During the third quarter, the hype surrounding DeFi protocols and NFTs helped a couple of altcoins grow. As Q4 kicks off, crypto investors are looking for the next big thing. The worldwide crypto market is slowly reaching a combined worth of $2 trillion. This comes after the prices for altcoins like Solana and Ada saw impressive increases. Now, Cardano is the third most-traded cryptocurrency.
In the upcoming months, investors will start looking into the disadvantages and advantages of these latest changes. The most crucial aspect involves the upgrades altcoins have underwent in terms of efficiency and speed. This is according to Oanda’s senior currency analyst, Ed Moya.
He explained that many investors are heavily focused as to what altcoins will address their major concerns. One of them is that of scalability, which they face with major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. He elaborated that at this point, people need more insight on which businesses will lead the smart contract or NFT markets. As of yet, that’s where the market is leaning, and educating the masses will take some time.
Among the top altcoins, experts are keeping an eye out for include Avalanche. Ava Labs developed a blockchain that acts as a smart contract platform for dapps. Since the past week, investors have been trading its AVAX token on Coinbase Pro.
It’s faster than Ether and wants to gain further speed, which can prove beneficial in applications like DeFi projects and finance. Compared to Ether, which charges high fees for transactions, Avalanche, Cardano, and Solana are cheaper alternatives.
Boost Coin launched in August and it powers the digital ecosystem for decentralized finance tools. Its first tools is the exchange Boost Swap, which is similar to SushiSwap and Uniswap. Decentralized exchanges rely on a peer-to-peer network. This means parties use smart contarcts to fulfill trades rather than relying on clearinghouses and intermediaries.
Cardano ada has seen a boom in the last few months. Last month, the Cardano network underwent its Alonzo upgrade, which introduced the smart contract feature. This new ability can make it a big competitor for Ethereum. Experts are also of the opinion that the Cardano network will gain traction in the NFT space as well.
Crypto.com’s CRO coin can be used for settlements, payments, and staking. It is launched by the currency exchange crypto.com, which also serves as a financial services company. The coin is the local token on their open-source decentralized blockchain, which debuted in March.
Of course, Dogecoin happened to make the list as well. Many experts are baffled at the proposition, but the memecoin certainly defied the odds. This comes after major personalities like tech conglomerate Elon Musk backed Dogecoin.