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Six Altcoins That Are Poised to Explode Next Crypto Bull Market
After several months of stagnation, seesawing and relative decline, the cryptocurrency market is picking up again. Its total cap has risen by around 35% in just over a month, from $1.656 trillion on February 24 to $2.26 trillion on March 31. And with stock markets also rising over the past couple of weeks, it seems that sentiment among investors has warmed up, even if the Ukraine-Russia conflict continues and inflation is still rising.
However, with peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegates providing some hope that the end may be in sight for the current bad weather, there’s a real possibility that the cryptocurrency market could make a strong comeback sooner or later. This is certainly what the recent mini-recovery seems to suggest, with bitcoin now only 31% down from its November all-time high of $69,077.
But assuming you already own BTC (or regard it as too expensive), what altcoins are likely to do well in the event of a new crypto bull market? We collect six of the best in this article, looking at the fundamentals of each and noting their recent movements. While nothing is ever certain in crypto, each of them has the potential for posting above-average gains in the coming months.
As always this article is not financial advice and for informational purposes only.
Loopring (LRC)
Loopring is a layer-two scaling solution for Ethereum, which has had widely reported issues over the past year with record-high transaction fees and low throughput. Given the continued popularity of Ethereum, high fees and low scalability has led users towards layer-two protocols such as Loopring, which boasts some of the lowest transaction costs of any layer-two solution.
Using zero-knowledge rollups to verify transactions off-chain, Loopring has witnessed considerable growth over the past 12 months or so. Indeed, it celebrated the milestone of reaching just over $2 billion in trading volume in August, with its decentralized exchange (Loopring.io) launching as recently as March 2020.
LRC’s price action since April 2020. Source: CoinGecko
Another index of Loopring’s growth is just how quickly its native token, LRC, has risen in value. Priced at $0.027 around the time of Loopring.io’s launch, it surged to an all-time high of $3.75 in November 2021. It has since climbed down (along with the rest of the market) to $1.29, but with Ethereum likely to continue needing layer-two scaling solutions even after this year’s merge (at least until the latter introduces sharding), it’s likely to regain its lost levels soon.
Zilliqa (ZIL)
Zilliqa is a layer-one blockchain capable of running smart contracts and serving the same kinds of uses as other utility blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana. What distinguishes Zilliqa is that it’s already capable of sharding, meaning that multiple parts of its network process different transactions in parallel, rather than all of them verifying all transactions at once.
Along with its hybrid proof-of-work/practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance consensus mechanism, this architecture has enabled Zilliqa to generate a considerable amount of excitement and interest. On top of this, it has recently announced the imminent launch of Metapolis, its metaverse-as-a-service platform whereby users can build their own metaverse products. This comes in addition to partnerships with the likes of Agora and Ramp, highlighting its growth potential.
ZIL’s price over the past 12 months. Source: CoinGecko
Much of the market seems to believe in Zilliqa. Its native token, ZIL, has ballooned in recent weeks. From $0.05 on March 26, it has since climbed to $0.192, some 24% away from its all-time high of $0.255. It’s very likely that it will pass this high soon.
Terra (LUNA)
Terra is a layer-one blockchain that issues and operates a number of algorithmic stablecoins (meaning stablecoins whose price is pegged via algorithms, rather than solely via reserves). Its most well-known stablecoin is TerraUSD (UST), the supply of which has risen from $1.6 billion a year ago to $16.4 billion today.
LUNA fits into this ecosystem in various ways. On the one hand, it’s a governance and utility, enabling holders to pay Terra fees and vote on governance proposals. On the other, it can also be used for staking and for controlling the price of UST (and other Terra stablecoins). This latter role means that, whenever UST is selling for more than $1, LUNA is burned to mint more UST and bring its price back down to parity with the US dollar.
LUNA’s price over the past 12 months. Source: CoinGecko
Combined with a hard cap of one billion, this makes LUNA a deflationary cryptocurrency. Hence its rising price, from just over $18 a year ago to $108 today. In light of the importance of UST to the cryptocurrency ecosystem, this price can only increase.
Cardano (ADA)
Another layer-one blockchain capable of operating smart contracts, Cardano is a kind of ticking time bomb as far as price rises are concerned. It has been steadily building out its capabilities and ecosystem for several years now, with the actual deployment and use of dapps (decentralized applications) finally starting to gather steam.
A clear sign of this is the fact that Cardano finally posted a total value locked in for the first time ever at the start of 2022. From an extremely modest $800,000 at the beginning of January, this figure has increased by over 30,000%, to $265 million. Of course, this is a drop in the ocean compared to Ethereum’s TVL, yet it shows that Cardano is beginning to deliver the goods.
ADA’s price over the past 12 months. Source: CoinGecko
And make no mistake, development is continuing apace on Cardano, with thousands of GitHub code commits and a regular stream of new projects launching. Given that it’s already a proof-of-stake blockchain, it therefore has the potential to grow rapidly in the coming months. Yet the fact that ADA is still 60% down on its ATH of $3.09 (from early September), shows that it has plenty of room to grow.
Waves (WAVES)
Waves is a platform that provides developers with the tools and infrastructure to build their own decentralized, scalable and user‑friendly Web3 apps. Web3 is arguably the buzzword in crypto right now, and the biggest Web3 infrastructure-as-a-service provider right now, Waves is more than well positioned to take full advantage of the growing excitement.
In fact, Waves’ burgeoning ecosystem has just passed $5 billion in total value locked in, representing a 185% increase in the past month. This includes stablecoin protocol Neutrino, lending service Vires, and metaverse Waves Ducks, testifying to the breadth and depth of the applications based on Waves.
WAVES’ price over the past 12 months. Source: CoinGecko
From just under $12 a year ago, WAVES has risen to just over $50, having reached an all-time high of $58 barely a few days ago. Its momentum is therefore very current, and could continue for a while yet.
Ripple (XRP)
The cryptocurrency market is all about taking risks, and if there’s one altcoin that carries a considerable amount of risk while promising a potentially huge payoff, it’s XRP.
Why? Well, it’s the native token of RippleNet, a payment network overseen by Ripple. Ripple is currently being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States, something which caused the price of XRP to tank when the legal action was announced in December 2020. However, the status of this case looks increasingly promising for Ripple, which has secured a number of notable victories as the discovery period prior to a potential settlement unfolds.
Most recently, Judge Analisa Torres struck the SEC’s motion to dismiss Ripple’s fair notice defense, which argues that the regulator didn’t provide Ripple with fair notice that it would likely deem XRP a security. This puts Ripple in a very strong position to plead its case and win a favorable settlement, and with crypto-specialized lawyers already arguing that the SEC’s case was a weak one to begin with, the cryptocurrency market could have something big to celebrate when a settlement is reached in a few months.
XRP’s price since late 2017. Source: CoinGecko
Assuming some kind of win, XRP could rally massively. Note that it’s 75% down on its all-time high of $3.40, set back in early 2018.
