2021 has become the year digital assets have gained mainstream exposure and provided early investors with plenty of gains. As a result, market participants are constantly searching for cryptos to buy, especially after pullbacks in prices of altcoins.
While the cryptocurrency market has had a stellar year so far, it has recently seen its total valuation fall around 10% to $2.6 trillion. Profit-taking was part of the reason for the decline. In addition, broader markets are dealing with the uncertainty and volatility caused by the Covid-19 omicron variant that is making headlines worldwide.
Nevertheless, as investors search an alternative to fiat currencies in the wake of surging inflation, the crypto market’s long-term prospects remain bright. Bulls have welcomed the recent choppiness as a buying opportunity to acquire larger positions at a lower cost. They are currently focused on identifying the next cryptos to buy for explosive returns.
Meanwhile, the metaverse has recently gained traction in the crypto space, attracting significant investor interest in meta coins with Facebook’s rebranding to Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB). The Sandbox (CCC:SAND-USD) is currently up more than 20,000% year-to-date (YTD), while Decentraland (CCC:MANA-USD) has gained around 6,000%.
Investors have also noted that Mastercard (NYSE:MA) has partnered with prominent digital currency companies across the Asia-Pacific region to launch the first crypto-linked payments card.
With that information, here are several of the best cryptos to buy for 2022:
- Aave (CCC:AAVE-USD)
- Cardano (CCC:ADA-USD)
- Decentraland
- inSure DeFi (CCC:SURE-USD)
- Internet of Energy Network (CCC:IOEN-USD)
- Solana (CCC:SOL-USD)
- The Sandbox
In light of the high volatility in the crypto space, readers should ideally keep their position sizes small and build a diversified portfolio. With the rapid adoption of decentralized finance (DeFi) and widening use of smart contracts, the best cryptos to buy belong are those platforms with the best projects in the blockchain space. Therefore, investors should focus on those cryptocurrencies with compelling real-world use cases.
Cryptos to Buy in December: Aave (AAVE)
52-week range: $63.68 – $666.86
Market capitalization: $3.3 billion
Aave is a DeFi protocol focused on the borrowing and lending industry. Developed on the Ethereum (CCC:ETH-USD) platform, it provides financial services without a centralized intermediary, taking traditional banks out of numerous financial transactions.
Borrowers who use the Aave platform do not need formal paperwork or credit checks. Instead, they put down a cryptocurrency deposit. A loan smart contract safely keeps collateral in escrow throughout the duration of the loan, replacing the need for a trusted intermediary.
Aside from better security and privacy, decentralized lending offers higher interest rates compared to traditional banking. In addition, Aave can generate passive income. It enables users to earn interest on their cryptocurrency holdings by lending them to other users via liquidity pools.
Aave is poised to grow in the long term due to its solid real-world utility for cryptocurrency investors. Analysts particularly anticipate Aave to rally to new highs when the Ethereum 2.0 upgrades kick in.
AAVE hit its all-time-high in May. It currently trades around $243, up almost 180% YTD. The cryptocurrency has declined over 25% over the past month due to the recent sell-off. It ranks among the leading 55 altcoins.
Cardano (ADA)
52-week range: 12.7 cents – $3.10
Market capitalization: $57.5 billion
Cardano was launched in 2017 by one of Ethereum’s co-founders, Charles Hoskinson. It is a serious competitor to Ethereum and Solana, aiming to become the ultimate blockchain platform for smart contracts. Cardano boasts lower fees and quicker transactions compared to Ethereum.
ADA is the native currency of the platform. Similar to Bitcoin (CCC:BTC-USD), Cardano has a hard cap on the maximum number of ADA coins, allowing users to hedge against inflation. In addition, the platform uses the ecofriendly proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol.
As a research-driven platform, Cardano has been slower than its peers to develop its smart contract capability. After experiencing some developmental delays, the Goguen update was launched in September. With the integration of smart contracts, the new update represents a significant step in expanding capabilities for the Cardano network.
ADA has declined by 13% over the past month. It currently trades at $1.72, up 860% YTD. Its market capitalization makes Cardano the sixth-largest crypto in the market.
Cryptos to Buy in December: Decentraland (MANA)
52-week range: 7 cents – $5.90
Market capitalization: $8 billion
Founded in 2017, Decentraland is the first blockchain project to develop a decentralized virtual reality platform on the Ethereum blockchain. In recent months, it has benefited from people spending more time in the virtual world for work as well as leisure. The platform offers ownership of virtual land in the metaverse and allows users to easily interact and communicate with each other, play games and even go to virtual live concerts.
Decentraland encourages content creation, which should have a positive impact on long-term growth. Users can also explore and display art in non-fungible token (NFT) art galleries or earn passive income by minting NFTs on the network.
