Five Bitcoin Alternative Cryptocurrencies to Consider Now
For those who believe in cryptocurrencies, rise of Bitcoin above $10,000 now proves viability of digital markets. For those who believe it is a bubble, there are many other options as well. So is the case for those who feel the price is too high or those who feel having missed the boat.
Below are some four good options to consider:
1. Ethereum
Ethereum is now trading at above $500 according to CoinMarketCap and has been appreciating since October this year. This is the highest price in history. The last time it traded at above $350 was in June before falling back to $100 level in July, then back to above $370 in August and the to $200 mark in October.
With a market cap of $49 billion and a trading volume of $2 billion, it is a good option.
Actually, it has a broader scope than Bitcoin and arguably with more potential given the applications it supports. It works on “smart contract” concept
2. Bitcoin Cash
Bitcoin Cash came out of Bitcoin on August. It presents itself as a cryptocurrency that solves Bitcoin’s onerous and costly transactions. Bitcoin charges the same amount, whether you are sending $1 or $1,000 of value -- there is no scaling of costs and that's one of its disadvantages. The other is that transactions are too slow and it is unusual to wait for payments to go through. Bitcoin Cash hopes to solve these problems.
It has had its rough past but it is now trading at above $1,600, with a market cap of $27 billion and volume of $1 billion. It reached the highest price on $1,900 on November 12 before going back to $947 on November 17, but it has been appreciating since then.
3. Litecoin
Litecoin is referred to as the “silver to Bitcoin's gold" and a peer-to-peer internet currency. It is cheap at just “cheap” at $103, but it has much faster transactions than Bitcoin. It also has reasonable transaction costs and purchasing costs at exchanges such as Coinbase.
It has a market cap of $5 and a volume of $664 million. The coin was selling at below $5 in January.
4. Ripple
Ripple emerged in 2012 and is now a popular online payment processing platform with its own problems to deal with. It allows instant conversion into different currencies and many banking institutions see it as a vehicle to get into cryptocurrencies.
One of its chief problems is its huge supply. Overall, it is now trading at $0.28 according to CoinMarketCap
5. Dash
Dash, which is trading at $749 with a market cap of $5 billion and a volume of $341 million, is based closely on Bitcoin’s software. Dash was created with the purpose of eliminating slow transactions and other problems in Bitcoin. It brings improved privacy features, instant transactions, and masternodes to double check transactions and ensure it is not manipulated. The P2P system has low fees.
