Cryptocurrencies had a great year in 2021. In this period, we have seen the market go from being classified as a billion-dollar economy into a trillion-dollar economy.

Aside from that, cryptocurrencies are gaining visibility in the mainstream world with, for example, El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin as the official digital currency. As a result, investors are looking for the “new Bitcoin” on the market, hoping to find a great alternative in so-called altcoins.

Photo by Kanchanara on Unsplash

Unfortunately, many traders value an altcoin exclusively on how much it can earn with their increases in market quotes. Before discussing this, every investor should ask himself more profound questions about the different alternatives offered by the market.

This article will discuss the essential features of the top crypto alternatives to Bitcoin. However, we remind readers that it is advisable to research the subject, as nothing in this text constitutes financial advice.

Ethereum (ETH-X)

Founded by Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum is, outside the Bitcoin world, the best-known reality in the universe of cryptocurrencies. Ethereum is a decentralized open-source network, which uses Ether (ETH) as its primary cryptocurrency.

The entire system is built on the idea of ​​”smart contracts”, or contracts that, without the need for intermediaries, are stipulated and executed independently between the counterparties. 

Ethereum’s primary mission goes beyond the mere dissemination of cryptocurrencies, with the ambition of creating a global platform for decentralized applications (the famous Dapps).

Thanks to the ERC-20 protocol, Ethereum is often used by developers worldwide to create new cryptocurrencies in this virtual environment. To date, there are thousands of tokens that use this type of technology, and the number is constantly increasing.

Ethereum has a known congestion problem in its system, with high gas fees and slow average transactions. This reason prompted Buterin and his team to launch the Ethereum 2.0 project, with important news for those who use this blockchain. Among the main innovations of this initiative, we cannot fail to mention the reduction of the system’s environmental impact, the speed of execution of transactions, and a significant cut in gas fees.

It announced the Ethereum 2.0 project in 2020, and Buterin is sending several positive messages to the crypto market regarding the possibility of an official launch in 2022.

Cardano (ADA-X)

Born in 2015 by Charles Hoskinson, co-founder of Ethereum, Cardano is one of those projects that the market defines as “Ethereum killer”. The project was the first to roll out the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, which excludes the mining process from the system and reduces the chain’s transaction fees.

Cardano’s goal is, in essence, the same as Ethereum’s, but with the idea of achieving it through more modern and sustainable technology. ADA is the native coin of the blockchain, and its holders can vote on software changes in Cardano.

ADA is notoriously one of the first cryptocurrencies on the market to be designed and approved by academic researchers. As a result, throughout 2021, many have heard of this cryptocurrency, which opened the year with a value of $0.15, even touching $2.50 in the Summer.

The growth of blockchain projects born on Cardano pushes many experts to have high expectations for ADA in 2022.

Solana (SOL-X)

Solana is another blockchain project that has made itself known by the market in 2021. Created by Anatoly Yakovenko in Switzerland, Solana was born with the innovative idea of creating an extremely fast blockchain to win the sector’s favour.

With the ability to perform thousands of transactions per second, Solana quickly gains acceptance from many developers and crypto enthusiasts. Considering that the number of transactions per second that Ethereum can manage is low (equal to a few dozen), the advantage of Solana is evident.

But how can Solana achieve such speed? The secret seems to be in the hybrid conjugation of its blockchain’s Proof of History (PoH) and Proof of Stake (PoS) protocols. 

The projects that are born on Solana, even in the NFT world, are more and more. For this reason, after a resounding 2021, many experts expect great things from Solana and its SOL token in 2022.

Polkadot (DOT-X)

Polkadot works via a multi-chain sharding protocol which, maintaining a solid open-source footprint, is gaining increasing popularity in the blockchain world. For less technical readers, it is sufficient to think of Polkadot as a blockchain system capable of processing multiple transactions in parallel frameworks, connecting numerous chains.

Like the previously mentioned projects, Polkadot was born with the ultimate aim of allowing all developers to create excellent Dapps. Through the DOT token, anyone can acquire governance rights on the network, with the ability to develop real parachains (i.e., parallel chains) within the system.

At the end of 2020, DOT was only worth $5 and surpassed $50 in Summer 2021. This price change indicates the value the market is giving to the Polkadot project. It will be interesting to monitor the trend of the coin in 2022.

Dogecoin (DOGE-X)

Starting as a joke, Dogecoin (DOGE) has created a new niche in the cryptocurrency market: meme coins. Unfortunately, its founders were the first to abandon the project, defining the DOGE craze as “bizarre”.

Dogecoin was developed on an algorithm similar to that of Litecoin and even recently made headlines after a major announcement from Elon Musk. The CEO of Tesla Inc. has allowed the sale of the company’s merchandise directly in DOGE, leading to significant growth in the listing of this coin.

Every week we see the birth of new meme coins, but the market sees DOGE as the leader in this sector. For this reason, expecting a progression of meme culture in 2022, experts include this cryptocurrency among those to keep an eye on for this year.

Other coins to monitor in 2022

Although the previously mentioned coins are probably among the most interesting in 2022, there are other valid alternatives to monitor this year. In particular, we refer to:

USD Coin (USDC-X)

In 2021 we saw the explosion of the stablecoins phenomenon, or cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a stable price over time. The usefulness of these coins derives from multiple factors, such as:

• Have a safe asset for cryptocurrency traders in times of high volatility
• Enable companies to accept cryptocurrency payments without the worry of high fluctuations in the payment instrument
• An exciting application of a stable cryptocurrency in the world of decentralized finance and blockchain-based gaming.

The most exciting representative of this cryptocurrency family is the USD Coin (USDC), born in 2018 and constantly growing in popularity. USDC is a dollar-backed coin, and this mechanism owes its famous stability.

Uniswap (UNI-X)

Every active crypto enthusiast will undoubtedly have heard of the Uniswap system, born in 2018. The portal falls into the AMM (Automated Market Maker) category and allows many cryptocurrencies.

Uniswap is a constantly evolving project and has launched its UNI token, which was very successful in 2021. The promising prospects of the AMM platform lead the market to express optimism for UNI in 2022.

Litecoin (LTC-X)

Litecoin was born in 2011 on a protocol inspired by the one used by Bitcoin. Over the years, its technology has evolved, overcoming the rigidity of the Bitcoin system, managing to guarantee quick and cheap transactions.

The great adaptability that Litecoin and its LTC token have demonstrated over time leads many experts in the sector to evaluate the future of this coin with optimism.

Polygon (MATIC-X)

Polygon’s interesting intuition was to propose a transformation of Ethereum into a multichain system to the market. This project is not notably different from Polkadot, and it is precisely this kind of technology that the market is observing most carefully.

Polygon’s token, MATIC, is an ERC-20 coin. Wise use of integrated multi chains overcomes Ethereum’s technology. These systems are likely to gain more popularity in the future, setting the stage for 2022.

Stellar (XLM-X)

Born in 2014 from a split with Ripple, Stellar is a blockchain project that allows the transfer of money quickly. The idea of Jed McCaleb, the project’s founder, is to enable simple transactions between individuals using different currencies (or cryptocurrencies).

With its native token, XLM, Stellar is likely to be another of the cryptocurrencies that will make the most of itself in 2022. Its famously low transaction costs have a high potential to attract more and more users over time.

What Can We Conclude On These Coins?

To understand the future of a token, it is imperative to know how it works. It is not enough to buy coins hoping that the increase in their price will enrich us. This approach can be valid in the short term, but only good projects can survive even for a long time.

A great project in the blockchain world must have several fundamental characteristics, such as those mentioned in this article. In addition, the market is highlighting a series of technological trends that it will study in 2022.