2008. That's how Bitcoin was born.

The document entitled "Bitcoin: a Peer-to-peer Electronic Cash System" described all the details and Bitcoin plans. In January 2009, Satoshi extracted the first block of Bitcoin, often called Genesis Block, for a reward of 50 coins. The extraction of the Genesis Block caused the Bitcoin network to get activated.

Unlike traditional currencies that rely on government and corporate bodies to create currencies, Bitcoin is different. Bitcoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer protocol that relies on its users to create more units. But by no means is it the first.

Nick Szabo reflected on the idea of a decentralized digital currency called Bit Gold. And Bitcoin can be seen as a direct implementation of the Bit Gold system. Instead of a private ledger held by a body in a centralized system, the Bitcoin ledger is public.

The public book is called blockchain.

Tokens are created and transactions are verified by a working test algorithm and a process called mining. The miners verify the transactions by solving a computing puzzle and add a transaction block to the blockchain.

There will be only 21 million Bitcoins, this is the limit, and of these Satoshi has 1 million. The Bitcoin Foundation is currently developing and maintaining the Bitcoin network.

What Makes Bitcoin Feasible in 2019?

What makes Bitcoin a good option for investors is its great popularity. Since its inception, Bitcoin has always been a favorite among fans. But recent increases in the price also interest veteran investors.

Currently, Bitcoin has a market capitalization of $127 billion with a unit price of $7,500. Of the 21 million bitcoins that will exist, 17 million have already been issued.

Problems with Bitcoin

Bitcoin, being a cryptocurrency that was developed in 2009, is much slower than other cryptos. Bitcoin also faces some scalability issues. That is why the Bitcoin Foundation incorporated the Segregated Witness system, or Segwit, to solve some of the problems.

The mainstream media, many cryptocurrency enthusiasts and also environmentalists have talked a lot about energy consumption due to Bitcoin. Bitcoin mining wastes a lot of energy. This is about 23 TWh, which is enough to supply the entire Ecuador with energy.

Litecoin (LTC)

Charlie Lee, a former Google employee created Litecoin in 2011. Litecoin is one of the first cryptocurrencies created after Bitcoin. While it still looks like an altcoin, it's not really the same as Bitcoin. Litecoin is also a peer-to-peer open source cryptocurrency project and is under license X11.

The main differences between Litecoin and Bitcoin are:

• Litecoin has a block generation time of 2.5 minutes, much lower than the 10 minutes of Bitcoin, and uses a different hash algorithm.
• Instead of Bitcoin's SHA256 algorithm, Litecoin uses scrypt as a working test algorithm. The main reason for using scrypt is that it is much more difficult to create FPGA and ASIC platforms for scrypt. 
• Litecoin has a greater number of coins circulating in the market, 84 million to be exact. Like Bitcoin, the rate of generation of tokens per block is reduced by half every 4 years.

The Litecoin development team was extremely quick to solve problems related to scalability. Litecoin was one of the first cryptocurrencies to adopt a segregated control system.

Litecoin is compatible with the lighting network that allows you to process transactions approximately four times faster than Bitcoin.

What Makes Litecoin a Good Cryptocurrency to Invest?

Litecoin currently has a market capitalization of $5 billion and a total number of 57 million coins currently circulating. Litecoin also shows consistent progress over the years and has never ceased to amaze the crypto community.

In addition, Litecoin is relatively cheap, around $85. Both large and small investors can invest in this cryptocurrency.

Problems with Litecoin

The Litecoin foundation has been very active with respect to the improvement of the cryptocurrency. There are no major setbacks with Litecoin but like Bitcoin, the Litecoin generation also wastes a lot of resources.

Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum is the pioneer in the field of smart contracts and the development of decentralized applications (DAPPs). It is an original idea of the adolescent genius coder Vitalik Buterin. The father of Vitalik, a computer scientist by profession, made the boy interested in Bitcoin and the concept of cryptocurrencies. Years later, Vitalik himself created a cryptocurrency with the support of some enthusiasts.

According to Vitalik, the main reason behind the creation of Ethereum was the fact that Bitcoin does not have its own programming language. So, Vitalik wanted to have a cryptocurrency network that was much smarter than Bitcoin. Ethereum has its own virtual machine called EVM.

This virtual machine allows the creation of intelligent contracts and decentralized applications. These contracts are created using special programming languages such as Solidity, Serpent, LLL, and Mutan.

This cryptocurrency platform is the largest distributed computing system in the world. Ethereum is also the most used platform for creating ICO projects, with approximately 50% market share. This gives an idea of the popularity of Ethereum.

Why Invest in Ethereum?

Currently, each Ethereum token, or Ether, is priced at $463. Ethereum has a market capitalization of $46B. Although the platform has seen many ups and downs, it has never stopped progressing.

What makes Ethereum a great option to invest is its popularity and quick updates.

