2021 Felt a little lackluster for some crypto investors. Numerous analysts projected Bitcoin to hit the coveted $100,000 USD mark before year’s end only to disappoint investors when 2021 ended with the price well under previous all-time highs.
Throughout this past year though, several projects continued to gain in popularity. If you would have invested in any of these projects, you could have received positive ROI over the last year while the market traded sideways. Past performance does not imply future results, but in this post I’m hoping to explain not only which blockchains are set to explode in 2022, but why they’re likely to beat out their competition.
Which cryptocurrencies are primed for takeoff?
1. Ethereum
Ethereum has been on a relentless upward trajectory, just barely lagging behind Bitcoin in market cap. The reason for this success can be attributed to Vitalik Buterin, founder and creator of Ethereum who is widely considered one of the most influential people within blockchain tech today.
This project hosts nearly all big name NFT projects as well as DeFi initiatives which makes sense considering its #2 position by total value behind only bitcoin. Ethereum is moving to proof of stake from proof of work. Currently, the proof of work uses computing power to protect the network, so this move to proof of stake will excite the carbon-concerned crowd. Some investors have been shying away from Ethereum until this transfer to ETH 2.0 is worked out. Vitalik Buterin has said that the rollout to ETH 2.0 could happen as early as June 2022.
Ethereum has a lot of potential as a platform for decentralized applications. This is because Ethereum offers developers a way to build blockchain-based applications that can be used by anyone in the world without needing to trust a central authority. This has led to a lot of innovative, new applications being built on Ethereum, which has continued to drive up demand for the currency.
2. Chainlink
Chainlink is a good investment because it provides oracles for blockchain technology. Oracles are important for blockchain technology because they provide the necessary data feeds that allow smart contracts to be executed.
Without oracles, blockchains would be limited to being closed systems in which participants could only interact with each other through pre-programmed rules. Oracles bridge the gap between blockchains and the outside world, allowing smart contracts to interact with data from third-party sources. This makes them essential for any application that requires real-world interactions.
Chainlink is currently the leading provider of oracles for blockchain technology, and its platform has been used by some of the world’s leading companies, including SWIFT, Oracle, and Google. Currently, Chainlink has a market capitalization of $1.9 billion. This puts it in the top 30 cryptocurrencies by market cap.
3. Solana
The market cap of Solana is $25.4 billion USD. Solana is a great investment because of its transaction speed. The average Solana transaction takes just 1 second to confirm, making it much faster than other blockchains. This makes it ideal for applications that need to move fast, such as payments or trading.
Solana is a good investment because it has the potential to process up to 10,000 transactions per second. That’s significantly more than the 3-5 transactions per second that other current blockchain technologies can handle.
Additionally, Solana is designed so that each node only processes a fraction of the overall transactions – unlike other blockchains which require every node to process every transaction. This means that Solana can scale to much larger sizes without experiencing the same congestion and scalability issues that other blockchains face.
Solana was brought to life by Anatoly Yakovenko, who has spent part of his career working on optimization problems at Qualcomm. Solana has also secured partnerships with prominent companies like Chainlink, Ethereum Foundation, and Web3 Foundation. Furthermore, Solana’s consensus algorithm is designed to be more energy-efficient than other major blockchain platforms out there. All of these factors make Solana an attractive investment opportunity in the blockchain space.
4. Cardano
Charles Hoskinson, one of the co-founders of Ethereum, is behind Cardano. He has a strong track record in the industry and is known for his work on Ethereum and Bitshares.
The Cardano team is also very experienced. They have a large pool of developers and engineers who are working on the project full-time. This inspires confidence that they will be able to release updates and new features on schedule. There are already a lot of decentralized applications (dApps) being built on Cardano, which drives up demand for the ADA token. Cardano recently launched its own decentralized exchange, called Sundae Swap. This allows users to trade ADA directly with each other, without having to go through a centralized exchange like Binance or Coinbase. This makes it much easier and cheaper to trade ADA, which also contributes to its value.
Cardano is trying to solve some of the biggest problems with cryptocurrencies today. For example, they are developing a new consensus algorithm called Ouroboros which is more secure and efficient than other Proof of Work or Proof of Stake algorithms. Cardano is built on Haskell, which is a programming language that is known for its security and stability. In addition, the development team behind Cardano is highly experienced and dedicated to continuous improvement. Cardano is poised to become a leading player in the world of cryptocurrency, so investors may want to consider investing in this digital asset.
5. Cosmos
Cosmos is a good cryptocurrency investment because it is the first internet of blockchains. Cosmos connects different blockchains together, allowing for interoperability and atomic swaps. This makes it possible to move tokens between different blockchains without needing a centralized exchange. In addition, Cosmos is built on the Tendermint consensus algorithm, which is known for its fast finality times. For these reasons, Cosmos is a good choice for investors who want to diversify their portfolios across multiple blockchains.
ATOM is the native cryptocurrency of the Cosmos network. ATOM can be staked, which helps to secure the “Global Hub,” which is the connection mechanism for all of these blockchains. Currently, the Cosmos network boasts over $138 billion USD of digital assets under management. The Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC) connects developer friendly application components and has led to an explosion in the Cosmos ecosystem.
This is the smallest blockchain on this list with a current market cap of $7.5 billion dollars. This crypto is also one of the only that can be held for interest on Coinbase, making it an enticing vehicle for those that can stomach a smaller market cap. Currently, holding ATOM will yield 5.00% APY on Coinbase. Presuming the price of ATOM continues on its current upward trajectory, this could represent a healthy investment option for crypto-enthusiasts.
Takeaway
So, what does this all mean for you? In short, it means that if you don’t have some of your money in crypto by 2022, you’re going to be left behind. Bitcoin is no longer the only game in town – there are a host of other cryptos that are worth watching and investigating this coming year. These projects have huge potential, and we believe they will see significant growth in the coming years.
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