MANA is the fungible token players use to purchase land, goods and services in this metaverse. There are 2.2 billion tokens in supply and 1.8 billion are in circulation. The crypto currently hovers at around $4.35, up 5,200% YTD.
Given the growing hype around the metaverse, this leading meta coin seems well-positioned to further appreciate in value. MANA ranks among the leading 25 altcoins.
inSure DeFi (SURE)
52-week range: .004 cents – 5.9 cents
Market capitalization: $238.1 million
Our next crypto is a smaller one than most of the others on our list. The market cap of SURE puts it among the top 350 digital assets.
inSure DeFi is the first insurance ecosystem that aims to safeguard investors from scams, stolen funds, or even the devaluation of a crypto portfolio. Users need to purchase SURE tokens to apply for insurance. Once SURE token is transferred to a private wallet, it takes seven days for the insurance to take effect.
For instance, holding 2,500 SURE tokens offers insurance for four months with a coverage of up to $1,000. The diamond plan allows users to keep 500,000 SURE tokens, which provides insurance coverage for two years with a coverage of $140,000.
Due to the growing number stolen funds or scams in the crypto world, there might be more investors who prefer such an insurance coverage in the coming years, creating an upside potential for SURE. The digital coin has nearly tripled in value over the past month.
Cryptos to Buy in December: Internet of Energy Network (IOEN)
52-week range: 6.5 cents – 44 cents
Market capitalization: $2.2 million
Next in line is another small altcoin that ranks within the top 1,700 digital assets. Crypto bulls point out that the Internet of Energy Network boasts a robust real-world utility.
The project utilizes blockchain technology as well as Holochain technology, which is an “open source framework for building fully distributed, peer-to-peer applications… [It enables] humans to interact with each other by mutual-consent to a shared set of rules, without relying on any authority to dictate or unilaterally change those rules.”
The network, which generates scalable energy microgrids, allows homes anywhere to function together as a smart, cooperative electricity system. Proponents suggest that the platform helps regulate energy use efficiently.
IOEN is a green token that does not require mining. As it has a fixed supply, the crypto also works as a hedge against inflation. The digital currency currently trades around 11 cents.
Solana (SOL)
52-week range: $1.09 – $260.06
Market capitalization: $70.6 billion
Launched by Anatoly Yakovenko in 2020, Solana is a smart contract blockchain with a robust DeFi ecosystem and more than $10 billion locked in protocols. Solana aims to compete with the Ethereum network in the DeFi space.
The platform is fueled by a hybrid architecture of PoS and proof-of-history (PoH) protocols, making it one of the fastest blockchain protocols in the crypto space. The PoH protocol does not need validators to communicate with each other. Therefore, Solana can handle a whopping 50,000 transactions per second (TPS), compared to 13 TPS for Ethereum.
In addition, Solana’s fees stand at only $0.00025 per transaction, which implies significant savings given Ethereum’s high gas fees. Therefore, Solana bulls point out that the platform is on track to become a leading network focused on decentralized-application development thanks to its high-throughput, low-fee platform.
With a market cap of almost $71 billion, Solana has become the fifth-largest digital coin in the market. SOL began the year at around $1.61 per token. It currently hovers around $230, up around 14,000% YTD.
Cryptos to Buy in December: The Sandbox (SAND)
52-week range: 3.5 cents – $8.51
Market capitalization: $5.9 billion
The Sandbox boasts a user-generated content ecosystem in the metaverse with its unique NFT marketplace and game platform. The virtual platform is built on the Ethereum blockchain.
Content creators get rewarded for the value they generate from their content. It also allows game developers ownership of their digital assets as NFTs. These NFTs are often incorporated into the games on the platform, which helps both developers and users profit from their gaming experience.
SoftBank (OTCMKTS:SFTBY) recently invested $93 million in The Sandbox. Aside from the growing hype surrounding the metaverse, the funding contributes to further bullish momentum around the cryptocurrency.
SAND is the primary token that allows users to buy and trade digital real estate and play unique games in this metaverse. The altcoin currently hovers at around $6.50.
Due to the market’s insatiable appetite for meta coins, the crypto has soared by a whopping 18,000% YTD. It has gained almost 125% over the past month. SAND is among the leading 40 cryptos.
On the date of publication, Tezcan Gecgil did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
Tezcan Gecgil, Ph.D., has worked in investment management for over two decades in the U.S. and U.K. In addition to formal higher education in the field, she has also completed all three levels of the Chartered Market Technician (CMT) examination. Her passion is for options trading based on technical analysis of fundamentally strong companies. She especially enjoys setting up weekly covered calls for income generation.