Problems with Ethereum

Like Bitcoin and many other altcoins, Ethereum also uses the work proof system, Proof-of-Work, to verify transactions and create new tokens. But Vitalik realized the threat this poses to the environment. Then, the development team made the decision to slowly change the platform to be backed by proof of participation, Proof-of-Stake.

They made great bifurcation efforts to prepare the network towards a Proof-of-Stake configuration.

There are no real problems with Ethereum since the development team is always updating it to follow and anticipate the new industry standards. But as always, bifurcation in large quantities can cause discrepancies and can introduce some errors or gaps.

Ethereum Classic (ETC)

Ethereum Classic and Ethereum are the same in their great majority but they differ in some aspects. In May 2016, DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization, created a venture capital fund on the Ethereum platform. They raised about $168 million very quickly.

Unfortunately, there were some loopholes in the system. Some security experts and blockchain activists rushed to point out the flaws but these were not resolved in any way. As a result, in June an anonymous user abused the system and withdrew 3.6 million Ether.

This 3.6 million Ether was valued at around $50 million at that time.

This divided the entire Ethereum user base into two. Some people wanted the Ethereum Foundation to make a big bifurcation to restore the lost tokens.

But the most orthodox users demanded that it not be done since they considered that blockchain is immutable. Anyway, the original foundation made a bifurcation to restore the Ethers.

A different entity decided to separate from Ethereum to support the cause of the more orthodox. This is how Ethereum Classic was born. Since then Ethereum Classic experienced massive changes and bifurcates quite often to further separate from the Ethereum.

Is Ethereum Classic Still Relevant to the Investment in 2019?

Yes, of course it is still relevant. Although separated from Ethereum, it still follows its basic concepts. It has the ability to create intelligent contracts, as well as decentralized applications. Ethereum Classic is also updating its network to be supported by participation test system.

At this time it has a price of around $17 per token with a market capitalization of $1.7B. Ethereum Classic is a very promising project and so far shows great figures.

Ripple (XRP)

Ripple is an open source internet protocol that supports real-time gross settlements, fast remittances and currency exchanges. The developers created Ripple with a system of debt transfer between pairs. Ripple is structural and extremely different from the other cryptocurrencies.

The Ripple network supports a wide variety of fiduciary currencies and even digital tokens. Ripple is practically a hundred times faster than Bitcoin. You can process transactions with your advanced consensus system in 4 seconds, while Bitcoin requires at least one hour.

According to its founders Ripple is not in the market to compete with other cryptocurrencies. Instead, they are developing a next-generation transaction system to counter the traditional, which is extremely slow.

Why Invest in Ripple?

The RippleNet Project is supported by several large banks and corporate entities such as Santander, UniCredit, UBS, Axis Bank, etc. In fact, network validators include MIT.

Many people do not pay enough attention to Ripple because their currency, XRP, has a very low price. But they do not realize that Ripple is not exploitable like most other currencies. Then the market already has the total of XRP that it will have in the future. That is why it is valued at $ 0.45 despite having a market limit of 17 billion dollars.

XRP is also the third most popular and most commercialized cryptocurrency. Its faster transactions and its extremely scalable platform are helping RippleNet to grow continuously.

Ripple Problems

There are no real problems with Ripple. But some consider that Ripple will be centralized, since the big companies support it. So, if you consider yourself a blockchain purist, then Ripple may not be the right currency for you.

Dash (DASH)

Dash is an open source cryptocurrency among peers that has been operating since the beginning of 2014. At the beginning, it was called XCoin, but in 2015 it changed its name to DarkCoin. Finally, it was renamed Dash, which is an abbreviation of Digital Cash.

Dash aims to be an easy-to-use, self-financed and self-managed cryptocurrency network. As a matter of fact, it is the first decentralized autonomous organization to be tested by Sybil.

Unlike Bitcoin which has a single-level network, Dash operates on two levels. The first level consists of miners who extract new tokens, while the second level consists of Master Nodes that perform various tasks. These tasks include managing the platform and performing critical tasks such as InstaSend and PrivateSend.

Should I invest in Dash in 2019?

Yes. Dash is a promising cryptocurrency project that has an amazing business structure. It is also extremely safe. Transactions are fast and the platform offers unique scalability features.

At the time of writing, Dash has a market limit of $2 billion and a token price of $245. According to Coinmarketcap, Dash daily turnover is around $174 million, which is proof of its growing popularity.

Zcash (ZEC)

The creation of Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn, Zcash, is a new version of the Zerocoin project. It is basically the same as Bitcoin, but it provides an additional layer of security and anonymity. According to its development team, it is not to support illegal activities.

Zcash also allows users to disclose information about transactions and account balance selectively. This feature allows the tax regulation authorities to perform audits.

What Makes Zcash Attractive in 2019?

Zcash is a prominent project and is ranked among the 20 main cryptocurrencies. The privacy feature is a unique advantage.

At this moment Zcash has a price of $184 with 4.3M ZEC in circulation. Zcash has a market capitalization of $800M and has a trade volume per day of $52M.

Yes, you can invest in Zcash. The project continues to be relevant in 2019.

NEM (XEM)

Fully developed with Java, NEM is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency with revolutionary features. Instead of a generic work test algorithm that is used in most other cryptocurrencies, NEM uses a proof of importance test system.

NEM also has several new features, such as multiple signature accounts, EigenTrust reputation system and encrypted messaging.

NEM runs on a commercial blockchain called MIJIN. Currently, MIJIN is undergoing stress tests in financial institutions in Japan and around the world. Japan surpassed the United States becoming the number one place for the cryptocurrency trading. NEM has a bright future, to say the least.

Invest in NEM: Should I Do It?

Currently, NEM has a market capitalization of $1.5 billion and ranks number 16. XEM, the native token of NEM, has a relatively low price of only $0.17. This is a good option for people who want to invest small amounts.

Monero (XMR)

Launched in 2014, Monero has become one of the most commercialized cryptocurrencies at this time. It is based on the CryptoNote protocol and focuses mainly on providing a decentralized and scalable cryptocurrency oriented towards privacy.

Why Should I Invest in Monero?

Monero currently has a market capitalization of $2.1B, which is more than many popular cryptocurrencies such as ETC and Zcash. And this market capitalization is constantly growing. Currently, XMR, Monero's native token, has a value of $131, which is ideal for new investors.

Problems with Monero

Monero focuses too much on privacy. So much information is encrypted to hide it even from the system itself and this feature is very mistreated.

Monero experienced rapid growth in market capitalization in 2016 when it joined AlphaBay. AlphaBay was a deep web market that specialized in the sale of illegal and contraband items. It was tracked and closed by the police in July 2017.

Monero is also relatively easy to mine. It can be easily extracted using CPU and GPU for homes. The development of Monero is against ASIC mining, so they completely blocked it. The easy mining feature of XMR has great popularity.

Even in October XMR made headlines because it was being overmined. A site called Coin-hive developed a portable javascript code that allowed websites and even bloatware to extract XMR on some users' computers, without any consent.

Some sites that implemented this javascript were honest enough to warn their users, while other sites like The Pirate Bay faced a huge backlash for doing so without notifying anyone.

NEO (NEO)

Often called Chinese Ethereum, NEO is an open-source cryptocurrency between pairs that is fundamentally similar to Ethereum. But that does not mean that NEO is a complete clone of Ethereum.

NEO incorporated the characteristics of Ethereum as decentralized applications and smart contracts, but the development team also improved it.

Unlike Ethereum, where intelligent contracts can only be generated using specialized programming languages, in NEO, intelligent contracts can be generated using popular languages such as C, C++, Java, etc.

The NEO development team's only plan is to create an intelligent economy. And according to them, it can be achieved through the combination of digital assets, smart contracts and digital identities. NEO is extremely scalable and hypothetically it is also safe for quantum computing. So yes, NEO is quite futuristic and can be seen as a competitor of Ethereum.

Invest in NEO

Currently, NEO ranks #12 in Coinmarketcap, with the market capitalization of $2.2B. At the time of writing, it cost around $34 with a supply of 65M NEO.

NEO can not be mined like XRP. Instead, the platform has another cryptocurrency called GAS, which is mineable. GAS is mined while maintaining NEO. Currently, this feature is only available on a popular exchange platform called Binance.

Problems with NEO

NEO has great potential and the development team is quite focused on its objective. The only problem with NEO is that the development team lacks a marketing department.

Unlike other cryptocurrencies that can be purchased without much fuss, buying NEO can be a big headache. Currently, the only way to buy NEO is through exchange platforms such as Bittrex, Binance, etc.

Invest in Cryptocurrency in an Intelligent Way

It is not a secret that investing in cryptocurrency is associated with a serious risk of losing money due to the high volatility of this market. For example, when you buy Bitcoin at the end of April 2018 with the hope that it would start growing again, you would now have lost 20%. Not very encouraging, right?

In addition, the purchase of cryptocurrencies is directly related to other difficulties, for example, the complicated process of registration in the stock exchanges, the possible risks of piracy of exchanges and wallets, etc. For more information about cryptocurrencies, as well as risks when buying it, please see the relevant article in our blog.

But there is a solution that allows you to win even in the worst moments of the cryptocurrency, which is CFD, or contracts for difference. The main advantages of CFDs are the possibility of opening long and short positions, and the availability of leverage that allows you to invest significantly larger amounts than you actually have.

Libertex offers you to try CFD trading right now and completely free. You only need to register and get a free demo account where you can practice and trade at no risk. Our knowledge base will also help you master all the skills and nuances necessary for trading. Once you decide you know enough and know how to earn real money, open a live account and start your successful career as a trader with Libertex!

We hope you found this article helpful. We wish you professional growth and successful trading!